Protecting the Public
Dear Anthony,
I wanted to thank you for writing such an interesting article in the November issue of Counseling Today regarding Life Coaches. I am a recent graduate in Community Counseling and just passed the LPC exam.
Here in Dallas, a lot of so-called “hypnotist/hypnotherapists” pass themselves off as therapists and life coaches. It’s amazing because they have NO clinical training to practice mental health. I’m wondering if there are any laws out there to protect the public.
For example, there is a guy in Dallas who is top listed on Google for Hypnotherapy.
The guy claims to be a “board certified hypnotherapist”…but in reality it requires no formal education nor licensure. If you look at his site, he claims to treat all kinds of clinical issues … including addictions. There are an awful lot of people out there claiming to by hypnotherapists, but are not licensed by the state to perform therapy. I’m wondering what I can do as a counselor to change this situation?
Sincerely,
Jeremy Porter
– – –
Dear Jeremy,
Thank you so much for reading, and for your comments about, my column!
The issue of licensure you describe is complicated, evolving all the time, and differs by state.
In Massachusetts, where my practice was founded, the term “Mental Health Counseling” is regulated. However, other terms, such as “psychotherapy” and “counseling” have not always been regulated. Note: they might be now, but in my discussions with the board of licensure in the mid 2000s there were not regulated.
Hence, at that time persons could hang a shingle and provide services called “psychotherapy” or “counseling” and –depending on what they were actually doing—they might be working within the law. Truly, every time a term is regulated it seems someone comes up with a new title that’s note regulated. Consider “life coaching”, “mentorship”, “listening services”, “life consulting” or who knows what else.
It seems, you are having a similar experience, with someone providing services under the term “Hypnotherapy.”
However, regardless of the title one is using, they might still be in violation of laws for practicing medicine, or psychology / mental health services, without a license. It seems the person you’re citing is claiming to treat additions, depression, etc…. I’m not sure about your local laws, but it seems such claims might very well might cross the line in your state.
If you’re trying to practice in the same marketplace, I think that a good approach for you and other licensed mental health professionals (counselors, social workers, psychologists) is to emphasize your strengths to potential clients. This might include:
1 – Showing the difference in caliber of education and licensure you possess
2 – Being eligible to accept clients’ insurance (which unlicensed providers can’t do)
3 – Patient/Client Privilege — The legal protection of client privacy licensed counselors have, but others don’t.
Jeremy, I hope this helps!!
Sincerely,
Anthony
Dr. Anthony Centore
Let’s keep in touch! Sign up to receive our newsletter:
Anthony Centore
I believe there are many issues and problems here. For starters the ones that are the so called professionals
They are scared because they are worried other people are taking business from them.
Well if these other people who choose other methods are not as good as they claim then why are you so worried if they dont do any good it will bring you more business in the long run right? No the real problem you have is it might actually work and that you have an issue with it or it would make no since why your so against it.
Another problem the government telling the people who we can and cant choose with our own free will.
They think they should choose the standards they think it takes to help someone’s problems. Why can’t the person that needs help choose who they want without criticism from even the professionals them self and if you are a professional then you know how bad that can be.
Also for the professionals your not preforming a physical repair on any object that takes instructional training in order to complete a task. Your comparison is ignorant in the eyes of a truly intelligent mind not a government blinded and molded to what they think is intelligence. Your education is made from a mold and nothing special. Your a product of a government assembly line sorry but that is the truth.
If your truly intelligent you didn’t get that from a degree.
I hold two doctorate degrees myself and all they do is influence people to want to listen to me but they are not my true intelligence. I was told by doctors that i would not have more then a 6th grade level education. I was in the no kid left behind special ed classes in grade school.
I have dyslexia and ADD some of the best abilities in the world.
If i would have listened to the molded professionals trying to give me excuses i would not have ever survived this life. Everybody is a genius but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will believe its whole life its stupid.
You know what i can live with my weakness I struggle reading i struggle with grammar people point these things out to me with an attempt to indicate im not intelligent. But then they cant keep up with my mind and my intelligence as i guarantee you professionals dont stand a chance and i can teach yall a thing or two they dont teach in school i would know i went through the same training.
There is natural intelligence out there for instances Albert Einstein!!
I can go on and on about the law of attraction and energy you molded professionals are to closed minded and following molded people you can never wrap your minds around. I can guarantee i have had a more positive effect on more lives then you can imagine.
And can i suggest learning more about negative energy and the attraction it can provoke. For instance if you professionals would have been supportive and understand open minded you probably could have even gained some clients here. But your negative and unprofessional response on here led you down a serous path of negative attention just read what free will people had to say about you and your close minded selfs. Put your pride and school aside and you might truly learn from people them selfs about what they need just read all the posts on here from the minds of people that are not of the same mold.
To sum this up you saying you need a degree to help people in a professional way indicates your our only option in that case most people wont seek help. But let people be free too choose who they want to help and if just one life is saved then its a no brainier! Let people who have a natural ability to help people help and do what they love. If your not natural at it then seek education needed.
Interesting discussion. From my personal experience having gone to Therapists, Social workers, music therapist and a psycho spiritual counselor. I really think it depends on the amount of discussion and disclosure there is on the part of the Practitioner and the client. I personally prefer someone with a PHD trained in multiple methods of working that will have a discussion with me on the methods and tools they use and how they work. I also read about how therapy works and had to solve many of my own issues after figuring them out and finding tools that worked for me that were functional. I like functional tools. I think it depends on many variables as to what would work for a client, but the most important thing I think is that the client is aware and informed of what they are getting into, how it will work, what experiences they might have because of attachments to potential negative experiences that may be triggered, etc, etc. I’m a fan of informed consent on a detailed level, including potential risks. I totally understand that therapy requires a commitment to school via time and money but so does multiple training in coaching, etc. A little personal background about me . I have a masters in Project Management, a background in computer science designing large complex computer systems. I Do have a bias towards degrees so I am pursuing a Second Masters in Psychology with a life coaching concentration. I think being a therapist is just as hard as designing large complex computer systems so I admire you all!
To clarify the issue:
The challenge getting through to these people is that they are not educated about how they harm clients. A huge part of therapy training is what NOT to do. I have watched people without training “do therapy,” coaching, whatever, in areas of mental health and addiction where they are not qualified. I have seen harm done.
The “It happened to me so I know stuff” doesn’t work in virtually ANY OTHER FIELD. Think about that. “My car broke down, so I know how to fix cars.” “I had a computer virus, so I know how to manage computers.” “I fell and broke my hip, so I know how to fix hips.”
It’s a self-serving motivation. In each story, the case is “I did what I wanted to do, convinced I was right, without any really checks against my ego.” And this is the problem. How can that motivation actually be in service to someone else, when it is so very clearly in service to self? If you don’t see that, use your logic in every other scenario. If your qualification is “my car broke down and I like to help people,” go ahead and offer to fix someone’s car as if you know what you’re talking about.