What should a hypnotist look like?

Well, in terms of physical characteristics, people of all shapes, sizes and races can be hypnotists and hypnotherapists. There are no specific ‘physical attributes’ required. And no, you don’t even need a piercing 40-yard stare and a neatly manscaped goatee beard, contrary to popular belief!

So, as our physical attributes don’t necessarily need to fit with established ‘stereotypes’, how then do we, as hypnotists and hypnotherapists create an appearance that conveys what we do?

It all comes down to clothing.

There are some clients who might expect you to be wearing a formal ‘shirt and waistcoat’ style outfit, as that fits their expectation of what a hypnotist should wear, based on how we’re often portrayed in the media. Others may expect you to wear a branded shirt that says ‘hypnotist’ or ‘hypnotherapist’ on it, in order to convey your profession, just as many other professional therapists and service-people do. Some hypnotists choose to wear non-branded clothing, but with hypnosis-related images and hypnotic phrases to get people’s attention.

At the end of the day, what you wear when doing hypnosis is entirely up to you. As a hypnotist/hypnotherapist, there’s no rule that says we must all look like hypnotists. However, sometimes it can be beneficial to convey what you do by altering your appearance. It’s worth weighing up the pro’s and con’s before you pick a style.

When deciding on your clothing an important thing to consider, if you’re running a hypnosis business, is your company branding/image. If you have professional pictures of yourself on your website/socials, then it’s a really good idea that your overall image when seeing clients matches the way that you portray yourself online and in your marketing materials. If you have a bunch of pictures of yourself online wearing a luxury three-piece suit complete with fob watch, and you rock up to a hypnotherapy session in jeans and a t-shirt, there’s immediate visual incongruence there which can break rapport with your clients (who likely expect you to look the same as you do on your website).

Another key point to remember, is to make sure what you’re wearing is client-appropriate. So, if you’re seeing high-paying clients, you might be more inclined to wear smarter clothing, rather than being dressed more casually. Conversely, if you work with less-privileged individuals, turning up in a business suit might not be as relatable, and could negatively impact your hypnotic relationship.

Whichever style of clothing you choose, it’s worth sticking to that style as you will then become recognisable, especially as you develop your marketing presence. People will come to associate you and the way that you dress with hypnosis. So, by affecting a particular style, you are creating your own hypnotic ‘look’. As an example, you’ll most often see me wearing a t-shirt either branded with a ‘HypnoTC’ or ‘Hypnosis-Courses.com’ logo, or something else hypnosis-related, such as my ‘hypnotist definition’ shirt:

So, if you want to look like a hypnotist, figure out what you think a hypnotist should look like, couple that with your own personality as well as factoring in your comfort and the overall practicality of the look (e.g. if you’re wearing suits, you might need to buy more than one, and regularly have them dry-cleaned). After all, your image has to be practical and comfortable for you, as well as looking good, because you’re the one who’s going to be working in your ‘hypnotist clothing’ every day.

Finally, if a specific style of clothing is too much to commit to, then you always have the option of accessorising. Whether you choose to have a badge/button, a cap/hap, or even a branded hypnosis bag or coffee mug, there are many accessories that you can use alongside your standard clothing style to let people know what it is that you do.

If you’d like to get yourself a ‘hypnotist definition’ t-shirt, or browse a whole range of modern hypnosis clothing (and accessories!), check out the Premium Hypnosis Apparel store, with new designs that are perfect for hypnotherapists and stage/street hypnotists too!

Premium Hypnosis Apparel

We hope you enjoyed this blog on how to look like a hypnotist. If you have any questions about this topic or anything else for that matter, do please get in touch, because we’re always happy to help!

– written by the HypnoTC team

This blog explore the hypnotherapy consultation and client intake.

Working with clients to gather relevant information is taught on our Professional Hypnotherapy Diploma course.

Our Professional Hypnotherapy Diploma course is award-winning and designed to give you both competence and confidence. Wherever you are on your journey, and whatever your learning differences, preferences or additional needs, you will find that at HypnoTC we are passionate about helping people to become the best hypnotherapist they can be.

If you have yet to start your hypnotherapy training journey, or would like to refresh or upskill, do have a look at our Professional Hypnotherapy Diploma course and discover how you can train with HypnoTC to become a professional hypnotherapist.

To find out more about training with HypnoTC, and becoming a professional hypnotherapist, click the button below.

Find out more about our Hypnotherapy Diploma course

The consultation and client intake

As a hypnotherapist, the ‘consultation’ or ‘client intake’ is one of the most important parts of the therapy process, and can make the difference between success and failure! Here are some tips to make sure you’re consultation process is working for you.

Rapport building

By building rapport with your client, they are often willing to share a lot more information, which will help you moving forwards. Many different components go into the creation and maintenance of therapeutic rapport. A great start is with authenticity; being the real you, rather than presenting a persona of a hypnotherapist that isn’t really you.

Supporting this is empathy; so being about to relate to and understand what the client is experiencing, rather than how you would experience that same situation. In addition, a key aspect of rapport building, is unconditional positive regard; where you are taking the person for who they are (all aspects of good and bad) without judging, setting criteria or qualifying conditions/rationalising. Rapport is so important that we have an entire blog post on the topic.

Paying attention

Showing a genuine interest in your client will encourage them to engage in the therapy consultation process. You can demonstrate that you are paying attention and enhance this process by:

• Organisation: Avoiding ‘barriers’, such as having a notepad or table in between yourself and the client.
• Posture: Leaning forward slightly with an open posture (avoid crossed arms/legs, which can appear unfriendly).
• Eye contact: Keeping focused on the client and avoiding distractions. This is particularly important when working online (look at the camera rather than out of the window!).
• Observation: By watching a client, you will notice changes of the client’s expression, posture and movement and other forms of silent communication. You can then question them, where appropriate, thereby showing you are paying attention.
• Listening: Listening actively to what is said and the way that things are said is an invaluable therapy skill.

Managing avoidance

When you or your client start to engage in avoidant behaviour (usually due to feeling distracted or uncomfortable), it needs to be immediately identified and addressed.

Avoidance behaviours can include avoiding eye contact, closed/blocking body posture, focusing elsewhere (e.g., out of the window), distracted fidgeting, such as rustling paper or moving a glass repeatedly, yawning, or repeated changes of posture.

Prompting

To encourage a client to expand on what they are telling you, a range of verbal, sub-verbal and non-verbal responses can be employed. A superb phrase, “Tell me more about that” is widely applicable, as is the question “and how do you feel about that?”

At other times, a more ambiguous response, such “Umhum” or “oh?” or “ahhh” can be helpful, particularly to keep the client talking about the same topic. At other times you may not want to interrupt the flow of speech, but wish to subtly encourage the client to continue, so a nod or raised eyebrow or encouraging facial expression can be a useful non-verbal approach.

Use of silence and stillness

Rather than having to fill the entire consultation process with constant talk, an absence of sound (silence), movement (sitting still) and expression (facial, gestures) can create space for the client to focus more on their thoughts, feelings and experience and perhaps think through how they would like to move forward. It will also give them processing time for what has already been discussed.

When employing silence/stillness, appropriate timing is important in order to maintain rapport. However, stillness can also be an effective pattern interrupt if other measures to gain the client’s attention have been ineffective.

Focused exploration

When exploring a broad topic, it can take a lot of session time to get to the essential information within the wider story. It can be helpful to map the key ‘headers’ or landmarks of the client’s ‘story’ and then using reflection and summarising to keep them focused around the desired areas for further discussion.

Conveying information to your client

When you are conveying information to a client, there are many different ways in which you can do this. Each has their own advantages and drawbacks.

When you give advice to a client, although it may not use a commanding tonality, such giving of advice is directional, from the giver to the receiver. It helps to avoid phrasing it as ‘do/don’t’ as some contrary clients will rebel against being told what to do.

