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Approach and method
According to the creator, Ron Kurtz, the Hakomi method combines Western psychology, systems theory, and body-centered techniques with the mindfulness and non-violence of Eastern philosophy.[1] Hakomi is grounded in five principles: mindfulness, nonviolence, organicity, unity and body-mind holism.
An Outline of the Method by Ron Kurtz (excerpted from the 2008 Training Handbook, listed below in Further reading)
1. Assisted self discovery
(1) seeing the work as assisted self discovery is one of the major differences between this refined method and the original Hakomi and other psychotherapies.
(2) a second major difference between Hakomi and other psychotherapies, one that is unique to Hakomi at the moment, is simply that we do experiments in mindfulness.
Quote: The unique contribution of the Hakomi method is this: the method contains as a necessary element precise experiments done with a person in a mindful state, the purpose being to evoke emotions, memories and reactions that will reveal or help access those implicit beliefs influencing the client's nonconscious habitual behaviors.
(3) the method of assisted self discovery requires not only the skills of the practitioner, it also requires explicit commitments on the part of the person being assisted
2. Qualities and skills required of a practitioner
(1) practitioners must be able to sustain a compassionate and present-centered state of mind (Loving Presence)
(2) loving presence combines several habits of feeling, attention and mindset. It is an integrated combination of attitude, emotional state and focus of attention.
(3) compassion is the first and most important element, being present is the second.
(4) to be continuously present…
i. is to continuously stay focused on the observable behaviors of the moment, especially the client’s non-verbal activities which modulate communication and regulate the relationship, in particular: ii. the signs of the client’s present experience and the client’s general qualities and habitual behaviors iii. requires overcoming one of our strongest, most common habits, namely gathering information through questions and conversation.
(5) practitioners must become masters of reading the information in nonverbal behaviors
(6) six skill sets necessary used by practitioners are described in the outline that follows this one.
3. Commitments and skills required of the “client”
(1) often still called “the client”, but no longer thought of as the clients in regular psychotherapy are. Clients in the refined method may be thought of as self-studying, that is seeking after the truth of who one has become and how with help one may explore and resolve the issues that trouble and confine one. (2) the client must be capable of entering into a present-centered, experience-focused, non-controlling and vulnerable state of mind (mindfulness) (3) the client must understand that the process includes as a central element, experiments done in mindfulness. The client must be willing to enter into that process even though painful emotions may arise. (4) these are the commitments and skills required of people who are clients in the refined method of Hakomi Note: If the person is very anxious or easily distracted, or is someone who does not understand what the process actually requires, then the work can be difficult or impossible without some prior preparation.
4. Experiments
(1) are done with the client in a mindful state (2) experiments are specifically designed to evoke reactions that will help bring unconscious material (such as foundational memories, underlying emotions and implicit beliefs) into consciousness (3) reactions to experiments are noticed in mindfulness and reported (4) reactions can be thoughts, feelings, images, impulses, memories, tensions or any combination of these
5. Nonverbal Behaviors
(1) there are two kind of nonverbal behaviors that are of primary interest: the external signs of the client’s present experience and observable indicators of core material. (2) noticing the momentary ones is one of the ways we build and maintain our relationship with the client. (3) noticing the habitual ones gives us clues to the memories, emotions and implicit beliefs that organize what the client can and cannot experience and is an important step in setting up and doing experiments (4) habits are often expressions of adaptations to powerful formative events and may point toward important, underlying issues that control the client’s behavior
6. Nonverbal Awareness: Tracking
(1) practitioners gather two kinds of nonverbal information, signs of the client’s present experience called tracking and indicators of core material (2) tracking is noticing what the client is doing and possibly experiencing, moment by moment. It is an essential part of being present. (3) we use the information gain by tracking to connect with and to stay connected with the client, by making contact statements (4) a contact statement names the client’s present experience, quickly and simply (5) tracking and contact are two basic techniques in the original Hakomi method
7. Nonverbal Awareness: Indicators
(1) practitioners train themselves to notice behaviors that could be indicators of core material. These are certain personal qualities and habitual behaviors of clients, such as postures, gestures, facial expressions, tones of voice and speech patterns. (2) A few simple examples of indicators are: habitually shrugging ones shoulders, or tilting ones head, or interrupting ones own speech, or speaking very quickly. The expression left on a relaxed face is a prime indicator. (3) habits like these are designed to operate automatically, without conscious attention. Habits like these allow consciousness to be preserved for the non-routine things that require fresh decisions. (4) indicators are one of the two main sources of experiments. (The second source involves listening to statements for implications and assumptions.) (5) Knowing how to create an experiment using indicators is essential. (6) the practice of searching for and using indicators has become a significant part of teaching and practicing the refined method.
