Positive Psychology and Self-Hypnosis – New Format
€295.00
- Course Fee: New Launch offer only: €295
- Format: Attendance Learning course.
- Duration: This course is completed over 4 Saturday sessions (10-4) or it is also run over 8 midweek evenings (6-9pm). See 'Location & Dates' tab for more information.
Course Description
Positive Psychology and Self-Hypnosis: Understanding and Evoking Your Human Strengths
Everywhere you look, there are courses on ‘mindfulness’ springing up, many of which promise to make you happier. However, there is a field of psychology that is devoted to the positive aspects of human life and the evidence-based means to evoke these strengths: this is the field of Positive Psychology.
In the current rush to incorporate mindfulness practices from the East, many practitioners and researchers have neglected a tool that is, in many ways, even more powerful: clinical hypnosis! While no one has undergone a major operation, such as an open-heart operation or amputation, using only mindfulness, individuals have been able to achieve this with hypnosis and self-hypnosis.
Indeed, as many researchers in the field of hypnosis state, all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. In this course, taught by a trained hypnotherapist and positive psychology practitioner, attendees will learn, via guided group imagery and instruction, how to make use of this very special skill for self-healing and personal development that is as old as humanity itself.
Indeed, self-hypnosis, the power of suggestion, and therapeutic trance is arguably the original tool of focusing, long before meditation disciplines were developed, and formed an integral part of ancient ritual and magic in many cultures. In fact, it is still present today, and not just via the demonstrations of stage hypnosis. On this course, attendees will learn the science behind this fascinating area, and we will also dispel the fears and myths that surround it, many of which are due to stage hypnosis. You will learn that clinical self-hypnosis is about increasing your control, such as control over your blood pressure or pain, and not about reducing your control.
Hypnosis therefore taps into powerful human resources that, in bygone days, seemed like magic. Unlike mindfulness, which typically has no specified goal, self-hypnosis is goal-oriented, and so is a powerful addition to anyone’s life skills. Bad habits can be changed; sleep can be improved; and powerful human resources can be accessed. (Even those who practice mindfulness will find this course a unique and powerful addition to their skills.) In short, this is a rare opportunity to learn to use the power of self-hypnosis for self-development.
As such, The Open College is delighted to offer this new course that involves a powerful experiential and life-coaching component.
But there’s more! In this course, the attendees will also be given a comprehensive overview of the science of positive psychology, covering such issues as the science of positive emotion and happiness; the nature of hope and optimism; optimal and mystical experiences; human excellence and virtues; the psychology of gratitude, and much, much more. This course therefore includes a full overview of the science of living a Good Life!
Who should complete this course?
Although interest in Positive Psychology appeals to everyone who is interested in human happiness and well-being, it is envisioned that the following learner profiles will form the bulk of the course.
- Childcare workers, crèche personnel, youth workers, healthcare assistants and workers in a caring capacity who wish to gain an understanding of more positive approaches, as well as wanting to improve their own self-care and well-being via the experiential component.
- Individuals interested in psychology broadly, and applied psychology in particular, perhaps with an aim towards self-development and personal growth, or with a future career goal within psychology. This course provides an excellent overview of applied positive psychology, along with state of the art methods for enhancing well-being.
- Individuals from a business or human resources background who wish to gain a greater knowledge of applied positive psychology for the purposes of greater communication, emotional intelligence, and similar soft skills. Moreover, Positive Psychology and strengths analysis is a vastly growing methodology in organisational contexts for enhancing employee satisfaction and productivity, improving leadership and charisma, and enhancing team cohesion and outcomes. Positive Psychology has been the topic of key United Nations reports, and has been discussed by world leaders in expanding economic measures so as to focus on well-being social indicators. In short, Positive Psychology is changing world policy! On this course, you will learn why.
- Other learners who have completed our other QQI Psychology modules or learners working towards a major qualification who wish to understand a more positive psychological approach that can be a great addition to their current studies, while also gaining personal skills. After all, learning about psychology is great, but learning to apply it for one’s own benefit is a sadly neglected area of psychology education. Positive psychology practitioners recognise the importance of enhancing one’s own life no matter what your career goals.
- Finally, this course will hugely appeal to anyone interested in life coaching, complementary therapies, positive thinking, self-help, meditation, and indeed any approach to self-development. Importantly, this course is evidence-based, rather than relying on folk wisdom and popular psychology. On this course, you will finally learn what works to enhance human experience. Positive Psychology is the largest and most important movement to sweep across academic psychology in decades: on this course you will learn – and more importantly experience – why this is the case.
Course Details
So what can you expect?
Currently the course is designed to run for 4 weeks, with one full day per Saturday week, or for 8 mid-week evenings. This will likely be scheduled from 10am to 4pm on Saturday, with breaks for tea and lunch, or from 6-9pm Wednesday evenings.
Each full day will include 2 lectures on different areas of positive psychology, separated by lunch, and ending with an experiential component involving positive cognitive coaching and guided self-hypnosis. The latter will help you to evoke and strengthen the understandings, insights, and new-found realisations about your strengths as they accrue over the course. (Attendees will be given a course manual to document exercises and tasks – not assignments – to complete in class and at home to explore and fully transfer your new resources.) In essence, each weekly class will end with a group hypnotherapy session. This is a rare opportunity for learners to both learn and grow.
