Cal: Hello everybody, Cal Banyan here, Cal Banyan's Hypnosis Etc. with Brenda Titus. And, let me tell you what we're going to talk about today, she's going to make a bold statement about it too. And it's about the value of continuing education because certification is a way to get started, but it's not the end-all of all end-alls.
Let me tell you about Brenda. You know, she's got a practice here at the Banyan Hypnosis Center. She sees clients every week. She helps out with our supervision. During class she'll go around, and she supervises. Sometimes she'll do a little talk while we're teaching class, totally qualified. Before she came to the world of hypnosis, she was educated in talk therapy. She has a Bachelor's Degree in sociology, Master's Degree in Criminology, and she worked at a rape crisis center, and then she came over to the hypnosis side. She has been going full steam ever since. How’re you doing, Brenda?
Brenda : I'm doing great, Cal. Thank you so much for having me today, and my bold statement for today is, "You are not alone." And today we're going to talk about having to be alone as you continue your ongoing education.
First, I would like to tell you about one of the reasons that I'm not alone, which is Cal Banyan. Cal Banyan is the hypnosis celebrity partially because of these incredible training videos that he produces every week. We are approaching number 400, if you can believe it. Years and years we've put together these weekly podcasts, training videos for all of you out there so that you won't ever have to be alone. You've always got great information out there.
Cal is the hypnosis celebrity and authority because he has received almost every award in the profession, and his books have made him the authority on hypnosis and hypnotherapy that truly works. I've seen it for myself here both personally and professionally, this works. And I'm so thankful to not be alone because Cal, actually as a trainer, has done so much for his grads as well as the profession as a whole, to provide ongoing education resources for all of us out there in the profession.
So with that, Cal, should I go ahead and get started on today's topic?
Cal: Well, I just want to thank you very much for all those kind words and, you know, this isn't number 400, is it?
Brenda: No, we're just approaching number 400.
Cal: Approaching 400.
Brenda Titus: I lost track.
Cal: Okay, you folks out there, if you've got an idea of what we should do for our 400th episode, message us. Put a comment down below, right down there or Hypnosis Etc. on Facebook. Give us some ideas about what you'd like to see happen on our 400th episode because it'll be a couple of years before we get to our 500th. Who knows, might not even do one? Hey, I mean, the 500th.
So let's just see what we can do with this 400th one. All right. Take it over, Brenda.
Brenda: Excellent. Well, so we talked last week about certification and how important those initial 100 hours going through your certification process and really getting the most out of that experience. However, then every year we are required to do another 15 hours of ongoing education, CEUs, that we have to get approved by the National Guild of Hypnotists in order to get our new certification.
I actually just completed mine, and I was thrilled. I think I had 41 hours, and that was largely because when we go to the convention, you get, I believe, 24 hours because it's three solid days of education that you are eligible for there at the convention. You can get CEUs ongoing hours through Solid Gold. You can also attend trainings, other trainings, different hypnotists provide trainings throughout the year that you can go to.
The NGH also provides actually quite a few great opportunities online where you can also get ongoing certification hours. But, today I would like to talk about some other opportunities for you to continue to grow and learn, some different self-study things, as well as, like I said, the whole point of today is, "You are not alone."
So I would like to talk today about working with a mentor, working in a supervision relationship, working in study groups because "You don't have to be alone" kind of depends on what you would like to do to collaborate and work with other hypnotists in order to grow. So what do you think about that, Cal?
Cal: You know, that's why I work at the Banyan Hypnosis Center was because when I had the vision to get certified and be a hypnotist, I didn't want to be a lone hypnotist. I wanted to have other hypnotists around me that we could share our thoughts and discoveries together, ask questions of each other. So, yeah, heck, there are too many lonely hypnotists out there. Tell them what they should do about it, Brenda.
Brenda: Exactly. Well, so like we said, you get your certification, you are ready to go. And technically that is true. I started my practice with 100 hours of certification, and I started seeing clients right away. So it absolutely is possible. However, we never stop learning. There are always other things that you want to do. So, I know, I actually subscribe to a couple of message boards myself.
Through the Banyan Hypnosis Center, we have a 5-PATHer message board where people who are grads through the 5-PATH process, they can ask questions. People can get really incredible information insight input. There are other places that you can go. LinkedIn has message boards. There are a variety of message boards that are out there. It requires a little bit of bravery because you've got to have to be a brave person who is ready to ask those questions. And they also need to be brave to receive pretty straightforward assertive responses as well because we're all busy, we want to provide information.
