2d • Hypnotherapy
The Many Hats We Wear as Clinical Hypnotherapists
When people begin training as clinical hypnotherapists, they imagine learning inductions, deepeners, trauma protocols and powerful language patterns. They picture the therapy room. They picture transformation. They picture impact.
What they don’t always picture is the hat stand.
Because stepping into private practice means stepping into multiplicity. You are not simply a therapist. You are a facilitator, a hypnotic technician, a reflective practitioner, a business owner, a leader, a strategist, a communicator and, at times, your own HR department.
This is where many practitioners feel the wobble. Not because they are clinically incapable, but because no one prepared them for the internal and external hat-switching that self-employment requires.
There is a useful metaphor developed by Edward de Bono in his work Six Thinking Hats. He described different “hats” as deliberate modes of thinking, data, emotion, creativity, caution, optimism and process. What I love about this model is not just its practicality, but its permission. It reminds us that we do not have to think about everything all at once. We can consciously choose which lens we are using.
In practice, this matters enormously.
There are moments when you must wear the White Hat, the data hat. You review your client numbers, your revenue, your outcomes, your conversion rates. There is no guilt here, no story. Just facts. If the numbers say your fees are unsustainable, then compassion alone cannot override mathematics.
There are moments for the Red Hat, your intuitive knowing. That subtle sense that something in a session is unresolved. That quiet inner voice that says, “Slow down.” As hypnotherapists, our attunement is one of our greatest strengths. But intuition without structure can drift.
There is the Black Hat, the ethical guardian. Scope of practice. Safeguarding. Referral decisions. Financial caution. This is not negativity; it is maturity.
There is the Yellow Hat, possibility thinking. The part of you that says, “If I niche into this, I could really serve deeply.” Without optimism, practices stagnate.
There is the Green Hat, creativity. The metaphors, the workshop ideas, the programme structures, the playful marketing concepts that make your work feel alive.
And above all, there is the Blue Hat, the conductor. The part of you that decides what today is for. Clinical notes? Strategy? Supervision? Rest? This hat prevents cognitive chaos.
However, while these thinking hats are powerful, there are other hats I believe are even more essential, and far less discussed in professional training.
The Self-Compassion Hat.
This is the one that says, “You are allowed to be growing.” It softens the inner critic when a sessions uncover more and extend longer than planned. It acknowledges that competence develops over time. Without this hat, therapists can become harsh, perfectionistic and quietly exhausted.
Then there is the Self-Care Hat.
We regulate others for a living. We co-regulate nervous systems steeped in trauma, grief, addiction and anxiety. If we do not consciously regulate ourselves, through movement, supervision, reflection, nourishment and genuine rest, we begin to absorb what was never ours to carry.
The Time-Out Hat is closely related. This is the boundary hat. It closes the laptop. It does not respond to messages at 10pm. It understands that urgency in others does not require reactivity in us.
The Day-Off Hat is radical for many practitioners. A full day without productivity. Without content creation. Without “just catching up.” Rest is not laziness. It is strategic nervous system maintenance.
And perhaps my favourite of all, the Inner Child Hat.
This is the hat that laughs loudly. That dances in the kitchen. That watches something silly. That paints badly. That plays. If we lose access to joy, spontaneity and lightness, our work becomes heavy. We cannot guide clients toward vitality if we have forgotten how to access our own.
Finally, there is the Joy Hat.
Joy is not frivolous. It is expansive. It widens tolerance. It builds resilience. It reconnects us to why we entered this profession in the first place.
The biggest trap I see in practitioners is wearing the empathy hat in every situation. Feeling uncomfortable charging appropriately. Feeling responsible for every outcome. Feeling personally attached to every fluctuation in bookings. Empathy is beautiful, but without the data hat, the boundary hat and the CEO hat, it leads to burnout.
The art of sustainable practice lies not in wearing fewer hats, but in wearing them consciously.
When overwhelm rises, I often invite my students and supervisees to pause and ask:
Which hat am I wearing right now?
And which hat does this moment actually require?
Sometimes the answer will be “CEO.”
Sometimes it will be “Therapist.”
And sometimes, beautifully, it will be “Day Off.”
Building a private practice is not just about mastering hypnosis. It is about mastering self-leadership. It is about knowing when to hold space, when to analyse numbers, when to innovate, when to protect boundaries, and when to go and be gloriously human.
We are not meant to live in one hat.
We are meant to move between them, with awareness, with kindness, and with joy.
And that, to me, is the work of a truly joyful mind mentor.
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The Many Hats We Wear as Clinical Hypnotherapists
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