What Makes a Good Hypnotherapist?

Question
I've seen weekend seminars claiming to make you a certified clinical hypnotherapist, and I've seen schools that offer year long programs. Just what makes a good HT anyway?

Answer
From an ethical point of view, I would very much wish that all so-called certification based upon a single weekend training program would be abolished. I consider it a dishonor to our profession to release people into this work with so little education about what they will be doing. On the other hand, I do NOT feel that some university degree hanging on the wall confirms that one is a fine hypnotherapist. I would like to see every state insist on a minimum of 100 hours of training, and preferably 150, to be licensed as a hypnotherapist. I don't believe, as some of my colleagues do, that this work must be learned in a university setting, or only by psychologists. If the psychiatrists and psychologists are willing to have as many hours of schooling in hypnotic work as many of us have had, then they might have some ground for their insistence that they only be allowed to do hypnosis. But most of them have only a minimal number of hours. Yet, some claim that they are better qualified to do hypnosis than hypnotherapists who have had years of hypnotic training and experience. Why should they have different requirements, which include only a few hours of training in the hypnotic processes, and then insist they be the only ones qualified to use them? I would like to believe that their concern has to do with hypnotherapists who take on serious psychological cases without having the training to understand them. There are many psychoses that need psychotherapeutic work, as well as hypnotic work, and people should be trained to handle them. I do believe, that having psychological education enhances the hypnotherapist's ability considerably, and makes them far more flexible in determining what is effective and helpful for their clients. If I were running a hypnosis school, I would make sure there were courses required in psychology, including abnormal psychology and the counseling profession.