Hypnotherapy Certification

learn From the comfort of your own home

• HCH Institute is accredited and sponsored by the International Board for Regression Therapy for the training of Hypnotherapists and Regression Therapists.

• Approved for Clinical Hypnotherapy Training by the National Board for Certified Clinical Hypnotherapists and the Professional Board of Hypnotherapy.

• All students enrolled in any HCH  program are Sponsored Student Members of the International Board for Regression Therapy. Sponsorship is free  for one year or extends to graduation if the program is longer than a year. 

These courses meet the qualifications for CEUs approved by CA Association for Marriage Family Therapists #124720 and for Continuing Education Hours by the CA Board of Registered Nursing #CEP 6875. Each hour of classroom time equals one CEU. This course is appropriate for licensed and non-licensed students.

Admission Requirements

To register students must be at least 18 With a high school diploma.

With a focus on personal growth and development, this training can, for many students, bring to the surface areas that are in need of exploration and healing. As the training involves group participation, it is not appropriate for those with psychological or emotional problems and instability that could result in the disruption of the learning process for the group as a whole.

Email us at hch@hypnotherapytraining.com or call 925-283-3941 for additional information.

New Student Application
$75.00 (non-refundable)

Registered Students only…

Training Fees

Tuition and materials is $4,400.00. $1100 is due at the start of each level.

Applications are accepted for Level I only. Additional levels may be registered for
upon the completion of the first level.

Discounts: Each student who enrolls in 200 hour certification training with a partner, family member,
friend, or colleague will receive a $300 discount per enrollee towards the Level IV tuition payment.

Class Hours are 9am to 6pm for all days

Training Overview

The training at HCH is comprehensive and multi-dimensional. It's designed to insure systematic integration of Ericksonian Hypnotherapy, Neuro-linguistic Programming and many transpersonal modalities of healing through altered states of consciousness. As a result, graduates are insured competency in a wide variety of practical and effective therapeutic skills.
One of the most significant elements in the HCH training is the emphasis on students personally experiencing the hypnotic process as hypnotees through demonstrations and partner practicum. Because graduates understand the transformational effects of hypnosis from the inside out, they are better prepared to empower clients to move through their own inner territories.

Each HCH instructor follows the path of empowerment and teaches the importance of supporting clients in healing themselves -- demystifying hypnosis as a power or force the hypnotherapist uses on someone else. This approach minimizes co-dependencies between the client and therapist and helps clients more consciously experience being the creative healing force in their own lives.

Through the HCH learning approach utilizing hypnotic consciousness and the on-going supervised practice of techniques, students are also trained in the art of doing hypnotherapy. It is in this realm of the art of hypnotherapy that a state of grace and healing takes place for the client.

Our hypnotherapy training supports graduates in meeting both personal and professional goals. Many begin a new satisfying career as a hypnotherapist and many combine the newly acquired hypnotherapy skills with a current helping profession. All HCH students experience the benefits of profound accelerated personal growth and transformation.

Our HCH Institute Hypnotherapy Training provides 200 hours of comprehensive training and mentoring of hypnotherapists that surpasses other trainings available. We are committed to train hypnotherapists that are thoroughly versed in the laws and ethics of working in the field and are competent to provide professional services. We often re-train graduates of other programs who complain about too short of training, inadequate supervision, and feeling unprepared to go into practice.

At HCH we have small classes that support the students’  individual learning styles with interactive discussions with teacher and fellow student feedback. Our classes average 8-12 students.

We require that each student present in class a video of themselves facilitating an actual session of hypnotherapy. The video recording is done through Zoom. Students and the instructor give written and verbal feedback to the hypnotherapist. The students' skill levels and confidence to provide services competently and ethically is DRAMATICALLY enhanced through the video assignment. HCH is the only school that offers a video practicum.

