Dr Peter Naish of the RSM has given an interview suggesting that GP's should be trained to use hypnosis. He also suggested that it was a very simple procedure to use.
Although I respect Dr Naish as a fellow member of the Royal Society of Medicine, he is completely wrong and misguided in his comments.
Hypnosis is indeed very simple, anyone can do it. However HYPNOTHERAPY is the combination of hypnosis with suggestion, analysis, visualisation or other forms of psychotherapy. It is certainly NOT simple and easy to do well!
GP's have no psychotherapy training and are therefore absolutely not a sensible choice for hypnosis training, unless it is simply going to be for basic relaxation purposes, in which case the patient might as well buy a book or off the shelf CD / DVD.
GP's do not have the time to be providing hypnotherapy sessions, which if they are going to be effective need to be at least 20 minutes long, probably nearer 40 minutes. With informed consent information and guidance the session is normally around an hour. GP's already complain about the demands on their time, and expecting them to have 1 hour slots for patients rather than giving a referral or prescription is totally nuts! It is simply not going to happen, nor should it!
The BBC should have reflected on the fact that hypnotherapy is now subject to voluntary regulation via the CNHC, a project supported and funded by the NHS. This is the official way forward with proper training standards, qualification standards, matching to National Occupational Standards, and a guaranteed level of competence by a properly trained hypnotherapist. This is the safe way forward, not crash courses in basic hypnosis for overworked GP's! The BBC article even suggested other NHS personnel with even less relevance might be trained in this crash course manner - total nonsense!
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