Everybody, this is the most incredible profession for people really giving back to the newer people, the less experienced people out there. But you've got to be brave enough to ask those questions. And then someone who feels they understand your question enough to be able to answer it. Everywhere I go, I always see really great people who are so wonderful at giving back and answering those questions.
So message boards are low pressure, low commitment ways that you can continue to not be alone out there, so that you can get some of that ongoing assistance after you have trained. And so what do you think about that, Cal? I've seen you participate in message boards and things like that.
Cal: Absolutely. One thing, if you're a little bit timid, there can be a level of anonymity. I mean, nobody knows who you really are. So you can get out there and ask your kind of - I don't want to say dumb questions - but, you know, those neophyte beginner questions that you want to ask when you're new.
And then what's really cool, like with our 5-PATH yahoo group for our grads, we've had over 25,000 messages posted to that group. And so it's really a thriving online community. It's probably anywhere between four and eight messages a day that go on there, maybe sometimes more than that. And then every year at the National Guild convention on a Thursday night before the convention, we have a dinner, and everybody gets together and we already know everybody.
It's so cool, and then when you go to the convention, you've got this crowd of maybe 60 people that you can go take classes with and stuff. And it started maybe in class, but there are just a few people in class. But you get on the board. We've got 1000, 1200 people that are active in our 5-PATH group on Yahoo.
So you start making those connections. Start getting that support, but it can turn into relationships with people that you know, like, and love and know in person, isn't that right?
Brenda: Exactly. I have many, as I call them, my hypno-sisters out there. Got a few "sis" and I've got a few hypno-bros out there as well, and that's because of those boards, those message boards. And then meeting those people and really developing those relationships at convention.
So I want to talk a little bit more though about developing a professional relationship with a more experienced hypnotist. We're talking about issues like coaching, mentoring, and supervision which I kind of want to talk about this a little bit because it is sometimes possible to hire or work with a more professional or more experienced hypnotist to develop that kind of relationship.
And this can come in a variety of forms. You know, coaching might be more like advice, some guidance, some types of things. Mentoring might be a little bit more formal, and then supervision is how I kind of see it as probably the most formal type of relationship.
And you know quite frankly it is . . . you know, I am very fortunate. I'm in private practice; however, because I'm here, I see Cal almost every day. I get to talk to him. I don't pick his brain too much, but I know that in a pinch I've got him right here. How I kind of like to look at it is that for me, I can ask questions here on the podcast. So I try to pick questions that I think are going to be helpful for all of you out there. So you can kind of see a little bit what a mentoring relationship might look like.
So we can kind of, Erika and I and Celeste and Meredith can come here and talk to Cal and get a little bit of a piece of having some of that mentorship. That way all of you can benefit from it. It's a reminder that that's why it's so important that if you have questions, please leave us your questions, your comments either down below, or to get in touch with us co-hosts directly so that we really can get those questions answered.
And it's kind of like, Cal can be a mentor a little bit to the masses as he has been through all these Hypnosis Etc. podcasts, isn't that right, Cal?
Cal: Yeah, I'm . . . I don't even know how to say this, but I feel called to reach out there and help people who don't have support, will never get support. They're out there being the lonely hypnotist. Just the other day, like yesterday actually, on one of my posts on our fan page, Facebook.com/HypnosisEtc., someone in Indonesia asked me a question about hypnotic inductions and the value of the progressive relaxation. I made a few comments, said hello, and then gave them a link to a podcast where I covered that in detail.
So it just really makes me feel good to be able to reach out in that way. And then also, now this is for our grads only, I have a coaching program. If somebody wants to have a professional relationship and they've got to be 5-PATHers. I'm not going to teach someone how to do hypnosis one-on-one from the start. They need to be certified, speak in the proper language, know the five phases, know the secret language of feelings, that kind of thing.
And then I will have a professional coaching relationship with them. And that's designed to save them a lot of money. For example, when I first started, I figure it cost me about $16,000 to get started, and we went big. We rented a 2000 square foot facility. It had rooms for several hypnotists. We had Yellow Pages ads back in the day.
