Atlas›Domain XIV · Western esoteric, divinatory & new spiritual movements›Guide 115
Guide XIV-115

Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique (Cannon)

Dolores Cannon2002Huntsville, Arkansas, USA
A 31 · L 56 · M 1315 interventions in the Trinity explorer
Client cardCompare
[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: Dolores Cannon's Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique (QHHT®) as currently taught by the Quantum Healing Hypnosis Academy (Huntsville, Arkansas; CEO Julia Cannon, the founder's daughter), drawing on the Academy's official website, its published Level 1 class notes and its 2022 Level 1 procedure notes. Copycat or "rogue" variants (the Academy's terms) are not covered.

What QHHT is, as its institutions describe it. QHHT is a hypnosis method developed by Dolores Cannon (1931–2014), a past-life regressionist and author who began exploring past-life regression in 1968, practised full time from the late 1970s, began teaching QHHT in 2002 and launched an online Level 1 class in 2013; she also founded Ozark Mountain Publishing in 1992 [source: QHHT Official, About Us]. The method uses voice, imagery and visualisation to reach what Cannon called the "somnambulistic" level of trance (the FAQ also speaks of a "Theta state") [source: dolorescannon.com, About QHHT; QHHT Official FAQ]. A session has two working parts: a regression into one or more "other lives" chosen, in the method's account, by the client's "Subconscious"; then direct questioning of that "Subconscious" (abbreviated "SC").

Core idea of change, in the method's own terms. The "Subconscious" in QHHT is explicitly not the psychologist's unconscious: it is described as a part of the person's consciousness above the conscious mind, also called Higher Self or Oversoul, that knows everything about the client's life and gives only information that is appropriate and beneficial [source: About QHHT; Level 1 class notes]. Change is said to come from (a) seeing a past life whose themes mirror the present problem, (b) answers the "SC" gives to the client's prepared questions, and (c) healing the "SC" is said to perform "when deemed suitable". The Academy's sites attribute to Cannon and her practitioners reports of cured cancer, AIDS and diabetes, healed heart conditions and restored vision, with the caveat "There are no guarantees" [source: About QHHT; About Us]. These are the method's claims, reported here, not endorsed. Evidence status: the claims rest on testimonials and case accounts published by the method itself, and none of the sources used here reports a controlled test of them; nothing in this guide presents QHHT as a treatment for any physical disease.

Evidence status (one line). No controlled studies supporting QHHT's healing claims are documented in the sources cited here; reincarnation researchers at the University of Virginia's Division of Perceptual Studies state that nearly all hypnotically evoked "previous personalities" appear to be imaginary constructions shaped by suggestion and ordinary learning [source: UVA DOPS, Concerns about hypnotic regression].

Where the psychotherapist comes in. The therapist does not perform QHHT, past-life regression, readings or healing for clients. The therapist's work is with a client who has had, is considering, or is practising QHHT: exploring what it means to them, assessing culturally and differentially without pathologising belief, attending to suggestion and false memory, health and safety, dependence, cost and referral [synthesis]. Cross-refer Domain VI 110 (regression hypnotherapy harm account), XIV 113 (past-life regression) and XIV 114 (life-between-lives).

2. Framework

2a. The QHHT session as the Academy publishes it (for the therapist's understanding; not for use in therapy)

The Academy describes a single, in-person, recorded session; no remote sessions are permitted [source: QHHT Official FAQ; Choosing a QHHT Practitioner]. Phases, paraphrased in outline (no induction wording):