Giving your client instructions can be even more directive than advising your client. In contrast, is consideration. By having the client ‘consider’, you can help the client gain an awareness and an understanding of their actions. This can be collaborative or directed by the therapist, yet can achieve greater engagement from the client than simply telling them what to do.

Personal disclosure

Finally, within a consultation session, you may find that some therapists will use their own experiences to support a viewpoint, demonstrate empathy or boost collaborative rapport. It is important to remember that the session is the client’s therapy time, rather than a time for the therapist to off-load. Also, it can skew the client’s perception of you, as they may judge you based on what is disclosed.

With clients, aim to keep to professional boundaries. A simple way to do this is to convey your own experiences in the form of a story/metaphor, suggesting that ‘someone you know’ had X experience, rather than it being about you.

Questioning

With exploratory questioning, a blend of direct and indirect questions can be used with a client to delve deeper into the client’s experience. Rather than just using direct questions, which can be rather blunt, or just indirect questions, which can be perceived as indistinct if there are several consecutively, a blend of both approaches helps you to enquire from different perspectives and can gain greater information overall.

At times you will have some insight into the client’s experience, whether that is their thoughts, beliefs, actions, needs, desires or patterns of behaviour. At these times perceptive questioning can be helpful to the consultation process.

By exploring a client’s perceptions, it can give them an opportunity to consider their own perspectives and gain greater understanding. Rather than ‘telling’ a client how it is, there is more therapeutic value in exploring whether a perception might be relevant or accurate.

Challenging

During the session, you may become aware of the client demonstrating one or more cognitive distortions (e.g., ‘all or nothing’ thinking) or limiting beliefs (“I never can…”). You may also notice and wish to dispute any inconsistencies in the client’s recounting of events or their experience.

A level of therapeutic rapport is necessary for effective challenging, and the challenging or disputing process needs to be carried out with skill; you are challenging a client’s beliefs, not the clients themselves (it isn’t a personal attack, but if not conducted properly, it can feel like it, from the client’s perspective).

Timing of any challenging and disputing is important as well. You may find it necessary to hear an overview of the client’s story first and then revisit certain beliefs or thoughts, rather than challenge on the first ‘run through’, as this can cause the client to adapt their story to avoid further challenge from you.

Sometimes clients need to be challenged, so rather than this being a 100% positive, lovely and fluffy therapeutic process, challenge your client where appropriate. If you don’t, it can mean that cognitive distortions and unhelpful beliefs remain undiscovered and this can have a negative impact on the success of therapy further on.

Our hypnotherapy course

Whether you’re only now starting out, or if you’re looking to build upon your existing training and ‘fill in the gaps’, if you would like to learn more about how to perform a super effective hypnotherapy intake/consultation process, check out our Hypnotherapy Diploma Course (London) and our online Hypnotherapy Certification Course. We also offer 1-to-1 supervision sessions for those therapists who’re already qualified. If you have any questions about this topic or anything else for that matter, do please get in touch, because we’re always happy to help!

Find out more about our Hypnotherapy Diploma course

– written by Dr Kate Beaven-Marks
(HypnoTC Director)

There is more to having a successful hypnotherapy practice than having awesome qualifications and a great website (although they are useful!) No matter how amazing you are at what you do, you will need clients to work with, and there are a number of ways that clients will search for hypnotherapists. It is important that a hypnotherapist considers these within their overall marketing and advertising strategies, because people need to be able to find you, to know that you exist. There are three common ways that someone might find a hypnotherapist: word-of-mouth, local advertising and the internet. Which order their search will take will often depend on a person’s usual way of gathering information and there can be some crossover (for example, someone might use a local neighbourhood app, or a local Facebook group, to ask for a word-of-mouth recommendation). This blog is going to focus on word-of-mouth marketing approaches. We will cover local advertising and internet-based advertising later, in separate blogs.

Imagine that ‘Mary’ is a potential client that lives in your local area. Mary has a phobia of flying and wants to be able to go on holiday with her family in a few weeks’ time, and she is looking for a therapist to help her overcome this issue. Now, you might think that she would automatically undertake an internet search and pick the therapist with the best website or credentials (maybe you), but in many cases, that doesn’t happen. This is because, one of the most common ways of finding a solution to a problem is to ask people you know, or those who you think may have an answer.

Do you remember having an amazing meal at a local restaurant, and then telling all your friends about it? Or, perhaps you may have been looking for a good movie to watch, and you asked a friend for suggestions of what they have enjoyed? People ask friends, family and colleagues for information and advice all the time. You may be surprised at quite how common and how influential personal recommendations are.

Word-of-mouth is perhaps the strongest form of marketing. Not only is there no direct cost involved (helpful for a hypnotherapist’s budget), but it incorporates social proof in the form of a positive review of a client’s experience. A study in consumer trust found that 92% of people will consider a recommendation from a friend or family member as more credible that an advert. A report published in 2018 by Business Wire found 97% of people consider reviews before making a purchase. It seems that just having product/service information (e.g. on your website) is no longer sufficient. However, product/service information is still essential so that your clients can be informed as they make their way towards signing up with you. A personal referral helps someone think of you as a reputable practitioner, shortening the sales process, and completing the transitions from ‘awareness’ (of you) to ‘consideration’ (of using your services), through to ‘purchase’ (booking a session) and then ‘brand loyalty’ (recommending you to others/booking subsequent sessions) more smoothly.

Social proof

I just mentioned the term ‘social proof’ above, which is a popular term for peer evidence. Just for a moment imagine that you are on holiday looking for somewhere to eat. You come across a street with two restaurants next to each other. The first is packed with people, the second is totally empty. Which restaurant would you choose to eat at? As a rule, people like to follow the actions and choices of others. Common ways that hypnotherapists can make use of social proof include direct word-of-mouth recommendations, client testimonials, ‘influencer’ endorsements, online word-of-mouth recommendations (such as social media comments) and professional awards and other forms of recognition, where an external organisation promote your services as being high quality.

Studies show that social proof has even greater power when it is between people who know each other. A past client telling others how you helped them lose weight or stop smoking shows that you can work effectively. As such, it is a powerful component in your marketing strategy and something to be nurtured. Around 70% of people will say that a positive recommendation will generate trust in the service provider. As a result, it helps generate rapport before the prospective client even phones you or emails you with an enquiry about your services and, when they do contact you, it can feel as though they already know something about you. No longer are they contacting a stranger but someone their friend knows. This perceived familiarity can help you stand out from your local competition. An enquiry coming as a result of a recommendation is considered a ‘warm lead’. They have already been primed or warmed up for you as a result of their discussion with a trusted (by them) source.

Who would you prefer to contact, someone you found from an internet search but know nothing about, or another person with comparable services but who comes with a glowing recommendation? One of the wonderful things about hypnotherapy and its role in achieving positive change is that others will often be able to see the benefits and success for themselves. Your clients may no longer smoke, or may look healthier (even with before/after photos), or perhaps no longer scream if a bee/wasp flies past. These tangible changes that come as part of the hypnotherapy process, add visible evidence to verbal social proof.

Interestingly, social proof can be an even more effective form of advertising than ‘paid adverts’. This is because the recommendation tends to happen within a conversation where there is already rapport and mutual engagement. The recommendation is presented congruently and is therefore more likely to be well-received. Whereas, an advert can be encountered ‘cold’ and the style of the advert may not resonate as well with the individual.

A long term marketing solution

Social proof and word-of-mouth recommendations offer an organic method of naturally promoting information about your services. Apart from there being zero cost, another advantage of word-of-mouth marketing is that it is ongoing. People may not see more than one hypnotherapist in their life (especially if you are good at what you do), yet they will talk about a positive experience for many years. How can a hypnotherapist make use of this type of marketing? Apart from the obvious point of giving a great service, there are strategies you can employ to enhance your service, and thereby improve the chances that your client will remember and talk about you.

