By Phil Colosimo, PhD
ASCH President
Welcome to the August edition of our quarterly ASCH Advisor. This quarter, we’ve made significant efforts to develop strategic priorities that will push our organization forward and increase our membership. To help redefine these priorities, the executive committee has set out to establish a new mission and vision for our society. I hope you are as excited as we are about this new development.
What is our mission, and why do we need it? The mission statement is a concise declaration of an organization‘s purpose and goals. It articulates the fundamental reasons for our existence and reflects the core values, central beliefs, and principles that guide our decision-making. It should inspire our members and provide a sense of direction and purpose. This statement also signals our desired future state by outlining the current purpose of activities.
New Mission Statement:
The American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH) is a community of licensed healthcare professionals that advances the ethical use of hypnosis by promoting research, education, certification, and evidence-based clinical excellence.
Why a vision statement? A vision statement describes what an individual organization hopes to achieve in the future. They serve as key functions, especially during times of change, define performance standards by providing focus, and share goals to guide our decision-making. Furthermore, they establish a framework for ethical behavior and promote a productive work environment.
New Vision Statement:
ASCH is the leading force in transforming healthcare through the ethical and evidence-based use of clinical hypnosis. We expand professional expertise through excellence in education, state of the art certification standards, and build an interprofessional community that works together to create a future where clinical hypnosis is fully recognized, widely accepted and routinely integrated into healthcare education and practice.
Externally, vision and mission statements build bridges with different public relations tools, foster better communication, create partnerships with clients, and help build external support and understanding. A key difference between vision and mission is that the former focuses on the future state, while the latter focuses on the present.
In addition to our new mission and vision, I have great news about our recent educational offerings. Our June financial statements indicate that we have made over $30,000 since March from ASCH workshops and our Annual Scientific Meeting and Workshops (ASMW). Thank you to each of our workshop leads for their excellent presentations on topics ranging from pain management to trauma care to veteran support to integrative hypnosis and so many other relevant conversations within our field.
I’d also like to extend a welcome to Emily English Medley, APRN, FNP-C, MSCP, our new ASCH Component Society Division Chair, who has been working on our charter for working with the component societies. Through this process, we have sought to work more closely with our component societies, encouraging them to engage in our Level 1, 2, and advanced workshops. We were very excited to see that 17 people signed up for the July Teaching and Consultation Workshop (TCW) course, allowing them to teach basic hypnosis principles to new members, and hopefully to have those new members join ASCH’s membership of nurses, physicians, psychologists, social workers, and counselors. You can learn more about Emily here!
Thank you to our administrative staff for their excellent work keeping our organization viable and flexible. Though we are not yet at a point financially where we can go beyond virtual meetings, our society continues to work on attendance at workshops and connecting with our component societies to increase our membership. We appreciate all the help we can get to increase membership so that our society can continue to operate.