  1. Interview. Cannon spent at least two hours building trust and learning about the client's life, alone with the client (no partners or friends in the room), and from it the client's list of questions is built (health, family problems, phobias, allergies, life purpose) [source: Level 1 class notes]. The Academy says the whole session should run at least four to five hours including interview, hypnosis and discussion afterward; Cannon herself typically spent five to six hours per client [source: Choosing a QHHT Practitioner; Level 1 class notes].
  2. Induction. About 15–20 minutes of imagery: a sense of protection, a peaceful place and an imagined journey that sets up the regression [source: Level 1 class notes; Procedure notes]. Wording is not reproduced here.
  3. Past-life exploration. The client is oriented in a scene (body, clothing, sex, age, surroundings, home, meals, work); the practitioner accepts any time, place or form, including non-human ones; most lives are described as ordinary [source: Procedure notes].
  4. Important days and the death scene. Forward to about three important days, then to the last day of the life, which may be watched as an observer, followed by a review of what the life was for [source: Procedure notes].
  5. Calling forth the "Subconscious". The past-life personality is separated from the client; the practitioner asks permission to speak with the "SC", asks why that life was shown, then works through the client's questions as an "insistent but respectful" questioner (paraphrase) [source: Procedure notes].
  6. Body scan/healing. The "SC" is asked about physical problems and their causes; the procedure notes add an optional guided-imagery piece (the "Silver Crystalline River") with health affirmations [source: Procedure notes; About QHHT].
  7. Reorientation and count-out. Past-life personalities and "entities" are asked to return to their place; the client is told the past stays in the past, is reoriented to the date and place and brought fully alert. Trance should not run much beyond about two hours, and Cannon warned that improper closure can leave symptoms lasting days [source: Procedure notes; Level 1 class notes].
  8. Afterwards. The client is given the recording (induction excluded) and told to replay it, especially the "SC" portion, and never while driving [source: Level 1 class notes]. The Academy calls QHHT a one-time experience and treats a practitioner who recommends further sessions as a warning sign [source: Choosing a QHHT Practitioner].

Training levels [source: QHHT Official FAQ]: Level 1 online (about 22.5 hours of video recorded from Cannon's live class, exam; USD 997), Level 2 online (USD 1,333; certification after approved sessions), Level 3 (USD 1,775; requires a year of practice and at least 125 sessions), plus a Level 1 Companion live course. No prior hypnosis or clinical qualification is required. Practitioners are sole proprietors who set their own session fees; those in training are advised not to charge [source: FAQ; Choosing a QHHT Practitioner]. The official pages contain no screening for mental illness, no medication guidance and no medical disclaimer [source: FAQ; Procedure notes; About Us].

2b. The psychotherapist's framework [synthesis]

No source gives a session count for this work. A workable sequence:

  • Phase A – Engage and understand. Goal: learn what QHHT is to this client (curiosity, healing hope, spiritual identity, distress after a session). Move on when the client feels understood and you know the timing (before, after, ongoing).
  • Phase B – Cultural and differential assessment. Goal: Cultural Formulation Interview with the Spirituality, Religion and Moral Traditions module; screen for psychosis, mania, dissociation, OCD, grief, trauma, and for medical decisions based on session content. Move on when risk is known and any urgent medical or psychiatric routing is done.
  • Phase C – Work with the material. Goal: meaning-making with the session content as personal narrative, psychoeducation on suggestion and memory, addressing dependence, cost and identity narratives ("volunteer soul", alien contact). Move on when the client relates to the material flexibly and is functioning.
  • Phase D – Consolidate or refer. Goal: connect with medical care, specialist trauma or dissociation services, or the client's community where wished; plan for future spiritual exploration safely.

3. Guiding principles

  • Describe, do not adjudicate – hold past lives, the "Subconscious" and healing as the client's and the method's beliefs; neither confirm nor debunk. Practical meaning: use the client's words ("the SC said…") without adopting them as fact [synthesis].
  • Meaning over veracity – what a recalled life or message does for the client matters more than whether it happened. Practical meaning: ask "what does this story give you?" before "is it true?" [synthesis].
  • Suggestion is always in the room – hypnotic content is shaped by explicit and implicit cues [source: UVA DOPS citing Baker 1982; Spanos et al. 1991]. Practical meaning: no leading questions, no hypnosis, no regression, no "recovered" memory work in therapy.
  • Emotional intensity is not proof – strong feelings or symptom relief do not show a memory is historical [source: UVA DOPS]. Practical meaning: validate the feeling, keep the factual question open.
  • The therapist is not a practitioner, reader or healer – practical meaning: never run a QHHT-style session, ask a client's "SC" questions, or interpret messages as guidance [synthesis].
  • Physical health stays with physicians – no practice is presented as treating disease. Practical meaning: whenever a client reports a "healing", check what their doctor knows; never advise on starting, stopping or changing medicines [synthesis].
  • Assess without pathologising – unusual beliefs within a shared spiritual frame are not by themselves symptoms. Practical meaning: look for functional decline, distress, fixity, and change from baseline [synthesis; CFI].
  • The organisation's own guardrails are usable – the Academy calls QHHT a one-time experience, rejects remote sessions and says a session should not be a psychic reading [source: Choosing a QHHT Practitioner]. Practical meaning: a client being sold repeated sessions or remote "QHHT" can be shown that even the founder's school treats this as a warning sign.
  • Client autonomy and consent – the client decides whether to pursue QHHT; your job is informed choice. Practical meaning: give balanced information on suggestion, cost and health risk, then respect the decision [synthesis].
  • Safeguarding over neutrality – children, people in crisis, and anyone forgoing medical care get protective action [synthesis].

