Why do many newly qualified hypnotherapists never go into practice?

Some students will study for personal interest only and have no intention to practice with the public The majority however do start a course with the intention of starting a part-time or full-time practice or adding hypnotherapy to their existing skillset.

It is a sad fact of all training, after all the time, money, and efforted invested by students and tutors, that so many newly qualified hypnotherapists don’t go into practice when they had the best of intentions to do so.

Some of the reasons are:

·        Lack of confidence due to poor training or personal issues.

·        Lack of marketing skills or confidence.

·        Motivational problems. It takes effort to run any business.

·        Lack of support and supervision following the course.

·        Feelings of isolation and uncertainty after the relative safety of employed work and the course. 

·        Early feedback from clients who have not found success through hypnotherapy. This knocks their confidence. The reasons are often not related to the therapist’s work.

Some of these problems are beyond the scope of a course or the responsibility of a tutor. The best ways to mitigate the risk of not going into practice are:

·        Find out what it is like to be a hypnotherapist. Ask around, approach a few successful ones to get their views, and research online and get a sense of what is involved.

·        Ensure you will enjoy working with people in a caring capacity to help them to overcome their problems.

·        Do you prefer work to be regular, repetitive, and consistent, or varied, dynamic, and having to think on your feet in the moment? Every client comes with a different history, problem, resources, mood, personality, story, goals, and expectations.

·        Think about whether you’d enjoy working from home, on your own, and without a team or manager.

·        Are you willing to learn some rudimentary marketing? Will the course provide some basic marketing training?

·        Can you motivate yourself to organise the build of a website, create shop window adverts, and/or create a social media presence, etc?

·        Have you thought about how you are going to fund yourself in the early stages of starting a new business without e.g., working part-time in a paid job, reducing hours at work, or having enough savings that can tide you over?

·        Are you a reasonably confident character, or willing to work on this? It may be something you can work on during course practicals. You’ll be working in a customer-facing role with a wide range of personalities and moods – stressed, happy, depressed, anxious, demanding, low self-esteem, scared, grieving, in pain, etc.

·        When you receive a knockback, do you brush yourself off and get up again?

Ensure you do your due diligence when choosing a trainer, school, and course, and call them for a chat. Here you can assess what kind of your you're looking for and whether they are a good fit for you and your goals and expectations.

If you're looking to start a new career in hypnotherapy in Australia this year, be sure to give us a call (07) 5329 2293 or view the website for more details: https://www.hypnotherapy.training

At the Academy of Advanced Changework, we host courses in a range of regions including Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane & Sunshine Coast, and have significant savings with early bird offers on some courses.

Get your free copy of 'How to Choose a Hypnotherapy Course'

There are so many things to consider. Still, it is better to get the decision right, and exit as a competent practitioner, than to lose time and money retraining.