Therapist Biography - Richard Parsons
Richard Parsons - practicing in Cheltenham
We've asked some of our therapists to tell you a little bit about themselves, their background before they trained with the IAPH, and their experience of the IAPH and its training.
Your main town(s)/cities(s) that you practice in:
Cheltenham
What was your background before you trained to be a pure hypnoanalyst?:
Graphic designer
What made you choose a career in pure hypnoanalysis?:
A friend of mine (harry cannon) was doing the same course and i've always been interested in people and psychology and mental health so harry persuaded me to look into the iaph course.
What age were you when you trained with the IAPH?:
I was 28 years old
Had you ever studied hypnotherapy / psychology / counseling etc before training with the iaph?:
I hadn't done any formal training but i had quite an extensive knowledge of nlp through books
What made you choose the iaph successful hypnotherapy diploma course, as opposed to any of the others available?
To be honest, i didn't look at any others as harry said it was an excellent course so i enrolled on it straight away. The fact that it dealt with people and psychology appealed to me as it wasn't just about hypnosis.
How did you find the combination of home-study, and hands-on training seminars and workshops?
As i was working full time as a designer and had a family the study and weekend courses suited my time scales perfectly and the fact that seminars are still run at weekends is helpful.
Did you receive enough support and mentoring throughout your studies, or could you have done with more?
Every single question i had was answered by Rob very quickly.
Did you find it easy to use the online support forum, both for your questions/answers, and downloading the free video and audio lectures?
Yes. Since i joined nearly 8 years ago the online forum has gone from strength to strength and has now become a strong resource. Listening to rob's audio lectures and the course lectures is invaluable.
After passing the course, did you feel that you were adequately prepared for your own private practice, or did you need any extra help or support?
I did feel prepared, but personal supervision was and still is essential as i had many many questions. Thankfully there are less questions these days!
How easy (or difficult) was it setting up your own hypnotherapy clinic, and starting to treat your own clients?
It was a fairly simple process as word of mouth quickly spread. I started treating people on a saturday and eventually made the move into part time design and part time therapy and then within 2 years became a full time therapist. The hardest part at the beginning was probably finding suitable premises to practice from but this simply just took a bit of time to investigate and keep knocking on doors. I now practice from a very nice dentists surgery in pittiville lawn, Cheltenham.
Now you are in practice full-time, what is life like as a busy hypnotherapist?
As a full time therapist it is great career.......there is a lot of freedom to work as many or as little hours as you want to and helping people to significantly change their lives is incredibly rewarding. The job is interesting and varied and you will meet people from all walks of life. There are times when it can be emotional and stressful and good supervision (which the iaph excels in) is essential in maintaining a healthy balance between work and home life and avoiding therapist burnout.
