Well, would you look at me? Being facetious, sarcastic and ironic with my blog title today! I was going to maintain the jest a little by starting here today with something along the lines of,

“Yes indeed, this is the news that a recent media report has demonstrated that all hypnotherapists are in fact, world-renowned.”

I chose not to, I could not keep a straight face. As a child on April fool’s day, when serving my parents up a boiled egg for breakfast, I could not hold back the laughter and always gave away the fact that it was an empty egg shell placed in the egg cup before I had given it to them.

Ok, so a number of years ago, when the internet was relatively new-ish, everything was made of wood and cost two pence, we used to have a subheader on our website banner that read “the world’s favourite hypnosis website.” I got an email from a disgruntled fellow hypnosis professional who told me that he had never heard of me until that day and he believed this was a misleading statement. I resisted the urge to bicker, but instead we removed those words. We wanted to put something more accurate, we considered;

In the top five specific UK hypnotherapy websites according to Alexa rankings this week, but maybe not forever.

Or

Moderately well-known hypnotherapist among professional peers along the south coast of England.

Or

Currently on the front page of Google for a single hypnosis-related keyword in the UK only this week, though may change soon.”

But none of these straplines had the same sort of ring or impact that we were hoping for.

Anyway, each day when I check through the hypnosis stories that have made their way into the public eye, most hypnotherapists who have managed to reach the dizzy heights of having an article or a success story featuring them in the media are described as ‘world-renowned.’ Yet I have not heard of them. Not ever. And I am based in the same country as them.

In the online Cambridge dictionary, ‘world-renowned’ is described as the following;

Famous all over the world in a particular area of activity.

So how can you be truly world renowned? How can you be so if someone less than fifty miles from you has never heard of you and is in the same profession as you, and has been working in it for many years, and in fact is a super geek when it comes to tracking this field (I’m referring to myself).

Taylor Swift, world-renowned pop singer.
Novak Djokovic, world-renowned tennis player.
Lewis Hamilton, world-renowned F1 driver.
President Obama, world-renowned statesman.
Jeff Smith, world-renowned hypnotherapist.

Hang on… Who? and what? I was with you until Obama….

Excuse my facetiousness again today. And also, if there is a Jeff Smith hypnotherapist out there, this is not a reference to you directly, it was just a name I lazily plucked out of the air just now.

Let’s be honest, the only people that really verge on being world-renowned who have any relationship with the hypnosis field are Paul McKenna and Derren Brown, and they are not world-renowned because of their contribution to the field or because of the great work they have done with therapy clients (though TV would suggest Paul McKenna has done plenty such things). It is because of their performances and TV coverage primarily. Even then, there are massive sections of the world who do not recognise them as well as we do here in the UK, and working in the hypnosis field is likely to put them on our radar even more so.

The irony and upsetting thing for me is that those who I think ought to be world-renowned within our field simply aren’t. Irving Kirsch, Theodore Barber, Nicholas Spanos, Theodore Sarbin and Steven Jay Lynn are major contributors to the evidence base of this field, yet the vast majority of professionals working in this field do not know who they are, let alone the public recognising them.

Why the need to label ourselves as something which I think actually undermines who you are and what you do. When the public read “World-renowned hypnotherapist Jeff Smith…” they do not agree with the statement, they have never heard of him.

It is like the hypnotherapists who refer to themselves as ‘hypnotherapist to the stars’ hahahahaha. This is usually on the back of a single PR story that was squeezed out in collaboration with the star seeking publicity of any kind and the hypnotherapist (quite rightly) using it to derive some media column space and exposure for their business and reputation. Do the general public genuinely regard you as a better therapeutic option because you claim to be a port of call for the rich and famous? I think it says more about the type of person you are than your skill or experience as a hypnotherapist. I think if you believe that to be true, you are not giving the public enough credit.

It is fabulous that you are getting yourself out there, sharing your success, raising the profile of the field with good news, but why sully it by referring to yourself as ‘world-renowned’ when you are clearly not? I think remaining humble serves us better.

… And don’t get me started on those saying they are an |international speaker” just because they spoke that one time at that conference where everyone and anyone in the field speaks at…. Pffft….

That is the end of my brief grumpy and facetious hypnotherapy blog entry today. I am going to return with articles of good news, high spirits and some wonderfully valuable self-improvement information very soon to serve as a tonic to the general tone of today and yesterday, otherwise I am going to wind up branded ‘world-renowned grump bag.’

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Have some of themes here resonated with you? Then have a read of these pages:

1. Do you need help or support in a particular area of your life?
Coaching with Adam Eason Or Hypnotherapy with Adam Eason
2. Would you like a satisfying and meaningful career as a hypnotherapist helping others? Are you a hypnotherapist looking for stimulating and career enhancing continued professional development and advanced studies?
Adam Eason’s Anglo European training college.
3. Are you a hypnotherapist looking to fulfil your ambitions or advance your career?
Hypnotherapist Mentoring with Adam Eason.

Likewise, if you’d like to learn more about self-hypnosis, understand the evidence based principles of it from a scientific perspective and learn how to apply it to many areas of your life while having fun and in a safe environment and have the opportunity to test everything you learn, then come and join me for my one day seminar which does all that and more, have a read here: The Science of Self-Hypnosis Seminar. Alternatively, go grab a copy of my Science of self-hypnosis book.