ChatGPT for Hypnotherapists: 10 Ways to Use AI in Your Practice

In this guide, you’ll learn 10 possible uses of ChatGPT for hypnotherapists in private practice.

If you’re unfamiliar with the game-changing Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool, ChatGPT is essentially an online chatbot that has been trained on a vast dataset of text and code and has an enormous array of possible uses, from generating creative content to providing information on practically any subject.

The tool was released to the public in November 2022 and instantly became a global phenomenom. Reaching 100 million monthly uses in just two months, it rapidly became the fastest-growing consumer application in history, a title it held on to until the recent launch of Meta’s latest app, Threads.

What is ChatGPT Good For?

Since I first created my ChatGPT account in January, I’ve mainly used it as a writing tool for helping me plan my work, though I’ve also experimented with tasks as random as creating code for an app and getting it to act as my personal life coach.

However, it was only after watching my wife use it to create lesson plans for an art program she’s coordinating that it suddenly occured to me:

Perhaps ChatGPT can help me in my work as a hypnotherapist.

Below, you’ll find 10 different experiments I ran to test whether ChatGPT has any value as a tool for overcoming the challenges faced in running a private hypnotherapy practice.

10 Ways to Use ChatGPT for Hypnotherapists

I figured the best way to find out how ChatGPT can help hypnotherapists is to ask it. So I did by using the following prompt:

Hi, ChatGPT! I’m a hypnotherapist interested in learning how AI tools can help me grow my private practice and improve my skills and knowledge so that I can better serve my clients.
Can you tell me at least 10 ways that you can help me with this?

Here’s the response:

Let’s take a look at each of these possible uses one by one:

1. Knowledge and Research

ChatGPT claims that it can help with research and expanding knowledge, offering the following:

I can provide information on various topics related to hypnotherapy, including techniques, theories, case studies, and emerging trends. This can help you stay updated and expand your expertise.

I asked it to expand on this. Here’s the response:

I was immediately skeptical about this because ChatGPT’s knowledge only extends to 2021.

This means that it won’t know much -if anything- about research and key developments from the past two years.

The other reason I’m not convinced is that ChatGPT does have a reputation for making stuff up, and the last thing any of us need is to base our work on fictitious research generated by AI.

Still, it would be unfair to write it off without at least giving it a try.

So, I imagined I was a hypnotherapist who wanted to learn about how to incorporate solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) into their private practice and asked ChatGPT to give me an overview.

I chose SFBT because this was the model I originally trained in, so I reasoned I would be able to effectively judge its accuracy.

To give the AI tool credit where it’s due, it gave me a pretty solid primer on the therapeutic model.

It also gave accurate responses when asked to name the key figures in SFBT, though it mostly ignored my request to tell me about its development.

Is ChatGPT Good for Learning and Research? My Verdict

Despite its limitations, I would say that ChatGPT does a good job of providing entry-level introductions on subjects of interest to hypnosis practitioners.

That said, I wouldn’t recommend taking everything it says at face value.

Instead, use AI to get an overview of the subject and then expand your research with verified and up-to-date sources found online.

2. Client Education

With regards to client education, ChatGPT had this to say:

I can assist you in creating educational materials for your clients, such as informative articles, handouts, or FAQs. These resources can help clients understand the benefits and process of hypnotherapy, leading to more informed and engaged clients.

Again, I asked it to expand. Here’s what it had to say:

It also said this:

I can assist you in creating educational materials for your clients, such as informative articles, handouts, or FAQs. These resources can help clients understand the benefits and process of hypnotherapy, leading to more informed and engaged clients.

For the sake of brevity, let’s focus on handouts for now.

I started by asking my helpful AI assistant to help me create a self-hypnosis handout.

I also provided information about my clients and their problem, as well as clear instructions about the style and scope of this handout.

The AI responded by producing a detailed outline for my handout, which you can see below:

All of the suggestions for things to include in this handout are helpful and relevant. However, they also expose ChatGPT’s weaknesses as it seems to believe I can include an intro, details of three techniques, an entire guided relaxation, and more on one sheet of paper.

Still, there’s no law that says we have to do precisely what Artificial Intelligence says.

Instead, we can pick and choose from the ideas and information that best suit our needs, which is precisely what I did here.

If you looked at the image gallery above, you’ll see that ChatGPT recommended including anchoring techniques in our handout.

Anchoring was the first “self-help” technique I ever learned, years before I came a therapist.

So, I have a strong affinity with it and, in a flash of inspiration, decided to make anchoring the sole subject of my handout.

By doing so, I like to believe I’m demonstrating the biggest benefit of ChatGPT for hypnotherapists:

An idea-generating machine.

