CODE OF ETHICAL CONDUCT
I, _____________________________________hereby agree to uphold the Code of Ethical Conduct as required by the SAIH – The South African Institute of Hypnotism

SAIH Mission Statement
Together, utilizing our unique strengths, we invite people to share our passion and devotion for non-medical hypnosis practices and attract the resources to manifest visions that ensure prosperity for all involved and thus contribute to individual and global transformation.

SCOPE OF THIS CODE
The scope of this code of Ethical Conduct provides a common set of values to govern the relationship between: students/graduates/members and client/s; students/graduates/members, healthcare professionals, the general public and whoever may be interested in non medical hypnotherapy governed by SAIH . It has as its primary goal the welfare and protection of all clients, supervisees, students, employees, research participants, colleagues or other professionals with whom members may work. Students/Graduates/ Members aspire to the highest possible standards of conduct, respect and protect human and civil rights.

1. PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE
Students/Graduates/Members shall develop, maintain and encourage high standards of professional competence and adhere to international and national best practice standards to ensure that the interest of the public is maintained and is receiving best possible service/facilitation.
Students/Graduates/Members shall provide only those services and use only those techniques for which they are qualified by education, training and experience. They shall maintain knowledge of relevant scientific and professional information related to hypnosis practices and recognize and commit to continuing education.
Students/Graduates/Members shall accept that they are accountable for professional actions in all domains of their professional lives and adhere to their relevant scope of practice. Students/Graduates/Members shall disclose full details of all relevant memberships, training, experience and qualifications to clients upon request and only use those qualifications and memberships to which they have proof of entitlement.

2. PROFESSIONAL RELATIONS
Students/Graduates/Members shall respect the constitutional right of all to dignity and the right to have that dignity respected and protected.
Students/Graduates/Members shall not exploit their professional relationships with clients, supervisees, students, employees, research participants, colleagues or other professionals and refrain from using their position of trust to exploit the client emotionally, sexually, financially or in other way whatsoever.
Students/Graduates/Members shall ensure that clients are fully informed of all aspects of their services and that their rights as users of these services are paramount at all times.
Students/Graduates/Members shall not permit considerations of religion, nationality, gender, gender preference, disability, politics, or social standing to adversely influence client treatment.
Students/Graduates/Members shall ensure that their work place and all facilities offered to both clients and their companions will be in every respect suitable and appropriate for the service provided.

3. GENERAL CONDUCT
Students/Graduates/Members shall at all times conduct themselves in accord with their professional status and in such a way as neither undermines public confidence in the process or profession of hypnosis practices nor brings SAIH or the Mastermind Centres into disrepute.
Students/Graduates/Members shall take particular care when commenting in the media, particularly on matters that they have inadequate knowledge, training, skills or experience of, and shall avoid participating in any public activity that could bring the profession into disrepute.
Students/Graduates/Members have the duty to protect the public and the profession from unethical, unsafe or bad practice or behaviour.
Respect the status of all medical/healthcare professionals and the boundaries of their professional scope.

4. PRIVACY, CONFIDENTIALITY AND RECORDS
Students/Graduates/Members shall adhere to the constitutional right of all to privacy, confidentiality and the right to access to information directly affecting their lives or that of the client, the client’s family members or other members of the public nor in contravention of any legal action or legal requirement.
Students/Graduates/Members shall at all times respect the rights to privacy and confidentiality of clients, colleagues and others with whom they work. They shall respect that confidentiality is a sine qua non of the professional relationship and must be guarded at all times save where there are exceptional circumstances. Students/Graduates/Members shall safeguard the principle of confidentiality in all their dealings including the recording, storage, and dissemination of confidential information.
All information collected and records personal information may not be shared and remain confidential and secure except when:
 The client and/or another person at serious risk to life, health or safety,
 It is suspected that a child or elderly or incapacitated person is abused or neglected,
 Prior approval of the client has been obtained
 The information is subpoenaed by a court.
 Disclosure is otherwise required by law, including putting property at risk or admitting having committed a crime or forming the intention to do so.

5. CONSENT
Students/Graduates/Members are advised to always obtain appropriate informed consent for hypnosis-related procedures from clients.
Students/Graduates/Members are advised to always obtain permission/consent from their clients (or client’s parents/guardians if appropriate) before recording client sessions.
Students/Graduates/Members are advised to always obtain permission/consent from the relevant person(s) before discussing undisguised cases with any person whatsoever, or publishing cases (whether disguised or not) via any medium.

6. FEES AND FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS
Members may only charge for services they are certified for.
Students/Graduates/Members shall as early as possible in the professional relationship with a client reach an agreement specifying the compensation and billing arrangements.

7. ADVERTISING AND OTHER PUBLIC STATEMENT ACTIVITIES
Students/Graduates/Members shall ensure that all advertising, no matter in what form or medium represents an accurate, truthful, honest image of themselves, their skill-base, qualifications, membership and facilities and in no way be misleading.
Professional qualifications and descriptions of services help the public to make informed choices about the quality and type of services provided by both individual Students/Graduates/Members and the profession as a whole. Users of these services have the right to be provided full and accurate information. Students/Graduates/Members shall be accurate and objective in reporting data or information in a manner that encourages responsible discussion.
Display only valid qualifications and certificates issued in respect of relevant training courses and events or certificates of registration, validation or accreditation as issued or awarded by relevant professional bodies.
They should not make claim or mislead in any way that they hold specific qualifications unless such claim can be fully substantiated.
Members agree to advertise their hypnosis practices services accurately and truthfully not making any claims to be medically trained this includes a declaration that services do not include treatments, prescriptions or diagnosis. Advertising includes all entries on websites and social media.
All advertising of hypnosis practices shall have the prefix “non medical” when the word hypnotherapy is used.
A link to an explanation on non medical hypnosis practices is available on the SAIH website. To ensure complete transparency SAIH encourages its members to either add this link or make that article available on their websites, etc.
Under no circumstances will Students/Graduates/Members change any of the SAIH provided logos for websites, social media or Whatsapp and all other media. Students/Graduates/Members will only use the SAIH logos allocated or published by SAIH for the appropriate use.