4. Intervention inventory

All interventions below are the psychotherapist's own work with a client who brings QHHT. None of them involves hypnosis, regression, induction or contacting a "Subconscious". Unless a source is given, the steps are [synthesis].

4.1 Structured debrief of a QHHT session the client has had

  • Purpose / when: first contact with QHHT material; the client mentions a session, is unsettled by it, or is acting on it.
  • Steps: (1) Ask when, where, with whom (certification level, in person or remote), how long, and the fee. (2) Ask the client to tell the session in their own order; note the phases they describe (interview, imagery, other lives, death scene, "SC" answers, "healing") against the published outline in 2a. (3) Ask what the client was told before and after, and whether a recording exists and how often they replay it. (4) Ask what they decided or changed because of it (relationships, health care, money, work). (5) Ask how they have felt since: sleep, mood, sense of reality, intrusive images. (6) Summarise back in their words.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Walk me through it the way it unfolded for you, and I'll mostly listen." "Since the session, has anything in your daily life changed because of what came through?"
  • Watch for: decisions made on "SC" answers (stopping treatment, leaving a partner, large payments); remote or repeated sessions, which the Academy itself discourages [source: Choosing a QHHT Practitioner]; persisting altered states. Working: client can narrate the session with some reflective distance and name its personal significance.

4.2 Cultural Formulation Interview with the Spirituality, Religion and Moral Traditions module

  • Purpose / when: early assessment, before any differential judgement, so belief is understood in its cultural frame [source: APA CFI Supplementary Modules].
  • Steps: (1) Run the core CFI (the problem in the client's words, explanatory model, supports, help-seeking). (2) Use Supplementary Module 5, which covers identification with a spiritual, religious or moral tradition, involvement in its community and practices, its role in family and daily life, how it has helped coping, whether it has contributed to the problem, and faith-related distress, discrimination or conflict [source: APA CFI Supplementary Modules]; paraphrase in your own words. (3) Locate QHHT in the client's wider spiritual life (New Age reading, Cannon's books, online communities, other modalities). (4) Use Module 1 (Explanatory Model) for the client's own account of illness and healing. (5) If a religious or spiritual issue is the focus of care, ICD-10-CM Z65.8 lists "Religious or spiritual problem" as an inclusion term [source: Unbound Medicine ICD-10-CM]; the DSM-5-TR category Religious or Spiritual Problem is coded Z65.8; its DSM-5-TR wording is [uncertain: not verified].
  • Example language (illustrative): "How does QHHT fit with the rest of what you believe or practise?" "Has your spirituality helped with this problem, made it harder, or both?"
  • Watch for: your own reactions (amusement, dismissal, fascination); family or community conflict about the client's beliefs. Working: you can state the client's worldview back accurately and they agree.

4.3 Client-led meaning-making with past-life and "Subconscious" material

  • Purpose / when: the client finds a past-life story or "SC" message significant and wants to understand it; no acute risk.
  • Steps: (1) Agree a frame: you will explore what the story means for the client now, without deciding whether it happened. (2) Ask for the story's themes (loss, betrayal, purpose, guilt) and where those themes live in the present. (3) Treat characters and images as the client's own material: what do they feel toward the past-life figure? (4) Link to present choices and values. (5) Ask what the client wants to do with this understanding in ordinary life. (6) Revisit later to see if the meaning holds without needing new sessions.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Whatever we each believe about where it came from, this story clearly matters. Which part of it feels most like your life now?" "If that life was about learning something, what would you want to carry forward this week?"
  • Watch for: the story becoming a fixed explanation for all present problems; guilt or blame tied to supposed past-life acts; you drifting into interpreting messages. Working: themes are used flexibly and lead to present-day action.

