Zak Polanski, The Green Party, and the Credibility Problem for Hypnotherapy
Zak Polanski, leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, has faced renewed scrutiny over his previous work as a hypnotherapist and his claims that hypnosis could increase women’s breast size.
As a practising hypnotherapist, I find this deeply concerning. Not because of party politics, but because claims of this kind damage public confidence in an already misunderstood profession.
Hypnotherapy has spent decades trying to separate serious therapeutic practice from stage-show spectacle, magical thinking, exaggerated promises, and tabloid-friendly nonsense. So when a high-profile political figure with a hypnotherapy background becomes associated with claims that many responsible practitioners would regard as unsupported, sensational, and professionally embarrassing, the issue cannot simply be shrugged off as ancient history.
It raises a basic question, what (if any) professional judgement was being exercised?
The problem isn’t just the claim, it’s the credibility gap
The controversy around Zak Polanski’s previous hypnotherapy work is not merely that an unusual claim was made. The deeper issue is that the claim appears to sit uncomfortably close to precisely the kind of pseudo-therapeutic overreach that serious hypnotherapists work hard to avoid.
Hypnotherapy can help many people. It may support change in areas such as anxiety, confidence, stress, habits, phobias, sleep, and some aspects of symptom management. But responsible practitioners should be extremely careful about claims involving direct physical alteration of the body.
When hypnotherapy is presented as capable of producing dramatic physical changes without credible evidence, it risks crossing a line from therapeutic support into something far more questionable. That matters because clients often come to therapy when they are vulnerable. They may be anxious, self-conscious, ashamed, or desperate for change. In that context, the ethical burden on the practitioner is heavy.
A responsible practitioner does not exploit hope.
A responsible practitioner does not dress wishful thinking up as treatment.
A responsible practitioner does not make claims that bring the whole field into ridicule.
Why this matters now
Zak Polanski is not an obscure former practitioner. He is now the leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. That gives his past statements and professional conduct a wider public significance. This is not an argument about Green Party policy. It is a question of judgement, credibility, and public accountability.
Political parties often ask voters to trust their seriousness, their evidence base, and their ability to distinguish credible ideas from fringe thinking. When a party leader has previously been associated with claims of this nature, it is reasonable for the public to ask whether those standards have been properly examined.
It is also reasonable for hypnotherapists to ask whether the profession is being dragged into a public conversation it did not ask for and does not deserve.
Professional bodies should not stay silent
The National Hypnotherapy Society, the General Hypnotherapy Register, the National Council for Hypnotherapy, and other recognised bodies have worked to promote ethical practice, public protection, and professional standards.
Those bodies should not need to comment on every eccentric claim ever made in the name of hypnotherapy. But where a former practitioner becomes a nationally recognised political figure, and where his past claims risk making the profession look ridiculous, silence becomes a problem.
A clear statement would not need to be personal, hostile, or party-political. It could simply say:
Claims that hypnotherapy can increase breast size are not representative of responsible, evidence-conscious hypnotherapy practice. Practitioners should not make exaggerated or unsupported claims about physical change, and professional bodies do not endorse such claims.
That is not an attack on an individual but a boundary necessary for professional credibility.
Hypnotherapy cannot afford magical thinking by association
Sadly, hypnotherapy still has a credibility problem in the public mind. Many people confuse it with stage hypnosis, manipulation, mind control, or mystical thinking. Which is why serious practitioners have to be careful.
We cannot complain that the public misunderstands hypnotherapy while staying silent when high-profile stories make it the profession look ridiculous. We cannot ask to be treated as credible professionals while tolerating claims that sound more like tabloid entertainment than therapeutic practice. If hypnotherapy wants public trust, it has to reject exaggerated promises clearly, calmly, and without defensiveness.
This is about standards, not party politics
To be clear, this is not a comment on Green Party members, many of whom support the Green Party for serious and principled reasons. But when the leader of any political party has previously been associated with questionable therapeutic claims, scrutiny is legitimate. Public life demands judgement. Therapeutic work demands integrity. Both demand a respect for evidence.
Zak Polanski can answer questions about his past in his own way and The Green Party can decide what it believes is acceptable in its leadership.
But the hypnotherapy profession should not allow this story to define it. Modern, ethical hypnotherapy is not about sensational claims. It is not about promising vulnerable people physical transformations without credible evidence. It is not about performance, spectacle, or wishful thinking.
It is about helping people make meaningful psychological and behavioural change within honest, professional boundaries. That is the profession I want to belong to and that is why we should distance ourselves, clearly and publicly, from claims of this kind.