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About James Song
Expertise
I am able to answer questions relating to psychological and clinical hypnosis, self-hypnosis, trance states, and related areas (NLP, EMDR, African Voudoun, and the demonstration of hypnosis-related phenomena).
Experience
Principal investigator of a Fulbright-funded study examining the immunomodulative effects of hypnosis on an HIV-positive population (PI of Song HIV Lab, Makerere University Hospital). A founding member of the Institute for Mind/Body Research and Education, I am responsible for training over 3000 people every year in advanced hypnosis techniques. A research psychologist, I examine mental control (with a special interest in hypnosis) through experimental and neuroscientific methods.
Currently, I hold membership in a variety of lay-hypnosis organizations, as well as the American Psychological Association and its Division 30.
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You are here: Experts > Health/Fitness > Smoking Cessation > Hypnosis > Formal training and education
Expert: James Song
Date: 4/28/2008
Subject: Formal training and education
Question
Hi James,
I became curious in hypnosis when I found a 25min CD that help me to sink into a deep relaxation. It does help me to have good quality sleep and to deal with stress from work.
1) Can a person lost hi/her self-control when being hypnotized by a real person? If it is so, it sounds scary.
2) What are the good universities that offer formal psychotherapy training (assume one want to be a professional in hypnotherapy)? Is there any national exam that one needs to pass before he/she can practice?
3) I enjoy learning but I don't want to be a professional nor go back to school. Can you suggest a series of books for me to build up my knowledge in psychology?
4) Does hypnosis have anything to do with personality profiling?
Regards
Jade
Answer
Hello Jade:
1) Can a person lost hi/her self-control when being hypnotized by a real person? If it is so, it sounds scary.
You cannot and do not lose your self-control while being hypnotized, either by a real person or audio recording. While there is some degree of non-volitional expression (meaning you tend to do things that are suggested to you, without being consciously aware of it), it is not absolute--it does not take control of you.
2) What are the good universities that offer formal psychotherapy training (assume one want to be a professional in hypnotherapy)? Is there any national exam that one needs to pass before he/she can practice?
To use hypnosis professionally, in an ethical manner, it is generally required that you have at least masters degree in some related field. The idea behind this thinking is this: if your child was seeing someone, and that person was using hypnosis, wouldn't you want that person to have some significant degree of advanced training (not just in hypnosis, but also ethics and moral reasoning)? Social work, counseling, and even dentistry all find a few of its students interested in pursuing hypnosis study.
However, there is no national standard and hence, no national exam you need to take to practice hypnosis. This, in my opinion, is dangerous in the way that driving a car without a license is dangerous: there's nothing to stop you from hurting someone.
After some graduate training, you can then apply to attend one of the many fine training programs sponsored by the American Psychological Association, including its Division 30. But if you'd just like to take a weekend course, you can try George Bien, who is a fine instructor: www.GeorgeBien.com
3) I enjoy learning but I don't want to be a professional nor go back to school. Can you suggest a series of books for me to build up my knowledge in psychology?
Psychology itself can probably best be learned (or re-learned) by skimming through a study guide for the Psychology GRE exam. These guides tend to be easier to consume than most textbooks.
4) Does hypnosis have anything to do with personality profiling?
No. Some people may argue that hypnotizability is related to fantasy-proneness, but I think the correlation is too weak and the usefulness too tenuous to be used in any kind of profiling.
My best to you,
James.
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