The Establishment

• Ericksonian Therapy and NLP by kendavis@erols.com, 9/3/97
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    • Voice of the Establishment by Jeffrey Zeig, 10/23/97
      
      

Jeffrey Zeig writes:
It is illegal to practice without a license. That is the wisdom of the law. Why train people in hypnotherapy when they are legally prohibited from using the training? It seems immoral and manipulative.

I'm sure you realize that there are many states that have no licensure or standards for practice of hypnotherapy. In those states no one is "legally prohibited." Even in states that do require licensing, some of the licensing programs are, let's face it, pretty lame.

As well, I would suggest that intellectual cross-training, in general, is a very healthy thing for every profession. I'm a full-time professional writer and only a part-time therapist, but I've studied hypnotherapy for nearly 20 years (and, yes, I am certified, even though the state doesn't require it). I consider the training to have been of enormous value in my work as a writer. Understanding patterns of communication in intense human interaction -- something I learned from hypnosis and probably would not have considered in such a way otherwise -- has taken my writing to what I consider a higher level.

Likewise, I think many therapists would benefit from some good creative writing courses, or perhaps some hard science. I believe that the greatest advances in any field come when the most diverse sources of information are joined in synthesis.

When they start licensing writers, I'll probably change my point of view about you "laypeople." ;)

Phil
http://members.aol.com/rbcfpstu/

• Clarification by Jeffrey K. Zeig, Ph.D., 4/12/98