Dr. Kappas Atlanta Series – Graduate Course

It was presented by John Kappas.

The course is part of the Dr. Kappas Atlanta Series. This program will allow you to spend 172 hours with Dr. John Kappas. The knowledge and experience gained from this vintage video course is one of the greatest resources for private practice.

Spending time with Dr. Kappas is more like sitting in his living room than watching a lesson. Students can use the Atlanta tapes to eavesdrop on private conversations between Dr. Kappas and his friends if they think of them as a secret window to the past.

In this course, you will hear stories that are both funny and outrageous. We will never again have the chance to experience Dr. Kappas’ style and personality, because he is conducting 34 live therapies with clients in this course.

The core requirements for our in-person/one year Resident training program have been this course for decades. We are excited to be able to offer this online video course to our 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.

There are 86 2-hour lessons and 32 live therapy sessions in this presentation. The graduate course uses streaming video to allow you to move at your own pace. You have access to this course for 24 months and it serves both as a course and a reference library. The Course Guide contains detailed descriptions of the content with time references so that you can search the content and jump to the exact point on the exact lesson to review Dr. Kappas discussing that particular subject or conducting that specific live therapy.

Each 2 hour lesson has one essay question for students to answer. You can get a certificate of completion from the AHA for 172 hours of continuing education if you finish all 86 essays.

Course History

There is a collection of vintage videotapes in the Dr. Kappas Atlanta Series course. Between 1979 and 1984 the Director of the Atlanta, Georgia, HMI, commissioned Dr. Kappas to visit the institute once or twice a year to spend a week with Ron and his students.

During these marathon sessions, Ron’s group would quiz Dr. Kappas with all their questions, listen to his therapy stories, and observe him. The man with the frozen smile, or the man whose TV talked to him, have become Atlanta Series legends because they are so interesting and sometimes bizarre.

Ron had to use a new technology called videotape to record every minute of Dr. Kappas’ presentations. George didn’t know what would happen to the videotapes at the time, but he knew that something important was happening and that it should be captured.

George would receive a box of uncatalogued videotapes after every visit by Dr. Kappas to the Atlanta Institute. Today we have the chance to share in these unique learning sessions.

George had a collection of marathon sessions from 1979 to 1984. The videotapes document not only Dr. Kappas’ valuable lessons, but also his change in hairstyle, clothes, and habits, as well as his transition from smokers to non-smokers. Ron sits next to Dr. John Kappas throughout the program.

In 1991, George Kappas contracted with Rick Howard, a student and independent travel film maker, to help with the editing of the tapes. It took Rick a year to get the project in shape. John and George realized that the collection of Atlanta tapes was the greatest record of Dr. Kappas.

Remastering

George took on the task of restoring the tapes. Rick Howard was rehired by George to re-edit the project. Rick created a comprehensive course guide. The revised course guide provides more detailed descriptions of the content, as well as time references to each demonstration so students can jump to the reference point in the video they want.

The back of the guide has a detailed index that allows the user to look up any subject and see all the lessons in the series that contain it. The student can use the Atlanta Series as an ongoing reference after completing the course quizzes.

You can explore the Lesson and Cross Indexes using the links below.