One thing I have noticed throughout the years is that a rigorous evidence-based therapy requires an enormous amount of time that the practitioner needs to dedicate to that research to locate the most effective evidence, practice, technique for any particular situation and circumstances, especially it’s time consuming for a new practitioner; and sometimes the more research we do, the more we will see that some of the studies contradict each other or they don’t provide the full answers to the best method to apply to a particular case.
Particularly, we need to pay attention to what institution funded the research, as in many cases, this will affect the results of what is published or what is not published. Obviously, we know that one of the difficulties we encounter is that there haven’t been many studies done on the efficacy of hypnotherapy for many conditions and this is due to the lack of funds for these types of studies; mainly because the pharmaceutical industry is not interested in funding research on any type of therapy that could potentially minimize their profits.
Another challenge we have is that once we have been able to identify the most efficient method or technique, we need to adapt it to our client and specific situation, maintaining the ethics and moral values we need to abide as healthcare practitioners and taking into account the general wellbeing of our patients / clients.
From the documents and research I read, I like the PRAISES model as is a very integrative, systematic, easy to follow model to ensure that all necessary assessments and evaluations have been considered.
I completely and fully agree with this quote from W. Edwards Deming: ‘It is not enough to do your best; you, first, have to know what to do and then do your best. ‘
This thinking has led me throughout the years to complete many courses on hypnosis, hypnotherapy and other complimentary techniques and methods to ensure that I have all necessary information, knowledge, skills and experience to know what to do in each specific situation (including referring the case to other professionals or do more research) and then do my best.
