Hakomi Therapy is a mindfulness-based somatic, or body-centered, therapeutic approach that blends principles from psychology, bodywork, and Eastern philosophies to heal attachment wounds and developmental trauma. Developed by Ron Kurtz in the 1970s, Hakomi uses mindfulness as a vehicle for deep exploration of the mind-body connection and supports individuals in understanding how unconscious beliefs live in their bodies and shape their experiences.
What Makes Hakomi Unique?
Hakomi is centered around five key principles, in no particular order:
Mindfulness: The core of Hakomi is cultivating present-moment awareness. Clients are guided to explore their thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations without judgment. This mindful state allows for deeper self-discovery, greater access to unconscious material, and more meaningful and lasting integration of nourishing experiences.
Non-Violence: Hakomi is a gentle approach that respects the wisdom of the client's inner world. Therapists track and adjust to the clients spoken and unspoken needs, preferences, and boundaries. Hakomi works to honour a client’s defenses and walls so they can naturally soften, rather than confronting or breaking them down. This creates a safe space where healing unfolds naturally, without force or pressure.
Unity: This principle emphasizes the interconnectedness of all things – physical, psychological, spiritual, interpersonal, familial, cultural, and the natural world. Hakomi honors the whole person, seeing symptoms and challenges as part of a larger, meaningful system, and works to integrate disconnected parts of self into a cohesive, whole, sense of self.
Organicity: Hakomi believes that every person has an innate ability to grow and heal. Hakomi practitioners trust in the natural wisdom of the client’s mind and body to find the path toward healing. That, given a safe, supportive, and nourishing environment, clients will organically unfold towards health and healing.
Mind-Body Integration: Hakomi views the connection of the mind and body as a gateway to the unconscious. By tuning into physical sensations, clients can access memories, emotions, and beliefs that impact how they experience themselves and the world. Working through the body along side the mind, core beliefs can be transformed through new experiences in therapy.
How Does Hakomi Work?
In a Hakomi session, the first priority is developing a safe relationship and environment in which the client can get mindful, and turn their attention inwards, noticing what experiences they are curious about. Mindfulness is used to pay attention to and deepen awareness of how their experiences have shaped their development and internal organization – that is, their adaptive strategies for maintaining physical and/or emotional safety within themselves, in their relationships, and in the world. By finding creative ways to provide the nourishing experiences that were missing from the clients life, Hakomi therapy works to reprocess, reconsolidate, and transform core beliefs and organization.
The therapist takes the approach of leading by following. Instead of imposing their own agenda or beliefs about what a client should be feeling or needing, they track and follow the conscious and unconscious needs of the client closely, then offer nourishment to meet their needs, in the here-and-now.
Finally, with new, nourishing experience on board, therapist and client work together to integrate these experiences by noticing how their internal world has shifted in response. While most of the therapeutic work is done in a mindful state, it is helpful to spend some time integrating in ordinary, more future oriented, consciousness.
Who Can Benefit from Hakomi?
Hakomi therapy can be helpful for those struggling with anxiety, depression, developmental or childhood trauma, relationship challenges, or a general sense of disconnection from themselves. Because it is gentle and non-invasive, it’s especially suited for individuals seeking a gentle, holistic, and compassionate approach to healing.
References
Kurtz, R. Body-Centered Psychotherapy: The Hakomi Method. LifeRhythm, 1990.
Johanson, G. Hakomi Mindfulness-Centered Somatic Psychotherapy: A Comprehensive Guide to Theory and Practice. W. W. Norton & Company, 2015.