Therefore, at the end of each fascinating educational lecture session exploring positive psychology, you will be invited and guided by your trainer in incorporating positive cognitive approaches and effective hypnotherapeutic methods so as to gain access to more of your positive psychological strengths (the very ones you are learning about!) in your own life. In addition, you will eventually be guided in a way conducive to teaching you how to use self-hypnosis, so that by the end of this course you will be able to explore these trance states for your own positive benefit and development on your own.
By the end of this course you will have learned about the science of positive psychology, and will also have experienced unique and powerful hypnotic methods to access your deep inner resources for personal development. You will have been coached to become your own life coach. Your lecturer and trainer, a skilled hypnotherapist and positive psychology practitioner, will provide you with all the guidance you need in this process.
As both a research and applied science, Positive Psychology seeks to explore the ways and means to make life more enjoyable and meaningful. Attending this course might be the first step for you in enhancing your quality of life. You will receive an overview of an exciting new field of psychology, and in addition will experience hypnosis and learn self-hypnosis. (It is not unusual to pay 80 euro or more for a hypnosis session, so this course is great value whether you’re interested in learning about the science of positive psychology or whether you are curious to learn about, and experience, hypnosis.)
Important: If you are pregnant, or if you suffer from epilepsy or a serious psychological disorder that may hinder your involvement, it is not recommended that you attend due to the hypnotic aspect of the course. This course is aimed at both educational and life-coaching goals. Life coaching seeks to increase well-being beyond the average by evoking such states as hope and happiness. Similarly, as you will learn on this course, hypnosis has been demonstrated to be a safe and meditative procedure. It is just like day-dreaming, and has been demonstrated to be a natural and important human capacity for self-transformation
Course Structure:
Week 1:
- Positive Psychology Lecture 1: What is Positive Psychology?
- Positive Psychology Lecture 2: The Meaning and Measurement of Human Happiness.
- Experiential Exercises
- What is Hypnosis and Self-Hypnosis? Methods of Self-Hypnosis.
- Positive Psychology Coaching and Hypnosis Session 1: Self as Process and Power.
Week 2:
- Positive Psychology Lecture 3: Positive Emotions and Well-Being
- Positive Psychology Lecture 4: Resilience and Bouncing Back from Adversity
- Experiential Exercises
- Positive Psychology Coaching and Hypnosis Session 2: Utilising your Signature Strengths and Cultivating Positive Emotions.
Week 3:
- Positive Psychology Lecture 5: Happiness, Money, and Life Circumstances
- Positive Psychology Lecture 6: Personal Goals and Self-Mastery
- Experiential Exercises
- Positive Psychology Coaching and Hypnosis Session 3: Utilising your Signature Strengths to Pursue Goals.
Week 4:
- Positive Psychology Lecture 7: Positive Traits, Strengths and Well-Being
- Positive Psychology Lecture 8: Improving Relationships and Sustaining Growth
- Experiential Exercises
- Positive Psychology Coaching and Hypnosis Session 4: Utilising your Signature Strengths to Improve Relationships and Hope.
Programme Entry Requirements:
- Level 5 Certificate, Leaving Certificate or equivalent qualifications and/or relevant life and work experiences.
- Learners are expected to be proficient at reading, drafting, preparing and understanding information across a broad range of topics, including quantitative information for a Level 5 award and more complex information for Level 6 award.
Your Tutor:
Joe Plowman
Joseph has over a decade of experience working, studying and researching in psychology. In psychology and healthcare, he has been involved in helping to run and deliver anxiety and depression psycho-education workshops in the UK, with patients referred by GPs, and has also helped to run and deliver life coaching workshops.
In Ireland, Joe has lectured in Human Growth and Development and other psychology courses, and has also taught psychology and psycho-education classes at a Secondary School to transition year students.
His current research involves the attempt to enhance the wellbeing and happiness of Irish teenagers via psycho-education classes (i.e., happiness classes) targeted at dysfunctional beliefs. He has also worked briefly in early intervention with autistic children, prior to his PhD research.
Qualifications include:
- MSc in Applied Psychology (Trinity College)
- Postgraduate Diploma in Statistics (Trinity College)
- Primary and Advanced certificates in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) skills, the founding Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, via the Association of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (AREBT) in the UK.
- Is a Founding Member of the Centre for Applied Positive Psychology in the UK.
- Is a member of the European Network of Positive Psychology.
- Associate Member of the International Society for Coaching Psychology.
- Current PhD candidate in Psychology at Trinity College, research for which is on-going. His specialty focuses on the topic of human happiness, wellbeing and positive psychology. He previously attended the first conference on Wellbeing in Ireland at Galway University, and is a member of this research stream.
Accreditation
- Following successful completion you will receive a Certificate in Positive Psychology and Self-Hypnosis from The Open College.
Delivery Format
This Positive Psychology and Self-Hypnosis course is completed by attendance learning only.
Courses will be run over the following dates: TBC
- Option 1: (Saturdays x 4) – June 13th 9th, 20th, 27th, & July 4th.
- Option 2: (Wednesday Evenings – 6-9pm x 8) – Commencing June 3rd.
- Location: Leopardstown, Dublin 18.
