For nearly forty years, Hakomi has pioneered and integrated the use of mindfulness in the psychodynamic process. Hakomi utilizes the present moment as a rapid and experiential access route to unconscious material. Guided by the principles of Mindfulness and Non-violence, the Hakomi Method is a gentle, respectful, compassionate and thus powerful form of personal exploration that uses the wisdom of the body to pursue core evolution and deepen awareness beyond insight. Hakomi follows Frieda Fromm Reichman’s advice, “The patient needs an experience, not an explanation.” Typical therapeutic outcomes include lasting change in deeply held emotional attitudes, beliefs and behavior.
Its techniques are effective throughout a wide range of therapeutic applications such as individual, couples and family therapy, and group work as well as in educational settings to facilitate self-exploration and personal growth. It is backed by thousands of hours of clinical applications and volumes of evidence research into the neurological underpinnings of mindfulness and core psychological belief systems.
The basis of the work is threefold:
- to create a bonded relationship that allows enough safety for the client to turn inwards and explore present experiences (cognitive, somatic, emotional, energetic, spiritual, etc.)
- to follow those experiences towards the core material that generates them
- to pursue ways to heal and evolve the core material