Master Practitioner Holistic Counselling Training Course
**Not Available in the USA due to differing regulations from state to state.
A minimum of 120 hours of this course must be completed in a face-to-face learning environment.
This can be done via zoom (or other live conference calls), in a classroom, or via residential retreat.
MODULES
53 Modules
HOURS
(min 1100 hours)
DURATION
Part-time: 110 weeks (10 hours of study per week)
Study break allowance (included in course durations) = 20 weeks
Full time: 55 weeks (20 hours of study per week)
Study break allowance (included in course durations) = 10 weeks
CERTIFICATION
IICT Recognised certification:
(1) Meditation and Holistic Human Development Practitioner
(2) Holistic Counselling Skills for Meditation Teachers
(3) Meditation Therapist
(4) Holistic Empowerment Coaching
(5) Holistic Counselling
This certification course includes:
Module 1 – Foundation studies in meditation
Module 2 – Understanding the cause & effects of stress
Module 3 – Foundations of human happiness
Module 4 – Tools for healing
Module 5 – Meditation styles and techniques
Module 6 – Teaching
Module 7 – Working with specific groups
Module 8 – Counselling & coaching skills for meditation teachers
Module 9 – Designing and facilitating classes and workshops
Module 10 – Virtual, corporate, and community settings
Module 11 – Holistic small business management
Module 12 – Marketing: The key to success
- Introduction
- How you will be able to use the autonomic nervous system
reprograming - The study of the ANS (autonomic nervous system)
- Dr. Bruce Lipton
- Language
- The three brains
- The autonomic nervous system
- Neurochemicals
- The endocrine system
- Module summary
- The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)
- The Amygdala
- The Central Nervous System (CNS)
- The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)
- What a nerve consists of
- The evolution of human consciousness
- Homeostasis
- The Heart-Brain
- The Gut-Brain
- Reprogramming the autonomic nervous system by changing our perceptions and beliefs
- Finding beliefs to change
- Belief changing technique
Required Reading:
Beyond the Relaxation Response: How to Harness the Healing Power of Your Personal Beliefs by Herbert Benson, MD
The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles by Bruce H. Lipton, PhD
- Introduction to Brain-Body Medicine (Psychophysiology)
- The Role of the Brain-Body Therapist (Psychophysiology Therapist)
- Introduction to Brain-Body Medicine
- The Physiology of Belief
- Traumatic Beliefs
- The Power to Heal
- The Faith Factor and How to Provide it
- Providing Evidence for Your Clients
- Placebo – The Science Behind Brain-Body Medicine
- Diagnosis and Seeking the Cause of Illness
- Guiding Clients to Self-diagnose and Healing
- Psychophysiology Diagnostic Tools
- How to Work with Damaging Belief Systems and Conditioning
- Medical Meditation
- Writing the Prescription
- Tools for the Psychophysiology Therapist
- Marketing Your Brain-Body Therapy Practice
- Building Clientele
- Referring and Networking
Required Reading:
Mind Over Medicine: Heal Your Thoughts Cure Your Body by Lissa Rankin MD
Meditation as Medicine: Activate the Power of Your Natural Healing Force by Dharma Singh Khalsa MD
- Introduction to Advanced Holistic Counselling
- Seeing Clients – Individual and Group Therapy
- Humanistic Psychology
- Emotions and Counselling
- Relationship Counselling and Counselling Couples
- Counselling Young Adults
- Trauma Counselling
- Counselling Clients with Depression
- Mediating
- Running Group Counselling and Therapy Sessions
- Fight or Flight and the Relaxation Response Review •
- Powerful Tools for Holistic Counselling
- Creative Expression Therapy
Required Reading:
The Games People Play by Eric Berne, PhD
- Introduction to telephone counselling
- Using Zoom and other online platforms for counselling
- Outline of the counselling call
- The seven core principles of telephone counselling
- Feelings are key
- Active listening
- Minimal encourages
- Reflection of content
- Exploration of feelings
- Open and closed questions
- Guidelines for summarising
- Basic telephone counselling communication guidelines
- Barriers to effective communication
- Listening skills
- Self-care
- Warnings and contras – When not to use telephone counselling
- Domestic violence and suicidal clients
- Role-play exercises
Required reading:
The telephone counselor’s role play handbook by Kerry Doolan
Telephone Counselling – A Handbook for Practitioners by Maxine Rosenfield
- Introduction grief and loss counselling
- What is grief?
