The Cost of Hypnotherapy

As a hypnotherapist in Salem, Oregon, I get clients who want to work on making life-improving changes for a variety of issues. Some of those include losing weight, quitting smoking, reducing or eliminating chronic pain, improving self-esteem. etc. To be sure, hypnotherapy is very effective for all of those issues, but also for many other issues as well. I have chronicled some of those other issues in past articles on this blog.

One of the first questions I get from prospective clients regarding hypnotherapy is “how many sessions is it going to take? I often say 2-3 sessions depending upon the issue, but I always provide a caveat – that depends on what kinds of psychological issues surrounding the problem they want to address. Even still, some clients retort “Can’t we just do it in one session? What they really mean to say is “I don’t want to spend more money than one session would cost.

For some issues, such as quitting smoking or losing weight, two sessions works well for most people. But even those issues may require more sessions if it turns out the issue is a manifestation of some other underlying cause that really needs to be addressed first. For example, obesity could be tied to early-age sexual abuse and resulting low self-esteem. In that case, I may recommend more sessions to deal with the long-held faulty programming that resulted from the abuse and led to the other issues.

Often, while interviewing a client, they reveal they have been in therapy for months or years previously for the same issue about which they are seeking my help, and sometimes they have seen a variety of practitioners. Chronic pain clients often try hypnotherapy as a last resort, having been to medical doctors, chiropractors, acupuncturists, naturopathic healers, and have been taking prescription medication for years, all of which provided little to no relief. In some of those cases, I have been able to help the client manage or eradicate their pain completely in only two sessions, sometimes in three or four sessions.

The point is clients feel as though they should get help with their medical or psychological problems with almost no money out of their pockets. After all, when they go to the doctor, they only make a small co-pay if anything, letting insurance coverage take care of the rest. Insurers are slowly coming on board in paying for hypnotherapy for a number of issues, weight-loss, smoking cessation and chronic pain management a few of them, but it is highly dependent upon the insurer and the state, despite the fact that study after study shows the value of hypnotherapy in helping make changes in a wide variety of issues.

So, once clients realize they may have to foot the bill for hypnotherapy on their own, they may become reticent about wanting to pursue hypnotherapy, despite the fact that it may offer tremendous help for their particular problem or issue. One could ask: How badly do they want to make a change, then? Valid point! But for some, it is simply a matter of their financial reality. They cannot afford to pay for hypnotherapy out of their pockets, even though it is much more affordable than almost any medical or other psychological treatment.

There are hypnosis centers out there who charge 10-20 times more than most individual hypnotherapists, so do yourself a favor and look for a couple of things first:

1. Find out how much sessions cost with the hypnotherapist you are considering. (If they balk at answering or require you sitting down for a consultation first, you are probably in for a time-share-like hard sell. Run!)

2. Find out how the hypnotherapist was trained and whether they have experience dealing with the issue for which you are seeking help.

3. Ask the hypnotherapist how they would proceed with your particular issue. They should be able to tell you step-by-step what their approach would be, taking into consideration the fact that everybody’s issues are different and will require adjustments in treatment among different clients.

4. Just like medical or other services, know that you cannot “commoditize” hypnotherapy. In other words, all hypnotherapy is not the same, and the quality of the services may not be equal among different hypnotherapists, just like it is not among doctors, psychiatrists, plumbers, or auto mechanics! Therapy is not like a loaf of bread where you would buy the same loaf of bread from whoever was selling it the cheapest. Training and talent has a lot to do with it.

If you or someone you care about in Oregon is seeking to make life-improving changes, consider the benefits of hypnotherapy at Skipnotherapy. Find out more at www.skipnotherapy.com!