Hypnotherapy can help people to make profound positive changes and is often seen as one of the most effective methods for transforming lives.
Of course, these results will only happen if you develop your skills in the right way and acknowledge that becoming a certified hypnotherapist doesn’t guarantee a successful career on its own.
With more and more people seeing the value in moving towards a career in this incredibly rewarding field, we’ve decided to highlight the most common traps people fall into along the way.
In this article, you’ll learn how to become a hypnotherapist, the most common mistakes people make, and how to avoid them.
How To Become a Hypnotherapist
When training to become a hypnotherapist, it’s important to choose the school that best suits your needs. This will help you to set yourself up for success and complete your training with expertise that your potential clients will have confidence in.
For a more in-depth analysis of which hypnotherapy course you should choose, visit our complete guide to choosing the best hypnotherapy certification. However, you will typically find teaching methods are divided into two styles―in-person and remote teaching.
Different people will have different needs and requirements, so research what both certification options entail before choosing your course.
In-Person Training
Some schools offer in-person, face-to-face teaching at a set location to help you gain the certification you need to become a hypnotherapist. This is an excellent option for those near a reputable hypnotherapy school or those who provide live, in-person training events.
Selecting in-person courses can offer hands-on training akin to taking a short college course. As well as this, you will also gain the opportunity to meet a fantastic support network of other budding professionals in an inspiring atmosphere.
However, not everyone lives in a location where in-person training is available nearby. And if you do, they can often be more expensive than online courses, and you may also need to factor in the time you will need to commute to your training location. Therefore, online training is also worth considering.
Become a Hypnotherapist Online
Many schools offer their curriculum on a remote basis. This is a great way to ensure course materials are accessible to everyone, and these courses are typically much more flexible and cost-effective than in-person courses.
However, you will find that not all schools offer the same quality of online training. To ensure you choose the right one for you, it’s important to choose a course that offers recognized certifications that will support your career ambitions.
You can also find training courses that combine online learning with in-person training through live events to accelerate your learning.
Introducing Marisa Peer’s RTT® School…
Marisa Peer, an internationally award-winning, qualified hypnotherapist, is the creator of her ground-breaking therapy method, Rapid Transformational Therapy® (RTT®).
RTT® combines the most effective techniques of today’s leading therapies and is available to learn online with the RTT® School. While this is predominantly an online course, Marisa and her expert team also offer live training events held in-person worldwide. Here, Marisa teaches the powerful tools and techniques she has used throughout her 30-year-career as a therapist to train budding hypnotherapists just like you.
You can learn more about RTT® here to explore whether this is the right path for you.
The Effects of Great Training―Brooklyn Dicent’s Story
After over three decades of working in hypnotherapy, multi-award-winning Marisa Peer has helped many people become amazing therapists who are now doing meaningful work worldwide.
Brooklyn Dicent is one such therapist. Aside from therapy, Brooklyn often speaks at keynote events in front of CEOs and once ended her speech with a simple and powerful phrase from Marisa’s I Am Enough message:
“You are enough.”
It got Brooklyn thinking about the way that people should approach this mindset.
She explains that being enough doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t invest in yourself―the very opposite is true. Just because you are enough doesn’t mean that you can’t be more.
Brooklyn explains that we’re all enough with what we have. And if there’s something that each of us feels like we should work on, that’s great; but that work should come from a place of value, not a place of lack.
Brooklyn continues to use the I Am Enough message to help people live better lives by stepping into the space of self-love and abundance.
Of course, Brooklyn also learned many other lessons in the Rapid Transformational Therapy® (RTT®) course. She says that the experience has been incredible and filled her with gratitude for Marisa and her team’s work.
In Brooklyn’s own words:
“I’m just so grateful that I took the opportunity in my life to do this training. I know it’s gonna revolutionize people’s lives when I get back home, and that’s great, but what is good for me personally… It is really phenomenal.”
How can you achieve the same level of success as Brooklyn?
You can start by knowing what common mistakes to avoid when becoming a hypnotherapist.
