These days there are many titles that helping professionals have: therapist and hypnotist and NLP practitioners, coaches, trainers, teachers and mentors, job coaches and business coaches and life coaches. How do you know who to go to to get you issue resolved? Well, I have to tell you that if I weren’t in the business of helping people having spent too many hours to count paying for the services of many of these professionals for my own growth and development both personally and professionally I wouldn’t know the differences between them either. Now, do understand that these are my own definitions based on my own experiences so you may not totally agree. However, I am most certain that you will find my train of thought her helpful when you are making a the very important decision as to who to invest your limited resources of time and money to help you to get “unstuck” in whatever it is that may be holding you back at the moment.
First of all I being a Trainer and Master Practitioner of hypnosis and NLP I would like to clarify for you what these titles actually mean versus what a therapist is thought to be.
NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) is first and foremost a form of hypnosis, it using the bypassing of the conscious mind to work in the unconscious or subconscious mind. NLP is based on the work of Milton Erickson a psychiatrist that used hypnosis in his practice, Virginia Satir, a family therapist and Fritz Perls and his Gestalt Therapy among others. Bandler and Grinder researched the best therapists of the day to find out how they got the excellent results they got and formed the techniques that taken together are now known as NLP. Hypnosis is more often thought of as the relaxed state that one sees in the stage hypnosis volunteers who seemed to be passed out when they are merely so relaxed as to be resting on one another. Do believe me when I tell you that they are hyper aware of everything that is going on and can and do decide which skits they will participate in. It is up to the stage hypnotist to realize in seconds flat if the volunteers are in the hypnotic state or need to return to the audience not having taken to the hypnosis either through the fear of what they do not understand hypnosis to be or because they may be drunk and unable to focus or could cause distractions to the show.
Hypnosis is actually the same state that one would be in while in meditation and so as one of my teachers of hypnosis explained it: hypnosis is meditation with a purpose. That purpose being to resolve the issues that the client has come in to hypnotist to work on. Because it is the meditative state that is being worked on, the client is in a dissociated state making it much less emotionally traumatic the client feeling lighter and brighter once emerged from the hypnotic state.
Therapy is working in the conscious state and though there are a few therapist who may have taken a hypnosis weekend of training do not generally specialize in doing hypnotic work. They have a different angle to their work with their client usually relying on the theory that they have learned in their psychology degree work, without much exposure or knowledge about the inner workings of the unconscious mind which requires a very different technique then regular therapy given the different manner in which the conscious and unconscious/subconscious mind processes the same information. If you choose to see a therapist to do hypnotic technique with you do make sure that they have made it a priority to truly understand what they are doing or they can create more harm to you without even realizing it.
A coach is a person who is hired to help people to attain goals in their lives without any real training for the most part (unless the professional has come to coaching after completing more formalized training in therapeutic or hypnotic technique) to be more of an accountability partner and objective source from which you can gain new insights and perspectives on reaching your goals. A business coach or job coach will work with you on gaining a better career for yourself (though job coaches are also known to be the people to work with disabled folks in non-competitive work environments).
Executive coaches usually work in or for businesses to help the employee to do their job better or with those who are given promotions to learn how to reach the objectives of the new position.
Life coaches will help you in every area of you life, personal and professional so these folks can be seen as the generalists of the world of coaching.
Teachers and trainers create another interesting distinction. A teacher is someone who is employed to teach you something which you may or may not be able to emulate. A trainer is someone who is employed to train you to emulate that which they have taught you usually having real life experience with which to help you learn the practical application of that which you are being trained to do.
Mentors and therapist are yet another distinction that can be made. A mentor is a person that is either hired or who offers to help another to successfully pursue one’s purpose in life usually based on their life’s mission. The basis of the relationship is the positive attainment of the goals desired by the mentored.
A therapist is hired to deal usually with psycho-pathologies of disturbed thought and destructive behaviors due to an emotionally based issue. A therapist is most often interested in helping their patient to either be rid of the negative ramifications of the pathology or help the patient to manage the issues of their diagnosis.
Each professional has their place among the needs and concerns of the general population as you can see. The question that one must ask is what is the outcome that is desired and who is the best professional to use to achieve that result.
I can tell you that for myself I would much prefer to use hypnotic technique to take care of anything in the emotional and even many physical ailments if you find one that specializes in your area of need. I will always work with a trainer to learn specific tools and techniques to add to my tool chest of knowledge to assist my clients to reach their goals. And I would use a business coach that specializes in the area of business that I am focusing on learning about to give me the marketing, publicity, writing, speaking and other business related knowledge that one needs in this day and age to be successful.
So again, ask yourself what it is that you are working to achieve and then go to the correct professional to help you to achieve that particular outcome.