The UK and internationally based Clifton Practice Hypnotherapy Training schools pride themselves on providing what is one of, if not the most practical courses available. So many formal courses, regardless of topic, place the main emphasis on theory, leaving students to gain live experience at the very end of the course at best, or at worst, post-graduation. At CPHT, we firmly believe that that is not good or safe enough when working with the emotional and mental health needs of customers. Our expectation is that our students go on to work full or part-time as solution-focused Hypnotherapists and so our exceptionally high standard of training ensures you leave the course confident and competent to practice, with a growing therapy business already in place. So how do we do it?

Relevant, up to date and useful research and theory.

We ensure that you leave us with the very latest, research-based theory so that you understand what you are doing and why. We teach you how the brain works in terms of our emotional and mental health and because we understand that the brain learns through repetition, you hear this a lot and get to know it really well! You will learn the research underpinning the solution-focused hypnotherapy approach and how sessions ‘should’ look in the ideal world. We don’t live in an ideal world though.  Our customers haven’t read our textbooks and course notes and even if they had, no two people are the same, so there is far more than theoretical teaching built into CPHT’s Hypnotherapy Diploma course.

Practise, practise, practise

At our CPHT Training Schools, we focus heavily on practical experience with real-life clients right from the start of training. In fact, we take this so seriously that our students will not graduate if they do not have enough. Senior lecturers, observe students during practical group work and students leave from weekend one ready to practice on their own with family and friends. Soon, they are honing their practical skills in our bread and butter areas of anxiety and depression and have student insurance in place to do so. Of course, support from senior lecturers is available whenever needed in-between course weekends. We use a layering approach to our teaching, so students build their skills and importantly their confidence bit by bit. Feedback from students during each course weekend ensures that successes and lessons learned are shared – you may not have worked with anger issues during your training for example, but you will certainly know someone who has and will have learned from their feedback.

Setting up and marketing your Practice

Ok, so you have the theory and you know how to apply it. So now what? Well, at CPHT, we know that that really isn’t much use if, like most of our students you haven’t the faintest idea how to set up and market your own private practice. All the theory and practice in the world isn’t going to help you if you have no clients and don’t know how to get them. Because our students begin to practice with real clients right from the start and because we ensure that they are confident to leave each weekend ready to practice what they have learned, word of mouth starts spreading quickly and their reputation grows. In this way, by the time our students qualify they already have a growing business. From month seven, we expect our students to be charging people at a student rate and it is not unheard of for some students to have recouped much of their course fees by the time they qualify! On top of this, we provide a marketing module and in addition, during the feedback sessions each month, discussions often turn to setting up a practice and sharing ideas on how to do this and what traps to avoid. 

So, you see, we really do ensure that graduates from CPHT are ‘fit for purpose’. Happy, confident, qualified and competent therapists with happy and well customers.  What more do you need?!

Here is what one of CPHT’s graduates, has to say about her training:

“Being encouraged to start practising at the earliest opportunity seemed a bit daunting at first, but it was the best thing that could have happened to me. Practice gave me confidence in the success of the techniques I was taught and the confidence to start charging as a student after 7 months of training. By the end of the course, I had already earned my course fees back and within 12 months of qualifying I’m running a successful practice, working as many hours as I want and earning more money than I was before I embarked on my new life as a Clinical Hypnotherapist.”
Emma Triplett DHP, HPD, LAPHP, GQHP, MNCH(Reg)

Let me tell you my story. Way back in 2012 I qualified with a diploma in hypnotherapy and counselling skills, from an unregulated school of hypnotherapy, run by someone who claimed to have had a successful hypnotherapy practice.

I would be lying if I said I hadn’t loved the course, it was fascinating and I learned all sorts of exciting, but sometimes nerve-wracking therapeutic interventions. I learnt a little psychology, some basic counselling skills, how to cope with severe abreactions (that’s snot and tears to you and me). However, I was consistently worried about what the right intervention would be to treat the client and wondered how effective the treatment was long-term, but was told that was normal, not to worry and I would figure it out as I got more experience.

Consequently, despite working very hard and continuing training whenever I could, it took me over two years to really get my practice to a point where it could support me and my daughter, and during that time I was stressed, exhausted and constantly wondering if it wouldn’t just be easier to get a job.  You see, my course missed out something that every therapist must have – a repeatable process for treating a client.  All I had when I graduated were lots of interventions and a certificate.

It all felt a bit ‘smoke and mirrors’ and, what annoyed me most, was that I couldn’t explain, in anything other than vague metaphorical terms, exactly what was happening in my client’s minds to make the difference…even when the results were brilliant!

One day, I was complaining about it to hypnotherapist colleague and  friend, Gary Johannes, who seemed to get near miraculous results and a stream of gushing testimonials from clients, saying how he had been instrumental in helping them change their lives forever.  I don’t know what came over me, but I uttered the now infamous words “You do the worst hypnosis but you get the best results!”

I actually cringe when I read that, but at the same time I knew nothing different; I was taught that the hypnotist held the power and had to be exceptionally skilled, being able to ‘make’ their ‘subjects’ perform all sorts of phenomena and I had to ‘prove’ hypnosis worked.  My friend on the other hand seemed to simply read a few language patterns (in my arrogance I questioned whether it was even hypnosis) and miracles occurred. Of course what I didn’t know about was the rock solid, results driven, scientifically supported therapy that encased this gentle, therapeutic trance that supports the brain in finding the best solutions.

Gary forgave my rudeness, because he knew why and how he got those results and proceeded to tell me about the brain and exactly how he helped his clients get over anxiety, depression, trauma, addictions and more, with a thing called Solution-Focused Hypnotherapy. I was sceptical, but kept thinking about his testimonials which had inspired me so much.

A year or so later, as I was still working very hard and reading a lot, Gary was asked by CPHT Principal David Newton if he would like to start a CPHT training school in Peterborough. I jumped at the chance to enrol on the first CPHT Peterborough course, particularly as I would be trained by someone I admired greatly. I very quickly began to see how empowering the therapy was for clients, but also how energising it was for me, both of which were completely new concepts. In my original training I was used to my clients going through boxes and boxes of tissues and me struggling to find a good work life balance.

Suddenly, as I began to switch my practice over to the solution-focused approach, working with clients no longer seemed like work, it became a vocation, something that gave me a spring in my step and had me telling anyone who would listen about this amazing therapy that could help resolve the past without delving into it.

But that’s not the end of the story.  As my practice grew I continued to see friends, colleagues and some of the people who trained at that first school either retrain or simply stop doing therapy altogether.  It made me sad and angry, particularly as some of them were amazing therapists who had spent their time and money to then abandon something they were good at, which should have been a successful career vocation.

I wanted to help them. At first I mentored other therapists but quickly realised I could only help them so much, because I was just helping them fix exactly the same problems I had encountered at the start.  I knew the problem was not them, but the way they worked. There was only one thing for it – To start a CPHT School in Kent!  So we did. Gary and I launched CPHT Kent in January 2018.

Our first class graduated in October and I’m loving the stories they are already telling me about how they are enjoying building their practices. It is exciting to watch because it is important work they are doing. For me, the better prepared they are, the better supported they are, the better trained they are, the more people they help.  Mission accomplished.

I loved it so much I decided to open CPHT Schools in Watford and Essex; bringing the power and simplicity of Solution-Focused Hypnotherapy to Hertfordshire and Essex.

That brings us up to date with my story…but are you ready for the next chapter of your story to begin?