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 Caution!
Please choose your hypnosis practitioner or instructor very carefully.
At this point in time Arkansas is an unregulated state for hypnosis. There is NO governing Board
or state regulating agency looking out for your best interests by overseeing hypnosis practitioners
in Arkansas.
Sadly, hypnosis practitioners who are honest, caring and competent appear to be in the minority in Arkansas. Just as with all professions, there are some unscrupulous practitioners who fall short of the standards of practice and codes of ethics expected by their peers and the community. As such, they may be exploiting vulnerable clients by holding themselves out to be more qualified than they are and use titles and credentials they have not earned. Some make exaggerated advertising claims, confabulate statistics and numbers, step on competitors to create a "leg up" for themselves, or pretend they are adequately trained to treat conditions without qualifications, experience and education.
The United Kingdom recently enacted legislation to regulate the industry. Until this happens in the
United States, it is BUYER BEWARE. There is only one certified and state-licensed hypnosis and hypnotherapy instructor in Arkansas at this time, and that is DJ Lynch. As such, DJ Lynch as passed the required FBI background check complete with fingerprinting, DMV check, past employment verification, transcript check, and credentials verification. DJ Lynch has proven experience and successful clients for ten years in Little Rock, is who she says she is and possesses the earned credentials she advertises.
When you compare and choose a consulting hypnotist/hypnotherapist, you want to take note of:
1) Verifiable credentials, falsely stated experience and lies about "internship".
The title, "Board Certified" without the letters NGH may be issued by a one-man
"Board" and is not recognized by the NGH or other legitimate credentialing organizations.
Others tout credentials and/or acronyms for credentials after their names that they did not
legitimately earn. Diploma mills sell Ph.D.'s and in Arkansas, anyone can advertise anything,
making any claims they wish, whether true or not.
Call the NGH, National Guild of Hypnotists at (603) 429-9438 or email NGH@ngh.net and
verify NGH Board Certified credentials earned and awarded so you can rest assured that
your chosen hypnotist or hypnotherapist possesses the training and credentials
they are advertising they have.
2) The hypnotherapist that taps you on the forehead, shoves your shoulder, pulls your neck
forward, waves their hand in front of your face, snaps their fingers at you, or dangles
a pendulum to "make" you hypnotized. These theatrical methods are outdated, antiquated
induction techniques do not make anyone go into hypnosis. They are simply theatrical
mechanics suitable for TV, movies, stage shows or "street hypnosis" gimmicks.
3) Anyone representing themselves as a medical professional who has no medical or clinical training,
education or experience. You may have seen recent advertisements that appear to be articles
written by physicians. As well, you might question the practitioner who attempts to pass their
practice off as a "clinic" who may actually possess NO medical or clinical training, education or
experience.
Dictionary definition of "clinic":
"clin-ic": a place where patients are studied or treated by specialist physicians practicing
as a group. A department of a hospital where patients are treated.
You decide. Ethical consulting hypnotists or hypnotherapists work with clients, not patients.
Ethical practitioners work within the parameters of their training and education, and advertise
themselves and their services accordingly.
4) Any practitioner who places a photo album of models in your lap, instructing you to "pick
which one you want to be". More than one recent client has shared this story, saying it was
a rather dehumanizing experience.
5) Exaggerated claims of high success numbers or percentages without survey statistics available.
Chances are good there was no survey and there are no statistics available to back up those
claims.
6) Outrageous numbers of "combined weight loss" as recently touted in the local newspaper.
Without outcomes data or medical abstracts reflecting the facts and figures
gathered amd studied clinically, the numbers are just "fluff" designed to impress you.
7) Ads claiming unrealistic expectations for weight loss. It is my opinion that you are not going
to safely lose more than 1% of your body weight per week. If you try to lose too much
too fast, you may ultimately compromise your health, muscle tone and electrolytes.
Note: The ads that continuously state "Lose 30 pounds by Easter" and "Lose 40 Pounds
by Thanksgiving" and "Lose 40 Pounds by Christmas" and most recently, "Lose 14 Pounds in
9 Days" are scary as they are published typically just prior to each holiday or season.
Honestly, if you don't weigh 300 to 400 lbs., you are not going to lose this amount in this
short timeframe and if you do, can it possibly be lasting?
