Dor several days, a wind of controversy has been sweeping the oyster farming commune of Bourcefranc-le-Chapus. The case dates back to the beginning of January when the municipality posted a message on Facebook announcing the arrival of a sophrologist hypnotherapist in a “medical office” located a stone's throw from the town hall.
News that makes Guillaume Lelong jump. This psychologist and psychotherapist employed by a medical-social establishment for children and adolescents in Saint-Trojan-les-Bains posted two messages with a biting tone on his blog Vivre à Bourcefranc and relayed on an eponymous Facebook page which brings together 3,000 members.
Suffice to say that these publications read in the Marennes Basin took a passionate turn. Not working as a freelancer and therefore not likely to react for competitive reasons, Guillaume Lelong considers himself a “whistleblower”. He first attacks the municipality which does not “have to promote unregulated pseudo-therapists,” he writes.
“No recognized training”
And he asserts: “Tomorrow, everyone can put on their nameplate and claim to be a hypnotherapist. There is no training recognized by the State apart from additional training that can be carried out by individuals who are already doctors or psychologists for example”, he assures, pointing out that the training of hypnotherapists delivered “at a high price” by private organizations vary “between a few weeks and one or two years”.
He therefore advises ensuring that the professional to be consulted “is registered in the Health Directory and holds an RPPS identifier (Shared directory of professionals working in the health system)”.
Critics that go down very badly with the young woman in question, Cindy Large, who moved after working for nine years in La Tremblade and Marennes: “It’s very emotionally complicated,” she assures, noting “everything, point by point, to be able to answer”. On her personal website, she indicates having “completed three years of training in a specialized school in Bordeaux in order to become a specialized practicing sophrologist”.
Living in Bourcefranc-le-Chapus and looking for premises, which turned out to be “very complicated”, she moved into this part of a vacant building. Even if, and it's a funny paradox, the site is not the most appropriate for the people she receives: anxious by nature, they are looking for a quiet site without other passages.
“Harassment”
Warned of these admonitions, the union to which Cindy Large belongs, the SNH (National Union of Hypnotherapists) informed its lawyer who said he was considering suing Guillaume Lelong for “defamation”. “What this gentleman is doing is unacceptable, it’s really harassment,” storms Charlotte de Bouteiller, national president of the SNH and also vice-president of the UNAPL (National Union of Liberal Professions) of Île-de-France . With 688 members in France, including around ten in the department, the SNH assures, through its president, that it has never been confronted with such an indictment of one of its members.
-If she concedes that the term “medical office” used by the municipality is not the most appropriate, Charlotte de Bouteiller also believes that these attacks have a political connotation which results in “a settling of scores” against the mayor Guy Proteau. When asked, the latter did not respond.
Hypnosis “must be practiced by people who have completed university training in psychopathology”
The fact remains that in a final note published on Saturday January 18, Guillaume Lelong recognizes that while he is certainly politicized – he defines himself as belonging “to the vast sovereignist family resulting from Gaullism and the National Council of the Resistance” – the local media Living in Bourcefranc “is not a springboard for the 2026 municipal elections, VAB wants to be a cog in local democracy”.
An “unprotected” practice
In the meantime, Charlotte de Bouteiller defends the legitimacy of her union, discredited by Guillaume Lelong as “gaslighting”, that is to say cognitive manipulation: “In the absence of regulation for each profession, the professional unions of unconventional medicine or INM (non-pharmacological intervention) perform the role of institutions by verifying identities, training and certifications, as well as the signing of the code of ethics and the charter of quality and ethics, as well as respect and legal obligations,” she specifies. “Psychologists, who have refused to become a health profession, may be eligible for the RPPS,” she adds.
I am not installed in the medical office intended for doctors, but in an apartment belonging to the town hall with an osteopath
Guillaume Lelong also places emphasis on hypnosis “which must be practiced by people who have completed university training in psychopathology. A practice which is not protected in France. Only the titles of psychotherapist, psychiatrists and psychologists are. » “It’s a penalty that we would do well without,” sighs Charlotte de Bouteiller, regretting a lack of “consistency” in particular for “the mutual societies which reimburse the INM” and certifying that the professionals at the SNH have benefited from “at least 300 hours of initial training”.
“I respect my limits”
For his part, Guillaume Lelong, who works in the field of disability, certifies having been confronted in his professional practice with kinesiologists, for example, who have harmed entire families.
“I don't consider myself a psychotherapist, I sometimes work with them but I respect my limits by providing additional support,” insists Cindy Large, believing that the controversy would come from an amalgamation: “I am not not installed in the medical office provided for doctors but in an apartment belonging to the town hall with an osteopath. »
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