Through out the training, emphasis is placed on the student's personal process of experiencing all of the techniques taught. Learning takes place not only by facilitating the process but through experiencing themselves as the client and taking time in class to talk about their hypnotic experiences, much like a client would do with the hypnotherapist in a session. Learning takes place from the inside out, and integrates on a much deeper level than through typical intellectual or academic learning. By being the client as much as practicing being the hypnotherapist, students learn about the territory of non-ordinary states and can be more confident in being a seasoned guide to a client who is new to the experience of hypnosis.

HCH generally attracts students who demand excellence in training and in themselves, and who have an understanding that being a hypnotherapist is an art: that skills are cultivated and honed, not just learned through lectures and watching demonstrations. Because the HCH teaching and healing philosophy emphasizes the spiritual realm of consciousness or the quantum field that is the basis of all healing, our typical student is one for whom there is a calling to do healing and transformational work whether for their own purposes or for the support of others. Even though our community attracts a diverse population of students, there is a commonality: that we are all human beings growing , learning and wanting to be in service of the transformation of consciousness. The transformation begins with ourselves.

Our graduates are eligible to apply to our 100 hour, six month, Clinical Internship program in which students provide hypnotherapy services to the public in our Hypnotherapy Community Clinic. Students receive weekly group supervision with Holly to focus on client progress, strategies for working with clients and legal and ethical issues that come up in the therapeutic interactions. To ensure the development of the art of hypnotherapy and the skills necessary to run a practice, HCH also offers an externship program where graduates in private practice can continue the mentoring and supervision with Holly through monthly on-line supervision groups and a monthly private phone or video conference consultation with Holly.

In both the internship and externship programs, students earn the 100 additional hours required for the Clinical Hypnotherapy Certification. No other hypnotherapy trainings offer programs like these and students must be HCH graduates to participate.

Hypnotherapy Course Objectives and Content

Students will develop beginning levels of competency in the following areas of hypnotherapy as exhibited through class practicum with peer and instructor written and verbal feedback, and homework assignments. The HCH Certified Hypnotherapist trainings are structured in four 50-hour levels:

Level I: INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOSIS

History of Hypnosis
Myths and Misconceptions of Hypnosis
Basic Induction and De-Hypnotizing Techniques
Interviewing Skills, Rapport Building and Client Assessment
Hypnotic Language and Making Effective Suggestions
Survey of Theoretical Approaches to Hypnosis
Hypnotic Phenomena
Teaching Self Hypnosis
Skill Rehearsal and Master Teacher
Introduction to NLP/Anchoring
Hypnotic Language & Post Hypnotic Suggestion
Intuition Development
Introduction to EFT
Beginning Practicum and Supervision
Required Reading, Outside Practice

Textbooks for Level I: Spiritual Hypnotherapy Scripts for Body Mind and Spirit by Holly Holmes-Meredith, available on site at HCH or available on Amazon as book or ebook.

Self Hypnosis: The Complete Guide to Better Health and Self-Change by Brian Alman and Peter Lambrou, Second edition or newer,  available on Amazon.

Learning Objectives For Level I:

Through observing live class demonstrations and  through personal experience, students will be able to identify and explain the objective and subjective differences between waking consciousness and the hypnotic state.

Students will demonstrate meeting the four goals of doing an initial interview.

Students will experience and  demonstrate the following induction techniques: Eye fixation, Hypnotic journey, Systematic Relaxation

Students will experience and demonstrate the following Deepening Techniques: Breathing, Color, Movement, Body Awareness, Yardstick Technique

Students will be able to write and utilize suggestions that include the  four criteria for hypnotic language patterns.

Students will be able to carry out self hypnosis and teach self  hypnosis to a volunteer subject. The assignment will be performed outside of class and a written report of the experience and will be reviewed and evaluated by the instructor.   

Students will carry out, at a beginning level of skill, the following hypnotherapy processes as demonstrated through partner practice, supervision, and post session discussion: Stress management, Skill Rehearsal, Accessing the higher Self for inner resourcing, Pre-session interviewing, Hypnotic Anchoring, Accessing for client’s representational systems (AVKTO).

