“Mindfulness is often described as ‘being in the moment’, but it is more than that. It’s about making a deliberate choice to pay attention to your immediate experience… and to do so in a particular way, that is, without judgment and with compassionate, open-minded curiosity” Pauline Franks-Pearson, nature journalist and meditation teacher.
Mindfulness-Based Somatic Psychotherapy (Hakomi)
Somatic psychotherapy is the ever-growing field of psychotherapy that deeply values the body as both the holder of past patterns, but also the source of the wisdom for growth and healing.
The reference to “somatic” psychotherapy almost accidentally falls back into the duality of mind OR body. In fact, we are referring to a bodymind system. The aim is to heal splits, and return to wholeness. A wholeness with all parts of our system inter-relating freely, and an awareness of our inter-relatedness with the whole world.
Hakomi is a specific somatic psychotherapy approach with philosophical roots in Taoism and Buddhism. It draws on, and has influenced, other therapeutic approaches such as Gestalt Therapy, Bioenergetics, Internal Family Systems, Psychomotor Therapy and Feldenkrais Method.
What you can expect in a session
Cultivating a state of mindfulness shapes and holds our sessions. This allows us to observe how we are organised without falling into reactive patterns. It also creates a spaciousness to explore new possibilities.
We study thoughts, emotions and sensations in the body; areas of stuckness or strong emotion; get to know ‘parts’ and how these relate to current and past experiences.
We might conduct ‘little experiments in mindfulness’ to notice limiting beliefs or habitual motor patterns, including how your system might be ‘organising-out’ nourishment.
We can engage in inner-child activities to offer ‘unburdening’, missing experiences and healing of old wounds. We might also take time just hanging in moments of wholeness (Self energy), embodying and integrating the possibility of being expansive.
You can read more about the method here and here. Where there is an interest, I weave Hakomi with art practices and find this supports the flow of creative wisdom.
Somatic psychotherapy training
My training in Hakomi includes completion of the three-year Professional Training program at the Australian Hakomi Institute; One-year Hakomi Embodied Awareness Relationship Training H.E.A.R.T; Level one of Trauma to Dharma with Manuela Mischke-Reeds; and Character Training with Jules Morgaine; Core training with The Right Use of Power Institute which articulates the ethical grounding of the Hakomi method; Plus attendance at multiple Hakomi workshops over the last 6 years.
Regarding Internal Family Systems (IFS) I have completed an Introduction and Advanced Skills training in Internal Family Systems training with Bonnie Weiss; IFS Intuitive Drawing, foundation workshop and Drawing into Self course with Ruth Culver; Plus attending multiple training webinars with a special interest in unattached and legacy burdens.
I am interested in the overlap of spiritual emergencies, extreme states (psychosis) and early attachment trauma. I attend group supervision with Paris Williams, where we focus on the inter-relationship between complex trauma and extreme states, using IFS and Hakomi. I have completed intensive training in integrating bad trips and ‘psychedelic casualties’ with Sean O’Carroll at the Wild Mind Institute. These trainings sit alongside my studies in sensorimotor art therapy which takes a focus on pre-verbal development and post traumatic growth.
All photos joyfully taken in my backyard.
5 core principles of Hakomi
If you’d like to read more about the principles of Hakomi, this is a helpful article. I also enthusiastically recommend this stunning and expansive short book aimed for clients and therapists orientating themselves to the values and feel of the method Grace Unfolding: Psychotherapy in the Spirit of Tao-Te Ching
Let love go
Forget about “transcending” the body.
Love it instead.
Let go of the idea of “letting go”.
Instead, let love go deep into the tender places,
the parts that ache.
Inhale into your sadness.
Let your fear move deep within you.
Bow to your uncertainty.
There is an untouchable place in you
that fearlessly allows itself to be touched.
Here, even your unworthiness has worth.
And that old feeling that you are unlovable?
It is loveable here.
Presence is the container, never the contained.
There is so much room in you, friend. So much room.
The Unknown embraces all that is known.
In the certainty of yourself,
even uncertainty can be held like a newborn.
There is nothing wrong with you,
including the idea
that there is something wrong with you.
So stop trying to love yourself;
simply be the Self that loves.
-Jeff Foster (Poems to save your life: You were never broken, 2020)