UK Hypnotherapy Association (UKHA)

Currently hypnotherapy, NLP and other therapies that we or other bodies offer are not regulated by official bodies.

That means there is no direct control over people practicing in these areas, no requirement for them to belong to a professional body or hold professional liability insurance.

However, we at UKHA do believe in high standards and our training is conducted to all learning outcomes of the National Occupational Standards for Hypnotherapy.

At the end of the course learners will receive a certificate of achievement from UKHA to show that they have achieved the equivalent of Level 4 of the National Occupational Standards for Hypnotherapy.

Aims and Goals 

Our primary goal is to support its membership in private practice or within a workplace environment. This can be in any of these areas of membership – Hypnotherapy, NLP or Coaching. 

Our primary goal is to be mutually inclusive and transparent by promoting the skills of therapists and coaches in a transparent way.

By giving members access to accredited and endorsed courses as well as validated CPD to provide the tools they need to be successful in private practice. 

By giving members of the public, businesses and employers access to verified qualification information of our members; allowing them to make more informed choices. 

By protecting practitioners and their clients by promoting ECHI professional standards and ethics 

We also aim: 

To acknowledge and support the various approaches in hypnotherapy, NLP, coaching and related disciplines 

To support those in practice by offering advice and the sharing of knowledge and experience of members 

In addition UKHA has the following goals: 

  • To raise the profile of the UKHA with the public, employers, etc. 
  • To accredit Organisational Members courses in line with national accreditation organisations and other professional body standards to ensure high standards of education, training and practice of our members 
  • To accept nationally and internationally accredited home study and attendance courses for membership 
  • To provide a system for Home Study Members to become fully accredited 
  • To have a Public Complaints Procedure for clients to make a formal complaint against any member

Quality Charter

All Members are given the chance to become an Accredited Member. All Accredited Members have completed a guaranteed minimum number of teaching hours. At UKHA we have a commitment to ensure that all our members are as professional as possible and not only expect them to complete annual CPD but also to have undertaken attended practical teaching to learn their discipline fully. Accredited Members demonstrate to the public and businesses that they are committed to fully developing themselves and their effectiveness in practice. 

Our Quality Charter is our commitment to all members of the public and potential employers that all Accredited Members are trained to a high standard and that they continue to develop themselves with CPD and Supervision, (if required), for the first three years of membership. Failure to follow these requirements or behaviour not in keeping with the Quality Charter will lead to your membership reverting to a lower grade or expulsion for repeated non-compliance.

All grades of UKHA members agree to abide by the following stipulations of this Quality Charter: 

  • Update knowledge required to improve the service they provide to the public or employers 
  • Request supervision, support or guidance when situations occur in which they feel their skills are not adequate
  • Accept that in some situations it is better to refer a client on to a more senior practitioner 
  • Be totally accountable for their professional decisions or actions
  • Demonstrate total integrity and honesty in all dealings with clients
  • Comply with all of the UKHA Code of Ethics and Standards 
  • Comply with all laws in all dealings with clients
  • Maintain a record of CPD annual hours

Standards & Quality 

There are so many professional bodies and sometimes it is difficult to tell them apart. At UKHA we are committed to complete transparency along with high standards and quality. We realise that there are a huge number of people with legitimate home study certificates granted by Ofqual regulated awarding bodies and that these are ignored by many organisations and employers. This is a shame as they have attained the correct standards and quality to be granted a nationally recognised diploma or certificate.

UKHA is not in partnership with any Ofqual or other national regulated awarding body but we accept any of their graduates with the Ofqual equivalent Level 3 – 7 nationally recognised qualifications.

Because we only accept graduates with certificates and diplomas we know are of a stringent quality it provides the public and employers complete guarantee that our members are qualified. UKHA also expects that all grades of members undertakes annual CPD. We recommend that all new members undertake some supervision for their first three years of membership. This can be 1-2-1 with a recognised Supervisor or with a Peer Support Group.

We are not an Ofqual regulated awarding body, however; we do accredit and endorse courses of Organisational Members. These accreditations and endorsements are robust and based on the standards used by Ofqual and therapy/coaching professional bodies. These will be either certificate or diploma level; 3 – 6. CPD workshops are validated as being of sufficient quality. These will gain a certificate of attendance. 

We ensure that the organisation can provide: 

  • The course content they submit 
  • They have the correct qualified staff to deliver the course material 
  • That they keep accurate records of a student’s progress 
  • That they are financially sound and not likely to cease trading during the course and other stringent criteria.

Member Profiles 

We are of the opinion that our member profiles should be completely up to date with their major qualifications and certifications. Annual CPD may be listed if the member wishes to do so. The profile on our website is short by design. It contains the information you require to check they are qualified and who they say they are. The practitioners website is the correct place for all their details and how they practice, etc. 

Therefore when a practitioner member states they have a qualification or certificate the public can be assured this is genuine. The fact that the member has a profile that lets clients and employers know they have been thoroughly vetted by UKHA. Total transparency is required by all members.