Firstly, keep connected with your clients. By making contact with clients weeks/months/years after the therapy session, you are offering great customer service, and it helps them feel that they are important. It might be that you keep them engaged (with their consent), with a useful seasonal newsletter or a quarterly beneficial MP3 or some other form of contact. This helps to build brand loyalty, as well as maintaining engagement. Interestingly, by encouraging clients to refer you to others, they are also more likely to come back to you for future work rather than go elsewhere. Those who give recommendations are generally more loyal, and have a higher ‘lifetime value’ as a customer.

Secondly, actively show that you value the fact that they’re sharing their positive experiences so that others can make the right choice. This strategy is also good when seeking formal reviews (e.g. for your website or review site). Even just sending a quick ‘thank you’ email can inspire the client to continue to spread the word about your services to others.

Word-of-mouth ‘referrals’

As well as direct word-of-mouth marketing, which is free (and not directly under your control), there is a form of personal recommendation which does have a cost element, and can be easier to control/monitor. This is sometimes called ‘referral marketing’ or ‘affiliate marketing’. The key difference is that word-of-mouth marketing happens naturally when clients promote you without any prompt or suggestion to do so, whilst referral marketing occurs when you incentivise or encourage others to talk about you. Here clients and other businesses are encouraged to refer clients to you and they receive a reward for each person who then becomes a client. This may be something as simple as a free relaxation MP3 for a past client, or a monetary reward for a local manicurist referring someone for hypnotherapy to overcome their nail-biting habit. As the reward is likely to be much less than the therapy session fee, there is a high level of return on investment (ROI) with this approach. However, for this to work well, the ‘reward’ needs to be large enough so that it’s worth doing – £5 probably isn’t going to cut it!

VIP word-of-mouth

A final version of ‘word-of-mouth’ is influencer marketing and gaining endorsements from celebrities and social media influencers. Influencer-based marketing strategies are becoming increasingly common on social media, although there are also social influencers in many more environments than you might think, from the ‘mum who is well-connected’ and gets a discount from her hairdresser to recommend friends, through to the local newspaper’s editor or social commentator and the local radio DJ, all sharing their views. There are advantages and disadvantages to this form of social proof. From a positive perspective, these influencers will have a wide following of people who have likely already connected on some level with the influencer. However, there will be less of a personal connection than with a family or friends’ recommendation. Influencer marketing on some social media platforms is particularly effective. For example, a report indicated that users trusted influencers on Twitter almost as much as their friends, with a reported 5.2 times increase in purchase intent after seeing promotional content from particular influencers with whom they resonate. It is also reported that there is 8 times more engagement in content shared by influencers that that shared directly by brands. However, there is now a growing trend towards more ‘authentic’ influencing rather than blatant advertising approaches.

For a hypnotherapist, you may wish to do some research and find out who your local influencers are. Consider whether they are already talking about similar things or complementary things that can be related to your service, as well as whether their personal brand (or ‘ethos’) is compatible with yours.

The various methods for word-of-mouth marketing are generally highly cost-effective and have minimal ‘time demands’ on an ongoing basis. Give your clients a reason to vouch for you. Having a great quality service is a good start, helping the client recognise their own success story can help add personal validation. Remember though, rather than assume clients are always thinking about you or will remember you, keep them engaged and make it as easy as possible for people to recommend you. The results will pay dividends in the end!

We hope that this blog about the power of word-of-mouth referrals has been helpful. If you have any questions about this topic or anything else for that matter, do please get in touch, because we’re always happy to help!

– written by Dr Kate Beaven-Marks
(HypnoTC Director)

Hypnotherapy as a second income

There are many different reasons why people become hypnotherapists. For some, they wish to completely change career, for others they are seeking to learn a new therapy to complement the therapy that they are already doing (e.g. counselling). Whilst hypnotherapy certainly can be a fantastic and fulfilling full-time occupation, there are many hypnotherapists out there that only work part time.

For some, they enjoy their ‘main job’, or have contractual obligations, and wish to carry on with it, whilst doing hypnotherapy to earn a little extra, or to give back and help people. For others, they may have childcare or carer responsibilities, or limited working hours, and need a career that provides a second income that can fit around their schedule. Some people also work as a hypnotherapist part time, as they slowly transition into retirement or as part of a phased career change plan, as a way of keeping busy (and generating income) during retirement.

Before you read further, perhaps you already know that you want to become a professional hypnotherapist. If so, we recommend you check our award-winning HypnoTC Hypnotherapy Diploma course.

Find out more about our Hypnotherapy Diploma course

The benefits of earning a second income with hypnotherapy

From a job security perspective, if you are already employed, then being self-employed as well means you’ll have a supplementary income that you can rely on during any employment changes or times of financial hardship. It gives you a sense of control and security, because if you lost your main job, you wouldn’t be left totally unemployed with no income. Also, it is often considered to be true that it’s easier to get another job if you are already employed (or self-employed), rather than unemployed.

It may be that you are in a job that you love but it doesn’t pay well. Your part-time hypnotherapy business can help supplement that job and make it easier to carry on doing what you love. Alternatively, you may be in a job that is okay at covering the bills but leaves little left over for the extra ‘luxuries’ in life. A second income can enhance your leisure life, pay off debt, start to fill up a savings pot so that the dream holiday, house renovations or new car are more likely to become a reality, rather than an aspirational dream!

By working a second job that is aligned with your existing job, it can have additional networking and career opportunities. You may be able to benefit in both roles when you talk to people about what you do. For example, if your day job is a hairdresser you are likely to hear a lot of client’s problems which may be better discussed in the therapy room rather than the salon.

Or, you might be a massage therapist who finds a client is stressed and tense and would benefit from some stress management hypnotherapy, as well as their massage. Or, conversely, as a hypnotherapist, you might be working with someone with anxiety who would benefit from the physical relaxation that massage offers.

If you were thinking of adding in a bar job, or stacking shelves, or another ‘low wage’ type of job, you’d be making a fairly large time investment for very little overall profit. Being a hypnotherapist, in contrast, can earn you a lot more money in a lot less time. If you’d like to earn £90, how would you prefer to do it, with 10 hours of bar work, or just 1 hour conducting hypnotherapy?

The ‘average’ hypnotherapist charges between £60-100 per session, so it can definitely be a great source of income. You might consider doing some research into what hypnotherapists in your local area are charging, so you get an idea of what you could charge. You can then use our handy earnings calculator to get an idea of how many clients you’d like to see, in order to get the amount of income you’re looking for.

There are more additional benefits to learning hypnotherapy, beyond diversifying and gaining a second income. There are the personal benefits as well. Learning anything new gives you a great ‘project’ to focus on, and can give your self-esteem a big boost.

Learning hypnotherapy takes that even further, because although you learn approaches and techniques to help people become the best they can be, you will also benefit, by being able to apply those techniques and approaches to yourself, using self-hypnosis. Whether you wish to alleviate anxiety, eliminate phobias, develop healthier life habits or become highly motivated in any other area of life, learning hypnotherapy helps you help others and yourself.

Becoming a hypnotherapist

Before you figure out how you’re going to work once you have become a hypnotherapist (part-time or full-time), there is the matter of actually becoming a hypnotherapist first. To do this, you have a vast array of choices, from books, to online courses, through to individual training/mentoring and live hypnotherapy training courses that range from one day to a year or longer.

When considering books, it can be good to do a little research and find out a bit more about the author. Who they are, what they do and what their experience is. Some online booksellers, such as Amazon often have a ‘look inside’ option and Smashwords have an extract, often 10% of the total book that you can read first to see if you resonate with the author’s style. For a full range of hypnosis books, check out our recommended reading list page:

Recommended Reading List

Entry criteria to train

Anyone, at any age, can learn hypnotherapy. At HypnoTC we have trained people from a wide range of occupations, from scientists to lorry drivers, librarians to full-time parents. Whatever your experiences in the working world, your life skills will contribute to your effectiveness as a hypnotherapist. With such a diverse population around the world, there is room for an equally diverse range of hypnotherapists.

