Presidents Message
We accomplished a lot during 2007, for the Guild and for the profession. One of the biggest items was the legislative situation which was threatening our members in Ontario, Canada. We still have our Legislative Liaison Officer, C. Scot Giles and our lobbyist, Attorney Jeffrey Lyons, working on the final negotiations for protecting our members and that work will continue into February 2008.
Our 2007 convention in Marlborough, Massachusetts once again drew a larger crowd, and the hotel staff and our Guild staff came through with flying colors to provide a smooth running event. Currently our advance registrations for August 8-10, 2008 are right on schedule as members take advantage of the early-bird discounts.
The selection committee members are finalizing their choices for the 2008 adjunct faculty presenters and their topics. Each year there are six to seven hundred proposals received at our offices from potential presenters. Our selection committee members take into consideration the subject matter, length of time (seminar or workshop), experience of the presenter, and the need or appeal for the greater number of attendees in making their selections.
We are working on the Solid Gold Weekend in Las Vegas which takes place March 1 - 2, 2008; dates are being set for the various continuing-ed workshops we take to our members in the field, the March 2008
Journal of Hypnotism, the April/May 2008
Hypno-Gram, are in preparation and the consumer-oriented
Hypnosis Today is now completed and in circulation.
A question comes up annually about distance-learning, and although we to study different approaches we have been unable to validate that kind of training for entry level hypnotism students. We have decided that our fifty-six year standard of hands-on training, with personal, supervised, practice is the only proper way to go in our profession. We want competent and confident certified consulting hypnotists entering our profession. Actual class participation and practice is decidedly the way to accomplish this.
We realize there are distance-learning courses in many different academic subjects, but not in something that requires actual hands-on demonstration, practice, and supervision. We have worked diligently to raise our overall standards up and we arent about to regress in any way. We have a definite goalconfident and competent graduatesthe Guild criteria for our basic certification courses.
We have mandated a more thorough study of all applications received in our office for Guild certified membership, and our application forms reflect our policy. In recent years we have added questions pertaining to legal and ethical history and also a photo-ID with every application with the intention of screening applicants more thoroughly.
We will now review all schools, instructors, or organizations to which we have extended reciprocity for their graduates. Those who dont meet our requirements will be dropped, and those who are advertising unauthorized connections to the Guild will be stopped because we have diligently used government copyright and trademark processes. We intend to legally protect our standards and our reputation.
The National Guild of Hypnotists is generally credited with being the reason we are now actually considered a separate and distinct profession. In the past two decades we have accomplished a lot that we can be proud of. For years weve barely mentioned our accomplishments while other groups have jumped in to take credit.
Membership in the Guild is growing; more CI's are holding classes; more graduates are entering our profession part or full time; and public awareness is expanding about how hypnosis can help everyday, ordinary people with the ordinary, everyday problems of living. We will be observing World Hypnotism Day on January 4, 2008; our exciting magazine,
Hypnosis Today is available to the public around the world, our Internet forums are available to members with a special section for the public, our Chapter meeting dates are available on this website for members and other interested parties, and annual registrations are coming in every day for the Las Vegas Solid Gold Weekend and our annual August convention. Our profession is moving forward with a lot of younger people becoming NGH certified consulting hypnotists and starting their professional practices.
I look forward to meeting any and all hypnotists at our 2008 Solid Gold Weekend and our convention in Marlborough, Massachusetts.
Ill see you there ...
Dr. Dwight F. Damon, President
National Guild of Hypnotists, Inc.
National Federation of Hypnotists, Local 104 OPEIU-ALF/CIO