To understand the demand for Hypnotherapy in Canada, it’s important to take note of the current related market trends. Armed with these statistics, you’ll be in a more secure position to make an informed choice about your professional development as a Clinical Hypnotherapist, or even whether to add Clinical Hypnotherapy to your existing private practice.
According to Grand View Research, Market Analysis Reports for complimentary and alternative medicine project a 22.03% annual growth rate from 2021 to 2028. Hypnotherapy is predicted to be one of the top three modalities to experience the highest percentage of that growth. The market is set to gain momentum in the upcoming years in Canada owing to demand, educational improvements, and the changing regulatory scenarios.
According to the Mood Disorders Society of Canada, the leading cause of disability in Canada is mental illness, affecting 1 in 5 Canadians.
Many Canadians have experienced declined mental health since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2020, 38% of survey respondents in Canada indicated a deterioration in mental health since COVID-19 began. Identified emotional challenges linked with deterioration in mental health included feeling anxious and worried (46%), sad (26%), stressed (37%), and lonely (30%). Furthermore, fewer Canadian adults reported high self-perceived mental health in 2020 (60%) than in 2019 (67%). The proportion of Canadians (15 years and older) who indicated that their mental health was “very good” or “excellent” decreased by 14% from 2018 (68%) to 2020 (54%). Data from eight Canadian provinces revealed that the prevalence of major depressive disorder during the fall of 2020 (16%) was more than two times higher compared with the years (2015 to 2019) predating COVID-19 (7%). Other national data showed that the percentage of adults with self-reported depression more than doubled (4% versus 10%), and the number of adults who indicated that their anxiety was “high to extremely high” quadrupled since the onset of the pandemic (5% versus 20%).
While the demand for help with mental health is increasing, clients are losing patience with the longer-term model of traditional talk therapies. For better or for worse, we live in a fast-paced society, and many clients want to solve their mental health challenges quickly and get on with their lives.
In a New York Times article, psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert reflected on patients who were frustrated about being stuck, seemingly, in “therapy forever” with no solution in sight to their problems. “I don’t think patients want to take years to feel better,” he writes. “They want to do it in weeks or months.” In another Times article, a therapist reports being told that, “Nobody wants to buy therapy anymore, they want to buy a solution to a problem.”.
While a growing number of Canadians are looking for solutions to their mental health issues, many of them need those solutions to be effective, lasting, and immediate. Hundreds of peer reviewed studies have proven (and continue to demonstrate) that Hypnotherapy is an effective, faster results therapy that meets this evolving trend of solution based, result oriented therapy.
While Canada has fallen behind other parts of the world in keeping up with the research and growing trends for therapeutic interventions, we are catching up. Robin Popowich, a Clinical Hypnotherapist with over 10 years in private practice, and over 5 years of experience as an Instructor of Clinical Hypnotherapy, reports that any point in her week’s schedule approximately half of her clients have been referred by a medical professional including but not limited to, Medical Doctors, Nurse Practitioners, Chiropractors, Physiotherapists etc. She further notes that it was her registration with ARCH Canada that secured those referrals.
It’s becoming more and more obvious that the growing need for effective therapy, higher standards of contemporary research-based education, as well as acceptance of the modality by the public and medical professional community alike is driving the demand for extensively trained Hypnotherapists.