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Hakomi Therapy is a system of body oriented experiential psychotherapy which is
based in the principles of mindfulness, nonviolence, organicity and the unity
of mind and body. Hakomi was developed by Ron Kurtz and other psychotherapy
professionals, who have established a central office for the Hakomi Institute
in Boulder Colorado. It is a beautiful expression of the partnership model: a
way of healing that recognizes not only the essential partnership between body
and mind, but between therapist and client. Hakomi teaches us through
experiments in mindfulness that fundamentally we are whole, unbroken and
connected. This underlying premise allows for a very natural and powerful
transformation to occur in a receptive state where we are essentially fully
aware yet at rest. You could say we're doing experiments in a non-doing state
of awareness. In this sense, by not trying to make something happen, true
healing is organically unfolding.
In the developmental process from infancy to childhood to adulthood, we organize
our experiences by attributing significance to them, to the world, and
ourselves. These organizational decisions operate as unconscious "core
beliefs". These core beliefs limit our ability to function spontaneously, and
effectively. Core beliefs can become so deeply imbedded in our unconscious that
the body-mind system creates a habitual way of organizing out good, true and
beautiful experiences that satisfy our nature. When our underlying sense of
wholeness feels distant, we naturally seek to feel complete. If we have strong
nourishment barriers in place, our vital life force is not accessible. The
purpose of Hakomi therapy is to create access routes to organize in missing
experiences of true nourishment that allow spontaneous aliveness, creative
expression, and our full human potential to emerge.
The word Hakomi comes from the Hopi Indians. Here, Hakomi means to look to see
where do I stand in relationship to these "many realms". Where do I hold onto
firm positions in life? Where do I feel disconnected in body, mind and heart?
These "many realms" can translate to everything you experience in your life
from emotions, thoughts, body sensations, memories, beliefs, to the myriad of
spiritual, religious, philosophical, and political views, ad infinitum.
Everything that arises in our experience can be studied in mindfulness, in this
present moment.
In Hakomi we begin this study by slowing down the analytical thinking process,
creating safety and contacting the present felt sense experience. This slowing
down allows us to evoke experiences in mindfulness. Greg Johanson, the Director
of Hakomi Educational Resources, states, "Mindfulness is a tool for bringing
into being a direct vision of the things that make new life possible." Ron
Kurtz considers therapy an exploration of inner experience leading naturally
and organically to core organizing beliefs which determine experiences and
expressions, plus the transformation of those beliefs to allow for richer
experiences.
Lisa (a client) and I were in a Hakomi session together. As she was relating a
story about not having time for herself, her husband, her child or nature, she
was pressing her hands into her abdomen.
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Prajna: You're pushing in at your solar plexus, huh? (I track Lisa's experience
and encourage her to be aware of it.)
Lisa: Yes.
P: Would it be o.k. if we studied that? (I invite her to study, be mindful of,
or curious about, as opposed to explaining or theorizing)
L: Sure.
P: How about if we get the full sense of what's happening at your abdomen area?
(It is helpful to slow down enough to center awareness on felt sense
experience)
L: O.K.
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P: What other qualities or sensations are present? (It's good to fill out the
richness of the experience)
L: It feels really tight.
P: Is it pushing in tightness or a holding tightness? (The effect of this right
brain question is that Lisa has to reference her experience to get the answer.)
L: It's a holding, but there isn't anything in it, it feels very hollow, very
empty.
P: How about if you just stay with the hollow or empty quality. (I begin to see
tears in her eyes. I contact the tears and encourage her to stay with them).
P: Some sadness, huh? (A deep experience of grief is released for Lisa).
L: I never cried when my Spiritual Teacher died. (A previously unconscious need
spontaneously arises in the moment. This is a very organic happening that
results in satisfying a need previously unseen)
P: Hmm, Feels good to release, hmm.
L: Yes, I thought it wasn't o.k. I thought I needed to be strong, detached.
(Lisa is able to see how she organizes herself around the belief of being
strong and detached).
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