9 Mistakes To Avoid When Becoming a Hypnotherapist
Here are the most common mistakes people make when becoming a hypnotherapist and our top tips for successfully avoiding them:
1. Focusing solely on hypnosis depth
One of the first things you’ll learn about starting a hypnotherapy practice is that you must influence your client’s subconsciousness. That’s how you can help them rewire the deeply rooted beliefs that no longer serve them.
It’s natural to think that this requires a deep state of hypnosis, which you might be focusing on at the beginning—however, this is where the first mistake lies.
You see, the depth of your client’s hypnosis, while it certainly plays a role, is not the most crucial factor in seeing results. Among other important factors is setting clear goals and expectations.
So always ensure that you identify clear and meaningful targets and checkpoints with your clients to drive them towards the goals you want them to achieve.
2. Viewing hypnosis as something that you “do”
Some hypnotherapists believe they only need to get a client into a trance-like state to access their subconscious mind, and that when they do this, the toughest part of the job is over.
But this isn’t true.
You can’t “do” hypnosis. Instead, you need to guide your client through it. The client should feel comfortable going through these steps, which often requires you to build rapport.
If your client is uncomfortable and resistant to relaxing into a hypnotic state, then spend some time developing this. Take a few moments to sit down with them and discuss their issue to help them become more comfortable before the hypnotic induction.
Put their mind at ease by reassuring them that hypnosis is simply a relaxed state of increased focus and concentration without external distractions taking over our thoughts.
3. Having a bad website
In addition to knowing how to practice hypnotherapy effectively, you also need to figure out the business aspect of your career.
One of the most important aspects of this is marketing. After all, you must be able to reach those whom you want to help.
To help your audience find you, you must have an appealing website that shows people what you can do and how they can contact you.
There are many common mistakes that hypnotherapists make when building their website. Here are some of the most common:
Having an outdated design
Graphic design may not be high on your list of priorities, but you must think about what your audience wants to see when building a website. In most cases, a badly designed website will not help you connect with your audience; instead, it may have the opposite effect.
For example, look at how most modern websites look and you’ll see a clean and simple interface that provides a sense of professionalism and authority. If you can do and say a lot in a few polished elements, most people will respond well.
Therefore, it’s best to keep minimalism in mind when designing your website. This means no music or animations that play by default, clip art, and similar retro features. Instead, keep it simple and make your website easy to navigate for your users.
Not thinking about mobile devices
Do you use your phone or tablet to find what you need? So does your audience.
If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, people will have a hard time reaching out to you and you run the risk of losing a large portion of potential clients.
Whatever you do, you need to make sure that people can navigate your website on their mobile devices with ease. Luckily, this often doesn’t require any web design knowledge, as many building platforms can do this for you by automatically adjusting your content to look polished on mobile devices.
So, check if your platform of choice can do this. If not, and if web design isn’t one of your strong suits, find a professional who can do it for you.
Not highlighting your contact information
When designing your website, you must always keep its purpose in mind—the key goal of your website is to get people to book their first session with you. If you don’t, all of your efforts might be in vain.
Make sure that your homepage and all landing pages contain your contact information. This includes your phone number, email address, and social media handles. If you provide face-to-face therapy, you should display the address sessions take place at as well.
Ensure your website is user-friendly by including a “call to action” (CTA) button on each page. In most cases, this will aim to encourage your website users to book a session with you.
4. Trying to be perfect
Many people fall victim to the belief that they need to be perfect to have a successful career, including hypnotherapists.
As Marisa explains:
“When you try to be perfect, you have entered a race that you can’t win—you can’t even complete it! There is no finishing line; the finishing line keeps moving.”
Marisa says that those who try to be perfect are the unhappiest and loneliest people in the world. And when you think about it, the reason for this is clear.
If perfection is your goal, you’ll always feel like you’re not accomplishing enough. You’ll diminish your success by always focusing on what you haven’t achieved. This is an unrewarding and exhaustive way to approach anything.
This ties back in with the importance of understanding that you are already complete.