8. Experiments and Their Effects
(1) experiments are done with the client in a mindful state. (2) when a particular indicator has been noticed and chosen, the next step is to get an idea for an experiment. (3) once you have one, you ask the client to become mindful and to signal when ready. (4) when the client signals that he or she is ready, you do the experiment. (5) if you’ve chosen a good indicator, and if you’ve done a good experiment with it, you’re likely to get a reaction that can begin the healing and discovery process for the client. (6) the reaction may also suggest or bring into consciousness the core material associated with it. (7) if the reaction is an emotional one, I do two things that weren’t done in previous versions of the method: I touch the client (More likely, I have an assistant touch the client.) and secondly, I remain silent while the client if the client turns inward and looks like he or she is doing inner work.
9. About Using Touch
(1) touching clients is normally not recommended for psychotherapists. This is primarily due to legal considerations. When I use touch, I first get permission and, since I use assistants and may have several other observers present, I feel quite comfortable using touch. (2) once permission has been established, assistants will generally touch without asking again. (3) for a client who is experiencing sadness as a reaction to an experiment, a gentle touch signals the client that we are aware that he or she is emotional, and that we are sympathetic and paying attention. (4) if there are signs that the client is working internally, (eyes closed, facial movements and nods of the head) we do not interrupt. We waiting patiently for the client to open his or her eyes, look at us and speak. (5) in these moments of silence, the client is integrating something, making sense of the feelings, memories and thoughts that arise in reaction to an experiment. (6) silence, accompanied by gentle touch, helps the client to stay with his or her experience
10. The Natural Course of a Healing Process
Mastery of the world is achieved by letting things take their natural course. — Tao Te Ching
(1) mental-emotion healing processes are often start after an experiment in mindfulness. These are spontaneous processes that will unfold given the right conditions. As best we can, we provide those conditions. Among them are:
i. the process must not be interrupted or interfered with ii. gentle touch or holding and comforting when appropriate iii. attention, silence and patience
(2) as part of the natural course of a healing process, memories and thoughts that make sense of the emotional reaction are drawn into consciousness the that make sense of it. And that’s exactly what we want to have happen! (3) during this process, we track for the external signs that the client is having memories and insights and is integrating the emotional experience, signs of deep concentration on the face and nods of the head, indicating realization or agreement with some idea. (4) during this process, the client is gathering memories and ideas and is making sense of them, making sense of what just happened and what happened long ago that left confusion, that left painful feelings unfinished and unsorted out. (5) after an experiment in mindfulness, clients often start doing this internal work. While doing this, they often have a precise memory that makes sense of their reactions and they may be able to articulate the implicit beliefs it created. (6) the process may cycle through emotions, associations, insights, memories, deeper emotions, more associations, and so forth.
11. Missing Experiences
(1) certain powerful formative experiences required painful but necessary adaptations. (2) for some of these experiences, the elements that might have promoted healing were missing. (Janet says, they couldn’t be made sense of and as a result, they didn’t get integrated. They remained “an irritation” unconsciously affecting feelings and behavior in a negative way.) (3) some aspects of those unintegrated experiences express themselves through habits and implicit beliefs that help manage the difficulties they are still causing. These habits are functions of the adaptive unconscious. (4) there is one fundamental missing experience: the presence of someone calm, sympathetic, patient and understanding to care for the suffering person and support healing process. (5) beyond this fundamental missing experience, there are a great variety of other healing experiences that can be created for the client. (6) during the healing process, the client, often relives an old painful event. Quietly comforting the client is one of the main components of the missing experience.
12. Integration
(1) slowly, resolutions are accomplished. New, more realistic beliefs are formed. Energy is drained away from the long struggle and becomes available for living this very moment. Confusion yields to clarity. A delicious joy is felt and the pleasure of seeing new positive possibilities arises (2) this is the process of integration, the natural course of things.
13. 'All the above elements help make the work simpler, faster, easier and more effective.
Latest Thinking
There is now convincing evidence that much of our behavior happens without conscious awareness. On this subject, I can recommend four books two articles. The words used to describe that part of the mind which carries out these behaviors is the “adaptive unconscious”. My study of and application of this idea is the first of four ideas which are the topics of this outline and the most important additions to my thinking over the last few years. The Adaptive Unconscious.
a. the actions of the AU are generally unnoticed, habitual, and many are indications of early adaptive learning, such as learning the grammar of ones native tongue. b. some characteristics of the operations of the AU, according to Wilson are, it is nonconscious, fast, unintentional, uncontrollable, and effortless. c. the operations of the AU can be observed to some extent when a person is in a mindful state. d. the paper on Cognitive Load by Swiller discusses the limitations of consciousness, as does V. S. Ramachandran in his book, Phantoms in the Brain. e. understanding the importance of the AU and its operations is basic to an understanding of the Refined Hakomi Method.