4.4 Psychoeducation on hypnosis, suggestion and memory

  • Purpose / when: the client asks whether the memories are real, plans more regression, or is distressed by vivid content; also before any decision about future sessions.
  • Steps: (1) Ask what they already know. (2) Offer balanced information: researchers who take reincarnation seriously still regard nearly all hypnotically evoked past personalities as imaginative, shaped by the hypnotist's cues and by things read or seen, and note that intense emotion or symptom relief does not prove a memory is historical [source: UVA DOPS, citing Baker 1982; Spanos et al. 1991; Zolik 1962; Kampman & Hirvenoja 1978]. (3) Note that the QHHT procedure itself has the practitioner orient the client with many specific questions and accept any content [source: Procedure notes], which is a setting where imagination and expectation can fill gaps [synthesis]. (4) Explain that this applies to memories of this life too: no memory of abuse or trauma that first appears in hypnosis should be acted on without careful assessment. UK psychiatric guidance on reported recovered memories was set out in a Royal College of Psychiatrists working-group report (Brandon et al., 1998, British Journal of Psychiatry) and 1997 College good-practice guidelines; details of their recommendations [uncertain: not verified]. (5) Leave belief to the client.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Hypnosis makes imagery feel very real, and the person guiding it shapes what appears, even without meaning to. That doesn't make your experience meaningless; it means we treat the details carefully." "Some researchers who study reincarnation are themselves cautious about hypnosis for exactly this reason."
  • Watch for: shame ("so I made it up"); the client hearing debunking; new "memories" of childhood abuse or abduction surfacing. Working: client holds both the meaning and the uncertainty. Never use hypnosis, guided imagery or repeated questioning to "check" a memory. See Domain VI 110 for the regression harm account.

4.5 Differential assessment without pathologising belief

  • Purpose / when: any change in functioning, distress, sleep or reality sense after QHHT, or unusual beliefs that seem to be spreading.
  • Steps: (1) Establish baseline before QHHT (history of psychosis, bipolar disorder, dissociative disorder, trauma, substance use). (2) Separate shared belief (past lives, Higher Self, as held in the client's community) from markers of illness: hallucinations outside spiritual practice, thought disorder, self-reference spreading to everyday events, declining self-care, loss of insight. (3) Screen for mania: reduced need for sleep, grandiosity ("chosen", special mission), pressured speech, spending. (4) Screen for dissociation: depersonalisation, derealisation, time loss, a past-life "personality" that seems to persist (a hazard noted in the regression literature [source: UVA DOPS]). (5) Screen for OCD and scrupulosity: compulsive replaying of the recording, reassurance-seeking from practitioners, fear of karmic guilt. (6) Screen for complicated grief where questions concerned the dead. (7) Screen for trauma reactions to death scenes. (8) Check suicide risk, especially with beliefs about leaving Earth or "going home", using standard risk assessment. (9) Refer for psychiatric assessment where psychosis or mania is possible.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Many people share beliefs like yours. What I want to understand is whether anything has changed for you in sleep, energy or how real the world feels." "Have you felt that messages are reaching you in everyday things, outside of the session?"
  • Watch for: sleep loss after a session (a common early sign of mania or psychosis [synthesis]); escalation of urgency or mission; a client who cannot step out of the past-life identity. Working: you can say clearly whether this is spiritual experience, a mental-health problem, or both, and act accordingly.

4.6 Stabilisation after a destabilising session

  • Purpose / when: the client reports feeling "not back", spacey, flooded by images, or persisting symptoms from a death scene. Cannon's own notes warn that symptoms can persist for days if a session is not closed properly and that clients kept in trance too long can wake disoriented [source: Level 1 class notes]; regression researchers report subjects altered for days or longer [source: UVA DOPS].
  • Steps: (1) Orient: date, place, body, present tasks. (2) Grounding through senses and ordinary activity; regular sleep, food, company. (3) Advise pausing replay of the recording, which Cannon herself said can bring the listener back toward trance [source: Level 1 class notes]. (4) Contain imagery: name it as images, not instructions; agree times to talk about it rather than ruminate. (5) Check safety and functioning daily if acute; involve a GP or crisis service if not settling. (6) No re-entering trance to "finish" the session.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Let's bring your attention fully to this room: what can you hear right now?" "For a few days, let's put the recording aside and give your mind ordinary, steady things."
  • Watch for: derealisation lasting beyond days, panic, suicidal thoughts, inability to work. Working: orientation returns, sleep normalises, imagery fades or becomes a story rather than an intrusion.

