In any profession, receiving criticism and feedback is part of the journey. This input can be uncomfortable, but it improves your skills and increases your expertise. Feedback is especially valuable in hypnosis, where trust, connection, and empathy play essential roles.
For a professional hypnotist, constructive client feedback sharpens skills, builds rapport, and improves effectiveness and client outcomes. However, receiving feedback and applying it to your practice is not always easy. Let’s explore how you can transform criticism into growth.
Understand the Value of Client Feedback
Hypnosis is highly personal. Your clients share their profound challenges, fears, and traumas with you. Each client also brings their own backgrounds, needs, and expectations to their sessions. Their feedback can help you tailor your approach for future sessions with them. This input can help you understand how they experience their sessions, what works for them, and what might not be working as you intended. Remember that what is comfortable and effective for one person may not work for another.
Clients may voice concerns about anything from the pace of sessions to your communication style or the volume of your voice. It can be easy to take these criticisms personally. The scent someone complains about could be from a candle you selected after smelling dozens of options. You may have carefully selected an induction script for them, only to have them express discomfort about it. Perhaps you even felt proud of your hypnotherapy scripts, only to be told they find them annoying. That can be a blow to your confidence.
However, all this input provides clues that help you better serve your clients’ needs. Perhaps you remove the candle before sessions with that client. Maybe you need to reconsider having scented items in your office at all. Feedback is what helps you understand that.
Instead of focusing on the discomfort you feel when you hear these things, consider the valuable insight feedback brings to the overall client experience you offer. Remind yourself that what you are hearing is the best way to make yourself a better hypnotist overall and for that specific client.
Establish a Feedback-Friendly Environment
Offering criticism is often uncomfortable for people, especially to someone with whom they have a personal relationship. Clients may be worried about hurting your feelings or disrupting the trusting relationship they’ve established with you. In that case, they will hesitate to be candid with you about concerns, suggestions, or things that aren’t working for them. You can help overcome this reluctance by creating a warm, receptive tone and initiating conversations about their experience. Solicit feedback rather than hoping your client will offer it up unprompted.
At the end of your sessions, invite clients to share their thoughts. Some people will be more comfortable offering criticism or suggestions in person. Others will appreciate the distance created by email or an online form. One person might want to provide their thoughts immediately while they are still fresh, and another may need time to process their feelings and experiences before sharing them.
Make as many avenues available as possible so that your clients can choose the one that is most comfortable for them. End a session by telling them you value their feedback and letting them know their options for offering it. Ask them if they’d prefer to chat about their thoughts or if they’d rather discuss them at the next session or email them to you.
Be clear with your clients that you see your relationship with them as a partnership to help them achieve their goals. Consider asking some of these questions:
- Was there anything in today’s session that felt unclear or uncomfortable?
- What parts of our session were most helpful?
- Is there something you’d like me to do differently in the future?
- Is there anything you’d like to focus on differently in future sessions?
These straightforward, specific questions communicate that you respect the client’s experience and value their input. They set the stage for dialog in a way that “Do you have any feedback?” might not. You want to make it easy and comfortable for your clients to voice concerns or offer insights.
Process Feedback with Empathy and Objectivity
It’s easy to let feedback start you down a path of self-doubt. It’s natural to feel vulnerable when hearing criticism, especially about something personal and meaningful to you. Try to let go of ego and doubts. Instead, approach feedback with as much objectivity as you can muster.
Remember that client comments reflect their experiences, not your value as a hypnotist or human being. Even especially harsh criticism is about your match with that client as their hypnosis provider, not your overall skills or value. It’s a bit like dating—sometimes, a fantastic person isn’t the right fit. It doesn’t mean they are flawed; it just means those two people don’t match well. You can be an outstanding hypnotist and not be the right fit for a particular client.
Here are some ways to help you manage your reactions to feedback:
- Take a step back and assess the comment in context. Was it a one-off remark or a recurring theme in your feedback?
- Consider the specific situation and the client’s history. Could that be shaping their experience? If so, what can you do to tailor your approach in light of their experiences?
- Remind yourself that your self-worth and value as a wellness practitioner don’t rely on one client’s experience. If you can adjust your approach to better meet the needs and preferences of that client, that’s wonderful. If not, it may be that you aren’t the right person to help them with their challenges.
Staying objective creates room for growth and helps avoid defensiveness and doubt. While feedback is valuable, it should be empowering and a means for improvement. Don’t let it become something you see as a reflection of your skills or self-worth.
When you receive positive feedback, embrace it. Affirmation can motivate you, show you what works well for most clients, and build confidence.
By taking a thoughtful, balanced approach to criticism and feedback, you can continually grow, adapt, and thrive as a professional hypnotist. You will learn what works best for each client, as well as what seems to be most effective overall. Embrace feedback that enhances your career and your relationships with your clients.