Before starting this exercise, I don’t know if it would’ve occurred to me that a handout on anchoring techniques would be a valuable resource I could give to my clients.

You could use it to come up with ideas of your own, not just for handouts or resources, but for possible new exercises and techniques you could incorporate into your practice or different ways to monetize your skills and experience.

For now, though, let’s avoid getting sidetracked too much and get back to this handout.

Here’s the next prompt that I used:

ChatGPT worked it’s AI magic in coming up with another detailed handout structure.

I then took each section of this outline and asked it to expand and flesh out that section like so:

Section 1 Outline:

My Prompt:

The reason I specified that the introduction should be no more than four sentences is that I’ve been using this tool for months now, and I’ve quickly learned that if you don’t reign it in, it will give you far more than you need and often repeats itself.

Section 1 AI-Generated Content:

You might disagree, but I think this is a perfectly fine introduction.

I might tweak it a little or even rewrite it entirely, but if somebody gave me a handout with that introduction, I’d certainly be OK with it, wouldn’t you?

Section 2 Prompt:

Section 2 AI-Generated Content:

Again, not bad, right?

Let’s do one more section:

Section 3 Prompt:

Section 3 AI-Generated Content:

I’m less happy with this section, as it doesn’t clearly explain the link between the gesture and the feeling of confidence.

However, all the basics are there, and I could use this as a guide for creating my own instructions.

Is ChatGPT Good for Creating Client Handouts? My Verdict

As with most tasks, ChatGPT does a decent job at creating educational handouts for hypnotherapy clients, but it’s obviously not perfect.

There’s no way I would simply copy and paste its output onto a sheet of paper and give it to a client, but I would I would certainly use it to generate ideas and plan out materials for clients.

I’d even say that this can be a useful tool for creating new handouts that are tailored to individual clients.

Creating something new for each client would take a fair amount of time if you did everything manually, but using ChatGPT to create a framework and draft text significantly speeds up the process, making it easier to deliver a truly personalized service.

3. Script Development

Next, ChatGPT says it can create hypnosis scripts:

If you’re looking for inspiration or assistance in creating hypnosis scripts, I can help generate ideas or provide suggestions based on specific client needs or goals.

Let’s put that to the test, shall we?

AI-Generated Hypnosis Script Ideas

First, let’s look at the kind of hypnosis script ideas AI can generate:

Here’s the response:

Not included in this screenshot, the AI tool also gave me further ideas for Transforming Limiting Beliefs, as well as Inner-Strength and Resilience.

These look like pretty solid ideas and can serve as a great source of inspiration for writing your own scripts. Still, ChatGPT also said it could create hypnotherapy scripts, so put that to the test by using one of its own ideas.

ChatGPT Hypnotherapy Script

As you can see, I used a basic prompt here, feeding back the notes it gave me and providing limited instructions about the style.

I was less than thrilled with the response:

It’s brief, basic, and not something I’d be willing to take into the therapy room without some major revisions.

Is ChatGPT Good at Writing Hypnosis Scripts? My Verdict

ChatGPT doesn’t write great hypnosis scripts, though you could potentially get some decent material by experimenting with different prompts and detailed instructions.

The best way to use the AI tool for script creation is to generate ideas and rough drafts that you can later expand upon.

4. Practice Management

Next, we move away from the therapeutic aspect of our work into the more practical, day-to-day management side of things.

Here’s how ChatGPT says it can help with private practice management:

Practice management: I can provide guidance on managing your private practice effectively. From scheduling appointments to organizing client information, I can offer tips and best practices to streamline your administrative tasks.

Here’s my prompt:

The AI responded with a huge list of things it could help with, ranging from choosing the best calendar tool for your therapy practice to tips on how to manage client expectations.

Here’s the full list of ways ChatGPT offered to help me manage my practice:

1. Choosing the best appointment scheduling platform
2. Tips for effective appointment calendar management
3. Developing a system for securely storing and accessing client files
4. Suggestions on organizing and maintaining client information
5. Guidance on using electronic billing and invoicing systems
6. Creating invoices
7. Tips on record-keeping, documentation, and note-keeping
8. Workflow optimization
9. Time management techniques
10. Guidance on client communication.

I was most curious about number three, Developing a system for securely storing and accessing client files, so I asked it to expand.

Rather than actually developing the system for me, the platform simply gave me a list of instructions on how to make my own.

Is ChatGPT Good at Practice Management? My Verdict

Private practice management isn’t one of ChatGPT’s core strengths, though it can be useful.

In the example above, that list of instructions would prove useful for ensuring that I know exactly what’s required to create my client filing system.