8. SUPERVISION & CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
It is especially important in a self-regulated profession such as non-medical hypnosis practices to remain informed, efficient and to be competent and confident in the various applications and techniques.
Students/Graduates/Members are expected to maintain and improve their level of skills and professional competence in accordance with the requirements laid down by SAIH and its affiliates and Continued Professional Education, “CPE”, as it is usually referred to, is an essential part of maintaining these vital standards.
30 DEDICATION POINTS per annum are mandatory for all practicing SAIH members, starting with the first year of full membership after the last year of qualification. These points may be adjusted from time to time in accordance with requirements from SAIHs affiliates.
Students/Graduates/Members are required to provide proof of their CPE requirement on renewal of annual membership.
Students/Graduates/Members can acquire continuous development points (CPE) by attending relevant courses and workshops, submission of articles, book reviews, mentoring and practice evenings and client sessions.

9. RESOLVING ETHICAL ISSUES

Students/Graduates/Members shall adopt an ethical attitude at all times in the conduct of their professional conduct. They shall subject themselves to the ethical scrutiny of their professional peers and shall co-operate in any SAIH Board inquiry into their professional conduct. They shall abide by rulings and decisions made by the SAIH Board concerning ethical behaviour and standards of professional conduct.

10. THERAPEUTIC APPLICATIONS WITHIN THE SCOPE OF HYPNOSIS PRACTICES
Students/Graduates/Members shall not treat, prescribe or diagnose any medical and/or psychological conditions unless the Students/Graduates/ Member is also suitably trained and qualified in the areas of psychology and/or medicine and are licensed to do so. Students/Graduates/Members are not to treat, prescribe or diagnose, offer advice, counsel or in any other way persuade a change of behaviour in their clients.
Hypnosis Practices are not a replacement for medical treatment, psychological services or counselling, but a complementary approach. Whenever required and possible consent from the client’s health care practitioners should be obtained.
All client benefits of hypnosis practices facilitated by members need to arise from the client himself. Students/Graduates/Members will at all times point out other professional care when deemed necessary or advisable.

11. DESIGNATIONS
For the purposes of this code of ethical conduct, as well as the mission statement of the South African Institute of Hypnotism (SAIH) and/or the International Medical and Dental Hypnotherapy Association (IMDHA) any reference to the designation of Hypnotherapist shall be applicable and bear the meaning and designation of a non-medical Hypnotherapist or Hypnosis Practitioner and shall also include Certified Parts Therapist Facilitators and students in training.
Any reference to the designation of “hypnotherapist” shall be accompanied by the prefix “non- medical” to ensure clarity on the fact that the member has no medical training. Members who are licenced medical practitioners with a practice number are still encouraged to use the prefix if their training has been received through a facility which teaches non medical hypnosis practices such as the approved schools recognized by SAIH.
Students/Graduates/Members shall not use the title “Doctor” in a manner which may mislead any member of the public to believe that they are medically qualified, if they are not so qualified. The term ‘Dr.’ or ‘Doctor’ shall not be used where the qualification is non-medical; PhD may be used as a suffix, but the associated profession must be shown.

12. ARTICLES OF THE ASSOCIATION
SAIH is intended to be an inclusive organisation which allow for membership by application or studies at an accredited training institution.
There are 5 categories of membership:
Student Membership–Students that are currently studying towards qualification.
Certified Membership – CHT (non medical) or CPTF
Accredited Certified Membership – Certified CHT (non medical) and CPTF with 5 years or more of experience exceeding 600 hours of practice.
Associate Membership – This will include any individual, group or association who is directly or indirectly involved with Hypnosis practices and willing to adhere to this Code of Conduct.
Honorary Lifelong membership – Awarded for exceptional service to hypnosis or relevant modalities.

13. ENDORSEMENT AND ADVERTISING
Should any member organise or facilitate a hypnosis/hypnotherapy/parts therapy seminar or other similar event, it must not be implied that such event is in any way endorsed by or otherwise supported by SAIH unless written permission has been granted.
All Students/Graduates/Members will agree to abide by the code of Ethical Conduct; signing the application form for Students/Graduates/Membership constitutes such agreement.
All Students/Graduates/Members accept that this is not a static document and that it may be altered from time to time by The Association, in accordance with the need to ensure on going professionalism within the field of hypnosis practices.
Students/Graduates/Membership is granted at the discretion of SAIH and can be withheld and/ or withdrawn and that SAIH cannot be held responsible for any claim arising out of such action.
Non-compliance with this Code of Ethical Conduct may lead to an investigation and/or discontinuation of membership and/or additional action from SAIH.
I agree to conduct my practice and all professional interactions in strict accordance with this Code of Ethical Conduct and IMDHA Scope of Practice as defined. If I am charged with an ethics violation, I understand that an investigation may be conducted upon receipt of a written complaint signed by the complainant. I will be given an opportunity to present my version of the complaint to the Ethics Committee. I understand that my Certification could be suspended for a specified period of time or revoked by a unanimous vote of the Ethics Committee. In any case, I agree to hold the South African Institute of Hypnotism CC (SAIH) harmless for such actions.