4.7 Working with alien and extraterrestrial contact narratives

  • Purpose / when: session content or the client's identity includes UFOs, abduction or "star" origins (Cannon's notes mention obtaining UFO information in sessions [source: Level 1 class notes]).
  • Steps: (1) Ask what the client experienced and how it fits their worldview; do not mock. (2) Ask whether experiences predate QHHT, especially at sleep onset or waking. (3) Psychoeducation where invited: a Harvard study of people reporting abduction found that hypnotic memory recovery may produce such accounts, linked many reports to sleep paralysis with hallucinations (common and not a sign of illness), found little mental illness but rich fantasy lives, and found physiological reactions as strong as those of trauma survivors [source: Harvard Gazette 2003, McNally and colleagues]. (4) Treat distress seriously regardless of origin: grounding, sleep hygiene, trauma-informed work on fear. (5) Explore meaning: many participants in that study came to see the experience as spiritually transforming [source: Harvard Gazette 2003].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Your body is reacting as if this was very frightening, and that deserves care whatever its source." "Do any of these experiences happen just as you're falling asleep or waking up?"
  • Watch for: sexualised abduction content arising under hypnosis (handle as for any newly recovered memory, 4.4), escalating paranoia, sleep disruption. Working: less fear, better sleep, client can hold several explanations.

4.8 Working with "volunteer soul" identity narratives

  • Purpose / when: the client identifies as one of Cannon's "volunteers": souls described in The Three Waves of Volunteers and the New Earth (2011) as coming from the "Source" or from other planets or dimensions, with memory erased on entering Earth, who struggle to adapt [source: Red Wheel/Weiser book page]. Cannon's class notes describe such "Volunteers" appearing in sessions and advise practitioners to "go with the flow" [source: Level 1 class notes].
  • Steps: (1) Explore what the identity explains for the client (never fitting in, sensitivity, family estrangement). (2) Validate the underlying experience of alienation or difference. (3) Assess what lies beneath it: autism, ADHD, trauma, depression, social anxiety [synthesis]; refer for assessment where indicated, without replacing the client's narrative. (4) Check for withdrawal ("Earth people don't understand me"), grandiosity, and any "wish to go home" (suicide screen). (5) Build present-life belonging: relationships, work, community.
  • Example language (illustrative): "It sounds like this idea finally explained why you've felt out of step for so long. Tell me about that feeling of not belonging." "Whatever brought you here, what would make life on this Earth more liveable for you now?"
  • Watch for: the identity replacing needed assessment (as "Indigo" labels can for children); isolation; contempt for others. Working: client keeps the meaning but invests in present relationships and functioning.

4.9 Health-claim safety check and medical liaison

  • Purpose / when: the client sought QHHT for a physical illness, reports being "healed" by the "SC", or was told the cause of an illness in session. The method's sites attribute cures of cancer, AIDS, diabetes and heart disease to sessions and say healing comes "without" medication or surgery (paraphrase) [source: About QHHT; About Us]; the official pages carry no medical disclaimer [source: About Us].
  • Steps: (1) Ask directly whether any treatment, test or appointment has been stopped, delayed or changed. (2) Ask whether their doctor knows about the session. (3) Without arguing about the healing, state that QHHT is not a treatment for physical disease and that health decisions belong with their doctors. (4) Never advise starting, stopping or changing a medicine; route to the prescriber. (5) With consent, liaise with the GP or specialist. (6) If someone in their care (a child, dependent adult) is being kept from treatment, follow safeguarding procedure (4.13).
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'm glad you feel better. Before anything changes with your treatment, would you be willing to check the results with your doctor?" "I'm not able to advise on medication, but I can help you prepare questions for the person who prescribes it."
  • Watch for: stopped insulin, chemotherapy, antiretrovirals, cardiac or psychiatric medication; symptoms reframed as "healing"; guilt if illness returns ("I didn't let the SC heal me"). Working: client keeps medical care alongside any spiritual practice.