- Healing the wounds of grief
- Grief takes time
- The journey through grief
- The grief processes
- The role of the holistic grief counsellor
- The pitfalls to avoid
- Influencing factors on grieving
- Resources and referrals
- Complicated grief
- Depressive grief and clinical depression
- Dealing with Acute Emergency Situations (AES)
- The grief counsellor’s role in AES
- Guidelines for grief counselling
- Counselling the dying
- Taking care of yourself
- Debriefing
- Introduction to trauma and abuse counselling
- Trauma
- How healing happens
- Foundational Relationship Attachment Concepts
- Abuse
- Treatments and Solutions
- The Role of Love in Healing from trauma and/or Abuse
- Earned Secure Adult Attachment
Required Reading:
Earned Secure Adult Attachment by Kerry Doolan
- Introduction to holistic marriage and relationship counselling
- Benefits of holistic marriage and relationship counselling
- Issues to consider
- Attachment styles
- Communication styles
- Issues for a couple to consider
- Love Maps
- Strategies for success in making marriages work
- Meditation as an effective modality in relationship mediation
Required Reading:
Wired for Love:
How Understanding Your Partner’s Brain Can Help You Defuse
Conflicts and Spark Intimacy by Stan Tatkin, PsyD. MFT.
- Introduction to Post Traumatic Stress disorder
- Understanding PTSD
- The vagus nerves
- Foundational Relationship Attachment Concepts
- The effects of abuse and neglect in early life
- The effects of depression, stress and anxiety
- Treating depression
- Understanding panic attacks
- Working with grief and loss
- Tools for managing PTSD
- Using art therapy to treat PTSD
- Designing meditations for PTSD
- Talk therapy and PTSD
- Designing programs and workshops for PTSD
- Self-care for PTSD counselors
Required Reading:
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk
- Types of Childhood Trauma
- Theta waves and the realm of imagination
- The wounded child
- Tools, exercises, and activities for working with the Inner-Child
- Designing Inner-Child healing programs and workshops
Required Reading:
Heal Your Inner Child by Glenn Harrold, FBSCH, Dip C.H.
- Creating Safe Environments
- Client Centred Therapy
- Understanding Anger
- Anger Management
- The Polyvagal Theory
- Ethics for Holistic Counsellors
- Client Assessment
Required Reading:
Holistic Counselling – A New Vision for Mental Health by Dr. Patricia Sherwood
The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of
Regulation (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology) by Deb A. Dana
Case Study Sessions
Students will take five volunteer clients through hour-long counseling sessions each week for 10 weeks. Supervision and guidance will be provided via email to assist students with planning and facilitating the case study sessions.
Case study sessions may be conducted in your own home, live via video conferencing (like Zoom), or at a well-being center in your local area.
Volunteers will complete a review and email this to the college after each session to provide feedback on the student’s counselling abilities.
The exam is a written essay submitted detailing the experiences gained
through the case study sessions.
- Meditation as therapy
- Introduction to holistic psychotherapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Family Therapy
- Dialectical Behaviour Therapy
- Interpersonal Therapy
- Thought Field Therapy
- Sand-play Therapy
- Rebirthing-breathwork
- Neuro Linguist Programming
- Hypnotherapy
- Emotional Freedom Technique
- Expressive Therapy
- Drama and Role Play Therapy
- Art Therapy
- Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)
- Develop ideas based on acquired knowledge and accumulated experience
- Complete a major research project
- Create a substantial piece of writing to demonstrate in-depth knowledge of selected topics