What's the advantages of having a state licensed hypnosis school?

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Permalink Reply by Richard Nongard - NLPBoard.com on January 5, 2012 at 10:47am

There are only two legal ways in most states to operate a hypnosis training school.

One, is a state licensed route.  

The other, to be a state regulated provider of training for licensed mental health professionals.

For most here the state licensed route is best (although I chose the other path, since I am a licensed mental health provider and 85% of those who take my classes are.

A couple things to understand about the process:

1.)   Licensure as a state school does not mean a school is "accredited'

2.)   The purpose of licensure is not to endorse your school and its curriculum but rather, it is the protect the consumer.    What it means to be a state licensed school, is that in addition to a curriculum you are financially able to pay back unused tuition if you go belly up (you will need to post a bond, a type of insurance, to get licensed).  And it means they have in place a plan to provide for continuity of student records should they fold up and go away.

This is in a nutshell the purpose of lice sure, to protect the consumers finances.

Now they will look at teachers, curriculum etc.   but they don;t really have a way of knowing if it is any good or not, and so state licensure should never be advertised as curriculum "approved" or "accredited" by a state.   It is actually (90%) the financial integrity of the school that is approved.

There are some really good schools academically, and some really bad ones, all why the same approval.   Sometime you wonder, "How did they approve THAT one?"   Easy.  They had the cash and a plan for continuity of records.

3.)   State licensur opens the doorway to public assistance and job retraining money, as well as POSSIBLY VA benefits and other similar programs.

4.)  State Licensure can open the door to tuition financing and loans from various agencies.

Almost every state has an exclusion for a school offering CEU hours to mental health professionals and regulated by other state agencies.     This is how my company is set up.    ABout once a year some jelous "licensed school owner" turns me into the state private school licensing board, and I then have to waste an hour of my time sending them the documentation  that demonstrates I am in compliance with the law.

The advantage my status has is that it has an established pool of therapists/clients to fish from.  They are almost all "self-pay"  and I do not need to keep the same level of records or a bond.

The downside is, no VA, no State Rehab/vocational training money/does not appeal as well to the unlicensed folks because of the brevity of our trainings.

There is a THIRD category out there -People approved to offer 100 hour of certification form various organizations but NOT licensed as a state school.   If they are collecting a fee, they MUST become a state school or they can have huge problems..   And while the organization that certified them to instruct their certification training may be decent, and may recognize the credential even if the school is unlicensed.   The state laws almost always require these people to actually get state licensed as a school or get state approval to be a CEU provider.

A lot of those certification training programs are held him homes and hotels without the proper state licensure, and the operators of those training programs have opened a huge door to either civil or potentially criminal actions (think tuition dispute with a wacky client) if they are not following the law for licensing the training school.

You do not want to be in this category if you plan to offer any certification raining programs an want to get paid.

If you want to do serious training, jump through the hoops, realizing the majority of them will be about finances, bonding and your record keeping and evaluation methods- not is the hypnotic method any good.

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Permalink Reply by Melissa Tiers on January 5, 2012 at 11:10am

Thanks Richard for such a thorough reply. Although most of my students tend to be licensed psychotherapists and I do teach through a few different schools, colleges and centers, I'm exploring all my options. I could teach my certification training through one of these other licensed establishments but I'm a bit of a control freak when it comes to my classes, schedule, and well, life, I suppose.

So, with the way you have your company set up, can you not offer certification to unlicensed people?

Thanks again for all the info.

-Melissa

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Permalink Reply by Roy Hunter on January 5, 2012 at 11:24am

For many years I taught my Diversified Client Centered Hypnosis course (based on the teachings of Charles Tebbetts) at Tacoma Community College, through the Department of Continuing Professional Education.

Not only did that exempt me from having to register my 9-month course with the state, it provided benefits to students.

First, several professions got CEU credits for taking my course.

Second, some students were reimbursed by their employers for the tuition paid.

Third, having a Hypnotherapy Certificate from a college provided a level of credibility in the eyes of many that surpasses that of having a vocational school.

If any qualified teachers wish to use my prepared course syllabus, contact me privately by email at: roy@royhunter.com

Roy Hunter, PhD, FAPHP
www.royhunter.com

 

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Permalink Reply by Richard Nongard - NLPBoard.com on January 5, 2012 at 2:33pm

Yes I can, and so can any unlicensed school, even operating illegally.  Why?  because certification is NOT a state function. They are licensing the finances and polices of a school .   They are not licensing a certification.

However, the law says, if you are offering a citification you need to be:

1.)  Approved as a state licensed school or

2.)  Regulated by another governmental regulator (like the state board os social work, etc.)

The license is "to operate as a school"

not a license to "Award certificates and degrees" recognized by the state.  

The whole idea in licensing schools is to make sure tuition gets refunded if the school goes belly up, and that students can get records after a school closes.   It is really a consumer protection provision.   The law excludes companies like mine, because we are also regulated, but with a different set of regulations, from another state regulator. .

Melissa Tiers said:

Thanks Richard for such a thorough reply. Although most of my students tend to be licensed psychotherapists and I do teach through a few different schools, colleges and centers, I'm exploring all my options. I could teach my certification training through one of these other licensed establishments but I'm a bit of a control freak when it comes to my classes, schedule, and well, life, I suppose.

So, with the way you have your company set up, can you not offer certification to unlicensed people?

Thanks again for all the info.

-Melissa

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