Depth Hypnosis Foundation Course FAQ

If I am already a therapist or hypnotherapist, can this training be of benefit to me?
Many of our students are licensed psychotherapists or other types of healers who are looking for new tools to use in their practices. One student who had just received her masters in marriage and family counseling told us that our class taught her more about how to work with clients than her years of study in an MFT program. Students who have received hypnotherapy certificates elsewhere who enroll in our Depth Hypnosis Foundation Course often go on to become Depth Hypnosis Practitioners, because the class is much more comprehensive and innovative than anything else out there. The Depth Hypnosis Method informs and expands possibilities for almost any type of therapeutic paradigm. The tools you learn in this class will help you take your healing practice, whatever it may be, to a new level of integration.

I am not sure I want to practice as a hypnotherapist, but I’m intrigued by the subject matter. Would it be appropriate to take the course for my own personal growth?
Many people take this class for their own personal growth because it provides a quick path to self-understanding. It also provides healing professionals with techniques they can use to facilitate change in their clients and expand the results of their work. Regardless of your professional aspirations, these workshops will help you deepen your understanding of yourself. For instance, you can use the workshops to become a better parent or to interact with people at work and in your life with more insight and compassion.

How is the Depth Hypnosis Foundation Course training through the Foundation of the Sacred Stream different from the training at other “traditional” hypnotherapy schools?
Generally speaking, “traditional hypnotherapy” refers to suggestion hypnosis. This is what is taught in most hypnosis schools, and the majority of the training in these schools is spent studying, memorizing, and practicing hypnosis scripts. In the Depth Hypnosis Foundation Course, we also teach suggestion hypnosis, what hypnotherapy is, and how it works. But our approach to suggestion hypnosis is much more tailored and focused on the client’s individual needs, rather than dependent on “canned” or prewritten scripts, as most trainings provide. Also, the Depth Hypnosis Foundation Course (which leads to a Hypnotherapy Certificate through the Association of Depth Hypnosis Practitioners) teaches many more tools that work in conjunction with traditional hypnotherapy and prepare students to work with clients at a deeper level. The course better prepares practitioners to deal with various client behaviors, and alleviates practitioner burnout. The Depth Hypnosis Foundation Course includes training in regression therapy, energy management, energetic interference removal, soul retrieval, power retrieval, techniques for applying Buddhist understandings regarding the nature of suffering, shamanic principles for deep healing, insight inquiry and more. All of this combined with the tools that hypnotherapy provides make for a more powerful and effective experience for the client. This is what we call Depth Hypnosis.

Who should take this course?
These workshops are for anyone interested in self-transformation or facilitating the self-transformation of others. Although this class focuses on hypnotherapeutic techniques for uncovering blocks to the core self, those who work with others outside the counseling field will benefit from the vision of healing that is presented in this course. Spiritual and mental health counselors who have integrated Depth Hypnosis techniques into their practices have reported a deepening of their own experience, as well as a deepening of their clients’ experiences. Additionally, teachers, social workers, midwives, doulas, nurses, attorneys, and individuals from various other fields have participated in the Depth Hypnosis training program and reported increased energy, better focus, deeper understanding, and more confidence in the therapeutic environment. Again, many take this class for self-understanding. For these students, their path often becomes clearer and better defined so they are able to make new choices for greater self-expression.

Is there a syllabus/reading list?
Yes. You will be given the syllabus and reading list once you enroll in the Depth Hypnosis Foundation Course.

Is there any support available to me after I finish the training provided by the Depth Hypnosis Foundation Course?
We offer supervised practice through the Depth Hypnosis supervisory course, and the Depth Hypnosis Next Steps workshop. These courses are for people who want more supervised practice and help with client questions. You can also schedule private supervisory sessions with Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D., who is the creator of Depth Hypnosis. In addition, there are student-initiated practice groups and homework groups that offer ongoing support for students.

Is the hypnotherapy training offered by your organization after taking the Depth Hypnosis Foundation Course accepted by other schools and governing bodies?
Regarding certifying bodies, it is important to understand that hypnotherapy is not a licensed profession and that a Hypnotherapy Certificate is not the same as a license. This means that unlike licensed professions, it is not overseen by any one governing body, nor is it overseen at a state or federal level. Instead, different groups offer certification and set up their own guidelines and structures with regard to certification. There are organizations that have given themselves professional sounding names, but they are no more legitimate than any other. Most have membership fees and they are not too particular about where you studied if you are willing to pay the fee. Some have other requirements like graduate degrees, but it’s important to ask what it is you will be receiving from your affiliation with them, because what they offer you in terms of legitimacy is limited. The bottom line is that your clients are not going to be too interested in who your certifying body is; they just want you to be good at what you do. We do our best to help you become a practitioner of integrity and skill.

As for our affiliations, we have our own governing board, the Association of Depth Hypnosis Practitioners. We are also affiliated with the Professional Board of Hypnotherapy, an International organization. However, to reiterate, there is no state, national, or international board that governs hypnotherapy certification. So, we would recommend that anyone choosing a place to study hypnotherapy get clear on what the course entails, what the costs are, and what advanced trainings are offered and what they involve, rather than getting distracted by any claims of exclusivity by any particular school or group.

Further, it is important to note that Depth Hypnosis a spiritual counseling model. Whenever you are working with the DH Method, you are working with elements of the unseen that are referred to in many contexts as spiritual work. However, the DH Method’s approach to spirituality is completely non-dogmatic and the model itself is designed ultimately to help people discover and define their own path to spiritual understanding to heal completely on a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level. DH Method subscribes to Carl Jung’s statement: “There is not true healing without the participation of spirit.”

As a result of this emphasis on the participation of spirit, and because the DH Method is understood primarily as a vehicle for spiritual transformation, the certificate that you receive at the end of any level of study you attain is a certificate for spiritual counseling. People who have attained the level of study of Depth Hypnosis Practitioner may elect to be considered for candidacy as a minister in the Foundation of the Sacred Stream. The formation provided by the course of study of Depth Hypnosis Practitioner is the formation all ministers in the Foundation of the Sacred Stream must undergo.

Your status as an active minister in good standing with the Foundation of the Sacred Stream is contingent upon your being an active Depth Hypnosis Practitioner (DHP) with the Association of Depth Hypnosis Practitioners, or an Applied Shamanic Practitioner (ASP) with the Circle of Shamanic Practitioners. If your status as a DHP or ASP is discontinued, your status as a minister will end as well.