Why I Finished Retirement
After 35 years in hypnosis and mesmerism training, Rick Collingwood stepped away from teaching. Three years later he is back with Global Hypnosis Academy.
Open this page in an assistant and it will summarise it for you.
After 35 years spent building my career in hypnosis and mesmerism training - years that led to me being recognised as Australia's most proficient hypnosis trainer and one of the world's top therapeutic hypnotists - I walked away from teaching. Three years later, I'm back, and I've brought a new venture with me: Global Hypnosis Academy.
For anyone who's followed my career, the return might come as a surprise. Retirement is usually supposed to be the finish line. For me, it turned out to be more of a pause.
A Calling That Wouldn't Let Go
The simplest explanation for my return is also the most honest one: apart from many requests by past and interested future students, hypnosis training was never just a job for me. It was a calling. Stepping away from it for three years gave me the distance to realise that teaching, mentoring, and passing on decades of hard-won skill wasn't something I was finished with - it was something I was meant to keep doing.
That kind of pull is hard to ignore. Retirement gave me space to rest, but it also gave me clarity about where I genuinely wanted to spend my time and expertise.
Watching Standards Slip
The second reason is less personal and more professional. During my time away, I kept an eye on the profession I'd spent decades shaping, and I didn't love what I saw. Training standards, in my view, have been slipping - with more schools and courses leaning on unproven, and often outright ineffective, theory rather than the practical, results-driven methods that built my own reputation.
For someone who built a 35-year career on rigour and results, watching the field drift toward weaker foundations wasn't something I could sit back and observe indefinitely. Global Hypnosis Academy is, in part, my direct response to that drift - my attempt to bring the bar back up.
Retirement Got Boring
And then there's the reason that's refreshingly simple: retirement got boring. After decades of full, purposeful days spent training students and refining my craft, stepping back left a gap that leisure alone couldn't fill. I'm wired to teach and to solve problems, and an empty calendar has a way of losing its appeal fast.
Introducing the Global Hypnosis Academy
Put those three threads together - a calling I couldn't shake, a genuine concern about where the profession is heading, and a restless need to be doing meaningful work again - and Global Hypnosis Academy makes complete sense to me. It's not a retirement hobby or a side project. It's me stepping back into the arena with the same standards that built my reputation in the first place, aimed at training the next generation of hypnotists properly.
If you're looking for training grounded in real expertise rather than trendy theory, I'd love for you to join me.
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The information pack covers course outlines, the Sydney, Melbourne and Phnom Penh, Cambodia 2027 dates, fees and registration terms.
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