As well as there being no age restriction, there is also no mandatory retirement age for hypnotherapists, so you can work for as long as you wish to. More mature hypnotherapists are often perceived as having the wisdom of their years, and so, as a result, age can actually work as an advantage. Indeed sometimes, their career may start as a second income alongside other work, and then become a beneficial income when they retire from their primary career.

In contrast, for some young adults, becoming a hypnotherapist might be a very first job. With younger hypnotherapists, their age can help them to relate to younger clients, again working in their favour. Indeed, some people train and work as a hypnotherapist to finance their study of psychology or other degrees.

Geographical location is not a factor either, as hypnotherapists can work in most countries around the world. This is great if you are planning to relocate to another country, whether for a career change or as part of your retirement plan (or even seeing clients abroad to make some spending money whilst you’re on holiday)!

It may also be that you wish to work with a certain range of client problems/conditions, and use hypnotherapy online to reach clients all around the world, instead of just in your local area. For example, if you were to specialise in hypnotherapy for a particular sport, you may work with an international range of athletes in that specific sport. Or, your UK based athletes may wish to keep in contact with you when they are travelling to compete.

Foundation level training

Having an initial, general understanding about hypnotherapy means that you can then make a more informed choice about your next step moving forwards. If you would like to ease into learning, then you might like to start with a short online course, such as our Hypnotherapy 101 online course. Though, like any training, there are ‘super cheap’ options out there, it’s worth keeping in mind that the old adage ‘you get what you pay for’ applies here. Many ‘budget hypnotherapy courses’ are limited in their content, delivery, and training materials. A good online course will have demonstrations and explanations, plus a downloadable manual so that you can devote your time to learning, rather than having to take detailed notes.

Some people like to immerse themselves in training and will happily spend all day watching videos and reading manuals, whereas others like to dip in for short chunks of time over a longer period, and re-visit course materials later on.  So, it helps if you get lifetime access to your course materials. Because, by being able to access or download your course at any point in the future, you have the flexibility of studying at times that best suit you, rather than having to get it all done before you lose access to the training materials (or having to pay to keep them for longer). This is why all of our online training at hypnosis-courses.com is a one-time payment, and gives you lifetime access to your chosen courses.

By beginning to learn hypnotherapy via books and with an online course, you will then have a more informed perspective of how you best like to learn, which will help you choose the best live training course for you. Whilst a shorter ‘intensive hypnotherapy training course’  may immerse you in a range of relevant topics for a block of days (often 3-5 days), there can be quite rapid knowledge and skill fade. Hence many people prefer a more substantial course, over a longer time frame, such as one weekend a month over several months, that goes into more depth on the topic of hypnotherapy.

Getting the best in-person hypnotherapy training

Live (in person) hypnotherapy training is possibly the best way of training if you want to become a professional hypnotherapist. Yet even a brief internet search will find a vast number of training courses, so it can be tricky to know which one is best. However, there are ways in which you can narrow your search. Firstly, a great way to find out about a course is to go to a shorter training opportunity provided by the trainers, such as a one day ‘introduction to hypnotherapy’or ‘taster day’. This will let you meet the trainers, learn more about becoming a hypnotherapist with their training school, and you’ll often get a chance to engage in some practical hypnotherapy activities too.  

Next, think about how you may wish to work as a hypnotherapist. The book and the online course may have helped you think about the types of issues you are interested in working with. If you wish to work with common conditions, such as weight management, smoking cessation and anxiety, then a shorter or more intensive course may be suitable, whereas if you wish to work with complex cases, a more in-depth training would be helpful.

After that, have a look on the trainer’s website and check what they cover and how. Do they give demonstrations in class? Do you get lots of hands-on practice? Is there homework, are there exams? Also, whilst it is important to understand the supporting theory, one of the benefits of an in-person course is having someone observe and guide your practice so you develop strong practical skills. A good course will also cover the business side of being a hypnotherapist, such as how to attract clients and how to run the administration side of things.

Check out the ‘course syllabus’ section of our Hypnotherapy Diploma Course page to learn more about what a good, comprehensive hypnotherapy course should cover.

Fitting in a second job

So, let’s imagine you have learned how to do hypnotherapy and you’ve set up your own hypnotherapy practice. Now, do you want to work full-time? Term-time only? See a couple of clients a week? Only work evenings? Where can you see yourself fitting this second job into your schedule? You may wonder if you’ll have time to earn a second income as a hypnotherapist alongside your existing job, your family and friends, leisure activities and other time commitments. Yet, it might surprise you quite how you can manage your time more efficiently and re-organise your schedule to create blocks of ‘free time’.

If you kept a record of what you do during each day for a week you might work out quite how many hours you spend doing things that you don’t need to do (or even times where you’re doing nothing at all). By optimising your time, you can free up time that you could use to see a hypnotherapy client and earn some extra money. Alternatively, you might free up some time by trading time (e.g. taking turns to do the school run) or by outsourcing chores. For example, it may be more cost effective to pay a cleaner for a few hours a week, and you use that time to see clients.

There are many different ways that people can optimise their time. So, perhaps sit down and have a think about your current time commitments, how much time you have available (or can make available), and how many clients you might be able to help each week, as well as how much of a second income that will provide you with!

Find out more

To find out more about any of the training options mentioned in this blog, and to meet the HypnoTC team, feel free to book a place on one of our upcoming free hypnotherapy taster days or simply check out our great range of online courses and products. We hope that this blog about earning a second income with hypnotherapy has been helpful. If you have any questions about this topic or anything else for that matter, do please get in touch, because we’re always happy to help!

– written by Dr Kate Beaven-Marks
(HypnoTC Director)

Getting more hypnotherapy clients

Giving away things for free has always been a great way to drum up business. Whether giving people a ‘free sample’ or a ‘free gift with each purchase’, getting something that we didn’t have to pay for is a great advertising strategy, because people love free stuff, it’s a fact of life.

However, as a hypnotherapist, what can you give away? You’re a therapist, so you don’t necessarily have a tangible ‘product’ that you can give a free sample of. You can’t exactly copy supermarkets, bakeries and restaurants who send their staff out with ‘free food samples’, can you? Well, in fact yes, you probably could…

Though you may not think you have something to give away, there are many different ‘free giveaways’ for the proactive hypnotherapist to draw upon, in order to generate interest in your business services. Let’s take a look at some examples that pretty much any hypnotherapist could start using immediately.

Free hypnotherapy blog posts

When you think about blogs, you might not necessarily consider it fits into the ‘free gift’ category, but you’re giving away your expertise for anyone that wants to read it, and it’s a valuable commodity that people can benefit from, without paying a penny!

You’re reading this blog now, right? So, is it conceivable that your clients might do the same and read your blog posts? (yes)

When blogging, you want to consider the information that your clients might be searching for online. It’s generally going to be related to their problem/issue.

So, if you can offer them some useful free information that will help them, then you’re off to a great start! Some ideas for blog topics that will attract clients might be:

“10 top tips for losing weight before the summer”

“How to stop smoking cravings in their tracks”

“A quick technique to reduce anxiety”

“Sleep better with hypnotherapy”

…get the picture? Make your offering something that resonates with your potential clients, and it’s then about putting your ‘free gift’ in front of people. So, hosting it on your business website, asking friends to share it, posting in relevant groups and forums, etc.

This is a great, easy way to start getting clients interested in what you can do for them, and the only thing it’ll cost you is a bit of time and effort.