Before we really got to where I wanted to go, I actually spent $80,000 to get that business going. And now, guess what? I can use all that knowledge to help somebody kickstart their practice and at a lot less money, a lot greater chance of success so that coaching can save you money, save you time, provide you with the kind of guidance you need, both in the business way and also in the hypnosis, hypnotherapy way and can build your confidence, take those kinks out of your sessions by viewing videos and finding out what you could be doing better. So it super charges your confidence and greatly increases the probability of success in your business. So, yes, I'm all about that. I'm totally with you on that, Brenda.
Brenda: Exactly. And that is the key that some people, they need that extra little push, especially to have that one-on-one relationship, professional relationship. And so, sometimes it's actually hiring a hypnotist to be your coach for a couple of months or what have you or even like with supervision, where there's business coaching and setup and things like that. But then, of course, there's also sitting down and doing supervision where maybe they're walking you through actual sessions, you know, watching your videos, going through and really talking about your process.
And that's become a little bit different than some of the other, more casual things that we've talked about here, like with the message boards or even what we try to facilitate here in a public format on the podcast which you may want to consider actually, working one-on-one with a more experienced hypnotist and actually hiring them to do some coaching, developing a professional relationship.
And when I say hiring, we're talking about they're taking time out of their business to work with you. So that's why I say hiring, making that professional arrangement, and I have to say, I think that that would be an incredible asset for people who really, like you said, you can put a lot of time and effort into this business and you want to succeed. So I wanted to talk about that a little bit today.
And then the other thing that I wanted to talk about which I think is another just excellent avenue for people to do that, sense of not being alone is to work in a study group. And I think that this is just something that I am very enthusiastic about that I have seen with some of my fellow 5-PATHers recently. They kind of came together, kind of began a formal study group with a specific plan to work through some of Cal's materials, the Online supervision CD series. So they kind of said, "Who's in? Who wants to do it?"
And they opened it up, and then they said, "All right. We're meeting on such and such date for our first date, and then we're closing it up." It's a closed group so that they can all develop a level of trust, develop a level of comfort to be able to then ask these questions as they're going through the materials. But so they're learning and growing together, and I just think that I've seen some of the input from people who are a part of that group. And I've seen them all grow already, and I'm thrilled to see it because I think that to have mutual growth to grow together but to have a relationship as you're growing and learning. That can just be such a valuable asset, and sometimes that means you need to step out and ask.
Go out for all of you who are interested in something like this, to go out into some sort of message board that you're on and say,
"All right. I would like to start a study group. Who wants to join me?" And this is all online. You can meet through Skype, online. So it's not even in person, but you're developing a commitment, you're developing a commitment to another person to help them grow. And, of course, then you're making that commitment to yourself that you are growing, you are becoming accountable then to someone else for your ongoing education.
And I really think that that's so important because in the end what we're talking about is then as you grow . . . you know, we talk so much about developing our profession, and that's very often . . . A key buzz word that I like is we're developing our profession as each of us grows and learns. Then we have something to give back to someone who could use that information. So as you grow and learn, you grow and learn with other people. Then you are able to pass that along to someone else.
So get a mentor, develop a relationship with someone. Maybe join a study group, learn and grow. You don't have to do it alone, and I hope that this was helpful today for all of you in finding some avenues that you could continue to learn and grow.
Cal: Wow, that was real good. So summarize that. What are like the three, four, or five different things you talked about for folks to become a hypnotist.
Brenda: Ah, I would say well, first of all, of course, never stop learning whether you are on your own or whether you're with somebody else. So never stop learning. I highly recommend developing relationships. So finding a few people that you really connect with that you can develop ongoing training with, to have somebody that you can talk to, bounce ideas back and forth with, so developing a relationship. And that might mean hiring somebody. So that is something to think about as well.
Study, learn, grow, and like I said, give back. Even those who are new, they can all be a part of learning and growing and helping other people learn and grow. Obviously, Erika and myself, we're both relatively new in the profession, and we're here so that as we grow we can help all of you.
Cal: Okay. Hey, now you were just talking about something just as old-fashioned as like a book club. Remember, I guess that is old-fashioned just because it's been around for a while. You could have a book club where you and some other people from the group that you are associated with agree to read a book over a certain period of time and discuss it. And I think that would just be a really good way to go.
Okay. This is Cal Banyan. Please go to our Facebook page. Please like us and share us, and also I've got a class coming up in October. I'm really looking forward to that. It's October 13th through the 24th in 2014, and I'd love to have you in class. And I'm sure I'll schedule some others, but as right now, that's the only other scheduled in the future. All right. Cal Banyan, signing off!