Thank you for telling us a little about yourself. If Hypno-CBT® might be your route into evidence-based private practice, a 15-minute Psychology Graduate Consultation is the clearest way to find out whether it’s right for you. And the full presentation below is the best place to see the pathway in depth first.
The full conversation: a senior NHS psychologist on why she rethought her practice
Dr Krissie Ivings is a Consultant Chartered Clinical Psychologist with over two decades of NHS experience. After training with the UK College of Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy, she ended up completely rethinking how she works. In this presentation from the BPS Psychology Careers Festival, Krissie and Mark R. Davis, our Principal and the developer of the Hypno-CBT® model, discuss the pathway honestly. Around 29 minutes.
In this talk, Krissie and Mark cover:
- Why a senior NHS psychologist found that adding hypnosis to CBT produced changes in one to two sessions that had previously taken six or more
- What the research evidence actually says: meta-analyses, RCTs and effect sizes
- An honest look at the employment picture for qualified Hypno-CBT® therapists, and the realities of building a private practice
- Why the current pathways into mental health careers leave so many capable graduates behind
- How Hypno-CBT® fits alongside, not instead of, existing training
Watched it through? The next step is a short conversation.
Talk it through: book your Psychology Graduate Consultation
A 15-minute call with one of our Course Advisors is the best way to work out whether this is the right move for you: your background, your goals, and where Hypno-CBT® could take you. These calls are informational. They are not sales calls. If the training isn’t right for you, we’ll tell you. You’ve already shared your details, so booking takes a moment.
If you’re weighing this up seriously
Hypno-CBT® is not a shortcut into clinical psychology, and it does not provide HCPC registration. It is a distinct, evidence-based vocational pathway into cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy and private practice, one that fits alongside the routes you already know rather than replacing them. For the right person, it is a rigorous and practical way to begin using psychology directly with clients.
It is the integration of evidence-based hypnosis with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and mindfulness. The way we understand hypnosis is cognitive-behavioural: focused attention, expectation and motivation, not an altered state. It is not stage hypnosis. The model is grounded in the experimental and clinical research into how hypnosis actually works, and it teaches that research seriously.
This approach has deep roots in mainstream psychology. It is not fringe. If you know Beck, Wells, Meichenbaum, Wolpe, Jacobson, Hayes and Kabat-Zinn, you are already familiar with the foundations we build on.
Built for people who think critically
Psychologists are consistently among the highest-rating cohorts on this course. We use a non-state model of hypnosis, aligned with the experimental research rather than stage-show mythology. We reference the academic literature throughout and use serious clinical texts.
We do not teach woolly thinking, undefined concepts, or wild claims about what hypnosis can do.
If you have studied psychology to degree level or beyond, you will not be asked to leave your critical faculties at the door. You will be in an environment that rewards intellectual rigour and expects you to understand why each intervention works, not just how to deliver it.
“Use all the right words – evidence-based, rigorous, ethical, research-oriented. A quick glance at the content showed me it was teaching the right things, to the right level of detail, with a great degree of fidelity to models”
Dr Krissie Ivings, Consultant Chartered Clinical Psychologist, DClinPsy (Manchester), BABCP accredited
The Diploma: what you actually learn
The Higher Diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy (Hypno-CBT®) is an intensive vocational training course. It runs across 21 days of teaching, in three stages, each resulting in a Certificate award. Complete all three stages plus a written assessment and you receive the Diploma, with a certificate of achievement issued directly by NCFE. Fifty per cent of the training is practical and experiential: you learn by doing, not just by reading.
This qualification has been developed to meet the specific needs of our learners and has been accredited by NCFE, demonstrating its quality and rigour. NCFE is an awarding organisation recognised by the qualification regulators for England (Ofqual), Wales (Qualifications Wales) and Northern Ireland (CCEA Regulation). This is an unregulated qualification and is not a nationally recognised qualification. The training is approved through the BPS CPD Quality Mark Scheme for the purposes of continuing professional development.
What the training covers: self-hypnosis skills; hypnotherapy skills and assessment; pain control (hypnotic and non-hypnotic); Stress Inoculation Training (Meichenbaum); Cognitive Therapy for anxiety (Clark, Wells, Beck); exposure and desensitisation (Wolpe, Lazarus); applied relaxation and tension control (Jacobson, Öst, Borkovec); Habit Reversal Training (Nunn & Azrin); mindfulness approaches (Kabat-Zinn, Hayes et al.); Problem-Solving Therapy (Nezu, Nezu & D’Zurilla); Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (Ellis); the role of imagery; assertiveness and social anxiety models (Clark & Wells).
The Diploma is available as a Live Webcast (delivered online in real time across three intensive stages, with full trainer interaction, peer learning and live practice, study from anywhere) or Online Self-Paced (study at your own pace with tutor support and 18 hours of one-to-one coaching from a qualified Hypno-CBT® practitioner). Both lead to the same Diploma and the same NCFE certificate.
What the evidence says – honestly
The evidence base is not perfect, and no serious training should pretend otherwise. But meta-analytic evidence supports the view that adding hypnosis to CBT can improve outcomes compared with CBT alone. In the presentation above, Mark and Krissie discuss what that evidence does and does not show, including the meta-analyses by Kirsch et al. (1995) and Ramondo et al. (2021).
Who guides the model
We teach Hypno-CBT®, a rigorously developed, evidence-based integration of cognitive behavioural therapy, hypnosis and mindfulness, continuously updated to reflect current psychological and neuroscientific research. The people who provide its academic guidance and oversight are among the most distinguished figures in the field:
- Dr Donald Meichenbaum, PhD: one of the founders of CBT; voted one of the ten most influential psychotherapists of the twentieth century
- Dr Krissie Ivings, DClinPsy, BABCP accredited: Consultant Chartered Clinical Psychologist; 25+ years NHS; former Head of Psychology (CAMHS); Hypno-CBT® Diploma graduate
- Daniel Mirea, MSc, BABCP & UKCP accredited: CBT Consultant, 30+ years; originator of NeuroAffective-CBT
- Professor David Attard, PhD: leading European logotherapist; accredited by the Viktor Frankl Institute, Vienna
Talk to Someone First
A 15-minute call with one of our Course Advisors is the best next step if you want to discuss your background, your career goals, and whether this training is a good fit. These calls are informational. They are not sales calls. If the training is not right for you, we will tell you.