Interested in Hypnosis Training and Courses?
Hypnosis can be a rewarding profession, but just like any other business, a person needs to develop strong business, sales and marketing skills if they intend to make it a significant source of income.
As I've mentioned elsewhere on this site, there are no real standards for hypnosis training or certifications. This means that the quality of hypnosis instruction is extremely varied, from outstanding to worse-than-useless.
Average training gets you the bare minimum of what is required to get a little certificate. But this leaves you lacking in a broad range of skills and the confidence that is required to do this type of work. So most people who spend money to get "certified" never really do anything with their training, or they have to spend more later on to develop more advanced skills.
When you are looking at different training options, consider the following:
- Does the trainer have a track record of helping their students become successful active hypnotists?
- Does the trainer have personal experience building an active and profitable full-time practice, primarily working with individual clients --- or do they earn most of their hypnosis-related income by selling training to others?
- Will the training provide you with significant value beyond what you could learn from a book, DVD, or audio program?
The point is: be careful out there. Just like there are no real standards for becoming a certified hypnotist, anyone can purchase the right to call themselves a "certified instructor" and sell training materials, even if they have almost no practical experience working with real clients or running a practice.
Because of this, it can be difficult to figure out what really is worthwhile training in the hypnosis field, especially with the amount of exaggeration and misleading marketing engaged in by many practitioners.
It Pays to Get the Best Training
I had to learn what was worthwhile by spending a lot of money and time, in order to find the courses that stood above the rest of the pack, and which had practical use in the real world.
There are two courses that I unreservedly recommend for anyone interested in learning hypnosis. They were developed by two hypnotists who are recognized around the world as being at the top of their field:
- Cal Banyan from California
- Igor Ledochowski from London
Some hypnosis trainers may be good hypnotists, but as instructors do little more than offer a jumble of techniques and history and trivia. Banyan and Ledochowski are not only fantastic hypnotists, but more importantly are very good at organizing and presenting information.
Plus, they have experience building successful and active practices, which surprisingly few "certified instructors" have done themselves.
Banyan and Ledochowski's approaches and methods are different, although with experience they can be combined quite nicely in order to achieve the common goal of bringing about a positive change in someone's way of thinking, feeling or behaving. Banyan uses a more direct approach to hypnosis with the context being helping a client who has come to you for specific help, so they expect to get hypnotized.
On the other hand, Ledochowski focuses on "conversational hypnosis", which is a subtle use of language and other forms of communication to help shape the direction of a person's thought and feelings, whether obviously or covertly --- very useful for people such as sales professionals, managers and anyone else who needs to motivate or persuade someone (like a parent). The techniques and concepts in Ledochowski's course can be applied in everyday interactions.
Cal Banyan's Hypnosis Training
I think Banyan's approach, known as 5-PATH®, is perfect for people who want to learn hypnosis in order to become working hypnotists. He has put together a very systematic program which combines many of the most powerful hypnotic change techniques into a structure that just works!
I know for certain that I would not be anywhere near as successful if I had not studied Banyan's course and gained the skills and confidence needed to work with real clients.
Banyan's course is right for serious people who are committed to doing this work, and who are not afraid of going beyond the typical "relax and visualize happy things" approach to hypnosis.
Click this image to view training material from
the Banyan Hypnosis Center:
If you don't see a course on that site that is local to you, get in touch with me and I will try to connect you with a 5-PATH® instructor in your local area.
Igor Ledochowski's Conversational Hypnosis
I came across Ledochowski's work after studying Banyan. To be honest, I had avoided this course because of the over-the-top marketing style (you'll see what I mean on his website). But because this was recommended to me by other hypnotists who I trust, I gave it a try.
It turned out to be one of the greatest investments I've ever made for any type of educational material in any field. The quantity and the quality of the material, compared to the cost, is amazing.
So if you can get past the cheesy marketing (which apparently gets results), I highly recommend this course to anyone who interacts with people on a regular basis, and who would like to develop advanced skills in persuading and influencing others.
Ledochowski's course is right for people who are curious about hypnosis and who want to apply it as part of their daily life.
Click this image to view information about
"The Power of Conversational Hypnosis":
Recommended Books
If you just want to learn about hypnosis by reading, then I recommend that you check out the following books, they should be on Amazon. This is just a list to get you started. There are many other good books, but in reality they are only useful if combined with actual experience.
- "Trancework" by Michael Yapko
- "Training Trances" by John Overdurf and Julie Silverthorn
- "Deep Trance Training Manual Vol I" by Igor Ledochowski
- "Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy Basic to Advanced Techniques" by Banyan and Kein
But Hypnosis Training Is Not Enough!
Before you get into this field, it's important to understand that even the best hypnosis training is not going to enable you to build a successful, profitable practice.
It is troubling to see people led into this field with promises of making "$100/hour working part-time from the comfort of your home!", or people who think that getting a certificate will be the start of an exciting new career or job. This is not a job or a career, it is a self-employed profession that requires sales and marketing skills.
If you are the type of person who is afraid of sales and marketing activities, and are unwilling to develop skills in those areas, you should expect very little success in this field. And no matter how much or what kind of training you get, or how many certificates you collect, without consistent exposure to real-world clients, you will never develop the experience necessary to become a competent hypnotist.
This is not meant to discourage people from becoming hypnotists. If you are serious and committed to doing whatever it takes to become successfully self-employed as a hypnotist, I highly encourage you to take the leap; it is a great way of helping others while also benefitting yourself financially and in many other ways.
Check out my articles in the Hypnosis.org e-zine for marketing tips for hypnotists.
However, there are too many people who are led into this field thinking that buying a certificate will solve their financial or career problems. So the majority of "certified hypnotists" end up doing little or nothing with their training, because it did not prepare them for being self-employed and running a profitable business.
At most, they dabble in it once in a while, spending more time chatting about hypnosis on the internet than working with real-life clients. There's nothing really wrong with that, but these hypnotists should be open and honest with their potential clients about the nature of their practice.
Here is the point: if you are serious and committed to hypnosis as a means of helping people and helping yourself, go for it! If not, if you just heard it was a way to make extra money or to "be your own boss", and if you think you need to make stuff up about your credentials and experience just to get people in the door, why bother?
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