Training and how to get started

[susjjan]

I have searched the forum and haven't found a similiar thread. Forgive me if this question has been asked before.

I am very interested in hynotherapy and NLP. I have created some self hypnosis scripts for myself and they seem to be working.

I would really like to change careers and am eager to do something where I can "help" people.

I am currently a consultant in the corporate world. I work and travel way to much and want a simpler way of life.
I think I have the business knowledge to start a small practice, but am not sure where to start in learning hypnotheraphy and NLP. I have reviewed several schools and they seem very expensive and many differ in clincial time versus home study time.

I think maybe my best bet would be to start with a book? Then maybe after learning more I can more accurately choose a good school?

How does one get started in this career? I currently reside in the United States, (FL).

Would it be best to consider only working part time when I get started until I can build a client base? Can you make a living as a hypnotherapist?

Thank you for any advice.

Regards,
Susan

[Jimr1]

I have searched the forum and haven't found a similiar thread. Forgive me if this question has been asked before.

I am very interested in hynotherapy and NLP. I have created some self hypnosis scripts for myself and they seem to be working.

I would really like to change careers and am eager to do something where I can "help" people.

I am currently a consultant in the corporate world. I work and travel way to much and want a simpler way of life.
I think I have the business knowledge to start a small practice, but am not sure where to start in learning hypnotheraphy and NLP. I have reviewed several schools and they seem very expensive and many differ in clincial time versus home study time.

I think maybe my best bet would be to start with a book? Then maybe after learning more I can more accurately choose a good school?

How does one get started in this career? I currently reside in the United States, (FL).

Would it be best to consider only working part time when I get started until I can build a client base? Can you make a living as a hypnotherapist?

Thank you for any advice.

Regards,
Susan
Susan

I don't earn a living as a hypnotherapist yet I know of 4 very seasoned therapists in private practice and I know how they got started. you either work for someone's private practice and build up enough clients "working under their shingle" until you can go out on your own OR you work it part time until you have a large enough client base to support you full time.

other people in this forum will probably retort "how much $$$$ to you consider to be "making a living" yet you can probably guess that.

The "main" hypnosis styles are Elman and Ericksonian. Florida is home to Jerry Kein's Omni Hypnosis Center and he's the best if not one of the best at teaching the Elman style. another one is Mark Cunningham(former student of Jerry)www. trucor.com

For Ericksonian Style, American Board of Hypnotheray(Tad James), http://www.erickson-foundation.org/index.htm, and Neuro Energetics(Julie Silverthorn and John Overdurf are great teachers. these trainers are all of state to you. and then there's Southern Institute of NLP in Indian Rocks FL

training isn't cheap and I would only choose "live" training. you can read all you want but it doesn't give you the practice at putting people into trance.

you may also decide that you really want to be a "Personal coach" with hypnosis skills as one of your tools. Coaching is becoming very popular but the bottom line is that you are a "change agent"

In any event, you claim you have the "business knowledge to start a small practice"- I hope that includes marketing savvy because when you start you'll r-e-a-l-l-y n-e-e-d to rely on those skills for a good while

Jim

[Terry (existing)]

If your attitude is that hypnosis is a business you can start on the cheap,don't waste your time. Training does indeed cost these days, but then, what doesn't. In my day almost fourty years ago, a training cost in the hundreds, while today, the cost of living has driven that up to the thousands, but then, income has increased also, so it is still affordable. Observe if you will, the training etc for becoming a doctor, or a dentist, or a Psycologists, and note that like hypnosis, they too are professions. Anyone can put up a shingle and practise, but not anyone can be successfull, and being very very good at what you do is a requirement. After that, getting it out to the public that you know what you are doing is next in order of importance. That done, earning an excellent living is possible, and most members of HSA are in practise full time, and are not starving. If you came to me for training, it would certainly cost you dearly, but when finished you would know you have been given the best start you could get. Why would I charge so much when I have no need to do so, being retired? Well first of all, to ensure that you truly wanted it badly enough to make sacrifices, and secondly, that you knew you were being trained by the best, and would hang on to what you were told as pure gold. I would be ashamed to turn out anyone who wasn't capable of being the best. If you look for cheap, that is what you will get, and making a living will become impossible. Not that cost is always the measure of what you get, common sense must also come into play, and you should know something of the trainer before parting with your money.