Attracting potential clients with free e-mail tips / e-books

Similar to blog posts are free e-mail tips and e-books. You can use the offer of ‘free tips’ or a ‘free e-book’ as a way to get people onto a mailing list, meaning you then have a whole bunch of people’s e-mails who you can then contact directly with information about your services and special seasonal offers (as well as giving them a bunch of useful free tips and valuable content as promised)!

It’s important to remember that people are only ‘opting in’ because they want the free stuff, and they want to get good value from their investment (i.e. giving you their e-mail address). So, once you have someone on your list, ensure that you deliver, and don’t just give them one or two useful e-mail tips and then a barrage of e-mails promoting your services.

People will quickly unsubscribe if they feel like they’re no longer getting anything that’s of value to them (you know this, because if you have an e-mail account, you’ve likely unsubscribed from a bunch of mailing lists in the past when they became irrelevant, boring or overly salesy)!

If you’re not getting your prospective clients onto a mailing list in order to build an ongoing relationship with them, then you’re potentially missing out on lots of business! There’s no excuse not to get started either, because you can start your own mailing list for free!

There are a few mailing list providers out there who offer their services completely free of charge (up to a certain point). For example, the company we use (Mailchimp) offers a lifetime free contract for mailing lists with under 2,000 subscribers! Can’t say fairer than that!

…also, guess what, when you start using your mailing list even more and end up subscribing for a paid Mailchimp account, you’ll realise that their free offer worked to turn you into a customer, and all because people LOVE free stuff!

Free MP3

Perhaps you’re putting yourself out there at local events, in your local town/city, and you’d like something tangible to give to people in order to demonstrate what you do, and to ‘hook them’ and later convert them into clients. A hypnosis MP3 is a fantastic way to do this.

Create a generic ‘relaxation’ or ‘hypnosis experience’ MP3 (something non-therapy related), so that people get an opportunity to experience what hypnosis with you will be like.

Anyone looking for a hypnotherapist will likely find this ‘taster’ to be very helpful, and could sway them to book you over another hypnotherapist in your area who doesn’t offer a free ‘taster’.

There are a number of different ways to give away a free MP3. You can use your mailing list to deliver the MP3 directly to their inbox, you can give them a USB flash drive with the MP3 pre-loaded on it, or you might even simply give them a business card with a link to a page on your website where you’ve hosted the MP3.

However you do it, ensure that the delivery method includes information about how to find you and book your services (having your website printed on your USB stick, or the back of the business card, for example).

We created a fantastic hypnotherapy MP3 on the topic of exam anxiety, which we specifically designed for our own hypnotherapy students to use before they sit their exams on our hypnotherapy diploma course, but have also made available for free on our YouTube channel for anyone looking to reduce their exam anxiety.

We have been contacted by a number of people on YouTube who, from watching the video, wanted to learn more about how hypnosis could help them. And if we can do it, so can you!

Free group hypnotherapy session/taster

Similar to MP3s, but more personal, you may offer a free taster session where a group of random people can sign up to come and meet you in person, ask questions about the hypnotherapy process, learn more about how hypnotherapy can help them relating to their issue, and perhaps even experience a ‘group hypnosis session’ as well.

Do keep the group session non-therapy related, as you don’t want to do your actual therapy session for free, just give a taster of what it will be like.

Many hypnotherapists use this method to get new clients, and it can be a great way to gain interest from people who might be too shy to contact you on their own, as they may bring a friend/family member along too.

We have our own version of a free group hypnotherapy session, designed for people who’re looking to learn hypnotherapy or expand upon their previous training.

So, if you’d like to learn how we do it, feel free to come along and join us on one of our free hypnotherapy taster days, and by all means bring any of your friends or relatives who might be interested in learning hypnotherapy too. The more the merrier!

HYPNOTC TASTER DAY - LEARN MORE

Free initial consultation/phone call

A final great ‘free giveaway’ that can net you more clients is a free consultation. Now, whether in person or over the phone (or Skype/Zoom), this free consultation gives people a chance to talk to you personally, and figure out if you’re the right hypnotherapist for them (it also gives you the chance to check that they’re the right client for you)!

Have a page on your website that lets people know how to book their free consultation, and set up your processes so that you make time in your diary for your consultations. Some therapists will put a ‘time limit’ on the consultation, others don’t. Some will call the client, others will wait for the client to call them.

It’s entirely up to you how you do it, just ensure that when you’re engaging in a free consultation, that you get your potential client’s contact information (so you can follow up with them at a later date if they don’t immediately sign up for a hypnotherapy session).

As well as that, let them know about your services, availability, pricing and most importantly how you can help them.

By implementing some or all of the above strategies, you’ll be well on your way to getting more clients in your hypnotherapy practice. We hope that you enjoyed this blog on getting more hypnotherapy clients with ‘free giveaways’, and if you have any questions about this topic or anything else for that matter, do please get in touch, because we’re always happy to help!

– written by the HypnoTC team

Did you buy anything in this year’s Black Friday sales? Are you looking forward to buying some bargains in the New Year sales? There are many seasonal events in our annual calendars. It can be good to make use of these well known dates to promote your business.

Although the potentially quiet time over the holidays can be a great time to plan your marketing campaign for the next year, this can also be done at any time of year. This blog is going to explore some of the key calendar dates with ideas for how you can promote your business.

As well as the standard holidays that we all know about (and can use within our marketing strategies), there are also an immense number of national and international ‘days’ that you can make use of, and  some of the most relevant are included here.

January

As well as the ‘January Sales’ being a fantastic opportunity to offer your customers some fantastic (limited time only) offers and deals on your services, the 4^th of January is World Hypnotism Day.

This is a great time to promote how hypnotherapy can help clients achieve their goals, whatever they may be. With the 1^st recognised not only as New Year’s Day, and the start of new year resolutions, it is also ‘National Hangover Day’ in the US. This could inspire a theme for marketing, whether on alcohol moderation or even how self-hypnosis can alleviate some of the symptoms.

The 24^th of January is International Day of Education. This is a great opportunity to promote how hypnotherapy can help students of all ages learn more effectively.

February

Many clients will start to look at potential holidays in February. This makes it a great time of year to promote how helpful hypnotherapy is at addressing phobias that might stop people travelling.

You could add even more impact by giving some brief case history examples of how you helped ‘Michael’ overcome his flying phobia or ‘Janice’ move past her phobia of boats and how they went on to have the holiday they wished for.

You could even compare international holiday costs to the often more expensive UK holiday costs and show how people can save money by travelling abroad, meaning the hypnotherapy fee would be more than covered.

March

There are two superb International days in March. Firstly, on the 8^th March it is International Women’s day. This date is promoted around the world and the United Nations also call it the Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace.

Female hypnotherapists have a great opportunity to promote their hypnotherapy business. Male hypnotherapists can also make use of this day (which was first recognised in 1911) by promoting how hypnotherapy can help women specifically.

Possible themes may be on a particular female issue, such as childbirth or menopause, or perhaps career focus, such as confidence in the workplace.

Also, in March, on the 20^th is the International Day of Happiness. The concept for a day of happiness is said to have originated in Bhutan, a country considered to have some of the happiest citizens in the world. A simple marketing strategy focused around the positive benefits of hypnotherapy would fit well here.

April

As the weather improves (hopefully) the shops start to display more summer clothes. This is a great time to start to promote how hypnotherapy can help with weight management and exercise motivation.

It is a superb time to start promoting a 3-month ‘beach-body’ hypnotherapy programme. The 28^th April is recognised by organisations such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations (UN) as the World Day for Safety and Health at Work. This can be a wonderful opportunity for hypnotherapists to start to explore the corporate market and to introduce yourself to local businesses and organisations.

Even the smallest companies will often have someone on staff who is responsible for health and safety and this usually now includes aspects of wellbeing. A good corporate client can provide many future opportunities for the savvy hypnotherapist.

May

With June being a popular time for weddings, many members of the wedding party may now be getting more anxious as the date rapidly approaches. This makes it an ideal time to promote how hypnotherapy can help people to move beyond performance anxiety.