8) Promises of instant, forever, permanently. One visit. You may just set yourself up for some
disappointment if you try to limit yourself. Everyone is different, unique and special in their own
way. If your challenge takes more than one session to get the results you want, you want to
see it for the opportunity that it is.
If you are stopping smoking or changing your eating lifestyle, know that these are mind and
body processes. You want a hypnotist or hypnotherapist with a verifiable medical or clinical
background, vertifiable training and credentials, and with solid experience, thereby ensuring
that you are addressing both the physiological and psychological aspects of overcoming
your unique challenges.
9) Claims of "one visit and I will change your life". Scary, aren't they? YOU and only you, can
change your life. Your chosen practitioner can influence you toward your personal or
professional success by teaching you how to use "guided self-hypnosis" to make lasting and
even permanent change in your own life, but they have no power to change you or your life for
you. Practitioners stating this in advertisements are feeding their own ego and want you
to think they have "power" make you change. No one has power over you ... but you.
10) Deeply discounted services, "guarantees" or promises of "100% money back" are indications
of limited experience, poor training (perhaps a distance learning course) and/or lack
of knowledge.
Offering "Money Back" is also a likely indication that the newbie practitioner may not
yet attach value to the work they are doing.
11) The hypnotist who uses another's business name, linking to their own website. In ten years of
practice, I have known only one bold enough to do this, linking their new business website to
the words "Little Rock Hypnosis". This individual has created many working links from the words
"Little Rock Hypnosis" to his new business' website on all major search engines and some smaller
search engines. As such, this individual is in breach of contract and committing theft of
intellectual property.
12) The practitioner who posts negative, falsified, third-party reviews about a competitor. Yahoo,
Google, InfoSeek, MSN, MerchantCircle, InsiderPages, CitySearch all removed the negative
posting in late July.
The Terms of Use on all search engines expressly forbid impersonation and the posting of
negative reviews about a competitor. Additionally, the owner of DJ Lynch's answering service
for the last nine years, posted his comments refuting the negative review about her, as digital
call records indicate no one by the initials used ever called the business.
13) The practitioner who uses confusing verbiege in their ads. One states many years of pastoral
experience, but the way it is worded, it appears they have many years of hypnotherapy
experience as well as credentials they truly do not have.
14) The practitioner who posts positive reviews about themselves on online search engines and
profile pages. They use others' names but are clearly identified as "posted by". If you click on
"posted by" and it takes you to that person's business website, you can rest assured that the
person who posted the positive review about himself is creating those confabulated reviews
is working hard to confuse you.
15) The practitioner who advertises they can assist you in goal accomplishment through hypnosis,
yet devotes their time, resources and energies to stage shows, home hypnosis parties, magic
shows and street hypnosis. If entertainment is your goal, perhaps this is the individual you
want.
You get what you pay for, and with hypnosis, you want no less than the very best.
Please choose carefully, and check out the practitioner(s) as best you can.
If you note the negatives or inconsistencies in advertising, falsified self-posted
online reviews or questionable credentials, please consider the source of
the information provided or advertised.
Let your instincts and your intuition guide you. If it does not look right, read right, or
feel right, ... it most likely is not right.
Hypnosis is a great tool for creating positive behavioral, attitudinal or skillset change by "upgrading" subconscious thinking. Ask yourself ... do you really want an inexperienced newbie, a part time hobbyist, or perhaps an ego-driven, minimally trained individual conducting your hypnosis session?
Please investigate the practitioner yourself before you set your appointment. Being cute or handsome, offering free work or money back, touting expensive, pretty office decor or better yet, self-described popularity ... these are surely not the attributes you seek in the professional you choose to assist you in achieving the goals you set for yourself through hypnosis. After all, it is about you and your goals.
Keep in mind that local newspapers, TV and radio stations, magazines, online directories and even some professional credentialing organizations do not check out claims made and do not care about the accuracy of credentials touted ... they are all about the money. Check with the NGH to verify credentials. Check with the SBPCE for a state licensed instructor. Make sure you are getting the very best in experience, training and competency by seeking a practitioner or instructor with verifiable, honorably earned and internationally recognized confirmed credentials.
DJ Lynch
NGH Board Certified Consulting Hypnotist/Hypnotherapist
NGH Certified Instructor
Licensed by SBPCE
(Arkansas State Board of Private Career Education, a division of the Arkansas Board of Education)
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