[Poodle]

Jim threw out some ideas. YES! You need to find what you feel comfortable in doing -- call the schools, talk to the teachers not the secretaries, ask exactly what they teach. Do they teach a history of hypnosis? That you don't need. Do they teach Elman? What do they think of his metholology same with Erickson. You also didn't say in which part of the country you live. There are many, many wonderful schools but you need to find the one that's for YOU! I just had a talk with a teacher and was told Erickson was not included as they wanted the student to develop their own style of hypnosis. DUHH!! I really didn't understand that statement. We're not asking you to be Milton, Jr. but to understand why his methods were so effective so you can utilize that in your practice. Same with Dave Elman.

Do you just want hypnosis? Do you want to include NLP? There's a whole range of questions that need to be asked.

The training is only the tip of learning. One learns other things from different trainers. Call schools, ask questions and find what feel right for you with that teacher.

You can also search the back pages of the forum. We get asked this question a lot so you will find names to check out. Good luck and ENJOY!! Pood

[susjjan]

Thank you everyone for the responses.

I indeed researched the contacts and schools given by Jimr. Thank you for the specific information. The NLP instructors look great! I am getting a book by them, it looks very interesting.

I think my concern for choosing the right "path" of learning is upon some of the research I conducted, there seems to be an equal amount of schools and trainers that seem either "fishy", out to make a buck, have classes on "stage hypnosis" or I just got the wrong feeling from them and then others that I felt were probably reputable based on what I read and conversations with the staff (secretaries). It is just difficult to decide.

I currently have alot of debt and know I want to research the best school and come up with a plan. I don't think my husband may be as supportive of a major career change if I have to put out 5 - 10K in training first. You are right, Terry, any professional training is going to be expensive, but most colleges have long term loans. I haven't found as such in hypnotherapy and NLP training / schools.

Thanks Pood on the tip to talk with teachers. I assumed they would be too busy to talk with a potential student, but it doesn't hurt to try.
Pood, I agree I want a school that doesn't dwell on history, I want to learn techniques. I am currently a business consultant and teach classes on auditing and find that students of mine learn best "doing", not listening to me babble on.

Based on what little I have read, I think I am more interested in Erikson because his techniques appear to be more custom. Am I right in assuming this? Elman is more "old school" using scripts and more rigid in it's methodology?

I currently reside in FL. Should I begin with a hypnotherapy certification then move to NLP? or vice versa?

Thanks again for all the great advice!

[Poodle]

Only you know exactly what you want but I think most people here would s ay that Jerry Kein in DeLand, FL is an excellent teacher. You can learn a lot from him. He does not, however, offer NLP. I believe Bennett/Stellar University is going to be in Florida this fall. Michael is an excellent teacher and you will get hypnosis and NLP (unconscious installation) and Time Line Therapy. That means all you have to bring is your subconscious mind. Mike is heavy on NLP and a little light on the hypnosis part IMHO but I turned out okay! It depends on your passion. If your passion is only hypnosis, then by all means stay with Jerry. If you want hypnosis and NLP then Mike would be your guy. You would not even have to leave your own state. If you decided that you wanted only clinical hypnosis then you are probably going to have to travel out of state. I know Jerry offers it but it is not certified by ACHE.

You are ever so correct. There are no loans to be taken out to change to this profession. When one considers the exact extent that NLP will change your life and give you the tools to help others it will be well worth the money. If you truly want to learn, have a great passion to help people and have enough left over for further studying and setting up a practice then you are off and running.

It seems as if the "new" profession coming out now is coaching and there is a lot of money to be made as it is a pretty much untapped market. It takes time and failure to get a business going. One seldom gets it right the first time around. If it's not working, change it to something that will.

I also believe Tad James is on the east coast to Australia. He is fantastic and he also does unconscious installation. He is also the man that created Time Line Therapy which is another healing modality for you. With Dr. James you will get NLP, Master Prac. NLP, Time Line Therapy and hypnosis. If you have questions of Dr. James, just email him and either he or his staff will be right back in touch with you. I'm really sure this one includes Ericksonian hypnosis as does Bennett/Stellar (Mike was a student of Dr. Tad James and the textbooks were written by Tad James). Only you know what you want so hit the internet and the telephone.

