I am unapologetically not a certified QHHT practitioner.
There. I’ve said it. And before the emails start flooding in, let me be clear: I’ve done the training. I completed it online. I have enormous respect for what QHHT offers clients-the profound healing, the spiritual insights, the remarkable transformations. Dolores Cannon developed something genuinely powerful, and I’m grateful for everything I learned from her work.
But here’s the thing: I’m a hypnotherapist with over 25 years of experience. And after training in QHHT, I realized something that made certification impossible for me to pursue.
The QHHT industry has forgotten what Dolores actually taught.
The Moment I Knew
I was sitting in the online training module when the instructor emphasized-for what felt like the hundredth time-that we must follow the script exactly. Word for word. No deviation. No adaptation. No thinking for ourselves.
“This is how Dolores did it,” they said. “This is the only way it works.”
I felt my stomach tighten. Something wasn’t sitting right.
I’d spent decades learning to read clients, to adapt my approach based on what they needed in the moment, to trust my instincts about when to push forward and when to pause. And now I was being told that all that experience was irrelevant-I just needed to follow the script like a actor reading lines.
But it wasn’t until later, when I actually read Dolores’s own words properly, that I understood why this felt so wrong.
What Dolores Actually Said
Here’s a paragraph from The Three Waves of Volunteers. Pay attention to what she’s actually saying:
“My method is not like those other outdated hypnosis methods that teach that you must do exactly as they say. That you cannot deviate even one word from the script. In my teaching I want the student to understand what is being done so they can think for themselves. As long as the client is not being harmed they are free to experiment. I have found the method to be extremely flexible. It is a living and evolving thing. Many times, after all these years, I still come home and tell my daughter, Julia, ‘Guess what I learned I can do today!’ ‘They’ have told me many times that there are no limitations, unless you create them yourselves. Anything is possible. You are only limited by your own imagination.”
Read that again.
“You cannot deviate even one word from the script” is exactly what she was criticizing about other methods.
“I want the student to understand what is being done so they can think for themselves.”
“As long as the client is not being harmed they are free to experiment.”
“It is a living and evolving thing.”
The irony is almost painful. The woman who explicitly said don’t follow scripts rigidly now has an entire certification industry built around… following scripts rigidly.
How Did We Get Here?
I understand the motivation, honestly. When someone develops something brilliant, there’s a natural instinct to protect it-to ensure it’s done “properly,” to maintain quality control, to preserve the integrity of the method.
But somewhere between Dolores’s passing and the current certification requirements, something fundamental got lost.
The QHHT industry now insists practitioners must work in person. No remote sessions, even though we now have technology Dolores never had access to, and even though clients all over the world could benefit from this work.
They require exact adherence to lengthy protocols. No shortcuts, no adaptations, no adjustments based on your client’s actual needs in the moment.
They’ve created a franchise model that’s more interested in protecting intellectual property than in practitioners developing their own mastery.
And perhaps most tellingly: they’ve made it very clear that if you don’t do it exactly their way, you’re not a “real” QHHT practitioner.
Dolores would have been amused by this, I think. Possibly bemused. Definitely disappointed.
What I Do Instead
After completing the QHHT training, I took what genuinely serves clients and integrated it with everything else I’ve learned over 25 years. I use the foundational technique of accessing the higher self. I still do past life work when it’s appropriate. I absolutely recognize the value of that profound connection Dolores taught us to facilitate.
But I also trust myself to adapt.
If a client needs something shorter than the standard five-hour QHHT session, I can offer that. If they’re better served by a different approach to induction, I’ll use it. If their higher self wants to communicate in a way that doesn’t fit the standard questions, I follow where they lead.
I work remotely with clients all over the world, because I’ve discovered that consciousness doesn’t actually care whether we’re in the same room. The connection is just as profound, the healing just as real, the insights just as transformative.
And here’s what I’ve found: clients get better results when the practitioner is present, responsive, and adapting to what’s actually happening rather than following a predetermined script.
One client recently came to me after a disappointing QHHT session elsewhere. “They kept asking me the same questions even though I’d already answered them,” she said. “It felt like they were reading from a script and not really listening to what I was saying.”
That’s the limitation of rigid adherence to method over connection with the client.
The Bigger Principle
This isn’t really about QHHT, though. It’s about something much more fundamental.
Dolores understood that true mastery comes from learning the principles deeply enough that you can then think for yourself. She wanted practitioners who understood why the method worked, not just how to replicate it mechanically.
But so many industries-therapy, coaching, spiritual work-fall into the same trap. They start with someone’s genuine innovation, then fossilize it into rigid doctrine. The letter of the law becomes more important than the spirit.
I see this all the time in hypnotherapy. Practitioners who’ve memorized their scripts perfectly but have no idea how to respond when a client goes off-book. Coaches who follow their certification’s exact methodology even when it’s clearly not serving their client. Spiritual teachers who insist their way is the only way, completely missing the irony that their own teacher probably broke all the rules.
The best practitioners I know-in any field-are the ones who learned the foundations thoroughly and then had the courage to experiment. They’re not rebels for the sake of rebellion; they’re professionals who trust themselves enough to adapt their approach based on what’s actually needed.
What Dolores Would Want
I think Dolores would want practitioners who are thinking, not just following.
She’d want us to understand the principles so deeply that we could explain them to others, not just replicate them by rote.
She’d want us coming home excitedly saying, “Guess what I learned I can do today!”-not nervously checking whether we deviated from the approved script.
She literally told us: “Anything is possible. You are only limited by your own imagination.”
The current QHHT industry has created a lot of limitations. Rules about in-person only. Requirements about session length. Strict protocols about questioning. These aren’t Dolores’s limitations-these are the industry’s fear talking.
And I understand the fear. I really do. When you’ve built something valuable, you want to protect it. But you can’t protect a living, evolving method by treating it like a museum piece.
So Here’s Where I Stand
I’m grateful for what I learned from QHHT training. I use elements of it regularly in my practice, and I’ve seen those elements create profound healing for clients.
But I’m not interested in certification that requires me to stop thinking for myself.
I’m not interested in following scripts when my client needs something different.
And I’m absolutely not interested in limiting my practice to what someone else decides is “proper,” especially when Dolores herself explicitly encouraged experimentation and flexibility.
If that makes me not a “real” QHHT practitioner in the eyes of the certification body, I can live with that.
I’d rather honor what Dolores actually taught-the principles, the flexibility, the trust in our own evolution-than get a certificate for following rules she explicitly rejected.
And I suspect that’s exactly what she’d want.
Want to experience spiritual hypnosis that adapts to you rather than making you fit a rigid protocol? Let’s talk.
