WHY HAKOMI?

Especially in our earlier years, we develop ways of coping with the people we are surrounded by. As children we develop unconscious patterns for relating to adults that may be unhealthy and then often live our present relationships through those patterns. We see and relate through old paradigms and often create a difficult world for ourselves. In Hakomi we call these created patterns “core beliefs”. Hakomi practice helps one see those patterns so that the hold they have on us may be loosened and dropped.

CORE MATERIAL

Hakomi helps people change core material. Core material is composed of deeply-held emotional attitudes, memories, images, neural patterns and beliefs. This material expresses itself through the styles, habits, behaviors and attitudes which make us the individuals we are. Our feelings, our bodies, perceptions and actions are continually guided by core material around themes like: safety, belonging, support, love, appreciation, independence, freedom, responsibility, openness, control, power, sexuality, spirituality, etc… Some of this material supports our being who we wish to be, while some of it, learned in response to difficult situations, continues to limit us. Hakomi allows the client to distinguish between the two and to willingly modify any material that restricts his or her wholeness.

Hakomi Experience

The journey is from “Who are you?” to “Who you are!. At the end, you have consistency and vision. You know your needs and direction. You can say, “This I will do and this I wont”. You have resolved many conflicts in which one part of you wants something and another part is against it. The journey itself becomes a way of life.

Hakomi is a Hopi Indian word which means “How do you stand in relation to these many realms?” A more modern translation is “Who are you?”

The Method

In pursuing this material, this method follows a certain general outline.  First we work to build a therapist-client relationship which maximizes safety, respect and the cooperation of the unconscious.  With a good working relationship established we then help the client focus on and study how he or she organizes experience.  It is in the way that core material exerts influence and reveals itself.

To begin this study, we establish and use a distinct state of consciousness called Mindfulness.  Mindfulness is characterized by relaxed volition, a gentle and sustained focus of attention, inward, heightened sensitivity, and the ability to notice and name the contents of consciousness.

Hakomi is a method which enables a practitioner and client to “look deeply” together, thus facilitating looking into blocks and fears (gradually) as the client becomes interested in doing so.  This method may greatly accelerate an individuals’ opportunity to move through difficult times and still be able to grow as a result of the challenge.

The Hakomi Method was originated by the internationally renowned therapist and author, Ron Kurtz, assisted by a core staff of colleagues.

Applications

Hakomi is effective and appropriate in most therapeutic situations, including work with individuals, couples, families, groups and body work.  It is suitable for crisis work and psychological maintenance, but it finds its full potential in the processes of growth, both personal and transpersonal, when we are committed to moving beyond our limits.  Hakomi has 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.