Accreditation: The process in which a certification of competency, authority, or credibility is presented. (Source: Wikipedia.org) This process is normally conducted by accreditation bodies (also known as accredited certification bodies) Accreditation can be self-conducted or performed by an accreditation body. Generally, receiving an accreditation by a third party establishes that the subject institution's practices are acceptable (i.e. competent, ethical, and employ suitable quality assurance). Contrary to public opinion, academic degrees are regulated by college or university licensure -- not by accreditation. However, accreditation, to include the general popularity of a given accreditation body, may be a major factor in the perception or opinion of the credibility of a licensed degree granting institution. Accreditation does not imply the legal authority to confer degrees.

Accreditation bodies: An organization or association that confers accreditation. Also known as "accredited certification bodies." Accrediting organizations can include regulatory entities, non-profit organizations, and profit-making businesses. An accreditation body may be an association comprised of members of a trade or profession or a group of peers with similar interests. The latter may include a collection of like-minded organizations (e.g. schools, police departments, hospitals, etc.) who have an interest in assuring the public that their members meet a certain level of quality. However, in those cases such accreditation bodies also unofficially serve the role of maintaining the profitability of their members by preventing competition. Like accreditation, the validity of an accreditation body is a subjective opinion, which may or may not be widely held.

Allopathic medicine: Generally refers to medicine other than traditional, hynotherapeutic, homeopathic, naturopathic, chiropractic, complementary, and alternative. Coined by Samueal Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy. Term means "other than disease" and was intended to point out how regular doctors used methods that had little to do with what Hahneman referred to as the disease resulting from a disharmony. This Institute uses the term merely to denote mainstream medical practitioners who are not specifically associated with one of the other formentioned medical traditions.

Alternative medicine: The practice of medicine without the use of drugs; may involve herbal medicines or self-awareness or biofeedback or acupuncture. Also known as integrative medicine.

Board Certified Hypnotherapist (BCH): A hypnotherapy trade certification (see "certified hypnotherapist") that requires an additional level of testing and\or other requirements as compared to obtaining a CHT. Obtaining a BCH may be considered by some to be more rigorous and credible than a CHT. A BCH is not a professional credential (e.g. the board certification of a surgeon). Therefore, the term "board certified hypnotherapist" may often be misleading to the public.

Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist: A term used to describe trade-level practitioners. It is convered by a variety of national and international organizations, which have declared that they have sufficient credibitilty to award this designation. Generally, a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist has received a mininum amount of formal instruction and regularly completes continuing education as a requirement for re-certification. This is not a professional-level designation. See Certified Hypnotherapist.

Certified Hypnotherapist (CHT): Designation conferred by a trade or professional (i.e. one exclusively made up practitioners holding doctoral degrees) organization that recognizes the achievement of a minimal level of training in hypnotherapy. Such certification recognizes a person's ability to participate in a trade or occupation regardless of their standing as a professional hypnotherapist or in any other profession. A certification in hypnotherapy or clinical hypnotherapy can be considered in addition to but not in lieu of a professional qualification. Certification can also serve to provide an indication of a tradesman's qualification in the absense of governmental standards, which are normally reflected in licensure requirements. Normally, the credibility of individuals or organizations that issue such certifications is limited to subjective opinion. As such, certification does not imply that the certificant has professional status. A CHT certification is either the result of the completion of an association or organization's training process or an association's acceptance of training by provided by a recognized association or organization. Unfortunately, there is extremely little consensus amoung trade organizations as to requirements of certification. Unlike typical governmental restrictions on the awarding of an academic degree, the lack of universal quality control of certification standards prevents public confidence in a CHT designation. Currently CHT standards range from 20 to 300 hours of training for this trade designation. Although some licensed secondary and post-secondary schools are authorized to awarded trade certifications, most jurisdictions require that basic hypnotherapist certifications be awarded by licensed trade schools. In contrast, academic degrees, to include those required for the professions, are only awarded by selected licensed post-secondary schools.

