Is certification necessary?
This topic contains 3 replies, has 4 voices, and was last updated by 
Scott Hogue 7 years ago.
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In recent years, I took the plunge and spent a whole lot of money getting certified as a spiritual coach / hypnotist, etc., but always have I acted as a coach throughout my life. Thus, for me, getting certified was merely making it official. Do you think certifications are good for business? Does conversion increase when we have a certification of some sort?
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Certification (depending on the certification body and degree of trust) can add credibility. And the more credibility you have, the better.
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That depends on two things.
The first is whether or not the certification is accredited by an institution that matters.
Anyone can create a course and certify that you’re trained to teach their materials.
If you’re big like Dale Carnegie, or Toastmasters, or some prestigious university, then certification from them means something.
The other is what will give you credibility in front of your prospects.
It could be that you’ll need to put some explanation of what the certification means somewhere on your website.
I think that the second thing probably matters more than the first.
Your credentials have to be relevant to your audience.
Bruce Hoag PhD
The Internet Marketing Psychologist
The Mindful Writer - for deep and persuasive copy -
I started my hypnosis practice as a traveling hypnotist, I used other people’s offices and had days in different towns. I too had taken some courses to get certified after years of working with people mostly free and through Church. So I copied my certificates and put them in page protectors and in a 3 ring binder and took them with me and no one ever asked to see them. Never.
Then I thought I should try to show them to the clients and they weren’t interested.
I didn’t even put them up in my office.
The one thing people really want to know is “Can you help me?”
Your best certification is word of mouth that you helped someone.
Legally, you may run up on some odd problems, I live in Tennessee and some years ago they took Pastoral counseling away from Pastors, no joke.
You have to have the state’s degree and certification to do Pastoral counseling in Tennessee now. Terrible problem. Divorce and Drug problems have gone right up since then, pastors are afraid to talk to people. There are now many more Non-Pastor Pastoral counselors in Tennessee than Pastors that are Pastoral counselors.They tried to quash the Life Coaches here too, but that didn’t get any traction and we are safe so far. They wrote a warning letter in 2009 to the effect we hear you are talking to people and it is helping them so obviously you are practicing medicine without a license… but the state legislature wouldn’t take it up.
Most of my hypnosis training is in Hypno-Therapy, but in Tennessee I can’t use the word Therapy. Hypnotist is ok, but therapy is forbidden. If I cross the line into Alabama I can say I am a hypnotherapist, but I can’t work in schools. I don’t think Kentucky cares what I call myself, but they have a self employment tax and local employment taxes, so you have to deal with that or avoid them.
The AHA is a good resource for learning the laws and regulations in your state for Hypnotists. I have never heard of anyone having a problem working on the phone or online across state lines, but don’t quote me on that being the law. Nevada has been about the worst state (and that is where we were holding the hypnosis conventions!) and has taken several hypnotist to court, but they counter sued the psychologists and I think it all settled out. Someone realized stage hypnotists were everywhere and the convention brought in money.
All because one person wanted to talk to another about their problems.
I will get off my soap box now.I am not a lawyer, but I have managed to stay out of jail…
Scott Hogue CChH
Scott Hogue CChH
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