A World Leading Hypnotherapy School

Q: What makes HTI a world leading hypnotherapy school?
A: The quality of our trainings.

Here are some facts and manifestations reflecting the quality of our trainings...

  1. Hypnotherapy Training Institute (HTI) was a pioneer, as one of the original four licensed hypnotherapy schools when Randal Churchill founded it in 1978. We are currently pioneering our newest hypnotherapy and teaching methods.

  2. We have thousands of graduates from 52 countries, the largest alumni of any hypnotherapy school. Furthermore, we have given advanced training to thousands of hypnotherapists.

  3. We are a truly global hypnotherapy school, with people from various states and countries filling our classes to capacity each semester. Yet we continue to emphasize friendly, personalized attention in an intimate, supportive setting.

  4. Major legislation for the first direct State-Certification of Hypnotherapists in the USA went into effect in 2000. Per published figures two years later, more than half of all State-Certified Hypnotherapists received their training from us at that time.

  5. HTI founder and lead instructor Randal Churchill is called "The Teacher of the Teachers"™ partly because so many of our graduates have gone on to become the primary instructors of licensed hypnotherapy schools.

  6. The legendary Ormond McGill, The Dean of American Hypnotists, taught for HTI for 25 years until he passed on in 2005. In the field since 1927, he was never on the staff of any other school. Highlights of his teachings are included in our courses.

  7. HTI instructors have written many influential books, including some of the leading texts in the field. Randal Churchill has written award-winning teaching texts specifically designed for our classes.

  8. Randal Churchill has over 50 years of experience in the field and 50,000 hours of experience doing hypnotherapy.

  9. We are world renowned for transformational live demonstrations in class, with quality not found anywhere else. Our teachers have a strong range and depth of expertise, and find exceptional ways to integrate Gestalt and other modalities into hypnosis when appropriate.

  10. Many of our graduates are making a successful, rewarding living as hypnotherapists in many countries.

  11. Randal Churchill was the first President of the American Council of Hypnotist Examiners and completed his most recent term in 2012. This is the original Hypnotherapy Certification organization, has over 9500 members, and has led the way in setting high standards.

  12. Through demonstrating our innovative, powerful therapy methods and through teaching many of the leaders in the field, we are significantly influencing our newly emerging profession of hypnotherapy, which is transforming many aspects of the health and counseling professions.

It comes down to the professional, emotional and spiritual quality of our training and the consistent tradition of profound student satisfaction. Our highly experiential program includes incomparable live demonstrations. We provide our heartfelt individualized attention in class and during practice sessions, encouraging your wealth of creativity and healing capabilities in our intimate, supportive setting. Take a look at our website or brochure for feelings behind the statistics, the samples of tremendous enthusiasm of our graduates. We have over a thousand glowing testimonials on file. 

Clearing Confusion About Hypnosis Training

We at HTI have worked very hard over four decades to help mold and develop the field of Hypnotherapy. As a result of the therapeutic, teaching and political efforts of us and others, tremendous strides have been achieved in the range, depth and recognition of our profession. Also, a revolution is occurring via the integration of hypnosis within other healing arts professions. Achievements have included generally recognized training length and standards for hypnotherapy schools, as pioneered by the American Council of Hypnotist Examiners.

 We receive calls and emails frequently from persons who are having difficulty sorting through the mass of claims and confusing, sometimes conflicting information about professional hypnotherapy training. There is a movement in recent years that threatens to damage our beloved field of Hypnotherapy. The internet has spawned an explosion of illegal schools with extremely brief programs, including some which are mere DVDs. Such programs, including all online learning courses, are by themselves far insufficient for competency and success in this profession. 

Many schools giving career training in hypnosis offer "certification" which is "approved" by national organizations with seemingly impressive credentials and names, but have never received a license to operate (or official exemption) by the appropriate state agency, which is required by law in the vast majority of states throughout the United States. 

The A.C.H.E. is the only major Hypnosis Certification organization in the US that requires it's approved schools to have the necessary state license or official exemption. Being a lawful school has enormous ramifications regarding quality, responsibility, diplomas, various student protections, etc.

There are also, unfortunately, various exaggerations and misleading claims being made by many who offer hypnosis training and "certification." Some great exaggerations, for example, especially common among non-licensed schools, can include instructor's length of hypnotherapy and teaching experience, length of school operation, number of graduates, etc. 

Beware of Hour Inflation. Many schools not approved by the A.C.H.E. include a lot of homework hours in their claimed length of training. Sometimes the vast majority is homework hours! For the sake of yourself, consumers and the profession, please get your initial professional training from a lawful school that meets or exceeds A.C.H.E. standards of 200 hours of instruction that is almost entirely in the classroom for hypnotherapy certification and 300 hours for clinical hypnotherapy certification.

