I am not well aware of all "good" off-campus universities. Make sure you choose an accredited university such as USIU, NOVA, or FEILDING. And, there may be others that are also well accepted. I took some Ph.D. courses at USIU, some of my trainees went there and to Fielding, and I know some of the instructors and former instructors from Nova. They are all very fine and accredited - so graduating from any of them, you can get a state license after spending all your time, brain cells, and money.

There are wonderful post grad training workshops that will accept non-masters people, (I think). Gestalt Inst of Cleveland, many Transactional Analysis programs and others. These are often wonderful clinical training programs. Both Jeff Zeig and I feel that our work toward Clinical certification in TA and Gestalt was, hands down, the best training we ever received.

But as you look toward hypnosis all professional trainers insist that you have a Masters degree or be a full time student in such a program to receive training. The exception are the NLP offerings...but keep in mind, that the vast majority of those NLP trainers are not interested in and have not received training and credentialing in psychology - those of us who have such training are pretty much appalled with that situation.

The group norm in our country and all related professionals requires such certification if we want to enjoy the sanctions of roles in these professions. In NLP training, Steve Andreas (previously John Stevens of Gestalt fame) and Bob Dilts are notable exceptions having obtained masters level or higher professional degrees (and there are some others)...yet their training programs are open to all comers and not just professionals.

All in all, you DO need to acquire what they did - a minimum of a Masters in one of the psychology related fields (social work, psychology, counseling, and even theology and psychiatric nursing, etc.) to have doors opened for you in the field. Bottom line: I would not, and none of my colleagues would, ever endorse or refer clients to a person who had not accomplished this minimal standard of education and practice. We would consider it unethical...and so would the state boards who oversee our activities!

I hope that puts into perspective issues that may help guide your career decisions.