Chiropractic: A system of therapy and treatment in which the disease is considered the results of abnormal function of the nervous system.

Client: A person who purchases services from an institution or person.

Clinical: Involving or based upon direct observation of the patient.

Clinical Hypnotherapist: A hypnotherapist who directly works with clients/patients.

Complementary medicine: The practice of medicine that combines traditional medicine with alternative medicine.

Disease: (obsolete: lack of ease; trouble) A pathological condition of a part, organ, or system of an organism resulting from various causes, such as infection, genetic defect, or environmental stress, and characterized by an identifiable group of signs or symptoms.

Dissertation: A document, which presents the author's research and findings and is submitted in support of a degree or professional (i.e. doctorate) qualification. The widely held belief is that a dissertation applies to a doctorate. (Source: Wikipedia.org.) Hypnotherapy doctoral dissertations should conform to styles generally accepted for mental health and social services doctorates. The default standard for hypnotherapy doctorates is the American Psychological Association format. As such dissertations should be 200 to 300 pages and represent a substantial contribution to the field.

Doctorate: A degree recognizing the highest level of academic attainment regarding a specific field of study or research. The conference of a doctorate is controlled by the licensure of colleges and universities in a particular jurisdiction. Therefore, the right to award a doctorate is regulated by post-secondary licensure, not accreditation, which implies only subjective credibility.

Doctor of Clinical Hypnotherapy (DCH): A clinical academic degree representing the highest level of formal study in hypnotherapy. This degree is regulated by school licensure in the jurisdiction in which the university or college operates. This degree does not require a dissertation. However, it must include the same number of academic credits as a PhD in clinical hypnotherapy. Compared to a PhD, a DCH is a doctorate that focuses on clinical skills.

Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Hypnotherapy (PhD): An academic degree representing the highest level of formal study or research in hypnotherapy. Same as a Doctor of Philosophy in Hypnotherapy. This degree is regulated by school licensure in the jurisdiction in which the university or college operates. This degree assumes that the candidate has completed a dissertation representing a significant contribution to the field. Compared to a DCH, a PhD in Hypnotherapy symbolizes the holder's ability to conduct research and/or otherwise contribute to the field of study.

Homeopathy: A system for treating disease based on the administration of minute odes of a drug that in massive amounts produces symptoms in healthy individuals similar to those of the disease itself.

Hypnosis: A process that uses suggestion and imagination to increase the efficiency of selective thinking. This process may or may not result in the subject experiencing an "altered state," which is caused by a reorganization of cerebral blood concentrations (i.e. cerebral energy). Thus a variety of mental states may be involved. For instance, when waking hypnosis is used, cerebral energy distribution is not significantly altered -- yet efficient selective thinking may occur. Hypnosis generally is considered to imply a reduction of what has been called critical thinking, which involves stability-oriented brain processes. This serves to enhance selective thinking. As hypnosis is a process -- not a state -- it is improper to say that a paitent is "in hypnosis." Rather it would be more accurate to say that the patient is in a hypnotic state or experiencing a state created by the hypnosis process.

Hypnotherapist: A person who performs hypnotherapy as either a trade or a profession.

Hynotherapeutic coaching: The process of using hypnotherapy in a way that changes mental function in a way that improves performance. It does not involve the diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of mental diseases. Encompasses the Enhancing Performance component of Advanced Neuro-Noetic Hypnosis^TM.

Hypnotherapeutic medicine: The use of hypnotherapy for the purpose of diagnosis, treating, or preventing disease or other damage to the body or mind. Encompasses the Healing the Body and Healing the Mind components of Advanced Neuro-Noetic Hypnosis^TM. Sometimes called medical hyposis or medical hypnotherapy.

Hypnotherapy: The use of hypnosis for the purpose of performance enhancement or resolving mental and physiological pathologies. (The practice of hypnotherapy may be limited in some jurisdictions and/or require that the hypnotherapist work under the supervision of an individual properly licensed to diagnose or treat a particular pathology.)