4.10 Informed-choice conversation before a QHHT session

  • Purpose / when: the client is considering booking a session or training as a practitioner.
  • Steps: (1) Explore motives and hopes. (2) Share relevant facts: sessions are long (at least four to five hours per the Academy, with up to around two hours in trance) [source: Choosing a QHHT Practitioner; Level 1 class notes]; practitioners need no clinical training [source: FAQ]; the official materials include no mental-health screening [source: FAQ; Procedure notes]; content can include death scenes and traumatic material [source: FAQ; Procedure notes]. (3) Discuss suggestion and memory (4.4). (4) Identify contraindications [synthesis]: current or past psychosis or bipolar disorder, active dissociative disorder, recent bereavement, unprocessed trauma, current crisis, pregnancy-related or serious medical decisions pending. (5) If they proceed, plan: tell their therapist, keep medical care unchanged, arrange a calm day after, agree to bring the recording content to therapy. (6) For training: total course fees (USD 997 + 1,333 + 1,775 for Levels 1–3 [source: FAQ]) and the expectation of practising unpaid during training [source: Choosing a QHHT Practitioner].
  • Example language (illustrative): "It's your decision. I'd like you to make it knowing what the session involves and what to watch for afterwards." "Given what happened last year, could we talk about whether now is the right time?"
  • Watch for: decisions under acute distress; pressure from a practitioner or partner. Working: the client chooses deliberately with a safety plan.

4.11 Addressing dependence, repeat sessions and cost

  • Purpose / when: frequent replays of the recording, many sessions with different practitioners, using "SC" guidance for daily decisions, mounting spending.
  • Steps: (1) Map frequency and spending over the past months. (2) Note, without scorn, that the Academy calls QHHT a one-time experience and regards a practitioner recommending more sessions as a warning sign, and that sessions should not be psychic readings [source: Choosing a QHHT Practitioner]. (3) Identify the function: reassurance, avoiding uncertainty, loneliness, grief. (4) Build alternative coping for that function. (5) Agree a plan for decisions: write pros and cons, wait a set time, talk with trusted people. (6) If reassurance-seeking is compulsive, treat as OCD with exposure and response prevention, adapted with respect for the faith frame (IOCDF-style ERP [uncertain: not verified]).
  • Example language (illustrative): "Even QHHT's own school describes it as a once-only experience. What keeps drawing you back?" "What would it be like to make this decision without checking first?"
  • Watch for: debt, secrecy from family, distress when unable to book or listen. Working: fewer sessions and replays, decisions made with own judgement.

4.12 Grief and questions about the dead

  • Purpose / when: the client brought questions about deceased loved ones or sought QHHT soon after a loss.
  • Steps: (1) Ask what the client hoped to learn and what they heard. (2) Attend to the grief itself: the relationship, the death, unfinished business. (3) Respect continuing-bond beliefs; explore whether the answers comfort or haunt. (4) Screen for prolonged grief, guilt and suicidal ideation (wish to rejoin the dead). (5) Offer bereavement support or specialist grief therapy.
  • Example language (illustrative): "What did you most want to hear about your father?" "Did what came through bring you peace, or more questions?"
  • Watch for: paid exploitation of bereavement; grief postponed by repeated seeking of contact. Working: client can grieve in ordinary ways while holding their beliefs.

4.13 Children and family safeguarding

  • Purpose / when: a parent wishes to have a child undergo QHHT or similar regression, uses "volunteer" or star-child labels in place of developmental assessment, or relies on "SC" guidance for a child's medical care.
  • Steps: (1) Ask what is planned and why. (2) Explain that hypnotic regression carries suggestion risks that are greater for children [synthesis]. (3) Encourage proper assessment for developmental, neurodevelopmental or emotional problems. (4) If a child's medical care is being refused or delayed, follow local safeguarding procedures. (5) Involve the child's assent and age-appropriate voice.
  • Example language (illustrative): "I can hear how much you want to understand your child. Alongside that, a proper assessment would make sure nothing that can be helped is missed."
  • Watch for: refusal of medical care; isolation from peers; adult spiritual narratives imposed on a child. Working: the child gets assessment and care; family beliefs remain respected.

4.14 Boundaries for therapists who also practise QHHT

  • Purpose / when: you are, or are training as, a QHHT practitioner, or a client asks you to "just do a session".
  • Steps: (1) Keep psychotherapy and QHHT entirely separate: never offer both to the same person. (2) Do not refer your therapy clients to your own QHHT practice. (3) Decline requests to regress clients or to ask their "SC" questions. (4) Limit self-disclosure about your own beliefs to what serves the client. (5) Seek supervision. Spiritual and religious competencies for psychologists are described by Vieten et al. (2013) [uncertain: not verified]; ethics points here are [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "That isn't something I do in therapy. I'm glad to help you think through whether to see a practitioner and what to bring back here."
  • Watch for: idealisation of the therapist as a spiritual authority; blurred fees. Working: clear roles, client's spiritual choices made outside therapy.

