About the GHSC

Our stance within the diverse field of hypnotherapy organisations is neither elitist nor political but rather as a committed and authoritative national body dedicated to the monitoring of our registrants and the protection and well-being of the public who use their services. Our founding principle is the ethical promotion of hypnotherapy as a profession in its own right, closely related to, but nonetheless separate from, the other ‘talking therapies’ of counselling, psychotherapy and clinical psychology. Our ultimate aim is that hypnotherapy should become recognised and respected as a discrete and legitimate branch of psychological medicine and that our registered practitioners should take their rightful place as acknowledged professionals within it.

To that end, we were a key participant within the Working Group for Hypnotherapy Regulation whose primary purpose was to facilitate agreed standards within the profession and to subsequently bring about Voluntary Self-regulation (VSR), an officially recognised status, for the entire industry. To facilitate this, the Group actively co-operated with other industry representatives within the Hypnotherapy Regulatory Forum (a body established by the now defunct Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health) and as a consequence VSR was finally established via the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC) – set up in 2008 with Department of Health funding, when it admitted Hypnotherapy into its regulatory system on 1st December 2010.

To ensure that the profession continues to build upon this excellent foundation, the GHSC maintains robust assessment and validation criteria for both Training Schools and Practitioners, together with a comprehensive Code of Ethics and accessible Complaints & Disciplinary Procedure, essential components of the constant drive for public safety assurance and accountability.

We are comprised of representatives from both Professional Hypnotherapy Associations & Training Schools and an Advisory Board. Our primary functions are to: oversee the criteria for the accreditation of Hypnotherapy Training Courses and the ongoing requirements for registration of practitioners within the GHR, liaise with the CNHC on behalf of our constituents, and to continue to co-operate wherever possible with other relevant professional bodies and agencies.