An Introduction to Hakomi Body-Centered Psychotherapy

October 15th, 2009
By Jaffy Phillips, MA, Hakomi Topic Expert Contributor

Click here to contact Jaffy and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile

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Hi, my name is Jaffy Phillips. I am a certified Hakomi therapist, and I have studied a number of other body-centered approaches to therapy as well. I volunteered to be the topic expert for Hakomi therapy here at Goodtherapy.org because I feel that Hakomi makes such an important contribution to the larger field of psychotherapy, and because it is really the foundation of my own practice.

There are so many wonderful things about Hakomi that it is impossible to address them all in one short article. Instead, what I would like to do here is to speak a bit about what makes it so special to me, and to briefly introduce some of the topics I will be covering in upcoming articles (monthly).

First, a little clarification. Hakomi is a mindfulness-based, body-centered form of psychotherapy. In recent years, there has been an explosion of interest in mindfulness and in the role of the body in psychotherapy. But not all therapies that use mindfulness or body-centered approaches are alike. In my experience, Hakomi’s approach to the use of mindfulness and to the body is unique in the field. For example, Hakomi uses a more active, meaning-seeking form of mindfulness than do most other therapies that incorporate elements of mindfulness meditation. Also, in Hakomi, both the client and the therapist ideally spend the majority of each session in a state of mindfulness, and Hakomi may be one of the only approaches to explicitly use this state as a prerequisite to working with the body. Hakomi is also one of the more established of these approaches: it was developed in the 1970’s (by Ron Kurtz), and has been steadily gaining popularity ever since.

The thing that I find most compelling about Hakomi as a form of therapy is that it is grounded in a set of relational principles, as opposed to a psychological theory. These principles set the stage for a relationship between the client and the therapist that provides safety and creates the ground for self-discovery. They are rooted in the traditions of Buddhism and Taoism (but Hakomi imposes no spiritual or religious requirements). The five principles are: Mindfulness, Non-Violence, Organicity, Unity, and Body-Mind-Spirit Holism. I’ll discuss them in more detail in an upcoming article.

Although Hakomi’s first allegiance is to the principles, it is not without theory. (I realize that writing about theory may seem a bit technical, but it can be important to consider where a therapist is coming from when you are deciding whether the therapy is right for you). Hakomi therapists draw from a few major areas of theory. One of these is systems theory, which has to do with ideas about how complex systems – such as human beings – grow and change (or don’t). Another is character theory, which has to do with ideas about how aspects of our character or personal style develop, and why. A third has to do with the conditions necessary to “befriend” unconscious parts of our experience; a fourth has to do with the role of bodily experience (sensations, images, etc.) in helping to bring these parts of our experience into awareness. Again, keep an eye out for more discussion of these and related ideas in future articles.

The principles and the theories just described come together beautifully in the Hakomi Method. Part of Ron Kutz’s genius, I believe, was the development of a unique set of tools or techniques that bring both the principles and theory to life in a therapy session. By this I mean that the method – the activity of the therapy session – is an expression of both the gentleness and respect inherent in the principles and the ideas about how people work that are expressed in the theory. This congruence gives a seamless quality to the experience that many clients appreciate.

Please stay tuned for more discussion of the Hakomi Method and its applications to particular therapeutic issues in future articles.

-Thank you.

**The views and opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily reflective of the views of Ron Kurtz or the Hakomi Institute.**

©Copyright 2009 by Jaffy Phillips, MA, therapist in Northampton, MA. All Rights Reserved.

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