Hakomi Body-Centered Therapy

 

Hakomi is a cutting edge form of somatic psychotherapy drawn from western psychology models, Buddhist mindfulness practices, attachment theory, and advancements in neurobiology.  Hakomi is practical and experiential, deeply gentle and profound.  It is an elegant method of gaining awareness about conscious or unconscious material that may be inhibiting your aliveness, growth or wellbeing.  It offers an opportunity to understand how this core material shows up— as habitual patterns in your body, heart, and mind.  Opening to these deep patterns and beliefs, thus allows room for new options and for profound changes to occur.

 

While traditional psychotherapy focuses on cognition, emotion, behavior, and personal history, Hakomi also encourages exploration of sensation, emotional and felt experiences in the body, as well as habitual ways of holding and moving.  Hakomi can be as simple as encouraging you to bring awareness to the sensations you feel in your body as you tell a story, or it might mean slowing down and paying close attention to a habitual gesture or movement.  This is a way of gaining awareness and gathering information about how you are organized around your life experiences.  Somatic counseling also offers an opportunity to practice new ways of being- within your self, in your relationships, and in alignment with your goals. 

 

While I do not always work somatically, I believe that approaching therapy through the lens of the body brings us right to the center, to the heart, to what is absolutely real in each moment.  When woven in to the therapeutic process, attention to the body can offer clear concise information, and a felt experience of integration and change. 

 

“We do not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”    -C.G.Jung