The Mental-Emotional Healing Process.
a. Healing, in general, is an inner-directed process. Early in the development of Hakomi, I stated this quite clearly, I wrote “The answer is within.” Meaning, within the client. I have also written, “The impulse to heal is real and powerful and lies within the client. Our job is to evoke that healing power, to meet its tests and needs and to support it in its expression and development. We are not the healers. We are the context in which healing is inspired.” b. mental-emotional healing is “coordinated and controlled” by the AU. c. often, our experiments, done with the client in mindfulness, initiate a healing process. This is marked by spontaneous thoughts and memories and/or the sudden experience of an emotion. d. we support the healing process in several ways:
i. when the client becomes sad, we offer a gentle physical contact, like a hand on the back. ii. when the client goes inside and shows external signs of processing—like eyes closed, little nods, quick changes in facial expression—we remain silent. This is because… iii. an emotion will draw associations to it, like memories and thoughts that help explain the presence of the emotion. A good thing to read about this is in a book called, Looking for Spinoza by Antonio Damasio (the key pages are 67-69). iv. all the attributes of loving presence are important during the healing process v. when spontaneous management behaviors arise, we support them if we have permission to do so. (The short term for this is “taking over”.) vi. we pay particular attention to the emergence of spontaneous events, like impulses, memories, thoughts and emotions. These are often clues to the direction the process should take and are signs of the operations of the AU. When such events occur, we try to utilize them in what we do next, like another experiment. This aspect of the process is called Following.
The Six Skill Sets
a. I have begun to see the process as requiring six sets of skills, as follows: i. State of Mind ii. Relational iii. Observational iv. Modeling v. Experimental vi. Support for Healing
b. these skill sets are described in more detail below. c. I also see the process as having three phases, as follows:
i. Preparation ii. Assisted Self-Study iii. Mental-Emotional Healing
d. I have come to believe that learning and practicing these skills is more important than spending a lot of time discussing theory. Although we do discuss theory some, I provide over 750 pages of reading materials to my training groups, which students can read at their own pace outside of class.
The Process as Three Phases and Six Skill Sets in Detail
Here in detail is an outline of the three phases and the six skill sets.
Three Phases
The three phases are: preparation, assisted self-study and mental-emotional healing. All three phases operate within a context characterized by an embodiment within a set of well- defined Principles.
Phase One: Preparation Phase
1. loving presence a. this phase is highly dependent on your own state of mind skills. b. search for inspiration (for compassion, appreciation, love) c. search for signs of the person’s present experience d. make initial observations of the person’s “qualities”.
2. develop a healing relationship
a. this phase requires good relational skills. b. this phase requires relating to the adaptive unconscious c. look for signs of cooperation and non-cooperation d. make adjustments to the person’s unconscious needs e. make contact statements about present experience
3. When the person seems ready for it, proceed to the…
Phase Two: Assisted Self-Study Phase
1. Search for non-verbal indicators as expressed by:
a. posture b. facial expressions c. pace d. qualities that describe the person e. gestures f. tone of voice
2. if possible, develop an hypothesis about the person’s models of self and world, based on the indicators you’ve observed.
3. develop and do an experiment with the indicator you’re chosen to work with.
a. these experiments are done with the person in a state of mindfulness in order to bring the actions of the adaptive unconscious into awareness b. the goals of such experiments are two-fold:
i. bringing the person’s unconscious models into consciousness ii. initiating phase three: mental-emotional healing
c. experiments can be attempts to offer a kind of mental-emotional nourishment that your hypothesis predicts the person will either have difficulty accepting or will experience as very nourishing, or... d. the experiment can be a way of working with an indicator for which you have no hypothesis. e. there is a form for doing experiments that is also described in detail elsewhere in these writings. f. get information about the outcome of your experiment
i. either by observing it, or… ii. by getting a verbal report from the person
4. given the outcome of the experiment:
a. refine or reject your original hypothesis about the person’s models b. do another experiment based on the outcome of the previous one. c. follow up each time with the getting information about the outcome d. keep refining your hypotheses, until…
5. the person’s models of self and world become conscious and clear to him or her, or…
6. the process moves spontaneously into the mental-emotional healing phase.
