Hypnosis is an increasingly popular clinical intervention. The number of training courses in hypnosis is growing each year. Research on hypnosis training appears to show that limited exposure to training, as is typical in the common 3 to 5 day format of mass training, produces limited results. Only when training is extended over time do the results alter. Limited training is in part the artifact of the availability of continuing education and its costs. However, it is also the result of a conceptual muddle about the purpose of clinical training in hypnosis and the very nature of hypnosis in treatment. Hypnosis is sometimes viewed as a technique, sometimes as a strategy, and sometimes as a treatment. Clinical hypnosis and hypnotherapy are best thought of as akin to family therapy. Clinical hypnosis is more of a professional culture and epistemological point of view than a technique, strategy or a treatment. Clinical hypnosis should be taught at a level that will provide the possibility of beginning clinical mastery. This requires on-going training beyond the workshop experience. Adequate training in the systematic application of hypnotherapy as a treatment approach is mandatory if psychologists are ever to be able to assess the clinical efficacy of hypnotically-framed therapeutic interventions. Systematic application of an approach can only develop from the basic mastery of a clinical skill. (Author/NRB)