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Accreditation

BSCAH operates a system of Accreditation to its members. This is designed as a peer-review of the members experience and safety as a person using hypnosis in their work. It is used to assess clinical skills, rather than being an academic hurdle. It is a lifetime award.
BSCAH Accreditation gives you the European Certificate of Hypnosis awarded by ESH.
Those with the BSCAH university Diploma may apply for conversion to Accreditation for a small admin fee and then also become eligible for the European Certificate of Hypnosis 

Guide to the Application for the Certification of Accreditation

1. The Applicant must be a Member of the BSCAH, and have professional indemnity cover. The applicant should have attended the three Foundation training modules (or equivalent as approved by the Education Committee).

2. The advance requirements for Accreditation require that the applicant attend at least forty five hours additional training after completion of their Foundation training. If these are not run by BSCAH they should be ratified as suitable by the Education Committee.

3. If working in the clinical field the applicant would also need to keep a short record of the use of hypnosis in 35 cases. At the time of application, the applicant should have documented evidence of having treated at least thirty five cases with hypnosis within their clinical field of expertise. An example of a possible format is shown below:

Patient identifierProblemHypnotic techniques usedNumber of sessionsOutcome(audit tool x)
1    
2 etc    

4. The clinical applicant should also present four written case studies demonstrating different aspects of their work with hypnosis. These must be within the disciplines of the applicant’s professional practice, properly documented, and all applicants must be prepared to discuss their cases and practice of hypnotherapy with the Assessors.

5. On completion of these requirements, the case histories will be examined by two Assessors, (at least one of whom will be from the applicant’s profession if possible), who will arrange to interview each candidate.

6. The four case histories should be sent electronically accompanied by:-
a) A completed Application Form,
b) Curriculum Vitae, with an outline of the applicants practice of hypnosis, 
c)  Details of course attendance relevant to the application of Accreditation,
d)  The fee of £100 made payable to BSCAH. sent to National Office.

Please note that the fee of £100 is non-refundable, therefore candidates are advised to get help from an Assessor, and even appraisal of their case histories, prior to their submission. The names and addresses of Assessors are available from National Office.

For an application form please complete the enquiry form at the bottom of the page

Guide-lines for the Presentation of Case Histories

The presentation should be 1000 to 2000 words per case and set out in sections under the following headings:-

Summary: 

A précis of the case report.

Description of Problem: 

A summary of the nature of the presenting problem, time of onset, history, manifestations in the patient’s daily life, etc, with the accurate use of diagnostic labels where appropriate.

Relevant History and Other Findings: 

This should enable the Assessors to have a clear picture of the patient’s background, character, way of life, etc, as appropriate.

Confidentiality: 

The name of the patient should not be stated in the case history.  A letter or pseudonym should be used instead. Even then the patient’s consent must be sought for their case history to be submitted. It is also suggested that it might be useful to obtain the patient’s written consent to publish the case history or use it as a teaching aid.

Plan of Therapy (including rationale, current knowledge, theory, etc): 

The candidate should give the rationale for his or her choice of therapy and present a plan, the degree of detail of which will depend on the nature of the therapy being conducted.

In this section, the candidate should also make an attempt, as appropriate, to understand the patient’s presenting problem in terms of what is known from the patient’s character, past history and present circumstances. If possible, give reference to literature to support strategies of therapy.

Detailed Account of Hypnotherapeutic Intervention:

 It may include for example :-

(a) Application or assessment of the hypnotisability of patient
(b) Induction and deepening techniques used with comment 
(c) Analytical techniques, such as age regression, etc
(d) Abreaction and how it was dealt with,
(e) Desensitisation or behavioural techniques
(f) Self-hypnosis with aims and outcome
(g) Ego-strengthening – purpose and influence in the therapy
(h) Various other techniques and styles used with reasons and comment
(i) Detail or appendix for any techniques devised or used by the applicant. Wherever possible, give well known name of such procedures as well as explanations of the rationale for the use of such interventions and the anticipated outcome.
(j) A Glossary of terms to be appended (this is not included in the word count).

Description of the Course of Therapy: This is an outline of the entire course of treatment conducted – to include any special events occurring during and in between sessions, additional drugs used, or any other kind of non-hypnotic therapies used.

Outcome of Therapy (or current status of therapy if ongoing):  We would encourage the use of outcome audit tools where appropriate.

Discussion and Conclusions: The applicant is required to discuss the outcome, whether positive or negative and the possible reasons for this.

List of References: The Harvard format for references should be used.  These should be listed alphabetically at the end of each case study.

Guidelines for Applicants – Possible areas for discussion at interview

General Background

  1. What type of work do you do?
  2. When did you first become interested in hypnosis and why
  3. How are patients selected who come to you for hypnotherapy?
  4. How do you introduce the subject of hypnosis to the patient?
  5. Which conditions do you prefer to treat?
  6. Which patients would you refuse to treat?
  7. How many patients do you see for hypnotherapy?
  8. How long does each session take?
  9. Under what conditions do you practice?
  10. What other ideas do you have about desirable conditions, the use of chaperons, and the medico-legal implications of hypnotherapy?
  11. What points do you look for in history taking?
  12. What about drugs which the patient may be taking
  13. Have you any interest in group hypnotherapy
  14. What have you learned from treatment “failure(s)”

 

Clinical Background

  1. Which courses have you been on?
  2. What did you get out of them?
  3. Which textbooks have you read and which have you found useful?
  4. Any others you are planning to read
  5. What about background reading or training – past, and any plans for the future
  6. Definitions of hypnosis
  7. How would you describe hypnosis to someone who knew nothing about it?
  8. Discuss the Therapeutic Relationship – its drawbacks and uses

 

Topics

  1. Show knowledge of recent theories and models of hypnosis
  2. Discuss any research in hypnosis in which you have participated, or which you have read about or in which you may be interested
  3. Discuss the concept of hypnotisability
  4. Discuss any dangers of hypnosis, including false memory
  5. Discuss the induction methods used in the case histories and alternative methods
  6. E.g. rapid induction, permissive methods, Spiegel’s eye roll, methods with children, overanxious or difficult patients
  7. Self-hypnosis and its uses
  8. Discuss any deepening techniques used in the case histories, and alternatives
  9. Discuss the therapeutic strategies used in the case histories and possible alternatives
  10. Discuss the uses of hypnosis – particularly within the applicant’s field of clinical work