Phase Three: Mental-Emotional Healing Phase
1. this phase requires support for healing skills 2. this phase is marked by emotional expression, strong beliefs, early memories and… 3. behavior controlled by the adaptive unconscious
a. such behavior is sometimes described as “being hijacked”. it is:
i. “nonconscious, fast, unintentional, uncontrollable, and effortless.” ii. adaptive and usually learned early or under extreme conditions
4. during this phase, the primary tasks for the practitioner are:
a. support the person’s spontaneous management behaviors, such as:
i. changes in posture, such as closing up and/or dropping the head, spontaneous “protective” thoughts ii. tightening certain muscles, such as the shoulders, chest and stomach iii. holding the breath
b. provide signals of safety and caring, such as:
i. gentle touch ii. being calm, softening the voice and having a natural sympathetic facial expression iii. supplying Kleenex for tears iv. providing physical support where needed and accepted
c. contain the unfolding process by taking charge and directing the person’s behavior where necessary
d. follow up on the person’s spontaneous images, memories, impulses, and ideas as if these were signals from the person’s adaptive unconscious as to where the process “wants to go”. e. recognize periods when the person needs you to be silent, by…
i. watching for signs in the face that the person is doing internal work ii. waiting while the person has his or her eyes closed iii. when the person does open his or her eyes, wait until he or she looks directly at you and speaks, before you speak iv. listening to the person’s report about his or her insights, feelings and memories.
f. avoid interrupting the process by encouraging conversation
4. provide physical and verbal comforting and nourishment 5. provide the “missing experience”, that is the experience that was blocked by the person’s adaptations and distorted and/or unrealistic models of self and world. 6. allow the session to come to completion in a natural way when it feels right and/or the person signals that he or she feels complete, perhaps by saying “thank you” or by a few nods of the head or something similar.
The Six Skill Sets
I asked him, Do you know what gyroscopic precession is? He replied, No! So I said, But you can ride a bicycle, right? He said, Yes, of course! Well, I told him, That’s my point.
Riding a bicycle is a skill. One theory that explains certain behaviors of a bicycle in motion is the theory of gyroscopic precession. It tells you about the behavior of gyroscopes and why the wheels of moving bicycles are similar. It explains why a moving bicycle turns when you lean. But, you don’t need to know the theory at all in order to ride well. You only have to know how bikes act, which is very easy to learn from experience. With experience, you build a model that predicts how the world acts. Habits are expressions of these models and they are functions of the adaptive unconscious. To ride you need skills, not theory.
I’ve summarized the skills needed for the Hakomi Method and organized them into six basic skill sets. If you learn and practice these, you have a very good chance of becoming competent in the method. Although each skill is unique and can be learned and practice separately, they function within a session as an integrated whole. Here are the six sets:
1. State of Mind Skills
The main skill in this first set is a combination of two very important habits which set ones state of mind. The state of mind is called loving presence and it is an integrated combination of attitude, emotional state and focus of attention. These skills help a practitioner develop a state of mind and being that is expressed effortlessly through ones demeanor and actions. This state of mind has a profound effect on the development of relationships. a. of all six sets, this is the most important. Reaching and maintaining a present-centered, loving state is the first task of the therapist. Learning to do this is an essential part of the trainings. Some people are already good at this and are naturally drawn to the work. Learning how to look and listen to someone with the intention to find something that inspires and maintains compassion, as well as the habit of staying completely focused on what’s happening in the present, are the basic skills. b. Being present means keeping your mind focused on what is going on for you and the client right now, moment to moment. To train your mind to be present like that, you have to train it away from one of our strongest, most common habits, the habit of gathering information through asking questions and conducting ordinary conversations. Those are bad habits, if you’re trying to be present. So, you have to train your mind not to get drawn away from present experience by getting overly focused on ideas, stories and conversation. c. Other skills in this set are: i. being patient ii. being and staying calm Without these habits of state of being, not much in the way of a connection to a client and his or her adaptive unconscious will be possible. Without that connection, the process goes very slowly, if it moves at all.
2. Relational Skills
These are skills that build and maintain a strong connection with people. The principle ones are all about demonstrating these qualities and attributes:
a. through your behavior and a few short, accurate, non-disruptive contact statements, you show that you are aware of what the other person is presently experiencing. getting and staying in contact is the primary skill for connecting and staying connected. It creates the sense in others that you are with them, aware of their feelings and present experiences. It makes you able to anticipate their needs and work to provide help. b. through your tone of voice, pace, posture and gestures, you show that you are patient, sympathetic and non-judgmental. c. your facial expressions, head movements and gestures show that you understand what the person is saying, thinking and feeling d. you work to gain a general understanding the person’s present situation and history. You build a model in your mind that makes sense of the way they feel, think and organize their life e. you make a habit of keeping silent when the client needs time to think and remember f. ways to intervene to move the process forward are part of this skill set. They are discussed later in a section entitled, When and How to Intervene to Move the Process Forward.
