Pre-requisites: This course starts from the basics. Applicants must be at least 19 and be emotionally stable.

This course is taught in following formats; Onsite and Distance. Below is a detailed description of the full-time onsite course in Vancouver, BC. Financial Assistance may be available.
Please inquire.

The Distance Diploma course can be taken from anywhere at anytime and is equivalent to the onsite diploma program described below. BC. Financial Assistance may be available.
Please inquire.


The Orca Institute's Vancouver Onsite Full-time Counseling Hypnotherapy Diploma course consists of:

1.. Hypnotherapy I
2. Basic Counseling Skills
3. Hypnotherapy II
4. Hypnotherapy III
5.Clinical Placement
5. Resident Exams
6. Advanced Hypnotherapy
7. Advanced Counselling Skills
9.Counselling Hypnotherapist Exams

This first part of this training gives the student a good grounding in basic and advanced hypnosis and counseling skills as well as the ability to apply these skills in a therapeutic client-therapist relationship. Much focus is placed on professional ethics, respect and safety for the client. Students are also taught to work within their field of competence. The course is taught from a holistic or mind/body approach rather than from a purely psychological perspective. This allows for great leeway in touching on many related areas and in the ability to show how hypnosis is part of a much larger picture integrating many complimentary approaches.

The Advanced section of this program is designed to enhance and refine the skills the student has acquired through basic training including the topics covered under the Ericksonian section of the Basic Training. There is a strong focus on Ericksonian and multiple level communication skills. The course is taught through watching video of actual sessions, lecture, research and practice. It is designed to improve the skill level, range and effectiveness of therapists’ already in practice and to increase demand for their services.
This is accomplished in part by the wide range of actual sessions on video (60 hours) coupled with an in depth analysis by the teacher of the session including the intent of the therapist during key aspects of the session. This format allows the student to review specific procedures and gain valuable knowledge.
Support is provided throughout the course in person, by phone, e-mail or Skype. 
The following is a detailed outline of what each section of the course covers and required materials.

Required Materials

Program Book list
Therapeutic Trances: The Cooperation Principle in Ericksonian Hypnotherapy Stephen G. Gilligan ~ ~ ISBN: 0876304420 ~ Hardcover Textbook $100.00
Skilled Helper A Problem-Management Approach to Helping $25.00
Author: Gerard Egan
Binding: Hardcover, 6 edition, 377 pages
Publisher: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company
Published Date: 07/01/1997
ISBN: 053434948X
Exercises in Helping Skills The Skilled Helper $25.00
by Author: Gerard Egan
ISBN: 0534350577
Publisher: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company
Publish Date: 06/01/1997
Binding: Paperback , viii, 177 pages

Shebib, Bob (2003). Choices: Interviewing and Counselling Skills for Canadians. Toronto: Prentice Hall $100.00
Two other books are required (to be chosen by student) $150.00

Included in this Course

640 hrs. (8 months) onsite training
Four Basic Video DVD's (45 hours)
Thirty-four page course Basic manual
Seventy page Basic Video Manual
3 Diploma Video DVD's (60 hours)
240 page Advanced Video Manual


Hypnotherapy Skills 1
The intent of this section is to give the student a basic grounding in traditional hypnosis skills using "direct" methods. In addition to basic hypnosis skills, the student will also learn how other complementary approaches such as Yoga, Breathing, Meditation, Chi Kung, Acupuncture Theory, Chakras, Huna and Kinisiology integrate with and complement hypnotherapy. As is common throughout the complete program, the focus is on experiential learning. A manual written by the instructor is used in this course. The topics covered in the course are: History of Hypnosis, Defining Hypnosis, Synonymous terminology, Conscious, Sub-conscious, Super-conscious, Self Hypnosis techniques and other methods, Subjective and objective experiences in trance, Physiological response to stress, Suggestibility tests, Comparing direct and indirect approaches, Developing effectiveness, Techniques of hypnosis (progressive relaxation, count, fascination, fractionation, arm levitation, confusion, rapid induction and guided imagery), Deepening the trance (deepening techniques, levels of consciousness), Depth testing, Abreactions, Affirmations, Ideo-motor response, Wording of hypnotic suggestions, Representational systems, Anchoring, Vipassana Meditation. Go to top


Counseling Skills
The Counseling skills course is based on the textbook and workbook by Gerard Egan. Aimed at helpers, the text emphasizes the collaborative nature of the therapist-client relationship and using a practical, three-stage model that drives client problem-managing and opportunity-developing action, leads readers step-by-step through the counseling process, while giving them a feeling for the complexity inherent in any helping relationship. As readers master the various steps of the helping model, they should be able to improve their competence and confidence measurably. The 85 practical exercises in this manual allow the student to practice communication skills and each of the steps of the model in private before practicing them in actual helping interactions with others.

Hypnotherapy Skills 2
The main focus of this course is on Ericksonian Hypnosis. The concept is that once students have begun to master direct methods of hypnosis, they can begin the process of learning the more versatile and subtle form which is Ericksonian. The broad base of multi- level communication skills that students learn serves to enhance their ability to be "absorbed" in the therapeutic moment and really hear, see and feel what the client needs. The experiential aspect of this course includes demonstrations of various methods as well as students practicing with each other. The students will get feedback from each other as well as from the teacher.

Topics covered are:

• Ericksonian definitions of hypnosis and hypnotherapy
• Principles of
  Ericksonian hypnotherapy
• Induction approaches
• Major steps in hypnotic inductions

Four induction approaches:

• Directing the client's attention inwards
• Non-verbal pacing and leading
• Accessing a previous trance state
• Informal hypnotic induction
  
  

Key Modalities of
Ericksonian Hypnotherapy

• Metaphor and stories
• Confusion
• Dissociation
• Embedded suggestions
• Generalities

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