So you want to be a philosopher.    Fine, go ahead.    Set up shop, put out your sign, and offer consultations (“No problem too hard”) at Ł300/hour.

There is no law to stop you.    No Chartered Institute or Royal Society will object.    Other philosophers might notice, but like the philosophers in “The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy”, they are probably too busy trying to decide whether they too are, or are not, philosophers to bother with you.

Suppose, on the other hand, you want to be a judge.    That’s very different.    You face long periods of training, at university and in Chambers, exam after exam, years in practice, and the struggle for acceptance by the right professional bodies, and by your peers.    And, even after all that, you still have to wait to be chosen.

Most professions fall between these two extremes.    In some, the law demands certain qualifications.    In others, one or more professional bodies may be sufficiently well-established that, without their qualifications, the chances of a job are small.

With professions regulated by Chartered Institutes, for example, it is almost impossible to practise if you are not a member;  they operate a “closed shop”.

Either way, you need someone’s blessing.    You cannot be a doctor or an auditor or a teacher without proper credentials.

Limiting entry helps maintain standards.    It is an aim of most professions.    Most complementary and alternative therapies are trying to set up a proper, recognised framework to underpin their skills.    Some have partially succeeded, others not.

Motives may be mixed.    Some may want to stamp out abuse;  some just to build empires.    Turf wars can break out between rival bodies and block attempts to establish respected, let alone enforceable, sets of rules.

Whether you want to be a haberdasher, hairdresser, horticulturalist, hypnotherapist or horse trainer, do your homework first.

Find out who trains such professions, what the qualifications are, whether they are well-respected, and what the law does, or doesn’t say.

Decide where you want to work.    Opportunities in the NHS are carefully controlled; private practice may not be so restricted.

Find out if there is one, widely accepted body, or several competing for recognition.

Ask a range of people for advice, not just references sources like libraries or learning centres, but potential employers, and people already "in-practice".

And then ask again.    It is hard enough to train, without then finding that you have the wrong piece of paper at the end of it.