This may be focused, such as on ‘wedding-dance confidence’ or ‘giving a confident best man speech’, as well as more broadly, such as being able to relax and enjoy the full wedding experience, whilst addressing individual needs, alleviating anxieties and boosting ego strength.

A key date for your marketing calendar may be 31^st May. ‘World No Tobacco Day’, observed since 1989, dates back to a resolution passed in 1988, with the date selected to reflect the 40^th anniversary of the World Health Organisation.

There have been a number of different themes over the years including, “tobacco costs more than you think” (1995), “tobacco-free sports” (2002), and “tobacco: deadly in any form or disguise” (2006). You might choose to align your ‘stop smoking’ marketing to a global theme, or simply create your own theme that may fit best with how you operate your smoking cessation hypnotherapy sessions.

June

The Global Day of Parents (1^st June) has been observed since 2012, as a day to recognise the role of parents (and parental figures/ guardians) and their contribution to families and communities. However, this may be a date of sadness for those wishing to conceive. It can be a timely opportunity to promote how hypnotherapy can assist in alleviating stress, which can otherwise impair fertility. It can also offer great emotional support to couples undergoing fertility treatment.

Another International Day to consider is the International Day of Yoga on 21^st June. This gives hypnotherapists a good opportunity to promote how hypnotherapy can work alongside and complement other holistic mind-body approaches.

July

July can be a time when the hypnotherapy office is a little quieter, as clients take themselves off on holiday, therefore it can be a good time to plan the next six months of your marketing calendar. However, there are also two key dates of interest this month.

Firstly, World Youth Skills Day is on the 15^th July. It aims to promote personal success and fulfilment for youths. Certainly, this can be aligned to a marketing strategy promoting how hypnotherapy can help young people address barriers to success and develop a positive mindset.

To fit in even more closely with the ‘acquisition of skills’ theme of this World Day, you could talk about how self-hypnosis and mental rehearsal can be used to great effect to develop positive behaviours and responses.

Another interesting day is the 30^th July, the International Day of Friendship. A day where the United Nations recognises the role of friendship in promoting peace in many organisations, societies and cultures, it has broad marketing opportunities for hypnotherapists.

Examples include how hypnotherapy can help alleviate guilt or jealousy and build social confidence and enhance communication skills.

August

The time of school holidays and family holidays can be a stressful time for parents, both in terms of occupying bored children at home and the potentially arduous experience of organising and travelling as a family.

Help parents (and grandparents) with marketing focused around rapid stress management approaches that they can apply for themselves and link this to a stress management programme they can join in September (when they realise your tips work).

This ties in very nicely with Respect for Parents Day (August 1st), which can tie in nicely with your school holiday marketing plan.

September

Still on the theme of parents, many will be experiencing a change of routine, whether having children attending school for the first time, or perhaps no longer going to school but entering further or higher education.

‘Empty nesters’ can experience a sense of loss or even grief. Effective marketing can show prospective clients that hypnotherapy can not only help address any negative emotions associated with these changes, but can also engage the client with mental rehearsal to help them decide how more helpfully to fill their time.

Early in the month (5^th) is the International Day of Charity. This may be a good time to engage in some hypnotherapy voluntary work (e.g. a local hospice) and promote that you are doing so.

October

October is a superb time of the year to promote the use of hypnotherapy for self-care, such as by running a self-hypnosis workshop. This is a fabulous way to remind existing/past clients about you as well as attracting new clients.

This may be particularly pertinent on 5^th October, with World Teachers’ Day, with one report indicating 93% of teachers have high levels of job-related stress. The Teacher Wellbeing Index 2019 makes interesting reading. 72% considered themselves as stressed (rising to 84% for senior leaders), and a staggering 74% cited the inability to switch off and relax to be a “major contributing factor to a negative work/life balance”.

Other statistics include 34% having experienced a mental health issue and 78% having experienced ‘behavioural, psychological or physical symptoms due to their work”.

Finally, the report indicated that over half (57%) have considered leaving the profession in the last two years due to health and wellbeing issues.

Also, thinking more broadly than just teachers, World Mental Health Day is every year on October 10th, and this is a fantastic opportunity to promote your hypnotherapy services across the board.

November

It may seem that the ‘fireworks season’ seems to go on for weeks. For those bothered by sudden loud noises, such as the highly anxious and those with PTSD, it can be a difficult time.

A marketing strategy promoting how hypnotherapy can desensitise anxiety can be well-timed. Also, with potentially gloomy weather and shorter days (daylight), clients with low mood may find that they are struggling to engage with their everyday lives.

A marketing approach for ‘hypno-mood-boosting’ can be really effective at this time. Two health-related dates this month may offer useful marketing themes, firstly 14^th November, World Diabetes Day is a good time to promote the benefits of hypnotherapy for weight management and diet modification.

Secondly, 19^th November is World Toilet Day. An interesting fact is that more people are said to have mobile phones (6 billion) than have access to proper sanitation (2.5 billion). This could be a niche opportunity to promote how hypnotherapy can support the development of good hygiene habits.

December

For people on their own, whether by choice or otherwise, December can be particularly challenging when bombarded with media images of ‘the perfect Christmas’. This can lead to or exacerbate feelings of loneliness and even isolation. Of course, such emotions can also occur for individuals within a busy family or social environment. This then can be a good time to promote how hypnotherapy helps with resilience and ego strengthening.

It can also be a superb time to promote hypnotherapy relaxation workshops. Not only do these give participants an opportunity to escape potentially hectic or empty days, it provides a superb social opportunity together with the benefits of a relaxation session.

For a whole bunch of tips on how to help people de-stress at Christmas, check out this blog on our online hypnosis courses website.

We hope that this blog about seasonal marketing for your hypnotherapy business has been helpful. If you have any questions about this topic or anything else for that matter, do please get in touch, because we’re always happy to help!

– written by Dr Kate Beaven-Marks
(HypnoTC Director)

 Being a hypnotherapist is more than conducting therapy with clients… It is a business. Some of your time, effort and energy will be spent managing all that needs to happen, in order for you to spend that time with your clients. Not everyone will need to have a vast knowledge of ‘all things business’. However, it can be useful to know where to look, so that when you need it, you can get the information or resources that would help you manage your business most effectively. This blog, considers the essential starting point of your name and address.

It is all in the name…

How do people find you? Perhaps you will be doing lots of networking, or asking clients to refer you to their friends or colleagues… Generally, a memorable company name, that relates to what you do, can be helpful. It might be creative to call it something original like; ‘Assumber Aid’ or ‘Day-night Help’. Yet, if anyone saw that name, would they think hypnotherapy? Probably not.

When people meet you, and talk about you (hopefully, positively), they may remember your own name more than a trading name. So, you might like to use your name as your business name. However, it needs to be searchable. If you are ‘Jennifer Smith’ and there are lots of Jennifer Smith’s on Google searches, then it might be better to be more specific, such as ‘Jennifer Smith Hypnotherapy’. Alternative, you might use a variant of your own name as a professional name. So, if you are ‘Jen Smith’ socially, you might like to use ‘Jennifer Smith’ as your professional name. An example of this is HypnoTC’s own ‘Rory Z’. Generally, it can be good for both your professional name, and your trading name, to be searchable in a way that if you find one, you get the other.

As a sole trader, you can trade using your own name, or a business name, which doesn’t need to be registered. That business name should not contain any ‘sensitive’ words, such as ‘Society’ or ‘Association’, or suggest that it is something that it is not, such as a Charitable Trust (if it isn’t), nor can it imply that you are a limited company. For example, if you want to call yourself ‘Accredited ABC Hypnotherapy’ you would need permission from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). If you use anything other than your own name, you must include both your name, and business name on invoices, letters, and any other official correspondence. Depending on your chosen name, you might choose to trademark it, to stop it being used by anyone else (such as for my own HypnoDemo® training – yes, you can also trademark aspects of your service, not just your business name). There are similar rules to those for sole traders and for naming partnerships. However, when you have official paperwork, you will need to include all partners’ names, as well as any trading name.

