The absence of any accreditation in the country for hypnotherapy is making it vulnerable to fake practitioners, said President of the Hypnotique Circle of Madras, Muthiah Ramanathan. He was speaking on the sidelines of a seminar held on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the organisation on Sunday.
“The Indian government does not recognise hypnotherapy while the American Medical Academy and that in Britain has recognised it as a medical tool since the 1950s. Owing to this situation people without any expertise in the field are able to practice here,” he said.
Speaking about the various applications of hypnosis and hypnotherapy, he said the acceptance of the field is growing in the city. “Nowadays there are an increasing number of patients who seek hypnosis and hypnotherapy. The problems can range anywhere between fear of learning to drive to marital problems,” he said.
Muthiah pointed out that in about 50 per cent of the cases, it is young couples who seek treatment. “Compatibility issues after marriage is the most frequent problems. This is true for both love and arranged marriages.
In about 60 per cent of the cases, it is possible to bring some sort of amicable understanding between the parties,” he said. Experts also pointed out that while young couples were the most frequent seekers of help, there was also a growing number of couples who had been living together for years and have divorce issues now. “More and more couples are coming up with issues of divorce after more than 15 years of living together. The common argument is that they have been waiting for all those years to let their children settle down and that it was now time to move on,” says V V Narayanan, secretary of the association.
Another bunch of people who commonly used this therapy are students, especially school students who are on the road to writing competitive examinations, said the experts.