What is Certification?
Certification offers non-statutory voluntary credentialing in Clinical Hypnosis and provides recognition of the advanced clinician who has met educational qualifications and required training in clinical hypnosis. The ASCH Certification and Approved Consultant Program is gaining national recognition as a standard for the practice of hypnosis. Anecdotal evidence suggests that hospitals and third-party payers are beginning to recognize the importance of such standards and view ASCH Certification as a basic requirement for promoting hypnosis as a treatment modality.
This certification requirement can be met in one of two ways: through Individualized Consultation (IC), or through participation in an Individualized Consultation Workshop (ICW). Both options are available to health and mental health care practitioners interested in enhancing their knowledge and expertise in the use of hypnosis. This 20-hour intensive program is designed to fulfill the requirements for ASCH Certification or to obtain the hours of consultation necessary to become an Approved Consultant.
To be eligible for participation, individuals must have completed an ASCH-ERF-approved Level 1 and Level 2 Clinical Workshop and should be using hypnosis in their professional practice.
ICW is unique among ASCH’-ERF’s educational offerings. Participants meet and consult in a small group setting with fellow practitioners and Faculty who are ASCH Approved Consultants. This model encourages participants to
- learn from one another,
- have their own expertise affirmed and expanded,
- and to network with other professionals in the clinical hypnosis community.
The twenty hours of consultation focuses on issues unique to each practitioner’s clinical practice. Consultation occurs in full group and small group sessions that are comprised of no more than four people. The groups are heterogeneous as to discipline (medicine, psychology, dentistry, social work, etc.). This diversity encourages participants to focus their attention on refining techniques and skills in the context of interdisciplinary learning in the application of clinical hypnosis using a multiplicity of intervention strategies.
These consultations are not a test of competence, but rather an opportunity to receive constructive feedback, input, and creative suggestions from facilitators and professional peers. Many participants have described the Individualized Consultation experience as the best training they had received in hypnosis.
Both options are explained in greater details:
For more information about the IC or ICW contact ASCH at education@asch.net.
ASCH Certification in Clinical Hypnosis is distinct from other “certification” programs in that it ensures that the certified individual is a bona fide health care professional who is licensed in his or her state or province to provide medical, dental, or psychotherapeutic services. ASCH believes that persons trained only in hypnosis lack the diagnostic and therapeutic skills as well as the licensure required to safely and responsibly treat medical, psychological, or dental problems with hypnosis. ASCH Certification distinguishes the professional practitioner from the lay hypnotist.
Certified professionals are encouraged to work toward attaining the highest level of advanced specialty certification in hypnosis through obtaining Diplomate Status from either the American Board of Medical Hypnosis, the American Board of Psychological Hypnosis, the American Board of Hypnosis in Dentistry, or the American Hypnosis Board for Clinical Social Work.
Certification does not automatically imply competence or guarantee the quality of a practitioner’s work. Certification does indicate several things that fellow professionals, consumers, third-party payers, managed care programs, hospitals and clinics are all interested in knowing about individuals who incorporate hypnosis in their practices. Certification indicates that the practitioner:
Has undergone advanced training in his/her profession to obtain a legitimate advanced degree from an accredited institution of higher education;
Is licensed or certified to practice in his/her state/province;
Has had his/her education and training in clinical hypnosis reviewed by qualified peers and approved consultants and such training has met the minimum requirements established by a Standards of Training Committee of qualified peers;
Has been determined to have received at least the minimum educational training that ASCH, the largest such interdisciplinary organization in North America, considers as necessary for utilizing hypnosis.