It can get a little more complicated for limited companies. The first step, when you are thinking of a name is to check the Companies House register. There are certain rules about similar names, so ‘Hypnotherapy UK Ltd’ is too similar to ‘Hypnotherapy Ltd’. However, you can trade using a ‘business name’ that is different to your Limited company registered name. If you do, it must not be the same as any existing trade mark, limited company names nor have sensitive words (unless you have permission).

Location, location, location

Many hypnotherapists have an ‘administrative’ address, and a ‘therapy’ address. All of your paperwork can be registered at your admin’ address, and clients only need your therapy address for visits. It can help with work-life balance, and efficient organisation, to have a dedicated work space or place where you can run your business (i.e. everything apart from seeing clients). Whether this is a corner of a spare room, or that never-used space under the stairs, it is good to keep all your business paperwork in one place. It can help you keep focused when you are working, and then when you are not working, you won’t have constant reminders ‘pulling you back to work’, as you would have if you had your work spread around your living room. Your ‘office’ doesn’t need to be the same as where you see clients. In fact, it can be helpful to have separate spaces, even different locations. That way, you won’t be getting deliveries during therapy sessions, nor have business clutter, or personal stuff, in your therapy space. If you are planning to converse with colleagues or clients via Skype, Webinars, video blogs, or other online communication activities, it can be good to have a neutral background, where there is little to distract an audience away from your message.

There is no need to run a separate office even if you want to conduct business meetings. A professional location, away from your ‘home office’, can be booked ‘ad-hoc’ in any number of environments. If you simply Google ‘meeting rooms’ and your location, you will get a vast range. Some locations will have a ‘by the hour’ option, which can be cost effective. Alternatively, there are organisations, such as ‘Regus’, where you can book anything from access to a business lounge, to dedicated office space by the day.

If you see clients at home, you will need to let your mortgage provider and home insurer know. You may also want to consider adding to your therapy insurance, to cover your ‘premises’, should a client have an accident. It can be helpful to have a dedicated room for therapy. Do you really want to look at your sofa and remember a client sitting on that sofa, talking about some horrors they have experienced…

It crosses boundaries by having clients in your personal space, seeing your personal items around your home. You will also need to be extra careful about pets, children, visitors, deliveries and cleanliness. Also, from a personal safety perspective, do you really want strangers knowing where you live and what is in your home?

If you visit clients in their home, you may wish to put into place, appropriate personal safety systems. Such as, letting someone know where you are going, and when you will be finished (e.g. a text ‘I am finished’). Working in client homes can be fraught with challenges. You may encounter a wide range of pets, including some more unusual ones, like miniature pigs, snakes, spiders and house rabbits. There may be children, family or other visitors present who will want to sit in, or just interrupt the session from time to time. In addition, there are the everyday distractions and interruptions, like deliveries, landline phones, traffic and noisy washing machines. You may wish to ensure your hypnotherapy insurance also includes sufficient cover if you cause any damage to a client’s property, such as spill a cup of coffee over their white carpet… Accidents happen.

There are many potential locations for you to see clients. Some therapists use business meeting room environments, others have rooms in a range of businesses from hairdressers, massage shops and retail environments. Whilst there are possible business benefits for cross-referral, where the locations are not designed for talking therapies, there can be challenges. Noise and interruptions may be a problem, as staff and visitors may not be accustomed to not discussing everything and anything right outside your door. Also, there may not be suitable waiting areas, nor visitor access to other facilities, such as toilets. You will not be able to do great therapy if your client is sitting there, legs crossed and needing to visit a toilet!

Gymnasiums and leisure centres and allied healthcare locations, such as physiotherapists, will be better set up for visitors beyond their own customers and may have appropriate facilities. It may even be helpful for cross-referrals (e.g. personal trainers refer to you, you refer clients to them). If you are working on fitness motivation, or weight loss, then being based somewhere relevant can be useful. If you are using locations that are not perceived as therapy environments, you may get lots of business in a relevant narrow field relating to that environment (e.g. weight, smoking, fitness at a gym) which is great if that is your speciality. If you want to be more general, the location may limit your ability to get potential clients, as they may make assumptions about your practice based upon your location.

Multi-health practices, with a range of therapies available can be even better. A multi-practice location, that enables you to book by the hour or blocks of time can often be the best place to see your clients, for several reasons. Firstly, it is in a designed-for-purpose therapy environment…

There will be appropriate facilities to see clients, such as a waiting room, toilets and reception staff, together with organised maintenance and cleaning, to provide a safe and healthy environment for all. The premises will also often be more accessible for those with mobility impairments than perhaps you home might be. There may be many more opportunities for broader cross-referring as well.

Contact with experts

Organising your name(s) and address(es), is good start in setting up a well-structured business. However, you may not be in a position to have access to a full-time business consultant, to guide you through the intricacies of setting up and running a profitable business. Yes, you could study and learn how to do this, but would you want to? Or might you prefer to spend your time seeing clients? There are a vast number of organisations who provide business advice and guidance. Some, such as Federation of Small Businesses, charge an annual fee, and offer a wide range of services and advice, although, as a national company, they are likely to be fairly broad and more relating to the UK, rather than any particular region.

From a local perspective, the British Chambers of Commerce can offer a range of more local-based advice and useful networking. Less structured, but also useful, can be social media and online groups that support businesses, whether national or regional. If you prefer ‘in person’ advice, also helpful can be local business support, entrepreneur and networking groups. A great way of getting access to a broad range of advice is going to business events, such as the Business Start Up Show, the next one on 17^th and 18^th May in London. Finally, there are many government funded sites that offer clear and accurate advice about setting up a business.

There are many different routes to become a hypnotherapist. You may take a series of short courses, or one, longer course. In whatever way you learn, it can be good to start thinking very early in your studies about how you would like to name and locate your business. This gives you time to get just the right name to reflect you and your business and the ideal location in which to see clients.

We hope this blog on naming and locating your hypnotherapy business has been helpful, and if you have any questions relating to this blog, do please get in touch, because we’re always happy to help!

– written by Dr Kate Beaven-Marks
(HypnoTC Director)

This blog explores the progress of a HypnoTC Graduate, Martin Boyce.

A wide range of students complete our Professional Hypnotherapy Diploma course.

Our Professional Hypnotherapy Diploma course is award-winning and designed to give you both competence and confidence. Wherever you are on your journey, and whatever your learning differences, preferences or additional needs, you will find that at HypnoTC we are passionate about helping people to become the best hypnotherapist they can be.

If you have yet to start your hypnotherapy training journey, or would like to refresh or upskill, do have a look at our Professional Hypnotherapy Diploma course and discover how you can train with HypnoTC to become a professional hypnotherapist.

To become a HypnoTC graduate, like Martin Boyce, find out more about training with HypnoTC and becoming a professional hypnotherapist and click the button below.

Find out more about our Hypnotherapy Diploma course

Martin Boyce – HypnoTC Graduate

Here is a blog post from one of our hypnotherapy training graduates, Martin Boyce. We asked Martin to write a quick blog on how he has been doing with his business since qualifying as a hypnotherapist a couple of months ago in May, and so he did…

The First 4 weeks…

“On the 5th June 2017 I walked into my Practice Office on my first day as a Practising Hypnotherapist. Of course, my first task was to reflect and send a Facebook post to everyone saying that if someone had told me a year ago that I would be a Practising Certified Hypnotherapist in my own Office, I’d thought they were crazy. But here I was.

My first two weeks were a lot of setting up filing systems, trying to figure out how to set up and record on the office phone. Business cards…..ps….get these early. The number of potential clients I lost because I didn’t have any of these initially!

