History and Development
The UK College of Hypnosis & Hypnotherapy has spent over two decades building an evidence-based approach to hypnotherapy – one rooted in psychological research rather than tradition or anecdote.
/
The College is founded
+
Students trained in the Hypno-CBT® model
+
Countries reached
Origins
The College was founded in April 2003, when Donald Robertson registered the trademark for HypnoSynthesis®, initially teaching self-hypnosis and personal development after several years running smaller workshops and seminars. In July 2005, the organisation was renamed The UK College of Hypnosis & Hypnotherapy Limited, and the Hypno-CBT® trademark was registered that same year to reflect the College’s developing focus on cognitive-behavioural hypnotherapy.
In 2007, the College became one of the first hypnotherapy training providers in the UK to gain Centre Approval status from NCFE, a government-regulated awarding organisation, and went on to develop a bespoke Diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy – the first evidence-based, externally verified hypnotherapy qualification of its kind in the country.
Developing the Hypno-CBT® model
Donald Robertson wrote a single article in 2008 describing Hypno-CBT® as a proprietary system, but subsequently returned to using the broader term “cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy” in all his later publications – most notably in his 2013 book The Practice of Cognitive-Behavioural Hypnotherapy – and had withdrawn the Hypno-CBT® name from his own platforms entirely by 2012. The Hypno-CBT® model as it exists today – its theoretical framework, clinical methods, and integrative approach – was developed by Mark R. Davis, who began using the name in his own practice from 2007, joined the College as Vice-Principal in 2008, and took full ownership of the College and the Hypno-CBT® trademark in 2013, through the company he founded, Mindease Limited.
Under Davis’s direction, the model has continued to develop into a comprehensive theoretical and clinical framework, now delivered to over 3,000 students across more than 20 countries.
Growth and recognition
1. The College’s evidence-based approach
The College’s evidence-based approach has drawn recognition from beyond the hypnotherapy profession. In 2014, the British Psychological Society Learning Centre formally recognised the Certificate and Diploma courses as approved CPD for psychologists. In 2020, the College delivered a specially designed 8-day training in the Hypno-CBT® approach to 25 psychologists at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
2. The teaching team
The teaching team has grown steadily to reflect this, with contributions over the years from CBT trainer Daniel Mirea, and workshops from Dr Assen Alladin and Professor E. Thomas Dowd, both significant contributors to the wider field of cognitive-behavioural hypnotherapy.
3. Level 5 Higher Diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy
In 2022, the College worked with NCFE, through their customised accreditation process, to develop the Level 5 Higher Diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy – an NCFE-accredited Customised Qualification benchmarked at Level 5 difficulty, bringing a new level of evidence-based and science-aligned qualification to the UK. (Please note this is an unregulated qualification and is not a nationally recognised qualification.) That same year, the Hypno-CBT® trademark was registered in the United States.
An international reach
From 2015, Davis began presenting Hypno-CBT® internationally, starting with the 9th Annual Chinese Psychology Conference and Applied Psychology Summit in Beijing, to an audience of around 1,500 psychologists and psychotherapists. He returned in 2016 as keynote speaker to an audience of approximately 3,000 psychotherapists, and delivered the College’s first full Diploma programme in China that same year.
In 2019, the Chinese Psychological Society certified the Hypno-CBT® Diploma as a psychotherapy training programme, one of the first eight private psychotherapy training programmes in China to receive this certification. This was a certification as a psychotherapy training programme, not merely a hypnotherapy one.
That same year, the College launched its Online Diploma format, making the training accessible to students anywhere in the world – a shift that proved timely when, in 2020, the College moved its live training entirely online in response to the pandemic, with strong results in both student satisfaction and learning outcomes.
A growing academic community
Dr Don Meichenbaum
Albert Ellis
Aaron T. Beck
In 2021, the College invited Dr Donald Meichenbaum – who, alongside Albert Ellis and Aaron T. Beck, helped establish modern cognitive-behavioural therapy – to teach a workshop on trauma and resilience, later run as a fundraiser for Covid relief in India. Dr Meichenbaum subsequently asked the College to record his legacy course, drawing on over 50 years of clinical and academic experience.
This relationship led, in 2023, to the formation of a Senior Advisory Board, initially comprising Dr Meichenbaum, Daniel Mirea, and Professor David Attard, former president of the Viktor Frankl Institute. Clinical Psychologist Dr Krissie Ivings joined the Board in 2025, with Dr Meichenbaum agreeing to head it.
Today
The College continues to operate as a division of Mindease Limited, under the direction of Principal Mark R. Davis, with Hypno-CBT® now being formally positioned as a distinct, integrative psychotherapy model through a growing series of academic publications.
To learn more about the people behind this development, see: