Many businesses are coming round to the idea of alternative treatments and recognising that, although they do not replace conventional medicine or seeing your GP, they can have beneficial effects and are useful in many aspects of health and wellbeing.

Over the last few years, employers have started to add healthcare programmes to their benefits packages - and many include alternative treatments as standard policy.  Employers benefit from healthier, happy employee and a lower sickness or absence rate. Employees gain access to alternative treatments, or faster health treatments, than they may otherwise have done.

One such company is Avanta which specialises in providing office space to small and medium sized businesses.  It has introduced a range of improvements to its staff benefits since it reviewed its entire benefits structure earlier this year.

Amongst new benefits such as salary sacrifice pension contributions, increases to maternity and paternity pay, and medical insurance, is an innovative offer to help its staff to quit smoking.  For any member of staff who wants to stop smoking, Avanta is offering an incentive to reimburse them on aids to quitting, and this includes any hypnotherapy treatment. 

Not all companies recognise alternative therapies in programmes such as this, but those that do know it is worthwhile - not least because hypnotherapy, for example, is recognised by the NHS as being a valuable aid for treating people with addictions or habits or who find it hard to cope with stress.