Back in the room

I’m hearing a lot of buzz in the hypnotherapy industry about the ITV show ‘Back in the Room’, due to be shown this Saturday the 14th March. There seems to be a lot of scaremongering and worry about how it will be detrimental to our profession.

One self-proclaimed spokesman on behalf of the profession stated “As professionals, it is our duty to put the welfare of our clients and potential clients at the forefront of everything we do. This programme is potentially detrimental to them and so we must act.”

Now, I’ve only seen the trailer and I fail to see how this could in any way be detrimental to our clients. To me it looks like some fun where actually it will show the power of hypnosis to millions of prime time watchers. They will also get to see that it is safe and that people come out the other side without any harmful effects.

There is a world of difference between fun and therapy, and to proclaim that the public need to be protected is preposterous. Personally, I believe that the public are more than capable of differentiating between fun and therapy.

Incidentally, this so called “expert” has, in the past, commissioned a stage hypnotherapist to perform at a conference that he organised and in fact he was one of the people that went up on the stage and was a part of the whole show. So I find his statements somewhat hypocritical to say the least.

Personally I’m getting our practice ready to take on new clients that will have their eyes opened to the power and the possibility that they may be able to use hypnotherapy to help them change some behaviours in their life that they want to change.

This same “expert” also states “Now, some in the public (and sadly some in the profession) will see a programme like this as a bit of fun and nothing to become agitated over.”

There have been many of these types of shows before and I’m sure there will be many more in the future, and to my mind they are a two edged sword, because on one hand they bring hypnosis, and therefore hypnotherapy, to mind as a solution to life’s problems, which it is. But on the other hand they can cause potential clients some trepidation as to what goes on during the session. I can deal with the trepidation easily with a quick chat on the phone but getting hypnotherapy in front of millions of people on a Saturday night is not something I can do.

So, my point of view is bring it on, the more the merrier!