3. Observational Skills
What’s needed most is a good set of attentional and recognition skills. Here’s a few of each:
a. Attentional Skills:
i. keeping your attention focused on present behaviors ii. regularly scanning the face and body for signs of present experience iii. regularly scanning the other’s behavior for possible indicators of unconscious material (Note: A list of indicators appears in this document as Appendix 1.)
b. Emotion and Attitude Recognition Skills:
i. recognizing emotions quickly by subtle changes in tone of voice and/or facial expression ii. recognizing statements implied through tone of voice and gestures. iii. being able to guess at the meaning of postures, gestures, etc. iv. “feeling” the emotions in others, through limbic resonance and mirroring v. recognizing the client’s need for silence vi. recognizing the signs of integration and memory processes
4. Modeling Skills
The bridge between observation and experiment is the ability to create models of the laws governing the behavior you’re observing. We could call these skills, modeling skills.
a. This is the method of science. Richard Feynman, the Nobel physicist, tells us the three steps of science are: make a guess; calculate the implications of your guess; and test your guess on the basis of your calculations. “If my guess is true, then if I do this, this will happen.” That’s the gist of it. b. we use our ability to observe behavior, especially indicators and our knowledge of indicators, to make guesses about the person’s beliefs and models of self and world. c. then we test our guesses by doing experiments. The outcomes of our experiments allow us to evaluate and refine our guesses. d. There is a mathematical theorem that describes how perceptions (sensory models of the world) are continuously updated in the nervous system. It’s called, Bayes Theorem, after the mathematician who discovered it. It describes mathematically how models and beliefs are changed in the face of new evidence. It helps us understand how some models can be believed so strongly. It suggests to me how models (beliefs, e.g.) can become so strong in the face of contradictory evidence or no evidence at all. e. The general idea of modeling this:
i. we need to make guesses about what beliefs (models) are organizing the client’s behavior and we need to do that by observing that behavior. This is a “reverse engineering” problem. ii. we need to be able to sense some general qualities of the client, to get a feel for who the person is and how he or she learned to be in the world. And we need to constantly refine our models by continuing to make new observations and to do new experiments. iii. modeling and experimenting is how we do it.
5. Experimental Skills
These are the skills you will need to create and execute good experiments.
a. creating hypotheses about core material from your observations of the client b. helping the client become mindful when doing experiments c. creating and executing experiments, using this form: describe how you’d like client to participate, get permission, ask for mindfulness and wait for signs or a signal that mindfulness is occurring, do the experiment, and observe its outcome or ask about that d. follow the spontaneous reactions to an experiment and use them to support the unfolding healing process (not as easy as it sounds) e. be able to follow up with another experiment, if that seems useful f. use the outcomes of experiments to think about missing experiences 6. Support for Healing Skills. a. supporting spontaneous management behaviors b. allowing time for the other’s internal processing (silence) c. following the spontaneous behaviors that arise in the person d. providing comfort and holding when needed and you have permission e. create and offer missing experiences
6. Support for Healing Skills.
a. supporting spontaneous management behaviors b. allowing time for the other’s internal processing (silence) c. following the spontaneous behaviors that arise in the person d. providing comfort and holding when needed and you have permission e. create and offer missing experiences
Practitioners of Hakomi look at people as self-organizing systems, organized psychologically around core memories, beliefs, and images; this core material expresses itself through habits and attitudes that make people individuals. Hakomi is a method for helping people transform their way of being in the world through working with core material and changing core beliefs. [3]
Hakomi relies on mindfulness of body sensations, emotions, and memories, and follows this general outline:[3][4]
- Create healing relationship: Client and therapist work to build a relationship that maximizes safety and the cooperation of the unconscious.
- Establish mindfulness: Therapist helps client focus on and study how she or he organizes experience. Hakomi's viewpoint is that most behavior is habit automatically organized by core material; therefore studying the organization of experience is studying the influence of this core material.
- Evoke experience: Client and therapist make direct contact with core feelings, beliefs, and memories.
- State specific processing: If the client is ready, the therapist helps the client transition to state-specific processing. Hakomi recognizes three such states:
- mindfulness
- strong emotions
- child-like consciousness
- Transformation: Client realizes that new healing experiences are possible and begins to have these experiences.
- Integration: Client and therapist work to make connections between the new healing experiences and the rest of the client's experiences.
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