Hakomi is a comprehensive and effective method of psychotherapy based in mindfulness and somatic awareness. Employing a strong experiential orientation, Hakomi is grounded in time-honored principles and the therapeutic embodiment of Loving Presence. Through attuned and mindful exploration of present experience, Hakomi supports the discovery and transformation of the unconsciously held core material that shapes people’s beliefs and behaviors.
The Hakomi Professional Skills Training offers a thorough grounding in the theories and techniques of Hakomi Mindful Somatic Psychotherapy. This professional program provides students with a deep understanding of Hakomi’s foundational principles and the ability to work within them and with an attitude of Loving Presence.
This training is for both new and established practitioners with a passion and dedication for somatics and mindfulness. In Level 1 of the Professional Skills series, therapists are offered practices that enhance presence and support deep relational attunement. You’ll learn the stages and flow of the Hakomi method with in-depth coverage of Hakomi theory and specific experiential techniques that bring the method to life.
The goals of the Training are to provide students with:
- a deep understanding of the principles of the Hakomi Method and the ability to work within them,
- an understanding of the essentialness of Loving Presenceand skills and practices to deepen the capacity for relational presence
- an understanding of the Hakomi therapeutic process and the ability to use these precisely and appropriately.
Our Level 1 training will be in a hybrid format (10 live-online meetings with a 5-day on the ground intensive in the Portland, Oregon metro area and self-paced homestudy. Brief online video talks and demonstrations are brought to life in our interactive, experiential training weekends.).
Prerequisites: This training is designed for the clinical professional. Applicants to this training need to have completed Masters level clinical training or be working toward their Masters degree. Completion of an Introductory Workshop is required before beginning this course.
***Students considering this program need to be willing to fully engage with and complete the home-study aspects of the program. This will require some flexibility in scheduling to allow for independent study, meeting with other students in a small group format, and attending office hours with faculty.
Objectives. In this training, you will be able to:
Hakomi Principles
- Apply the Hakomi principles of unity and nonviolence in therapy to create safety and build a relationship of equality between therapist and client
- Apply the Hakomi principles of body-mind integration to discover unconscious psychological information in the body
- Apply the Hakomi principle of organicity to tailor therapeutic interventions to each client’s unique situation and transformation process.
Hakomi Skill: The Therapeutic Relationship
- Utilize the practice of Loving Presence to enhance the therapeutic relationship and create safety.
Hakomi Skill: Mindfulness
- Utilize psychodynamic mindfulness do bring clients into deeper experience and self-awareness
- Demonstrate the ability to be mindful (as therapist) while facilitating the session
- Demonstrate the ability to guide the client from a focus on presenting verbal content to experiential awareness, including mindfulness of key themes and “indicators” of unconscious material in the body
- Assess when the client is mindful and when they are in ordinary consciousness.
Hakomi Skill: Tracking
- Demonstrate the ability to track subtle, somatic cues in the body and habitual patterns
- Demonstrate the ability to track for emotion
- Demonstrate the ability to track the client for safety and to make adjustments in the process that allow the work to safely deepen.
Hakomi Skill: Contact
- Utilize verbal contact to create safety and collaboration with the client
- Utilize verbal contact to bring client’s unconscious material to consciousness and deepen the client’s experiential process.
- Demonstrate the ability to verbally contact the many aspect of the client’s experience (eg. thoughts, emotions, body cue, themes, barrier)
Hakomi Skill: Identifying Themes
- Identify key themes in the client’s presenting issues to create access routes to core unconscious material
- Assess the client for ‘missing experiences’ and unmet development needs
Hakomi Skill: Working with Regressive (Child) States
- Identifying regressive (child) states in the client
- List the differences between Child Consciousness and Adult Consciousness
Therapeutic Interventions
- Demonstrate the ability to help the client to safely stay with somatic awareness, with emotion, and with unconscious material as it emerges
- Apply Hakomi skills and principles in the therapeutic process
- Work experientially to allow the client to “take ownership” of the process
- Demonstrate the ability to use the mindfulness experiments of verbal prompts and taking over and explain the difference in these interventions, so as to make clear therapeutic choices.
- Create experiments in mindfulness to help the client access and explore unconscious core material
- Utilize experiments in mindfulness to uncover client’s unmet developmental needs and to provide corrective experience to the client.
- Revise experiments as new information arises from the client’s exploration, so as to deepen and expand the clients experience.
- Utilize experiments in mindfulness that work with a variety of client experiences: emotions, thoughts, introjected voices, memories, and bodily experience, so as to expand the client’s ability to tolerate and process these experiences.
Transformation: Working at the Nourishment Barrier
- Identify ‘nourishment barriers’ in the client, so as to work with ‘resistance’ to change.
Integration
- List and utilize integration techniques to help the client accommodate and solidify new experience.
Stages of the Hakomi Process
- List the stages of the Hakomi Process: Safety, Accessing, Deepening, Processing, Transformation, Integration, Completion
Trauma
- Describe traumatic activation
- Identify traumatic activation when it arises in a client so as to make appropriate therapeutic decisions.
- List the ways that traumatic activation differs from developmental wounding
- Explain the “Window of Tolerance”
- Apply appropriate therapeutic interventions to help client return to Window of Tolerance.
Ethics
- Define dual roles and discuss the risk for ethical violations.
- Define the power differential and list the specific responsibilities that accompany power differential roles.
- List the major ethical categories covered in the Hakomi Institute Code of Ethics.
- Identify and discuss the values and dangers in the use of touch in helping professional relationships
Faculty:
65CE’s: (ACEP #5476): Hakomi Institute has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEP No. 5476.) Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Hakomi Institute is solely responsible for all aspects of the program.
Dates:
2025
1) May 16-18 online live
2) June 20-21 online live and August 15 online live
3) September 5-6 online live
4) October 10-11 online live
5) November 5-9 in person in Oregon (5 day in-person module on Hakomi somatic
exploratory techniques and child-state processing) and December 5 online live
2026
6) January 16-17 online live and January 30 online live
7) February 6-7 online live
8) March 6-8 online live
Testimonials:
This training was a satisfying journey of development both personally and professionally. I am grateful to be learning a method which considers the emotional state of the therapist, offering a true sense of honesty and personal responsibility as the foundation for exploring. As a team, Deah, Lorena, and Rick are knowledgable, dynamic, and available teachers with valuable wisdom to share. ~ Laura L
I enjoyed my Hakomi Level 1 training with Deah, Lorena and Rick and the facilitating staff. They are kind, inclusive, and so good at coaching skills. I felt encouraged to try new things and every module presented many opportunities to broaden my experiential therapy skills. Lots of space for practice and learning. I learned to stay in the body to track, contact, and be with clients. ~ SLee
Deah, Rick and Lorena were amazing teachers. I highly recommend taking the Hakomi 1 training for anyone interested in doing deep, nurturing, and soulful work with their clients. ~ Austin Sherman, LMFT
First being a Client of Hakomi, and now training to become a Practitioner, my gratitude for this work only continues to deepen and grow more than I could have imagined. ~ Kara Sunwell, MFT
