Mindful Somatic Psychotherapy
What is hakomi?
More than a set of techniques,
Hakomi is a compassionate way of being with others.
Hakomi Mindful Somatic Psychotherapy offers an elegant, comprehensive and uniquely effective approach to psychological change and growth. Combining an inspiring set of guiding principles with a comprehensive experiential, mindfulness-based and body-centered methodology, Hakomi therapists use the body as a doorway to the psyche.
Hakomi Mindful Somatic Psychotherapy is a mindfulness-based approach to self-understanding and therapeutic change. Not simply part of the therapist’s ‘tool kit’, in Hakomi mindfulness forms the very foundation of the therapeutic encounter. Hakomi is both a refined method of psychotherapy and a specific set of techniques, and also provides a way of looking at the client that is compassionate, mindful, curious, non-invasive, humorous and respectful. By recognising and cultivating loving presence and compassion as an essential element of the method, the Hakomi practitioner reaches beyond the usual skill set of a therapist into “being” with the client.
Who Are we?
The Hakomi Pacifica Team (HPT) is part of the International Hakomi Institute, a non-profit educational organisation based in Boulder, Colorado, USA. Hakomi has been taught internationally for over 40 years. HPT has been offering therapist trainings, workshops and supporting the growth of Hakomi in Australia and New Zealand since 1989. The HPT faculty consists of a culturally diverse mix of trainers and teachers spread far and wide geographically but near and dear in our connection, thanks to our collective mission to bring Hakomi to as many people as we can in Australia and New Zealand. As a team we endeavour to teach in a manner that stays true to the spirit and methods of Hakomi but also weaves in and incorporates the uniqueness of our Australian and New Zealand cultures.
Our Emphasis On Mindfulness
Mindfulness is an integral part of Hakomi therapy. Our use of mindfulness in the therapeutic process is unique amongst therapy modalities. Mindfulness, in Hakomi terms, is a process of quieting ourselves so that, usually with the help of a Hakomi therapist, we can study the ways in which we filter information about life. We constructed these filters when we were much younger. By identifying these filters using mindfulness and experiential techniques, Hakomi therapists help clients to develop a more current, accurate and helpful view of themselves and their world.
Hakomi is a Body-Centred, Somatic Psychotherapy
Our body reflects many levels of our inner reality. Our sensations and internal tensions, our posture and gestures, our facial expressions and body nuances, our voice, and our style of moving and being, are all a reflection of our emotions, beliefs and inner experience. These physical and psychological patterns have tremendous insights to offer in the therapeutic encounter, and are often overlooked in more traditional therapies. Hakomi therapists help clients to become aware of these somatic patterns and use them to take the therapeutic process beyond what is possible with only words.
A Professional Training Based on Living Principles
The Hakomi Method was created in the late 1970’s by the therapist and author Ron Kurtz and his colleagues. Hakomi is grounded in a set of five living principles (link to the page on Principles): Mindfulness, Non-violence, Unity, Organicity and Mind–Body Holism. The Hakomi therapist is trained to embody these principles as a deep and consistent part of who they are and how they work. Hakomi is paradoxically powerful: it is gentle and nonviolent, yet often yields dramatic results rapidly.
Who Can Benefit From Hakomi Training?
A wide range of helping professionals can benefit from Hakomi training. The training is open to Psychologists, Psychotherapists, Counsellors, Social Workers, Doctors, Nurses, Bodyworkers, Massage Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Yoga Teachers, Coaches, Human Resource Managers, Chiropractors, Physiotherapists, Cranial-Sacral Therapists, Teachers and other related professions. The training is also open to non-therapists wishing to move into a helping profession. Many experience the Hakomi Training as the next step in their professional development. Practising therapists and health care professionals find a new range of skills and strategies, which increase both the effectiveness and the depth of their work with clients. Therapists at all levels find that their connection and rapport with their clients improves.
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“To make Hakomi effective, a practitioner must be more than just someone who knows a method. The practitioner must be someone whose very presence can be healing, a person who has all the qualities needed to support emotional healing in another.”
Ron Kurtz