When I founded the IACH in 2004, I chose to leave the board of the Canadian Hypnotherapy Association, which I had been a member of for approximately 20 years. I served as President for five years. It was a difficult decision to leave an association I had been associated with for so long. Still, I had a vision of what I wanted, and this was an opportunity to make that vision a reality.

I believed, and still do, that counseling should be an essential component in training hypnotherapists. This is why I coined the now popular term “Counselling Hypnotherapist” in 1992. It was in response to the fact that at that time, and still even now, hypnotherapy training exists with either minimal or no requirements to learn counseling skills. It is also our view at IACH that Ericksonian hypnotherapy training must be an essential part of any hypnotherapy school’s curriculum.

In anticipation of upcoming legislation in various provinces in Canada and even worldwide, we feel that these two components are essential in giving our members the best chance to become members of any potential new college.

The IACH executive and our members believe that high standards and a code of ethics are essential to achieving these goals. In this respect, we are as a group of dedicated counseling hypnotherapists determined to keep growing nationally as well as internationally. We intend to provide a vehicle for students and schools to achieve great success through our high standards and ethics in the field of counseling hypnotherapy.

In 2017 IACH was accepted to the board of FACT BC. I had been involved with lobbying through the BCACC legislative committee in 1997 to create a protected title of “Counselling Therapist” in BC, Canada. Although the proposal was rejected at the time, it set the groundwork for what eventually would become Fact BC, a federation representing the approximately 14 major counseling groups and over 6000 counselors in BC.

 

As you are reading this, we hope that you might have the same vision, whether you are a student, practitioner, or school owner/Director. Please consider joining our dynamic and growing group.

Sheldon Bilsker, RCC, HT