I just recently attended a hypnosis lecture held by Bill Gladwell. It was indeed money well spent! Actually got to see a friend of mine put under. Some of the things we had him doing were absolutely amazing and hilarious! Before this lecture, I did not think that hypnosis was real. Now I know better.

He offers a course in becoming a certified hypnotherapist, which I am seriously thinking of taking.

One thing I would really like to know is where to go from here. I have two of the dvds from Nongard's series, the one that talks about hypnosis in general and the other with Stokes on inductions. What else should I get to learn this?

I think it is great that you are so thrilled with hypnosis that you want to continue to better yourself.

However, it is important to realize that hypnosis is not a therapy, it is a tool to be used by a therapist. If you really want to pursue using hypnosis as a therapy, to actually treat clients, you really need to go to school become a therapist while working on your hypnosis skills.

I have friends of mine who are also in the mental health field who use hypnosis. They are not even thrilled that I use hypnosis on stage, however, the biggest problem they have with stage hypnotists, is that when they take a course over a few days, usually from another stage hypnotist with no mental health background, then promote themselves on the same level as those in the mental health field who have spent years at school to become a therapist as well as working on their skills as a hypnotist. If your really serious about hypnotherapy, do yourself and your patients a favor, go back to school.

I have always kept a VERY large seporation between stage and clinical.

I DO NOT NOW NEVER HAVE AND NEVER WILL do clinical hypnosis.

I do not sell stop smoking or lose weight anything. I am an entertainer and keep it that way.

This is only a personal prefereance for me, not a rule I expect anyone to follow.

I think even if a stage hypnotist is not planning to do clinical hypnosis, a basic course in clinical hypnotherapy can provide a depth for understanding hypnosis from new perspectives. And so I encourage people to take such courses, offered by others or the ICBCH certification program that I teach on DVD.
Will it give you all the skills of a licensed mental health professional? No, its not meant to, no, is a hypnosis course. Besides, what mental health professionals do is different than hypnosis - and not always better!

http://www.HypnotherapyBoard.org

Amazon sells a complete DVD/online version on the ICBCH course http://www.amazon.com/Become-Certified-H......7&sr=8-1

ABSOLUTLY right it can. I only meant that I personally keep the 2 seporate is all. No way knocking clinical training. Heck I recomend it!

I recommend reading Dave Elmans book, Hypnotherapy. It was used to teach thousands of Doctors. Dave was a pioneer of waking hypnosis and quick methods, his book is really motivating and inspires new ideas.

I also recommend DVDs/vids by Gil Boyne.