Mind Over Matter - Practicing The Art Of Hakomi

What do you get when you combine Eastern traditions of non-violence and mindfulness with a highly effective and unique Western methodology? You get the wonderful art of Hakomi. When your body's habitual patterns and structures become a powerful portal to your unconscious core material, what do you have? You have the wonders of Hakomi. This experimental somatic psychotherapy is used as a method to access the core material of an individual to travel safely from the unconscious to consciousness. Once conscious, the core material can be re-evaluated and if needed, it can be effectively transformed to integrate with new dimensions of awareness to help the individual establish a more effective and satisfying lifestyle. The process of Hakomi is to create a healing and loving relationship between the client and therapist. In order to facilitate the effectiveness of Hakomi therapy, a deep connection of safety must be established.

Hakomi therapy between the client and therapist involves a system of body centered psychotherapy that is based on the principles of nonviolence, along with unity of mind and body, developed by Ron Kurtz and associates at the Hakomi Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

Hakomi therapy is primarily based on only a few assumptions. We organize our life experiences by applying meaning to them during every stage of our life, from infancy through childhood and on into adulthood. These experiences have meanings to us and to the world. The organizational decisions we make can begin to operate as an unconscious core of beliefs about the world we live in and our place in the world. They can even regulate how we feel, what we think, how we create, respond, develop and act. The core beliefs can limit our abilities to function naturally and can affect the way we live through character analytical and systematic habits that we had originally made to refrain from feeling a lack of approval, safety, attention and affection. The sole purpose of Hakomi therapy is to become a spontaneous, caring, open hearted, and purely alive human being and able to be an independent soul with the world.

Hakomi therapy emphasizes human interaction with a number of principles, mainly through healing interaction or therapeutic. Some of these principles include nonviolence, mindfulness, and unity of body and mind. These principles are very important to Hakomi therapy.

Nonviolence is accepting with a kind of compassion that your self defense mechanisms originate out of the desire to avoid physical, mental, and emotional pain. By moving slowly, without judgment, and by supporting defenses, you can make space in yourself for a natural enfoldment of a very powerful and personal healing process.

Mindfulness is looking inward and becoming aware of the sensations and feelings you have and the feeling of confidence in the moments you have as a living example of how you organize your body and mind. By meditatively tending to your current physical and mental experience, you can illuminate the unconscious processes in yourself with a new awareness. This new awareness can access and change your deep unconscious beliefs that drive you.

Unity of body and mind pertains to our painful experiences as being somatic, or integrated into our bodies in the forms of energy limitations, muscular tensions, and confined movements. The process of physically arming yourself will also serve as an anchor for the core beliefs that regulate your behavior, feelings and thoughts. Special techniques may be used by Hakomi therapists to gain access to the unconscious information in order to help their clients to procession of improved self understanding.

All Hakomi techniques are extremely effective tools for allowing relief in all feeling and bodily tensions, from unconscious beliefs to the attitudes that drive your behavior or restrict your responses. The human body is literally incarcerated in the armor of unconscious defenses. Hakomi therapists teach their clients powerful lessons so the client can find an enjoyable way to recognize their body and mind and to be able to live a life less armored and become more comfortable, spontaneous and more effective in their actions and interactions.

Hakomi is a great art to learn for any individual, whether you are looking to find yourself or improve yourself. Hakomi offers nothing but the best treatment for your physical, emotional and spiritual well being.