4.15 Referral and community connection

  • Purpose / when: risk or need exceeds your remit.
  • Steps: route urgently to psychiatry or crisis services for possible psychosis, mania or suicidality; to the GP or specialist for any health decision; to trauma and dissociation specialists for persistent dissociation or newly emerged abuse memories (no recovered-memory work); to bereavement services; to safeguarding services for children. Where the client wishes, involve trusted members of their spiritual community. Cross-refer Domain VI 110 for clients harmed by regression hypnosis.
  • Example language (illustrative): "I think a psychiatrist should see you this week, and I'll stay involved alongside."
  • Watch for: client fear that services will mock their beliefs; prepare referrers. Working: the client attends and continues therapy.

5. Handling problems

All guidance in this section is [synthesis] unless a source is given; QHHT sources do not address psychotherapeutic difficulties.

  • Client insists the therapist confirm the past life was real. Say honestly that you cannot know, that the meaning is what you can work with, and that you will not dismiss it. Return to what the story does for them.
  • Client feels mocked or defensive about QHHT. Name your respect for their search; use their terms; repair openly if you sounded dismissive ("I think I came across as doubting you, and I'm sorry").
  • Client distressed by content (death scenes, violence, karmic guilt). Stabilise first (4.6); treat guilt about past-life acts as present-day shame to be explored; do not re-enter scenes in imagery.
  • New memories of childhood abuse or abduction emerge from QHHT. Do not confirm or deny; avoid suggestive questioning and any hypnosis; assess current safety and functioning; consult; refer to a trauma specialist familiar with memory issues; see Domain VI 110 and the recovered-memory guidance in 4.4 [uncertain: content of guidance not verified].
  • Client stops medical treatment because of a "healing". Treat as a safety issue (4.9): express concern clearly, encourage urgent medical review, never advise on medicines; if capacity or a dependent's safety is in doubt, follow local procedures.
  • Possible psychosis or mania after a session. Same-day or urgent psychiatric assessment; involve supports with consent; continue respectful engagement with the belief content after stabilisation.
  • Persisting "other personality" or depersonalisation. Grounding, orientation, sleep, reduced replay of the recording; specialist dissociation referral if it persists [source for the hazard: UVA DOPS; Level 1 class notes].
  • Compulsive replays, repeat sessions or debt. Use 4.11; draw on the Academy's own statement that QHHT is a one-time experience [source: Choosing a QHHT Practitioner]; consider ERP-informed work if reassurance-seeking is OCD-like.
  • Client wants to train as a practitioner while still unwell. Explore timing and motives; suggest waiting until stable; discuss costs and the unpaid practice period [source: FAQ; Choosing a QHHT Practitioner].
  • "Volunteer" or star-origin identity leading to isolation or wish to "go home". Suicide risk assessment; build belonging; refer for neurodevelopmental assessment if indicated (4.8).
  • Family members alarmed by the client's beliefs. With consent, offer a joint session focused on safety and respect rather than on belief; help the family avoid ridicule and ultimatums.
  • Practitioner pressure (remote sessions, add-on modalities, healing promises). Help the client compare this with the Academy's own published limits: in-person only, no combination with other modalities, not a reading [source: Choosing a QHHT Practitioner; FAQ]; support assertive refusal; consumer complaint routes [uncertain: not verified].
  • Stuck: the client wants only to talk about "SC" messages. Agree a portion of each session for the material and a portion for present goals; ask how each message bears on a concrete life change.
  • Non-adherence to the therapy plan in favour of further sessions. Respect autonomy; agree minimum safety commitments (medical care continues, sleep protected, no major decisions within a set period after a session).

Sources

Books and papers cited:

  • Cannon, D. (2011). The Three Waves of Volunteers and the New Earth. Ozark Mountain Publishing.
  • Spanos, N. P., et al. (1991). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (as cited by UVA DOPS) [uncertain: not verified].
  • Baker, R. A. (1982). American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis (as cited by UVA DOPS) [uncertain: not verified].
  • Brandon, S., Boakes, J., Glaser, D., & Green, R. (1998). Recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse: implications for clinical practice. British Journal of Psychiatry, 172, 296–307.
  • Vieten, C., et al. (2013). Spiritual and religious competencies for psychologists [uncertain: not verified].
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