Members of the NBH agree to the following rules of conduct: As a Hypnotherapist, you must protect the health and well-being of people who use or need your services in every circumstance.

Everyone applying to join the NBH must confirm that they have read, and agree to keep to, the standards explained in this document. Signing the application form for NBH membership constitutes such agreement.

The standards of conduct, performance, and ethics

This page explains the standards of conduct, performance, and ethics that all members must keep to. They are the basis against which we will assess complaints made against a registered member of the NBH. We might take action against you if you do not keep to the standards set out in this statement.

Your main responsibilities are summarised below, grouped into the categories of conduct, performance, and ethics. Please remember that this is not a complete list of all the issues that can arise in relation to your conduct, performance, and ethics.

You must always keep high standards of conduct. You must always:

1. Act in the best interests of your clients You are personally responsible for making sure that you promote and protect the best interests of the people you care for. You must not exploit relationships with clients, allow your views on their sex, age, colour, race, disability, sexuality, social or economic status, lifestyle, culture, political or religious beliefs to affect the way you treat them. You must not do anything, or allow anything to be done that you have good reason to believe will put the health of safety of a client in danger. This includes both your own actions and those of others. The safety of clients must come before any personal and professional loyalties. As soon as you become aware of any situation that puts a client at risk, you should discuss the matter with your supervisor or a senior professional colleague.
2. Respect the confidentiality of your clients
   You must only use information about a client in the following circumstances:
   • To continue to care for that person; or
   • For the purposes where that person has given you specific permission to use the information; or
   • To take necessary steps to minimise and prevent the risks of clients harming themselves of others.
3. Maintain high standards of personal conduct
   Any past criminal convictions must be declared and will be taken into account when applying for membership/registration. This will be balanced with the fact that we will also take into account other considerations such as time spent since conviction, type of conviction and potential threat posed to clients. We may ask for references. Any criminal conviction received whilst being an existing member must be declared to the chair of the committee in confidence.
4. Provide any important information about conduct and competence. You must tell us information relating to your own personal and professional conduct, as well as that relating to other members. You must and cooperate in any investigations.

You must always keep high standards of performance. You must always:

1. Keep your professional knowledge and skills up to date
   All members are required to show evidence of at least 15 hours of accredited continuous professional development per year when renewing their membership.
2. Act within the limits of your knowledge, skills and experience and, if necessary, refer your client on to another professional
3. Maintain proper and effective communications with clients and other professionals
4. All members must be engaged in regular and relevant supervision for the first three years of practice. Subsequent supervision may be by peer association.
5. Get informed consent as necessary
   You must explain to the client what you are proposing to do, your reasons for doing this, and discuss any possible alternatives.
6. Keep accurate client records
7. Keep within health and safety guidelines as appropriate to your working environment
8. Limit your work or stop practising if your performance or judgement is affected by your health.

Finally, you must always keep high standards of ethics. You must always:

1. Carry out your duties in a professional and ethical way
2. Behave with integrity and honesty
3. Properly attribute any text published on your Web site, Facebook page, brochure, or other documentation.
4. Follow our guidelines for how you advertise your services:
   Any advertising must be accurate, and you may not claim to provide better services than others unless you can demonstrate this to be true. You should conform to the Advertising Standards Authority’s rules on advertising and marketing. Visit www.asa.org.uk for more details.
5. Make sure that your behaviour does not damage this Association or your profession’s reputation
6. Be aware of the actions the NBH may employ with members who do not meet or who breach the standards:
   • If a report is received that an NBH member is breaching or not meeting standards the first action will be to clarify said information, including the reliability of the source.
   • The member will be contacted by a member of the Ethics Committee and given the opportunity to explain and/or clarify.
   • In the case of inadvertent or minor breaches it may be enough for the member to be contacted and offered support. For more serious breaches a ‘panel’ will be formed of Ethics Committee members and there are a number of sanctions that may be employed:
     1. A clear instruction of how the member should address said breach and improve their future conduct.
     2. A requirement for further training and or evidence of learning to be undertaken.
     3. A suspension.
     4. Revocation of membership.

In the event of any of these sanctions being imposed, said member may request a full appeal with the ‘panel’ and committee of NBH, the committee’s decision following the appeal shall be final.

The NBH does not insure individuals, though we expect all practitioners to be appropriately insured, either through their workplace, or through individual arrangements. Applicants should state clearly on applications who they are insured with.