I can follow these instructions and ask it to help me with each one, such as by asking it to help me understand what to look for when buying a file solution.

It’s basic and may not be incredibly helpful if you’re already running an established practice. However, newly-qualified hypnotherapists may find it helpful as a reference tool for putting essential practice management systems in place.

5. Client Interaction

Here’s another offer of support from ChatGPT:

Client interaction: I can help you draft effective communication templates for client inquiries, appointment reminders, or follow-ups. Ensuring prompt and professional communication can enhance the client experience and build trust.

Let’s put that to the test:

Here’s the response:

That’s pretty good, right?

Sure, there’s room for improvement, but it it only took me 30 seconds to create a professional email template that I can use over and over again.

Is ChatGPT Good for Managing Client Communication? My Verdict

In my experience, ChatGPT does a great job at creating email templates, boilerplate contracts, and other essential client communication materials in a matter of seconds, proving that one of its biggest advantages is that it saves time in running our practice.

6. Marketing Strategies

Marketing has been the main reason I’ve been using ChatGPT over the last couple of months, so I already have a good idea what it’s capable of, but let’s see what the tool has to say for itself:

Marketing strategies: I can assist in developing marketing ideas to attract new clients. Whether it’s optimizing your website content, creating engaging social media posts, or brainstorming promotional campaigns, I can offer suggestions to increase your practice’s visibility.

There are a lot of possibilities here, so I decided to keep it simple:

Here are two of the AI-generated social media posts:

As with most AI content, these posts aren’t perfect, especially as they essentially repeat the same message.

However, they are competently written, engaging, and helpful. I certainly wouldn’t be against adding these to my therapy practice Facebook page or another social platform.

Is ChatGPT a Good Marketing Tool For Therapists? My Verdict

Those of you who ultimately decide to add ChatGPT to your private practice toolkit will likely find that it delivers the most value as a marketing tool.

It does a good job at drafting content not only for social media but blog posts, landing pages, flyers, and brochures.

Although I’ve kept my prompts brief and basic here, you may want to experiment with different inputs relating to the style, tone, and content of your AI-created marketing copy to ensure it best fits your brand.

7. Self-Improvement and Self-Care

We all know that self-care and continuing self-development are essential to our success as hypnotherapists, and apparently, so does ChatGPT.

The AI tool offers the following:

Self-improvement techniques: I can provide insights into personal development techniques and self-hypnosis exercises that you can utilize to enhance your own skills, focus, and well-being as a hypnotherapist.

I’m more curious about this than anything else I’ve shown you so far, so I asked it to tell me more.

ChatGPT gave me a long list of possible ways it could help with self-improvement and self-care, including:

• Mindfulness practices
• Goal setting strategies
• Time management techniques
• Communication skills development
• Self-hypnosis exercises
• Insights and suggestions on self-care practices.

We’ve already seen how ChatGPT does with self-hypnosis. So, this time, I decided to use the following prompt to ask for help with mindfulness and general self-care:

Here’s the first part of the response:

Other recommendations not included in the above screenshot include:

• Movement and exercise
• Setting work/life boundaries
• Practicing gratitude
• Reaching out to friends and colleagues.

This response isn’t exactly groundbreaking, nor does it reveal anything that you won’t find by reading the articles from the first page of Google search results for topics like “self-care.”

Still, that’s not exactly a bad thing.

Search engines may be super quick, but they still require you to make a decision about which search results you’re going to click on, never fully knowing if the page you decide to visit is going to have all the information you need.

If you’re anything like me, you probably click on at least a few results to gather all the information you need.

If nothing else, ChatGPT is good for speeding up the research process, giving you all the information you need in a matter of seconds.

Is ChatGPT a Good Tool for Self-Improvement and Self-Care? My Verdict

ChatGPT isn’t bad at helping with self-improvement and self-care, though, of course, it all depends on how you use it.

The best way to get the most out of it is to use it to generate ideas, guidance, and inspiration.

You could also work with it to create an entire self-care plan, feeding multiple prompts to get a bespoke strategy for maintaining positive well-being.

8. Case Analysis

Here’s an interesting one. ChatGPT offers to help me better understand my clients and how I can work with them to achieve desired outcomes:

Case analysis: You can share anonymized case details with me, and I can help you analyze and explore potential approaches or interventions. This can provide additional perspectives and insights to optimize your treatment plans.

Whether you choose to use it for this purpose may depend on your personal and professional ethics.

I’m not particularly comfortable with feeding any client details into the AI machine, even if they are completely anonymized.

So, instead, I asked it to create a fictitious case study and used that:

This is what it gave me:

This screenshot doesn’t show the rest of this make-believe case, which also includes an outline of the client’s problem of going “back to square one” at week 3.

