About Hakomi
Hakomi can be described as Body-Based Psychotherapy or as Mindfulness-Based Self-Study
​
Like many forms of psychotherapy, Hakomi works with the understanding that current difficulties are often intensified by the way in which our perceptions and reactions are unconsciously shaped by past experience. However, in a Hakomi session we are interested in the past not as something to talk about or understand analytically but as something that is constantly shaping our present-moment experience. This shaping of experience is almost always unconscious and can catch us in frustrating repetitions of behaviors that no longer serve us. By working somatically we are able to touch the past, not by thinking about it or talking about it but as an experience that is happening right now. In doing this, possibilities for new experience appear.
The body is always telling you how you (really) are
​
The doorway to the present moment is through the body which is why it is helpful to work somatically. Your history….. the “what-happened-to-you then..” appears in the “what-is-happening- now..” and that is where we meet it. You express it moment to moment through the body and the way you move - through gestures, shifts in posture and sensation, the rhythm and tone of your voice.
In our Hakomi work together, as well as listening to your words, I will pay close attention to the way you are expressing yourself non-verbally and will find ways to interact with that non-verbal expression so that the feelings or beliefs underlying it can become conscious.
​
Assisted Self-Study
​
The invitation is for you to get curious about yourself, about the flow of sensations, feelings, physical responses or images as they emerge – we call this “self-study” and it is the heart of Hakomi work.
Often as you bring awareness to this flow of experience in your body fresh insights or new responses can spontaneously appear. These emerge out of your innate capacity to heal. Some of the feelings that arise in this process may be painful and sometimes it needs a bit of courage to stay with that.
As a practitioner I can offer a place where those feelings will be welcomed kindly , where you are not alone with them and where it’s safe enough for them to be explored without you becoming overwhelmed. In this way I can support you in uncovering, understanding and loosening the hold that your history may have on you and help you to discover new ways of experiencing yourself.
For more about Hakomi visit
Original calligraphy by Tich Nhat Hanh