One of the original founders of CBT, Professor Donald Meichenbaum, chairs Senior Advisory Board of the UK College of Hypnosis & Hypnotherapy
The appointment formalises a multi-year partnership built on the College's evidence-led Hypno-CBT® approach and a shared opposition to hype in psychotherapy.
The UK College of Hypnosis & Hypnotherapy has confirmed that Professor Donald Meichenbaum, recognised as one of the founders of cognitive behavioural therapy, chairs its Senior Advisory Board. The appointment formalises a working relationship that has developed since 2021 and now includes the production of Professor Meichenbaum's legacy course series, The Essence of Psychotherapy.
Together with Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck, Professor Meichenbaum is recognised as one of the founders of CBT, contributing two of its foundational approaches: Self-Instructional Training and Stress Inoculation Training. In a survey of clinicians reported in the American Psychologist, he was voted one of the ten most influential psychotherapists of the twentieth century. He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Waterloo and Research Director of the Melissa Institute for Violence Prevention in Miami.
He has also been one of the field's most persistent critics of exaggerated and unsubstantiated claims. With the late Professor Scott Lilienfeld he co-authored “How to Spot Hype in the Field of Psychotherapy: A 19-Item Checklist,” named the best contribution to the field by the Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy. It was that stance, as much as his stature, that led the College to seek him out.
“We first approached Don in 2021, after years of using his teaching in our own training. I had long admired his work and his refusal to overclaim. He responded with characteristic warmth and generosity. We ran a workshop with him on treating PTSD and building resilience, ran it again as a COVID fundraiser, and went on to produce his legacy course, The Essence of Psychotherapy. His agreement to chair our Senior Advisory Board is the formal expression of a partnership that already runs deep. It matters precisely because Don does not lend his name to hype.”
— Mark R. Davis, Founder of Hypno-CBT®,
Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine,
Principal of the College
“I have spent much of my career warning against hype. Scott Lilienfeld and I wrote a checklist of nineteen warning signs for it, and I meant every one. What persuaded me is that the version of hypnosis this College teaches does not rest on those assumptions.”
— Professor Donald Meichenbaum
He has long argued that we are not only Homo sapiens but Homo narrans, the storytelling animal. “The stories we tell ourselves and others shape how we experience ourselves and the world,” he said. “The version of hypnosis this College teaches sits on the same root: not a mysterious trance, but focused attention and believed-in imagining, the very ground from which my own work on self-instruction grew.”
“I am encouraged to see Hypno-CBT® develop as a transdiagnostic, process-based approach that takes seriously the factors the outcome research tells us matter most, including the cultivation of expectancy and hope. To see hypnosis returned to that tradition with this much care for the evidence is satisfying.”
— Professor Donald Meichenbaum
Hypno-CBT® is the College's integration of modern hypnosis with cognitive behavioural therapy, taught through its Level 5 Higher Diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy (Hypno-CBT®) and related courses.
About the UK College of Hypnosis & Hypnotherapy
The UK College of Hypnosis & Hypnotherapy provides evidence-based professional training in hypnosis, mindfulness and cognitive behavioural therapy. It is the originator of Hypno-CBT®, an integrative approach combining hypnosis with cognitive behavioural therapy, mindfulness, resilience training and applied skills development. The College trains practitioners through its Level 5 Higher Diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy (Hypno-CBT®), externally verified and awarded by NCFE and holding the British Psychological Society CPD Quality Mark 2026, alongside specialist continuing professional development courses. Its Senior Advisory Board is chaired by Professor Donald Meichenbaum, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of Waterloo. The College is currently transitioning toward the name Hypno-CBT® College. Hypno-CBT® is a registered trademark of Mindease Limited in the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
About Professor Donald Meichenbaum
Donald Meichenbaum, Ph.D., is Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, and Research Director of the Melissa Institute for Violence Prevention in Miami, Florida. Together with Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck, he is recognised as one of the founders of cognitive behavioural therapy. He developed Self-Instructional Training and Stress Inoculation Training, two foundational cognitive behavioural approaches, and was voted one of the ten most influential psychotherapists of the twentieth century in a survey of clinicians reported in American Psychologist. His work spans cognitive behavioural therapy, stress, trauma, resilience, constructive narrative approaches and the critique of hype in psychotherapy.
Media contact
Mark R. Davis
Principal, UK College of Hypnosis & Hypnotherapy
mark@ukhypnosis.com +44 7830 317486