     "I have taken many hundreds of hours of training in hypnotherapy from a wide variety of training programs in the US and abroad. From first-hand experience, the training program offered at HTI with Randal Churchill and Cheryl Canfield is the best hypnotherapy training program available today.
     "From the academic standpoint, both Randal and Cheryl are authors of outstanding textbooks related to hypnotherapy and emotional healing, and both teach from these original sources. In terms of efficacy of the therapy being taught, the training at HTI carries on the great school of Gestalt-based hypnotherapy begun by Boyne, and extended using contemporary age regression approaches developed by Randal, along with an intense focus on ideomotor signaling to allow for further communication with the subconscious mind. This type of approach provides the finest and most effective means possible to allow for behavioral change.
     "Most importantly, HTI students get the unsurpassed opportunity to see these two masters of the hypnotherapeutic process use age regression, emotional cathartic therapy, and many other hypnotic techniques to work on real clinical cases each day. Following these clinical demonstrations, students immediately get to practice the components of these same hypnotic approaches, under close supervision. For the individual seeking to learn effective hypnotherapy from beginning through advanced levels, with immediate applicability to hypnosis practice, there is no better school than HTI."
-Kenneth A. Kern, MD, MPH
San Diego, California

"…masters of reaching the underlying issues…"
     "You certainly covered a broad range of modalities in your classes, but I was most impressed by your depth, especially during the therapy demonstrations. You are both masters of reaching the underlying issues and working through profoundly challenging problems. You are so skillful, sensitive and supportive, I would send anyone in the world to you!
     "I continue to be amazed at the results of my hypnotherapy clients, and have found much to integrate into my chiropractic practice. And the positive effects of your training on my personal life have been truly dramatic. Thank you for giving your all to create such a beautiful program!"
- Dr. Victoria West, Chiropractor
Fremont, CA

"…thank you for imparting your enthusiasm…"
     "I feel tremendous personal understanding has resulted from your teaching. I also feel an excellent understanding of the subject has been gained, both in terms of theory and practice. And thank you for imparting your enthusiasm for hypnotherapy to me!"
-Peter Crisson, Certified Hypnotherapist
Pembroke, Bermuda

"…I will be forever grateful…"
     "I've never fully told you what an effect that HTI has had on my life. The moment I arrived at the Corte Madera Inn, I knew this was it. This is what I've searching for for over three decades. The next few months were some of the happiest of my life because each day some new magical, rewarding, wonderful thing happened, whether I was in class or between classes. I was literally bursting with excitement, experiencing new worlds with each new lesson... Suffice it to say that this was an exceptional experience in my life and one for which I will be forever grateful.
     "Randal, many of my classmates voiced similar thoughts and we were, besides being charmed by your personality, somewhat in awe at the magnitude of the energy that we felt radiating from you. The gentleness with which you taught allowed us to learn extremely rapidly...
     "I felt that this classroom was a sanctuary - once inside its walls I was safe. Suddenly all the hurt and worries of the outside world were shut out, and a huge weight lifted from me. I've never had such feelings in a classroom before, and to have trusted enough to have opened up to the experience, this is saying some rather phenomenal things about the school.
     "In the year that I've been working as a hypnotherapist I've met many others in the same field. What arrests my attention is that although some of these people have attended excellent schools they have not the broad range of knowledge that I have acquired from my studies at HTI."
-Mary Caldwell, Certified Hypnotherapist
Charlotte, North Carolina

Regarding Online Courses

Unless you are already an established hypnotherapist, avoid online courses  claiming to train you to be a hypnotherapist. The overwhelming majority of those who receive their training through online or distance learning are not able to make a living in the profession, no matter what grand claims are made by some of those offering such programs. Think about it. If you found out that someone who claims to be a dentist, physician, marriage counselor or hypnotherapist got his or her training through a brief online course, would you want that person to be your professional? And how would you feel if the school that taught this person was not even legal?

To properly learn to be a hypnotherapist, very important aspects include experiencing numerous group and individual hypnotism processes and giving and receiving feedback about your subjective experiences; live demonstrations followed by questions and answers; and supervised practice sessions with feedback from client and supervising hypnotherapist. Hypnotherapy training solely through online courses is by itself far insufficient, no matter how impressive-sounding are the names of some affiliated approving or "certifying" organizations. There are various large hypnosis certification organizations that are eager to give their stamp of approval to non-licensed schools to get money from their graduates who join their organizations. Few distance learning schools have even applied to their state Department of Education for the license or exemption necessary to legally operate. Consumer beware.