What others have said:
"Hakomi is the absolute cutting edge of modern psychotherapy".
- John Bradshaw, author of "Bradshaw on the Family".
"Hakomi is an excellent system for learning key emotional intelligence skills".
- Daniel Goleman, author of "Emotional Intelligence".
"Hakomi presents some astounding methods for getting to core material. It is well grounded in theory and revolutionary in its results".
- Association of Humanistic Psychology Newsletter
What is Hakomi?
Hakomi combines the Eastern traditions of mindfulness and non-violence with a unique, highly effective Western methodology. Hakomi Psychotherapy has evolved a set of techniques to facilitate the process of becoming more self-aware and to enable change that is organic.
Hakomi practitioners take great care with the therapeutic relationship to create the safety required to study the limiting beliefs that shape our lives, relationships and self-images. By studying our experience, and the habitual ways these experiences are organised, we gain access to these unconscious belief systems. These patterns are studied through mindfulness, a gentle, sustained inward focus of attention, which heightens sensitivity and the ability to notice and name the contents of consiousness. Once conscious, they can be re-evaluated and, where appropriate, powerfully transformed.
In developing the Hakomi Method, founder Ron Kurtz absorbed many influences, include humanistic psychology, the work of John Pierrakos, Fritz and Laura Perls, Milton Erickson, Albert Pesso, Moshe Feldenkrais, Eugene Gendlin and the practical application of mindfulness found in Buddhist teachings.
The goal of the Hakomi Professional Training is to turn out high quality, caring therapists who are as dedicated to fully knowing their own process as they are to the understanding of others.
What is Somatic Psychotherapy?
Psychotherapy provides a safe, non-judgmental space and relationship in which to explore problems of living. These can arise as difficulties in work, in relationships, in parenting, in achieving one's goals or in repetitive painful states such as depression, anxiety, confusion, negative feelings or low self esteem.
The safety of the therapeutic relationship can allow one to explore and unravel old patterns of feeling, thinking and behaving and to find new meanings and action in the world. Psychotherapy provides conditions of empathy, acceptance and mindfulness so that people can grow and develop in ways which may not have been possible earlier in their lives.
As well as working verbally in the relationship with the client, somatic psychotherapists are trained to engage directly with the client's dynamic bodily experience. This includes patterns of breathing, posture, sensation and movement, and also working with body image, metaphor and through touch when appropriate.
Body-oriented psychotherapy can be used to facilitate exploration and expression, to develop self awareness, self regulation and a sense of vitality and aliveness. This approach can help deepen a sense of connection to oneself and to others.