Advertising and Claims

1. The CAP Code

Members are responsible for ensuring their advertising complies with the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing, known as the CAP Code. The Code covers websites, social media, directory listings and printed materials.

The Advertising Standards Authority publishes specific guidance for hypnotherapy. Members should read it directly. This page summarises the points most relevant to registered therapists and is not a substitute for the guidance itself.

Complaints about advertising are made to the ASA. Where an advertiser does not comply with an ASA ruling, the matter can be referred to Trading Standards or the Competition and Markets Authority.

2. Claims CAP currently accepts

CAP accepts advertising of hypnotherapy for anxiety relief and sleep, and for bedwetting, confidence, eating problems short of disorders, and minor skin conditions exacerbated by stress. Claims about perceived pain control are accepted where the therapist holds robust clinical evidence and does not imply treatment of the underlying cause.

3. Claims that require evidence

Any claim beyond those above requires robust documentary evidence, usually clinical trials. General claims to treat disease or physical health conditions are likely to be challenged.

In 2013 the ASA upheld a complaint against University College London Hospitals over claims that hypnosis could benefit irritable bowel syndrome and gastro-oesophageal reflux and could regulate the immune, nervous and gastro-intestinal systems. The evidence submitted was judged insufficient. The ruling went against an NHS teaching hospital: institutional standing does not substitute for evidence.

4. Success rates

Quantified success rates require rigorous evidence. Rates calculated from clients who did not return, or from telephone follow-up, have both been found insufficient by the ASA. Success claims for a technique must not be presented as success claims for an individual therapist.

In 2023 the ASA ruled against an advertisement for a “hypnotic gastric band” programme that claimed a 95 per cent success rate over three weeks. No supporting clinical evidence was supplied and the advertisement was found to be misleading.

5. Effort and willpower

The Code requires evidence before implying that a habit or minor addiction can be addressed without effort from the client. Claims that hypnosis bypasses willpower fall within this rule.

6. Smoking cessation

CAP’s guidance on smoking cessation is the most detailed part of its hypnotherapy entry, reflecting a long run of upheld complaints. CAP accepts that hypnotherapy can help smokers stop, while noting that the scientific community appears divided on effectiveness.

• Success claims must rest on rigorous evidence, not on counting clients who did not return for follow-up or did not claim a money-back guarantee.
• Telephone follow-up surveys have been investigated and found insufficient to establish a success rate.
• CAP’s stated position is that biochemical verification, such as a blood test, is likely to be the only reliable way to establish cessation.
• A success rate reported for a technique in the literature must not be presented as the success rate of an individual therapist.

7. Serious conditions

Depression, addiction, eating disorders and other serious mental health conditions are treated as serious medical conditions. Members should not advertise treatment of these conditions unless the work is supervised by a suitably qualified health professional. CAP has indicated that a hypnotherapy qualification alone may not meet that description. The ASA’s 2013 ruling against a hypnotherapy clinic in Leamington Spa is the reference case.

8. Where to check

• CAP AdviceOnline, Health: Hypnotherapy: asa.org.uk
• CAP Copy Advice offers a free pre-publication checking service.

9. Status of this guidance

This page is a summary, not legal advice. The CAP Code and the Advertising Standards Authority’s own guidance are the authority on what is and is not permitted. Members remain responsible for their own compliance and should seek their own advice where they are unsure.