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Why Do Hypnotherapists Need a Union?

The field of hypnotherapy, in most of the United States of America, is a non-licensed profession. As recognition and demand for hypnotherapy grows across the country, a hypnotherapist's right to practice comes under increasing attack from other groups-  psychologists, medical doctors, and other hypnosis groups, who would like to pass regulation that restricts the practice of hypnotherapy to their own profession or organization. Attempts to state license the profession more often than not creates even more restrictions that serve special interests.


By joining the Hypnotherapists Union, which is affiliated with the AFL-CIO, you accomplish three (03) main goals:

  1. Your voice to legislators concerning your wish to protect your right to practice hypnotherapy carries the weight of the collective numbers of millions of Union members.
  2. You have a "watch dog" - looking out any restrictive legislation or regulation that affects your right to practice hypnotherapy.
  3. "Certification" with an independent and democratic body with a name "AFL-CIO" the public is already familiar.

AFL-CIO

The AFL-CIO Hypnotherapists Union Power


By affiliating with the AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations), hypnotherapists have gained much greater political strength and bargaining power then they ever could on their own. The Hypnotherapists Union was organized to protect your career in hypnotherapy. It is the vanguard against restrictive legislation.

Almost everyone has heard of the AFL-CIO and knows that it is here to stay. Let us compare membership statistics with three of the most widely recognized professional associations.

  • The American Medical Association has approximately 26,000 members in the State of California.
  • The California Dental Association has approximately 12,000 members.
  • The American Psychological Association has approximately 4,575 members in California.
  • The AFL-CIO, of which we are a member, has between 600,000 and 700,000 members in California alone.

Working Hard to protect our profession: Nevada

Did you know that a number of Local 472 union members in Nevada recently received Cease and Desist letters from the Nevada Board of Psychological Examiners ordering them to immediately stop practicing and advertising hypnosis? 

  • Local 472 is currently hard at work on behalf of those members to try to protect our profession in Nevada.
The Hypnotherapists Union Local 472 has already done ALL of the following for its members who are affected in Nevada: 
    • held an immediate conference call with OPEIU/AFL-CIO leaders to plan a response;
    • hired a Nevada attorney who specializes in legal matters before state licensing boards;
    • arranged for that attorney to accompany the Local 472 members at meetings of the Board of Psychological Examiners to address the issue;
    • drafted a 13 page position paper addressed to the Board of Psychological Examiners that has received universal praise from other hypnotherapists and hypnosis organizations.   A copy of that position paper is posted on our website here: Nevada Position Paper Local 472.pdf  We submitted this paper to the Attorney General on September 2, 2014.
    • submitted our position paper to the Nevada Attorney General's Office;
    • had the head of the Nevada AFL-CIO  (which has 225,000 members state-wide)hand deliver a copy of our position paper to the Nevada Attorney General to show the AFL-CIO’s support for our position;
    • had the general counsel of the Office and Professional Employees International Union (on behalf of its more than 100,000 members) write to the Nevada Board of Psychological Examiners opposing the cease & desist letters;  and
    • considered pursuing the following additional options if necessary: negotiations, lobbying, legislative proposals, regulatory proposals, litigation and more.

And, did you know that, all of these efforts were led and directed by Local 472's President Bruce Bonnett, who is a graduate of Harvard Law School (graduating in the same class as President Obama), with over a decade of experience as a corporate attorney and another decade of experience as a hypnotherapist?

And, we were successful! On November 7, 2014, the Nevada Board of Psychological Examiners at their board meeting agreed to withdraw the Cease and Desist letters that had been previously issued to hypnotherapists and hypnotists in Nevada.

Our Nevada members will confirm that it is definitely worth paying your annual dues and being a member of our union!
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