We often speak positively about other hypnotists and we even invite them to our classes. This may seem counterproductive. After all, as hypnosis trainers, why would we spend time actively promoting our competition? The truth is we weren’t always like this.
Back When Hypnosis Courses Sucked
Many years ago, when I studied with Mike Mandel, he would tell stories about hypnosis trainers who would do horrendous demonstrations. They showed poor abilities to teach at best, and at worse, a complete lack of expertise.
For a while, I thought this couldn’t possibly be true. How could most hypnosis courses be so bad if hypnosis is so simple? Mike spoke with authority and reprimanded those bad practices, but in my mind, he was talking about outdated techniques. Little did I know they were very much still being used.
When Youtube came along in the mid 2000’s, I not only discovered that Mike was right about how bad some (if not most) hypnosis courses were, he was actually putting it lightly. The worst part was the serious injuries these bad hypnosis demonstrations would sometimes provoke. That’s because, while hypnosis isn’t dangerous per se, the environment can sometimes cause accidents to occur.
These things made us think it was a waste of time to learn hypnosis from other trainers. Except for a few people who, like us, had learned straight from the great hypnosis masterminds of the 20th century, hypnotists out there didn’t really know what they were doing. But that opinion was about to change!
Hypnosis Conferences - Showing Them How It’s Done
Convinced of how terribly bad at hypnosis most hypnotists were, I eventually talked Mike into attending hypnosis conferences to show them how it’s done. We meant to advertise Mike as a great hypnotist and show the community how hypnosis should be done. Our experience at these conferences, however, was wonderful, illuminating and relieving altogether.
At Hypnothoughts LIVE, held in Las Vegas, people loved the training we provided. But we also discovered that there were many more AWESOME hypnosis trainers like us out there. And instead of closing our eyes and continuing to think we were the only ones, we chose to make friends with these hypnotists and learned so much from them as well.
This is the attitude towards knowledge that we use almost as a mantra. It prevents us from remaining stuck with what we already know. That attitude is…
Always Be Learning
We often get email responses from people in our email list saying they don’t need any more training because they already have a certification. We can either assume these people are misinformed about what hypnosis certification really means (click here to learn more) or they think they’ve already learned everything there is to know. Either way, they’re misguided to say the least.
Had Mike and I taken the attitude of pretending to know everything about hypnosis and went to HTLive only to teach and not to learn, we wouldn’t have realized how many great hypnotists there actually were and how much we could learn from them. At hypnosis conferences, you’re supposed to teach AND absorb all you can, so that’s what we did.
If you think you’re already a hypnosis mastermind just because you have a certification, think again. Mike has been doing hypnosis professionally since the 1960’s - he’s one of the greatest hypnotists alive today. And yet … even he will tell you he’s still learning every day.
Why We Partner With Other Hypnosis Trainers
After the conferences, I had the idea to bring in guys like James Tripp, David Snyder and the Jacquins (Freddy and Anthony), all of whom have done guest trainings at the Mike Mandel Hypnosis Academy. More recently, Igor Ledochowski, Karl Smith, Melissa Tiers, Ken Guzzo, Jason Linett, Michael C. Anthony, Scott Sandland, Sean Michael Andrews and Steven Blake shared their wisdom with us, too.
All of these people are world-class hypnotists who brought phenomenal stuff to add to our Academy. We chose to invite them because we trust in the quality of their work, and so we want our students to learn from them, just like WE want to learn from them. These are all amazing people. What they teach is the very best.
The bottom line is: you should learn from great trainers, not just one or two. Pick those who go to the huge conferences like the HTLive event Mike and I attend. We don’t say this just because they’re our trusted colleagues and friends, but because their willingness to show up at these events shows they are CONFIDENT in their abilities, and rightfully so. Like us, they’re ready to show you what they know and to learn from YOU as well.
What Makes a Great Hypnosis Course
Now that we’ve discussed how just one course probably won’t be enough to develop your full hypnosis potential, we can finally start talking about what makes a great hypnosis course.
From our point of view, a great hypnosis course must have three things:
- Comprehensiveness
A great hypnosis course should be comprehensive. In that sense, it must be applicable to all kinds of hypnosis work. We train psychiatrists in our classes in Toronto, but we also get stage hypnotists, magicians and people who just want to learn hypnosis for fun. Because we teach a broad base, our material is applicable for everyone.
A solid understanding of the fundamental principles shared by all types of hypnosis is essential to every hypnotist. That means learning how the techniques work and why. Instead of relying on hypnosis scripts, you must know the basic working principles of both the indirect Ericksonian style and the classical direct style. That way, you’ll always be safe and know exactly what you’re doing.
- Practice opportunities
More so than in other areas, to effectively learn hypnosis, you have to do hypnosis. That means you have to practice every hypnosis technique you pick up. After gaining the confidence you can use the stuff you learned, you’ll be ready to use it anytime.
That’s what we do in the Architecture of Hypnosis, our in-person hypnosis course, when we give our students some practice time after every technique. In the Mike Mandel Hypnosis Academy, our online hypnosis training program, we have online practice rooms for all of our students to use freely. We don’t want our course to be just a long and boring lecture. We want to have fun practice interactions that make learning both effective and enjoyable.
And finally,
- Fun!
Boring sucks. Having fun is important. If you’re enjoying your time while learning, you’ll learn better and faster. Be certain that having fun teachers and practice partners will make your learning curve a lot easier.
Learn Hypnosis With Us
We can suggest three ways you can learn hypnosis with us. If you’re looking for a purely online program with a low cost of entry, check out the Mike Mandel Hypnosis Academy (MMHA). If you want live practice and feedback directly with us, sign up for Foundations LIVE. It’s a great program because you get to practice via Zoom with other students from all around the world and receive some amazing feedback.
And finally, for in-person training, the Architecture of Hypnosis (AoH) is our 5-day training in Toronto, Canada. AoH is perfect if you want that face-to-face practice. You can count on our feedback there too.
Our hypnosis courses will lay the foundation for anything you want to do with hypnosis. With the foundation in place, you can start bringing in different techniques, protocols and tools more specific to your niche.
For MMHA, click here.
For Foundations LIVE, click here.
For Architecture of Hypnosis, click here.
