Hakomi Related Articles
Ron Kurtz (website)
- Core of the Method - I'd like to discuss some details about the method of assisted self discovery, ASD. First, this major difference between this method and ordinary psychotherapy: assisted self discovery requires a commitment on the part of the person being assisted (still called the client), that he or she be capable of entering into a present-centered, self-focused, and vulnerable state of mind. The client must understand the process as experiments done in mindfulness. He or she must be willing to enter into that process even though painful emotions may arise. This commitment is also required of people doing an ASD training...(read full article)
- A Little History - I built Hakomi through trial and error out of components that I tried and found worked. It wasn’t shaped by any grand plan. Like any stubborn fool, I had to find out for myself. I read. I got ideas. I never incorporated anything without trying it out first. When I tried mindfulness, it worked. If I was nonviolent, clients felt safer. When people felt safe, it was easier for them to be mindful. Doing experiments with clients in mindfulness, evoked useful reactions. It was easy and it worked. Personally, I liked being non-violent. I was not efforting. I felt compassion and all that felt good to me. I wasn’t thinking about the long run. I was using what worked and I really didn’t see what was coming...(read full article)
- How Is It That Suffering Happens and How Can We Help - These are the same questions the Buddha pondered, under the Bodi tree. Our pondering is over much more limited versions of these same questions. We’re interested only in unnecessary suffering, how it happens and what we can do to respond to it. Perhaps, all suffering is unnecessary. We’re not tackling that one. We’re concerned with only some. Let’s look at why...(read full article)
- Mindfulness and Hakomi - If you can observe your own experience with a minimum of interference, and if you don’t try to control what you experience, if you simply allow things to happen and you observe them, then you will be able to discover things about yourself that you did not know before. You can discover little pieces of the inner structures of your mind, the very things that make you who you are (Ron Kurtz)...(read full article)
Donna Martin (website)
- Introduction to the Hakomi Method - When someone comes to you upset about something, it may be that they need, more than anything else, to be heard. It may also be that they don’t expect to be heard, which results in increasing frustration for them and for the listener. As the listener, you can demonstrate that you not only hear the content of what the person tells you, but that you understand their internal experience. This doesn’t mean you have to agree with the reasons for what they’re feeling, but that you appreciate what they’re feeling. So an accurate acknowledgement or a contact statement lets them know: 1. that you are listening, 2. that you’re interested, in a nonjudgemental way, and 3. that you understand what they feel.(read full article)
- HAKOMI AS A WAY OF BEING AND BEING WITH OTHERS: REFLECTION AS THE ROAD TO FREEDOM - Hakomi has been called applied Buddhism. This is partly due to the way Hakomi uses a state of mind called mindfulness as a way of cultivating more self awareness, more compassion, and the capacity to be present in a calm and loving way, for oneself as well as for others. Hakomi is an approach that uses mindfulness in a very unique way which is the basis of the self discovery aspect of the method...(read full article)
Hakomi in My Life - I was recently asked to answer some questions about Hakomi and about mindfulness for a small journal published in Buenos Aires. I have answered the questions this way, and would like to share them with you.
About the importance of mindfulness practice in my life
I would say that the practice of mindfulness has transformed my life. I can’t even imagine what my life would look like without this practice. I began on a path of mindfulness over thirty-five years ago when I was introduced to yoga. Over the years I became a yoga teacher with a focus on the practice of yoga for self-awareness and personal liberation. It evolved into a daily practice of yoga postures, breathing, meditation, body awareness, and simple self-noticing that made the transition to the world of psychotherapy (and particularly the Hakomi Method) an easy and natural one. What mindfulness practice helps me to do, increasingly, is notice the sensations and impulses in my bodily experience, the congruent thoughts and memories in my mind, and the habitual attitudes that would shape my experience. In just noticing these, I am able to pause, reflect, and if necessary, replace them with ones that are more appropriate. This frees me from being hijacked by unnecessary emotions or impulses and allows me to be less reactive and more responsive in my life and in my relationships. I spend minimal time suffering emotionally or feeling blame, resentment, or hurt. I am essentially a happy person choosing, every day, to be happy...(read full article)