Hakomi

Hakomi therapy is a form of body-centered, somatic psychotherapy [1] developed by Ron Kurtz in the 1970s and furthered by a group led by Kurtz in the 80s.[2]

Contents

Approach and method

The Hakomi method combines Western psychology, systems theory, and body-centered techniques with the mindfulness and non-violence principles of Eastern philosophy.[1][3] Hakomi is grounded in seven principles:

The first five principles are set forth in Kurtz's book, Body Centered Psychotherapy. The other two were added later.[5]

Practitioners of Hakomi look at people as self-organizing systems, organized psychologically around core memories, beliefs and images; this core material expresses itself through habits and attitudes that make people individuals. Hakomi is a method for helping people transform their way of being in the world through working with core material and changing core beliefs.[6]

Hakomi relies on mindfulness of body sensations, emotions and memories. It follows this general outline:[6][7]

  1. Create healing relationship: Client and therapist work to build a relationship that maximizes safety and the cooperation of the unconscious.
  2. Establish mindfulness: Therapist helps clients study and focus on the ways they organize experience. Hakomi's viewpoint is that most behavior are habits automatically organized by core material; therefore studying the organization of experience is studying the influence of this core material.
  3. Evoke experience: Client and therapist make direct contact with core feelings, beliefs and memories.
  4. State specific processing: If the client is ready, the therapist helps the client transition to state-specific processing. Hakomi recognizes three such states:
    • mindfulness
    • strong emotions
    • child-like consciousness
  5. Transformation: Client realizes that new healing experiences are possible and begins to have these experiences.
  6. Integration: Client and therapist work to make connections between the new healing experiences and the rest of the client's experiences.

Therapies based on Hakomi

The Hakomi Institute is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1981, teaching Hakomi Therapy worldwide. It also provides an information center on Hakomi Therapy, and its website includes an international Directory of Practitioners. The Institute's programs focus on training psychotherapists and professionals in related fields. Its faculty are mainly professional psychotherapists who continue to refine their teaching of the Hakomi Method based on current discoveries in neuroscience, and what they discovery in their therapeutic work is most effective with clients. The Hakomi Institute is a professional member of the Association for Humanistic Psychology, the U.S. Association for Body Psychotherapists, and an accredited Continuing Education provider for the National Board of Certified Counselors and the National Association for Social Workers.

Ron Kurtz left the Hakomi Institute in the 1990s to create a new organization, Ron Kurtz Trainings. With a new group, he has developed the method in new directions, a training that is designed for both professionals and laypeople. This new version is now thought of as Mindfulness Based, Assisted Self-Discovery.

Both versions of the Hakomi Method are based in loving presence, mindfulness, somatics and the other principles described above.

Another technique based on Hakomi is called Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. This technique was developed by Pat Ogden, PhD.

Notes

  1. ^ a b "The Hakomi Institute Homepage". Hakomi Institute website. http://www.hakomiinstitute.com/. Retrieved 2007-05-13. 
  2. ^ Body Psychotherapy Page 133 - 141, Tree Staunton, 2002, ISBN 1583911162 Google Books
  3. ^ Cole Gaskin 2007: 35, 37
  4. ^ Cole Gaskin 2007: 37-39
  5. ^ Cole Gaskin 2007: 36-37
  6. ^ a b Kurtz 1990: 2-4
  7. ^ Kurtz 1990: 72-74

References

Further reading

Hakomi Books in German

Hakomi Books In English

Books with chapters on Hakomi

External links