The question arose, was it a Practice or a Business? IT WAS BOTH. I never took my eye off the ball that it was a business and that I needed clients, paying clients. I had overheads etc. Therefore, I set up a few adverts from my newly made Facebook Business page, which cost around £1 a day. This would get me 4 clients from these ads in the first month alone and was well worth the small investment. I haven’t had time yet to set up my website.

The first paying client…..I have to admit I was very nervous. But it went great and I soon got into a routine. I had hoped to break-even by my third month. I actually broke even, and made a profit on the very first month! Very pleasing.

On the second and third weeks I tried a system where I offered a 30 minute free session to anyone who made enquiries. This proved invaluable and ALL the people who took up this offer signed up for between 3 – 5 sessions each! Not one didn’t. I had 30 mins to evaluate my potential client and sell myself a little. It made the client feel at ease and I would do my pre talk here too. I have more clients booked in for sessions and free consultations. I even have one chap travelling up from London next week for my services!

I found it strange to ask for a one hour session fee of £75 at first, but everyone was happy to pay and I was happy to accept. It was a fine arrangement. I had meant to work Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. However, as a new business I currently tend to fit my schedule around my clients and this flexibility helps. Eventually I shall try to stick to the allotted days.

I got myself an accountant, and never done any accountancy book keeping before but was recommended I get a Simplex-D (accounting book), which seems easy enough.

I have had sleepless nights worrying about all sorts, client sessions, if I’m doing the right sessions for them, accounts and books etc etc. but as I sit here almost one month into this journey waiting for my next client in half an hour…..I can say everything was worth it. Including the homework!!! I’m doing something I love doing. I believe I’m good at it. I help to change people’s lives and get well paid for it.

Finally, apart from all the advice above, PLEASE, MAKE SURE YOU LEAVE YOUR PRACTICE IN YOUR PRACTICE guys. You need to look after yourself too.

This has been my journey so far, it may give you ideas for yours too. Good luck.”

Martin Boyce C.H.
yorkshiredaleshypnotherapy.com

Thanks for sharing this with us Martin, we do appreciate it, and we know that our students and prospective students may learn a lot from the experiences of others. Best of luck with your practice!

We hope this blog has been super helpful, but if you do have any questions about setting up your hypnotherapy practice (or anything else for that matter) do please get in touch, because we’re always happy to help!

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If you would like to help others make positive enhancements to their lives and become a professional hypnotherapist,  we recommend you check our awesome Professional Hypnotherapy Diploma course.

Finally, if you would like to find out more about the awesome Professional Hypnotherapy Diploma that HypnoTC , do please visit our Diploma page and have a browse through the information about our world-class, award-winning training.

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How can a hypnotherapy article benefit your business?

Just imagine, you are asked to work with a journalist on a hypnotherapy article in exchange for them mentioning you in the article.  How exciting! Think of the ‘free’ publicity. Is it really free?  If it is a telephone or in-person interview about something you are doing or have done, or you write an article for a magazine or paper, then you are likely to just invest your time.  If it is a therapy session (smoking cessation, phobias and performance anxiety are popular topics) you are likely to invest both your time and perhaps pay for your therapy room, and indeed treat them just as though they were a client…. Without being paid.

To balance that, there is the potential for exposure to a vast number of people (depending on whether local paper, national or international) that you may never have reached by your conventional advertising and promotional strategies.  It can be a great opportunity.  A hypnotherapy article a few months ago, in Men’s Health (featuring both myself and Rory) gave a positive and balanced view about performance anxiety and the benefits of using hypnotherapy to address it.

More recently I was featured in an article in the Style magazine of the Sunday Times (see full article below this paragraph) gave a more individual account of a stop smoking therapy session, and the author disclosed a fair amount of personal information which may have made the article seem more ‘real’ to readers.

Both of these articles generated a considerable amount of enquiries from the public and others in the media.

(Click article to view a high-resolution copy)

Being mentioned in the press, especially if it is a positive mention can be reinforcement to a potential client that you are an expert.  A brief mention in the Daily Mail a few years ago, talking about how I taught hypnosis to the students at Eton College, resulted in numerous enquiries.

As it still comes up on a google search of my name, it shows potential clients I have been around for a while.  It further enhances a perception that I am an expert, as perhaps not just anyone would be let loose on future prime ministers!  It further helped that the journalist mentioned a high profile public figure (David Cameron) and Prime Ministers Questions in the same article.  The hypnotherapy article also followed one about Prince Andrew.  All raising the visibility of the article by association.

You may be invited to write articles about some aspect of your work.  Recently I was published in Massage World, where I wrote an article about hypno-massage (that was even on the front cover).  This promoted lots of interest from massage therapists about how they could incorporate hypnotherapy into their therapy practice.

Working with journalists, giving them a free therapy session, in return for mention in an article can be more complex.  Whether free or paid, if you conduct therapy on someone, unless previously agreed (and I suggest you get it in writing!) then you are bound by confidentiality.

In reality, this means that they could write their article with unexpected content or from a completely different perspective to the one you were expecting, and you generally cannot present a counter-argument.  Once it is published, any inaccuracies, from your perspective, will remain publicly accessible.

It can be good to discuss expectations prior to the start of the actual therapy session (less of an impact on rapport).  This may include whether you will have an opportunity to view (or even comment upon) any draft articles.  It can be a gamble, because no matter how brilliant a therapist you are, it takes two for the therapy to be effective.

There are likely to be a number of factors present that are not usually part of a standard therapy session. Perhaps the most significant is the motivation of the journalist towards the session.  Do they actually want the change / positive outcome, or are they just going along with what their editor wants?

There may be a theme, angle or perspective to the hypnotherapy article.  It can be useful to understand the publication it will be going into; what their principles and target audiences are.  Alternatively, the journalist may already have a perspective that they wish to write the article from, or it could be part of a themed series.

Often the journalist will do some research about you in advance so will have an idea of how you work.  They may also come into the session with some prepared questions.

If the journalist records the session (with your knowledge, or without), then by listening back, it can take them back to the start of the session (with their problem as it originally was).  Repeated listening to the recording can not only give their problem back to them, but actually strengthen it.  This can result in a poor outcome, even more so with a good subject! Also, if the journalist takes notes, they are likely to be distracted.

A part of them will remain in ‘work’ mode, and thus with a weaker subject, they are even less likely to get full benefit from the session. If they do neither, and just intend to remember the session, then a part of them will be ‘keeping record’ and thus can also impact on how much they engage and commit to the session. Being distracted like this generally means a less accurate recall of the session.  Not just what was done, but why…

However, all hypnotherapists are likely to remember being in class during their training and getting positive outcomes from the practical work.  Even though a part of them was monitoring and observing what was going on (‘student’ mode), they were still able to work on real issues and get helpful change. Several factors can help make the session more likely to be positive.

To minimise any note taking, it can be good to provide the journalist with some key information about you (a mini biography) prior to the session and to clearly establish goals for the session. This can be really helpful when they come to write their hypnotherapy article. It can also be helpful to let them know that you will happily answer questions about the work after the session (preferably at a later date to avoid immediately unpicking your work). As most journalists are skilled at creating rapport, this is something you can make use of within the session to enhance your therapeutic work.

However, do remember who you are working with; that they are both a client and a journalist.  They will be used to getting people to talk. Be careful not to get caught up in the moment and share or disclose more than you usually would.

With all of the above, it can seem that hypnotherapy for a journalist is fraught with problems.  Though it has the potential to be a bit of a minefield, with some clear understanding and preparation, it can be a very effective way of reaching a much wider audience that ever expected.

We hope this blog on hypnotherapy articles, journalism and the media has been helpful, and if you have any questions relating to this blog, do please get in touch, because we’re always happy to help!

– written by Dr Kate Beaven-Marks
(HypnoTC Director)