How is Hypnotherapy Regulated?

How is Hypnotherapy Regulated?

Hypnotherapy practitioners who are committed to the health and wellbeing of their clients will ensure that they are members of one of the UK based hypnotherapy professional bodies recognised by the General Hypnotherapy Standards Council.

It is easy to be confused by the number of hypnotherapy websites that claim to be professional organisations who promote therapists across the country or even internationally. Although some of these have very official sounding titles, many do not require the practitioner to have any form of professional supervision or even a qualification. A good guideline when using these sites is to check that they are based in the UK (so may at least have a nodding aquaintence with the current and ongoing reviews by the Department of Health) and that they expect their members to hold a qualification from a well recognised training body and that they maintain continual professional development and supervision.


Owning a hypnotherapy qualification which is recognised by a UK based professional body such as the General Hypnotherapy Register means that the owner of the qualification has been trained to work in a way which is focussed on the safety and wellbeing of the client at all times. Achieving such a qualification means that experience is gained in a safe and supervised environment rather than at the expense of the health and wellbeing of the general public. Such a qualification means that the holder has proved themselves to be capable of operating in a way that puts the health and wellbeing of their clients at a priority.

The General Hypnotherapy Standards Council (GHSC) acts as a link between the hypnotherapy industry and the Department of Health (DH), who has actively encouraged the Council to continue its work towards promoting the status of Voluntary Self-regulation (VSR) for the hypnotherapy profession. In this regard, the GHSC is currently participating, along with other professional bodies, within the recently established Working Group for Hypnotherapy Regulation whose purpose is to explore ways in which the industry may progress towards VSR.

The Council is comprised of Representatives from both Professional Hypnotherapy Organisations & Training Schools and an Advisory Board (which includes lay members of the public).

It is primarily responsible for overseeing the criteria for the ongoing registration of individual practitioners within The General Hypnotherapy Register (GHR) and setting the criteria for the validation of Practitioner Level Training Courses.

Rachel Bacon is qualified to a standard recognised by the GHR, the administering body of the GHSC, by a GHR affiliated training school and is committed to continual professional development through structured peer supervision and ongoing training.