PS -- If you could talk Terry out of retirement I know you'd get the best. That man is unbelievable!! Even now I would study with him in a New York minute irregardless of the cost. Some things in live just have no monetary value and one of those things is GREATNESS!

[Jimr1]

Thank you everyone for the responses.

I indeed researched the contacts and schools given by Jimr. Thank you for the specific information. The NLP instructors look great! I am getting a book by them, it looks very interesting.

I think my concern for choosing the right "path" of learning is upon some of the research I conducted, there seems to be an equal amount of schools and trainers that seem either "fishy", out to make a buck, have classes on "stage hypnosis" or I just got the wrong feeling from them and then others that I felt were probably reputable based on what I read and conversations with the staff (secretaries). It is just difficult to decide.

I currently have alot of debt and know I want to research the best school and come up with a plan. I don't think my husband may be as supportive of a major career change if I have to put out 5 - 10K in training first. You are right, Terry, any professional training is going to be expensive, but most colleges have long term loans. I haven't found as such in hypnotherapy and NLP training / schools.

Thanks Pood on the tip to talk with teachers. I assumed they would be too busy to talk with a potential student, but it doesn't hurt to try.
Pood, I agree I want a school that doesn't dwell on history, I want to learn techniques. I am currently a business consultant and teach classes on auditing and find that students of mine learn best "doing", not listening to me babble on.

Based on what little I have read, I think I am more interested in Erikson because his techniques appear to be more custom. Am I right in assuming this? Elman is more "old school" using scripts and more rigid in it's methodology?

I currently reside in FL. Should I begin with a hypnotherapy certification then move to NLP? or vice versa?

Thanks again for all the great advice!
Susan,

Elman and Ericksoniah are styles of hypnosis. Elman is direct and Ericksonian is indirect. neither are better. some respond better to the Elman approach and some respond better to the Ericksonian approach. impying one is "custom" isn't accurate

about your comment re:"teach classes on auditing and find that students of mine learn best "doing", not listening to me babble on."

get Tad James book "Presenting Magically". its by far the best book written on using NLP in the teaching context. you haven't asked for any help here but the 4MAT method which is explained in the book, will help an instructor to design their teaching to appeal to all of the 4 possible learning styles that any student might have. the book is superb.

Jim

[TaffyE]

I'll second Jim's comment about Presenting Magically, and also recommend the book "Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality" by James and Woodsmall for an intro into Time Line Therapy

[susjjan]

Great. Thanks for all the tips and direction. I think I have made a decision. I am going with 350 hour course offered by Hynotherapy Academy of America. I am so excited to get started!!

I sure wish I had some NLP skills at the moment. I am dealing with a difficult client that isn't listening to a word I say and is finding every opportunity to criticize me. I wish I could turn this guy's attitude around. That would probably take a personality change.:)

Thanks again everyone. So glad I discovered this forum!

[Don]

Good luck on your course of study! We wish you all kinds of success. Please let us know how it goes.

[transcends]

Hi,
It looks like yu have had some great advice.

Think of your training as an investment. An investment in your personal growth and in a future career. Often successful hypnosis practices have a focus, a specialism if you like, such as Natural Childbirth, Stop Smoking, Tinnitus etc which can help to give your marketing a focus.

Then again there are many full time hypnotherapists who generalise and help with many issues. The choice is yours.

As for the big change from the old career to hypnotherapy, I concur with the advice to start part time. I did this successfuly myself. I cut down my days in the old career from 5 down to 3 and then down to 2 days before I finally took the plunge. At the end it was quite an easy decision.

If you get your marketing right you can enjoy a regular and full time income as a hypnotherapist. A way of helping you decide which hypnosis school to go for is to approach the larger hypnosis associations and find out which schools are members.

Good luck.

[Poodle]

John and Kathleen La Valle at purenlp.com have a "free" monthly newsletter with information on how to effectively construct a website, etc. It contains good marketing information. Pood