The Hakomi Method, is mindfulness-based approach that can be used in a variety of settings, both educational and psychotherapeutic. A methodology that continues to evolve, more than 20 years since its inception. Hakomi represents a deep integration of Mindfulness and a strong belief in how the body, through movement, gesture, voice, etc., powerfully reflects psychological material.

Hakomi is an experiential method, that combines the mindfulness and non-violence of Eastern spiritual traditions, within a unique, highly effective Western methodology. Drawing from a wide range of sources, Hakomi has evolved into a complex, elegant and highly effective form that can be used either psychotherapy working with indiviidulas, couples, families and groups, and in other settings including coaching, pastoral counseling, allied health care, and explorations into creativity and spirituality. At its most basic level, Hakomi is the expression of a specific set of Principles: Unity; Mind/Body/Spirit Holism; Uniqueness of the Individual; Mindfulness; Nonviolence; Truth and Change. These tenets inform every aspect of the work.

Hakomi is a highly effective and creative modality in work with individuals, couples, families, groups, movement, and body work. Suitable for crisis work, it finds its full potential, however, in the process of growth both personal and trans-personal, when we are committed to moving beyond our limits. Hakomi has also been effectively applied to a wide variety of everyday activities: athletics, theater, parenting, business...because Hakomi attends to the very nature of being human, it is easily adapted to support whatever tasks and adventures people pursue. 

Core Material

Core material is composed of memories, images, beliefs, neural patterns and deeply-held emotional dispositions. This material shapes the styles, habits, behaviors, perceptions and attitudes which define us as individuals. Our responses to the major themes of life -- safety, belonging, support, power, freedom, responsibility, appreciation, sexuality, spirituality, etc. — are all organized by our core material.

Some of these responses are expansive, pro-active and creative, while others are more reactive and fear-based. Hakomi allows the client to distinguish between the two, and to willingly change patterns that constricts his or her innate wholeness.

In pursuing this core material, the Method follows a certain general outline.

SAFETY.  The therapist’s first task is to build a relationship that maximizes respect and safety. These essential qualities allow for cooperation with the unconscious, and then both client and therapist engage a powerful and willing ally in exploring core material and how it shapes one’s experience.

MINDFULNESS.  In the Hakomi Method, we establish and utilize a distinct state of consciousness: Mindfulness. Drawn from the heart Buddhist meditation practices, Mindfulness in psychotherapy is characterized by relaxed volition, a gentle and sustained inward focus of attention, heightened sensitivity, and the ability to notice and name the contents of consciousness.

EXPERIMENTS. The heart of the Method is the precise study of the client's current experiences, as a way to discover their organizing core material. These experiences are either naturally occurring, or deliberately and gently evoked by having the client participate in carefully designed "experiments". Experiments can be verbal or non-verbal (gesture, movement, working with breath or uses of the eyes, for example), and they arise from and are tailored to the theme of the session, and the client’s experience in the present moment. Once arrived at in this felt way, the core material can be studied, evaluated and transformed.

TRANSFORMATION – Deep explorations such as these create a more spacious emotional climate in which clients can begin to choose and experiment with more expanded beliefs and a much wider range of behaviors. Here, the Hakomi Method works somatically to help integrate new insights and anchor them in the body.

The basic method, then, is this: (1) to establish a relationship in which it is safe for the client to become self-aware; (2) to notice or evoke experiences that lead to the discovery of organizing core material; and (3) to seek healing changes in the core material. All else that we do is in support of this primary process.  

The experiences and core material of the client are processed through three different state-specific methods: 

STRONG EMOTION
We work with strong emotions and bound up energy, releasing them, and helping the client discover the innate vitality and wisdom in them.

STATE SPECIFIC MEMORY
We work with powerful memories. Often, the client experiences both the observer (mindfulness) and themselves as a child or adolescent at the same time. Mindfulness is particularly useful with develop-mental issues and trauma, in being able to gently return to the memory to effect resolution and healing.

Eventually, we help the client to practice the new modes of organizing that they adopt, and to integrate these modes into their everyday life. It is here, in fact — in the ability to transform the new possibilities discovered in the office into ongoing actualities in daily living — that real change happens.

Hakomi therapists aspire to create a laboratory for change in the therapeutic setting. It’s experiential, mindful, spontaneous and creative. This allows the client to articulate new beliefs, experiment with new choices, and then take that learning from the office, into their daily lives.