Dr. Kappas Atlanta Series – Graduate Course – John Kappas

Welcome to the Dr. Kappas Atlanta Series course. This expansive program is your ticket to spend 172 hours up close and personal with Dr. John Kappas. Many HMI graduates have expressed to us the knowledge and experience that they have gained from this vintage video course is perhaps their single greatest resource for private practice.

Spending time with Dr. Kappas in the Atlanta Series lessons is more like sitting with him in his living room than watching a prepared lesson. We encourage students to think of the Atlanta tapes as a secret window to the past that allows them to eavesdrop on private conversations between Dr. Kappas and his friends.

In this course you will hear Dr. Kappas share personal stories that are both funny and outrageous. This course also features Dr. Kappas conducting 34 live therapies with clients, providing what is perhaps the single greatest demonstration of Dr. Kappas’ style and personality that we will never again have the opportunity to experience.

For decades this course has been one of the core requirements for our in-person/one year Resident training program. Now we are excited to be able to offer this online streaming video course to you, our HMI Distance Education Graduates. This is a unique learning experience that can take your training to the next level as you experience firsthand and study directly under the Master and the man who started it all, Dr. John Kappas.

This HMI vintage presentation contains 86 2-hour lessons and features 32 live therapy sessions all conducted by Dr. John Kappas. This Graduate Course is done entirely via streaming video and allows you to move at your own pace. You have 24 months access to this course which serves not only as a course but an incredible reference library as well. The Course Guide contains detailed descriptions of the content with time references so that you can search the content and, through the magic of streaming video jump to the exact point on the exact lesson to review Dr. Kappas discussing that particular subject or conducting that specific live therapy.

Students complete one essay question for each 2 hour lesson. Completion of all 86 essays earns you a Certificate of Completion from the AHA for 172 hours of continuing education in this HMI Graduate Course.

Course History

The Dr. Kappas Atlanta Series course is a collection of “vintage videotapes” from HMI’s video library vault. Between the years 1979 and 1984 by Dr. Ron Hodges, the Director of the Atlanta, Georgia, HMI, commissioned Dr. Kappas to visit the HMI Atlanta Institute once or twice a year to spend an intensive week with Ron and his professional students.

During these marathon sessions, Ron’s group would quiz Dr. Kappas with all their questions, listen to his “therapy stories,” and observe Dr. Kappas’ 30 years of experience in action as he worked with the many “LIVE THERAPIES” presented to him by Dr. Ron Hodges. Some of the “LIVE THERAPIES,” for instance, “the man with the frozen smile,” or “the man whose TV talked to him,” have proven to be so interesting and sometimes bizarre that they have now become “Atlanta Series legends.”

One of the conditions for Dr. Kappas’ visits George Kappas required Ron to use a brand new technology, “videotape”, to record every minute of Dr. Kappas’ presentations. At the time, George really did not know what would ever become of the videotapes, he just knew that something important was happening and that it should be captured.

Consequently, after every visit that Dr. Kappas would make to the Atlanta Institute, George would receive a box containing 30-40 hours of unmarked, uncatalogued videotapes. Because of this foresight we now have the opportunity to share in these unique learning sessions today.

George’s collection of these interesting marathon sessions steadily grew from the years 1979 to 1984. During these years, the videotapes document not only Dr. Kappas’ valuable lessons, but also chronicle Dr. Kappas’ and Dr. Hodges’ change in hairstyles, clothes, and habits, fluctuation in weight, and their respective transition from smokers to non-smokers. Ron is the ever-present figure sitting next to Dr. John Kappas throughout the program.

In 1991, George Kappas contracted with HMI student and independent travel film maker Rick Howard to take on the laborious task of editing the tapes and providing some guiding narration. It took Rick over one year of intensive work to get the project into shape. Once completed, both John and George realized that this collection of “Atlanta tapes” was perhaps the greatest record of Dr. Kappas and his work.

Remastering

In 2007, George set upon the task of digitally restoring the now aging master tapes. George also rehired Rick Howard to come back and re-edit the project one more time. This time, Rick created a much more comprehensive course guide. This new revised course guide provides, not only more detailed descriptions of the content, but also time references to each different topic or demonstration so students can jump right to the reference point in the video they wish.

The detailed index in the back of this guide allows the user to look up any particular subject and see all the lessons in the series that contain that topic. This enables the student to use the Atlanta Series as an ongoing reference after completion of the course quizzes.

For a detailed description of the vast resources contained in the Dr. Kappas Atlanta Series we invite you to explore the Lesson and Cross Indexes using the links below.