Hakomi is an experiential body centered practice of assisted self-study. That means that I will be inviting you to place your attention kindly and gently on things that arise in the session to study them. Sometimes these aspects of the session will be body gestures or inner experiences or feelings. I’ll invite you to do this in a way that allows you to study them without judgment in order to become curious and to explore them. If it is helpful to you, you are invited to close your eyes as you explore your experience.

If an any time I invite you to study your experience in this way and you are not ready to do so, you are free to let me know, and we will move in some other direction. I will not force the process in anyway. You are ultimately the one in charge. I will be intending to engage your curiosity in such a way as to uncover core material that is causing suffering, or in some way limiting you in your life. Sometimes I will do this by offering you a nourishing statement while you are mindful and ask you to notice what is happening inside you as you receive that statement. It is an invitation to notice what feelings, sensations, memories, and thoughts arise in the present moment; this information may arise as body sensations, tensions or shapes, colors, images or in the form of voices, judgments, opinions, feelings, etc. Whatever you notice I will encourage you to observe this experience in a gentle, compassionate, non-judging way as much as possible.

In an attuned Hakomi relationship, the therapist and client, as a team, trust and become sensitive to embodied convictions and discover a personal and organic process unique to each client in the search for wholeness and transformation. We understand that beliefs and convictions arise physically in the form of tensions, alignment or misalignment, repetitive gestures, expressions, movement – restrained or flowing energy in the body. As these signals become conscious to the therapist and the client, potential avenues of exploration are revealed.

The explorations inform both the therapist and the client of a process that wants to unfold that can provide access to the body’s wisdom, including memories and old beliefs that cause suffering and unnecessary limitation. The space and safety of a Hakomi session help to create the alignment necessary for transformations to occur. In the preliminary sessions, the therapist forms the transformation chamber: staying centered, observant, kind, calm, aware, respectful, and supportive, creating a safe space for discovery. This assists and also teaches the client to create that space for themselves. The client through mindfulness, courage and participation in the process becomes sensitive to felt experience and gradually learns to explore, trust, and follow the organic process to completion.

Transformation in the client to find innate inner wisdom, gut intelligence, patience, felt sense and inner focus, creativity, and the proper future orientation -- alignment. The therapeutic relationship offers safety, kindness, nourishment, space, comfort, protection and a passageway. This is the essence of the process as much as can be conveyed in words. Experiencing Hakomi is the only way to really know the process and I would be honored to be a part of this journey with you.

Hakomi is somewhat unique in the field of psychotherapy, insofar as is not founded on a body of theory or speculation. While it includes theoretical elements, it holds them lightly. In this way it breaks from the tradition established by Freud and many derivative methods that either followed or rebelled in one way or another against Freudian psychoanalysis. Instead of basing Hakomi on a body of theory, Ron Kurtz and the Hakomi Institute founded Hakomi on a set of humanistic principles. These principles are derived from the aforementioned blending of Eastern and Western wisdom traditions. They provide the therapist with a guiding light that allows a greater tolerance for the unknown.

Mindfulness. In Hakomi, mindfulness is used as “assisted meditation.” It is focused on present experience and is intentionally passive and turned inward. It is always applied in the context of loving presence, which means that, like all aspects of the Hakomi method, it is consistent with the principle of nonviolence, and used with compassion. 

Nonviolence (reverence for life). While Hakomi nonviolence carries the conventional meaning of doing no harm to self or others, it also proscribes many kinds of mental harm that are usually not considered violent. For example, in Hakomi, most forms of criticism, diagnosis, interpretation, labeling, judging, and giving unsolicited advice are seen as potentially harmful, and therefore subtly violent, even though they are often employed in other disciplines, and within families, friendships, and communities, with “good intentions.”

Organicity. Psychotherapy is a form of healing, and healing is a universal potential that is only available to living organisms. Healing is not fixing or forcing, but an act of self-recreation. All healing is initiated and accomplished by our clients, and it occurs, so to speak, from the inside out. A therapist does not heal a client; she can only help or hinder this natural process.

Mind-body holism. This principle recognizes the inseparable union of mind, body, and spirit. It respects the “complexity and the unpredictability of the whole by its parts,” and guides us in avoiding faith in the arrogant application of simple linear models to address the complexity of living systems. It means that therapists must willingly embrace the experience of humble “not-knowing.” This embrace sustains curiosity and nourishes the experimental attitude that is fundamental to Hakomi.

Unity. The unity principle reminds us that we belong to nature: an integrated event, a total ecology with social, physical, psychological, and spiritual dimensions. The idea that mind, body, personality, memory, feelings, and thoughts are isolated elements within the person is absurd, and ultimately dysfunctional. While the concept of a self as an isolated construct or object is sometimes socially or operationally useful, belief in such a self leads to unnecessary suffering. In the absence of language, communication, community, and connection, the self as personality cannot arise or be sustained. In a very real sense, therefore, this self is dependent on connection with others.

Truth. This principle stresses: 1) the importance of not making false promises to clients, especially to clients who are identified with a child state; 2) the importance of being ethical and honest in all aspects of our lives, especially in relationships with clients; 3) the value of the pursuit of truth for both therapist and client. This is essentially what the helping relationship is about: not just the intellectual truth, or facing the facts, but the whole truth, including the heart’s truth. It was proposed by Halko Weiss, a Hakomi trainer and founding member of the Hakomi Institute.

Mutability. This principle reminds us that change is inherent in life and reality. Things are in a constant state of change. This includes the idea that people can and want to change. They have a natural longing and tendency to grow toward wholeness, and it is the intention of Hakomi therapists to assist people in this change process when they are granted a contract to do so (Eisman 2000-).