There is, in UK law, nothing to prevent anyone, with little or no training, from calling him/herself a psychotherapist or hypnotherapist, and advertising as such. There are certainly organisations which will give you an impressive looking 'Diploma' after as little as a week's training - even if you have never been involved in counselling or working with people before! To see one example of this, an email I received recently advertising such a course, click HERE

If that seems surprising, you might want to see another email I received since, inviting me to train as a HYPNO-ANALYST in just two days!  You will notice that this email was not addressed to me specifically, and presumably went to all on a mailing list.  It was unsolicited advertising email, which I believe means that it is spam.  To see the email, please click HERE

There are a number of questions which a prospective client may wish to ask, before deciding to book an appointment with a therapist - any reputable therapist will be happy to answer them. The answers as they apply to David carpenter's practice are given here after each question, in brackets.

·  How long have you trained for? (See the page about David Carpenter for answer)

·  How much Professional Liability insurance do you carry? (Two million pounds)

·  Of what professional associations are you a member? (Professional Member of the Association for NLP
, Registered with the UK Council for Psychotherapy
, Accredited as an NLP Psychotherapist by the Neuro-Linguistic Psychotherapy and Counselling Association (NLPtCA),
Fellow of the Hypnotherapy Society).

·  How long have you been in practice? (Since 1990)

·  Do you have a clinical supervisor? How often and for how long do you meet with him/her to discuss the work you are doing with clients? (Yes - my clinical supervisor is a Psychotherapist and NLP Trainer with many years of experience. I normally meet with him for at least two hours  every month. By the way, you may decide to avoid any therapist who responds by saying that he/she is so experienced that they do not need supervising).

·  Health professionals who wish to refer, and others who are interested can view further technical information about the practice by clicking here