I took these details and fed them back in the form of the following prompt:

Surprisingly, the response was much better than I anticipated:

Again, this isn’t exactly revelatory, but it’s helpful nonetheless. If I were using a real case, I might probe further, taking the AI’s analysis and asking more questions such as:

“You suggest cognitive factors such as anxiety may be at play and recommend techniques such as cognitive restructuring. Can you expand on that?“

In essence, this would turn ChatGPT into a kind of AI supervisor. Of course, I’d never for a minute replace my awesome supervisor with a computer, but this still might be useful if I wanted to figure things out myself in between supervision.

Is ChatGPT Good at Hypnotherapy Case Analysis? My Verdict

ChatGPT is better at case analysis than I thought it would be, and I can see lots of hypnotherapists using it for this purpose.

Despite this, I’m still not comfortable discussing real client cases, but I’d be happy to use it as a training tool, feeding it some made-up cases and exploring ways to achieve desired outcomes as a means of expanding my knowledge.

This brings us nicely to our next point.

9. Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

ChatGPT uses the term “continuing education,” but as you’ll see below, it’s actually referring to CPD:

Continuing education: I can recommend books, articles, courses, or workshops relevant to hypnotherapy to further your professional development. Staying updated with the latest research and techniques can enhance your effectiveness as a hypnotherapist.

I’m immediately skeptical about this because, as I said earlier, ChatGPT has limited knowledge of anything that happened after 2021, so I’m not sure how it could possibly recommend upcoming workshops or the latest research.

Still, I’m in too deep now, so I put it to the test.

As expected, the response was garbage.

Here, you can see that all that ChatGPT does is invent fictitious sources. I even Googled the recommendations and found nothing that matched the AI’s recommendation, ultimately rendering the whole exercise a complete waste of time.

Is ChatGPT Good for Hypnotherapy CPD Recommendations? My Verdict

ChatGPT is not a tool I would ever use to get recommendations on CPD courses, books, and articles.

It only seems capable of making up resources that don’t exist, so you’re better off sticking with search engines or other platforms to plan your Continuing Professional Development.

10. Practice Sessions

Last but not least, ChatGPT offers to help me practice my techniques:

Practice sessions: You can simulate client sessions by providing hypothetical scenarios, and I can assist by acting as a virtual client. This allows you to practice and refine your skills, experiment with different approaches, and receive feedback in a safe environment.

I decided to test this one out by roleplaying the SFBT techniques of scaling and The Miracle Question.

The result was interesting, and I ultimately worked all the way through a practice session.

Here’s what I learned from the exercise:

• Overall, ChatGPT responded well to this exercise, and it was easy to imagine the AI tool as a real client called “Clive.”
• However, it seemed impossible to convince it that it didn’t need to start every answer to my questions with “As Clive.”
• ChatGPT also struggled a little with scaling and got the scale the wrong way around on multiple occasions (making 10 the worst and 1 the best).
• However, this was actually useful as it encouraged me to think creatively about what I’d do if a real client didn’t understand the exercise properly.

Is ChatGPT a Good Tool for Practicing Hypnotherapy Sessions?

I found ChatGPT to be a very useful tool for practicing hypnotherapy sessions, especially when working through scaling and Miracle Question exercises.

Although I sometimes had to nudge it back on course when it struggled to understand how the 1 – 10 scale worked, I found the experience helpful in reflecting on my own practice and development as a therapist.

ChatGPT for Hypnotherapists: Recap and Next Steps

I’m sure if I dug deeper, I would find many more ways to use ChatGPT for hypnotherapists, but, for now, it’s good to know that at least some of the 10 possible uses above have real benefit for those of us in private practice.

Before I bid you farewell, here’s a quick recap of what we’ve learned in this guide:

• ChatGPT’s greatest benefit for therapist is as an ideas machine – The AI tool doesn’t produce flawless hypnosis scripts or client handouts right away. However, it does prove useful for generating basic drafts and outlines which can serve as a jumping-off point, helping you to come up with your own ideas.

• It can also improve efficiency in private practice management – Producing handouts, creating client email templates, and handling other back-office tasks can all be done much quicker with AI, meaning you get to spend less time on admin and more time helping clients.

• The platform is far from perfect – With it’s limited knowledge of anything that happened after 2021 and an inability to come up with anything genuinely new, ChatGPT isn’t the best tool to use for research or finding CPD opportunities, but give it time and I’m sure it will get there.

For now, all that’s left for you to do is try ChatGPT yourself and see what it can do to help you overcome the biggest challenges you face as a hypnotherapist.