Earlier this week, as well as heavily indulging my major inner geek by presenting about hypnosis and the brain at our quarterly peer support group here, on the same night, something happened that made me feel very proud.
I asked my friend, professional peer and colleague Lindsay Shepherd to make an announcement at the end of the night to those present. It was to announce the launch of the world’s latest professional hypnotherapy organisation; the Professional Hypnotherapy Network.
Though we have just launched, it is really only the very embryonic phases of something that is going to develop and build in coming years. You’ll notice that I said ‘we’ in the previous sentence. That is because I am also a founding member of this organisation, and I am the Education Officer. That means I’ll be at the helm of exacting the standards of education we expect from our members and accredited training schools and colleges who become affiliated with us. I hope you’ll know and recognise that those will be some high standards.
If the truth be told, I wanted to be a member and have my own college belong to an organisation that was going to uphold a certain set of standards and principles and be part of an organisation that was genuinely interested in furthering the field, helping it gain credibility, building an enhanced public perception and highlighting the research and other studies that are available to support what we do in the hypnotherapy profession.
I had spoken of my desire to do this for a number of years, and then last year a few things happened that spurred me into action. One of those things was having a group of friends and professional colleagues who really made me stand up and take action.
The 4 original members of myself, Lindsay Shepherd, Lucy Hyde and Steve Baxter sat down and created a very particular vision that we had for this organisation, and I’ll share here our mission statement:
The founding members of the Professional Hypnotherapy Network (PHN) are all practicing hypnotherapists who are fully immersed in this exciting and ever developing field. They built the foundations of the PHN on a number of core principles; creating a professional community, accessibility to the best quality resources and education for it’s members, to educate the public correctly and effectively, to see the field of hypnotherapy flourish and develop with focus, and to have a membership that adheres to a set of high standards and who cares deeply about the representation of the field.
The PHN is an independent organisation that recognises and welcomes new members from a number of accredited training organisations and a range of therapeutic approaches.
The vision of the PHN , though far-reaching, is succinctly summed up with the following mission statement:
– The PHN is dedicated to ensuring it’s members adhere to a strict code of ethics and professionalism in order to maintain high standards that represent the field of hypnotherapy accurately and positively.
– The PHN publishes and encourages innovation and ongoing quality research within the field of clinical hypnotherapy to help our members access the most effective, evidence-based approaches and to correctly educate the public via the dissemination of that information.
– The PHN encourages and supports the highest quality and standards of training in clinical hypnotherapy.
– The PHN offers it’s members an ongoing supportive community dedicated to developing their knowledge and nurturing their talent in the field of clinical hypnotherapy.
Once our vision was created, we set about the development of the idea and brought on other exceptional people with a passion and drive for raising and maintaining standards in the field of hypnotherapy. Helen Johnstone, Dave Dorothy, Claire Lincoln, and Annalise Kirk joined us and are working incredibly hard behind the scenes to create an organisation that will really ensure we meet this vision.
We are still developing. Our members are going to have access to academic journals, access to high standard supervision and CPD, and the underlying support from and culture created by people that are incredibly passionate about the field of hypnotherapy.
I will speak more about it and I will write more about it, but today, I just wanted to flag it all up because we are open for you all to come and join and help us to grow something fresh, new, impressive and with a genuine shared goal and vision. Come and be part of the start of something very special.
Visit the website of the Professional Hypnotherapy Network today. Come and be a leader of the hypnotherapy field, be at the forefront of the profession.