In Marisa’s words:
“You don’t need to be perfect. You don’t need to be flawless. You don’t need to be infallible. You just need to be enough.”
And you are enough.
From a career perspective, understand that there isn’t a perfect therapist who can do it all. We all have a part to play in changing people’s lives, and it’s not your job to do it all perfectly but to simply offer your contribution. Your piece of the puzzle can be all someone needs to live a happy life.
5. Not reinforcing your learning
Once you understand that you’re enough, every improvement will feel rewarding and fulfilling. In addition, with each new thing that you learn, you’ll feel more empowered.
As seen in our case study, Brooklyn is always looking for fresh ideas, and improvement is a full-time job for her—so Brooklyn used Marisa’s I Am Enough message and applied it to her work. In doing so, she offered her clients something new that helped them live better lives.
Continuous learning should be every therapist’s aim, and there’s a wealth of knowledge out there that can make you a better therapist and help you create more profound changes in your clients.
For a start, seminars are a great source of knowledge. You can learn from some of the most accomplished people in your field. Plus, you’ll meet many like-minded people who’d love to connect with you. This all helps discover the guidance and support you need to take your hypnotherapy practice to the next level.
6. Overpromising
It’s easy to think that your clients want to see you as an expert. After all, they have an issue they want you to help solve. However, this doesn’t mean you should make big promises about the results you will achieve with them.
You need to inform the client that their initiative is the key to therapy success. Allow them to play an active role in the process and trust you to understand their needs. That’s how you can build a strong bond with the client and help them achieve their hypnosis goals.
7. Trying to see a client’s story through your own lens
In a hypnotherapy career, you’ll meet a wide range of clients. Each with their own unique story and challenges they wish to overcome.
To help your clients, you need to remove yourself from the picture as you listen to them. In other words, you shouldn’t interpret anything that they say based on your opinions or life experiences.
Doing so is very likely to turn off the client. If they sense that you’re unable to understand them, most of them will be reluctant to work with you. They won’t trust you, and that’s going to make hypnosis very challenging.
To avoid this, you should adopt a non-judgmental approach when listening to your client’s story. Don’t form any opinions or reactions to what the client says, but rather just listen.
Being an active listener is an essential trait of a hypnotherapist, and so always keep an open mind and give the client’s story the respect it deserves.
8. Trying to be everything to everyone
What do you want your clients to achieve with hypnotherapy? Is there a particular set of issues or type of hypnotherapy that you’re passionate about?
While hypnotherapy is extremely versatile and can help overcome a broad range of issues, it is often best to market yourself within a specific niche when you are starting out.
Not only will you be able to spend more time diving deep into the issues of your chosen area of expertise, but you will also have an easier time marketing yourself. This is because you will know your ideal clients and how your therapy can help them.
Find the group of people who need you the most and identify the best way to help them achieve their goals. Then, after some time, you can always expand your spectrum, as long as you always stick to your best work.
9. Not understanding the requirements needed for certification
Many courses can help you to become a certified hypnotherapist. But first, you need to check the accreditations of whatever course you have in mind. Each country may have a different regulatory body that is required to approve your certification, so it’s best to do your research to make sure you’re choosing the right course.
Hypnosis is a responsible practice, so you must go through all the relevant modules and obtain the right certificates to obtain your license. Only then can you comfortably expand your knowledge through non-formal education.
As mentioned, learning should be a continuous process. Within every field of hypnotherapy, there are many courses that you can take and obtain your certifications. Doing so will expand your knowledge and skills and allow you to help more people create positive change in their lives.
Final Thoughts
There are many things you should be on the lookout for if you want to build a successful career in hypnotherapy. Now that you know the mistakes to avoid, it should be much easier to stay on the right path.
There’s no such thing as a perfect hypnotherapist, and nobody expects you to know and do it all. Instead, it’s all about improving your skills and growing your knowledge. And remember, there’s no limit to what you can achieve if you commit to continuous learning and seek knowledge in the right places. Download the RTT® prospectus here to learn more about how you could become certified in as little as six months.
