About the GHR (General Hypnotherapy Register)
We are structured as a commercial sector administrative agency, resourced by specialist CAM administrators and therapists, and registration is open to any practitioner who is able to satisfy the criteria with regard to training and who commits to all ongoing requirements as determined from time to time by our
overseeing body, the GHSC.
Along with the GHSC, we were a key participant within the Working Group for Hypnotherapy Regulation whose primary purpose was to facilitate agreed standards within the profession and to subsequently bring about Voluntary Self-regulation (VSR), an officially recognised status, for the entire industry. To facilitate this, the Group actively co-operated with other industry representatives within the Hypnotherapy Regulatory Forum (a body established by the now defunct Princes Foundation for Integrated Health) and as a consequence VSR was finally established via the Department of Health funded Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC) when it admitted Hypnotherapy into its regulatory system on 1st December 2010. Since that date all GHR registrants holding full Practitioner Level status (or above) have been eligible (subject to our verification of their credentials) for fast track registration within the CNHC (Read more).
Apart from the day to day administrative duties of maintaining the Register of Practitioners, our essential responsibilities are in ensuring that all GHSC dictates in respect of training requirements and practitioner registration criteria are strictly adhered to, and that all complaints brought against our registered therapists under the Code of Ethics and Complaints & Disciplinary Procedure are properly referred to the GHSC for appropriate action.
About the GHSC (General Hypnotherapy Standards Council)
Our founding principle is the ethical promotion of hypnotherapy as a profession in its own right, closely related to, but nonetheless separate from, the other ‘talking therapies’ of counselling, psychotherapy and clinical psychology. Our ultimate aim is that hypnotherapy should become recognised and respected as a discrete and legitimate branch of psychological medicine and that our registered practitioners should take their rightful place as acknowledged professionals within it.
To that end, we were a key participant within the Working Group for Hypnotherapy Regulation whose primary purpose was to facilitate agreed standards within the profession and to subsequently bring about Voluntary Self-regulation (VSR), an officially recognised status, for the entire industry. To facilitate this, the Group actively co-operated with other industry representatives within the Hypnotherapy Regulatory Forum (a body established by the now defunct Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health) and as a consequence VSR was finally established via the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC) – set up in 2008 with Department of Health funding, when it admitted Hypnotherapy into its regulatory system on 1st December 2010.
To ensure that the profession continues to build upon this excellent foundation, the GHSC maintains robust assessment and validation criteria for both Training Schools and Practitioners, together with a comprehensive Code of Ethics and accessible Complaints & Disciplinary Procedure, essential components of the constant drive for public safety assurance and accountability
We are comprised of representatives from both Professional Hypnotherapy Associations & Training Schools and a Management Committee. Our primary functions are to: oversee the criteria for the accreditation of Hypnotherapy Training Courses and the ongoing requirements for registration of practitioners within the GHR, liaise with the CNHC on behalf of our constituents, and to continue to co-operate wherever possible with other relevant professional bodies and agencies.
About the CNHC (Complimentary & Natural Healthcare Council)
The CNHC was set up by the government to protect the public. We do this by providing an independent UK register of complementary healthcare practitioners. Protection of the public is our sole purpose.
We set the standards that practitioners need to meet to get onto and then stay on the register. All CNHC registrants have agreed to be bound by the highest standards of conduct and have registered voluntarily. All of them are professionally trained and fully insured to practise.
We investigate complaints about alleged breaches of our Code of Conduct, Ethics and Performance. We impose disciplinary sanctions that mirror those of the statutory healthcare regulators.
We make the case to government and a wide range of organisations for the use of complementary healthcare to enhance the UK’s health and wellbeing. We raise awareness of complementary healthcare and seek to influence policy wherever possible to increase access to the disciplines we register.
CNHC is also the holder of an Accredited Register by the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care, an independent body, accountable to the UK Parliament.