Level II: INTERMEDIATE HYPNOSIS

Learning Objectives for Level II:

Learning the theories, seeing demonstrations and practicing the application of the following hypnotic techniques:

Introduction to Pain Management
Voice Dialogue and Parts Therapy
Shamanic Practices and Hypnosis
Inner Family
Stop Smoking
Grief, Loss, Death and Dying
Dreamwork and Sandplay
Meditation and Mindfulness vs Hypnosis
The Business of Being a Hypnotherapist
Intermediate Practicum and Supervision
Required Reading, Self-Hypnosis Tape, Outside Practice

Progress will be evaluated and documented by class discussions and student and instructor feedback.

Textbook for Level II: Quantum Consciousness by Peter Smith. Available on Amazon. 

Level III: MASTER HYPNOTIST

Learning Objectives for Level III:

Learning the theories, seeing demonstrations and practicing the application of the following techniques:

Reclaiming the Shadow
Changing Core and Limiting Beliefs
Past Life Therapy
Affect Somatic Linguistic Bridge and Inner Child Therapy
Weight Management
Introduction to Sandplay and Open-eyed Trance
Legal and Ethical Issues
Clinical Case Practice and Supervision
Bilateral Stimulation in Hypnotherapy
Spirit Releasement Therapy
Trauma and Phobias
Practicum
Required Video Practicum, Reading, Outside Practice

Progress will be evaluated and documented by class discussions and student and instructor written feedback.

Textbook for Level III: The Ethics of Caring by Kylea Taylor, available on Amazon

Level IV: CERTIFIED HYPNOTHERAPIST

Learning Objectives for Level IV:
Learning the theories, seeing demonstrations and practicing the application of the following hypnotic techniques:

Cultural and Diversity Issues in Hypnotherapy
Inner Critic
Self-empowerment, Co-dependency and Healthy Boundaries
Self Love and Forgiveness
Inner Healer
Letting Go with Somatic Therapy
Surgery Preparation
Student Course Review and Evaluations
In class Advanced Practicum and Student Video Presentation

Student Hypnotherapy Session Videos will be observed and evaluated, in writing, by the instructor and all fellow students. Progress will be evaluated  and documented by class discussions and student and instructor written feedback.

Textbook for Level IV: Becoming Naturally Therapeutic by Jacquelyn Small, available on Amazon.

Highly recommended for graduates who will be practicing hypnotherapy:
Handbook of Hypnotic Suggestions and Metaphors by D. Corydon Hammond

HCH Certificates of Completion Are Provided For the Following:

Personal Transformation/Hypnotist

50 or 100 HOURS (Levels I and II)
The first 50 or 100 hours of the HCH training is designed to teach students the basic components of hypnosis how to apply induction and deepening techniques, how to work with language effectively and how to apply the skills towards achieving personal goals and transformation. Students also have beginning level skills in teaching others self-hypnosis and in guiding others through basic hypnotic applications.

Master Hypnotist

150 HOURS (Levels I, II and III)The first 150 hours of the HCH training leads toward skills in utilizing hypnotherapeutic process with clients in a wide variety of areas as outlined in the course content section. Students will participate in supervised practicums so there is opportunity for guidance and feedback with each newly-acquired skill. Students produce a self-hypnosis tape for personal use which is critiqued.

Certified Hypnotherapist

200 HOURS (Level I, II, III, and IV).
The full 200 hours of training prepares the student to work as a professional hypnotherapist. As a part of the training each student presents a video of an actual hypnotherapy session for critique. The focus in the last level of training is on providing competent, ethical services through the refining of techniques and the emergence of a personal and professional therapeutic style. Graduates of the 200 hour training are awarded a diploma as a Certified Hypnotherapist which is approved by the the National Board for Certified  Clinical Hypnotherapists

Clinical Hypnotherapist

300+ HOURS:
Additional trainings are available on a year-round basis for specialized advanced trainings. See our Advanced Training page for more information on Clinical Hypnosis Certification and Advanced Training.