Lay Hypnotherapist: (similar to Lay Hypnotist) A tradesperson or professional, without a doctorate-level education in hypnotherapy, who performs hypnotherapy with or without training. This includes medical doctors, nurses, psychologists, counselors, and unlicensed individuals who use hypnosis or hypnotherapy for any purpose. The word "lay" means "not of a particular profession." Here the profession is that of the doctoral level hypnotherapist. The use of term "lay hypnotherapist" or "lay hypnotists" by tradesmen or professionals involved in other occupations or fields of study to describe hypnotherapy practitioners outside their trade or profession is semantically incorrect. A professional hypnotherapist may be considered as a layman in the fields of medicine and psychology, but not in the field of hypnotherapy. This is not meant to disparage the voluminous and truly valuable contributions to the field of lay hypnotherapists.

Medicine: The science of diagnosing, treating, or preventing disease and other damage to the body or mind.

Naturopathy: A system of therapy and treatment that relies on natural remedies, such as sunlight supplemented with diet and massage.

Pathology: A departure or deviation from a normal condition; a scientific study of the nature of disease and its causes, processes, development, and consequences.

Patient: A person who is enduring a situation and seeking assistance from an institution or another person. While medical consumers are simultaneously customers, clients, and patients, the term patient is not limited to the medical field. Therefore, the labeling of a consumer of hypnotherapy services as a patient does not imply that the practitioner is conducting the practice of medicine. It merely means that the hypnotherapist's customer is enduring a situation and is seeking assistance.

Practice of medicine: The learned profession that is mastered by graduate training in a medical school and that is devoted to preventing or alleviating or curing diseases and injuries; "he studied medicine at Harvard".

Professional Hypnotherapist: A hypnotherapist who has earned a doctoral-level academic degree the field. The word professional traditionally means a person who has obtained a professional (i.e. doctoral level) degree -- a physician or lawyer or so on. (Source: Wikipedia.org). The word is often misused to signify that someone is being paid for services versus an unpaid person, who is classified as an amateur. This definition excludes skilled craftsmen and tradesmen whose occupation does not include both academic credentials and a substantial academic body of knowledge. While members of many occupations profess to what they call "professional standards," their usage of the term is not correct. Real estate agents and home builders are at best tradesmen rather than professionals. Therefore, people who receive remuneration for services rendered are more accurately classified as performing an occupation or trade. Using this strict -- and appropriately accurate definition -- a profession requires an academic body of knowledge and a degree(s) that represent the highest level of academic standing in that field. This level is referred to as a doctoral level. The term professional is equivalent to the definition of Social Economic Status (i.e. SES). The modified Hollingshead scale of social position lists the professional level as level 1. The acceptance of hypnotherapists as professionals reguires that they adhere to the same standards as other fields (i.e. law, medicine, psychology, etc.), which include both professional and trade-level practitioners.

Psychology: The science that deals with mental processes and behavior.

Psychiatry: The branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental and emotional disorders.

Selective thinking: A mental process in which suggestion and imagination occur to the point that further brain and other physiological reactions are altered. Selective thinking uses the prefrontal cortex's natural ability to anticipate and simulate. The relative efficiency of a person's selective thinking relies upon specific neural substrates receiving sufficient activating cerebral blood flow. Generally, when the hypnotic process occurs, it can be said that cerebral blood flow shifts from substrates that promote stability and resistance to change and concentrates in those that support selective thinking.

Subject: A person who experiences hypnosis administered by someone else.

Traditional medicine: (also know as general medicine) Refers to medical knowledge systems that developed over generations within various societies before the advent of what is called modern medicine (which can be referred to as allopathic). Traditional medicine includes Ayurveda, SIddha, Unani, ancient Iranian medicine, Islamic medicine, traditional Chinese Medicine, traditional Korean medicine, acupuncture, and traditional African medicine.