Working with Protectors, Part 1: How to Go Beneath Judgment States to the Underlying Core Material

Do your clients get stuck in judgment states?  These could be states of self-judgment, repetitive judgments of others, or those gloomy predictor states, with repeating thoughts in the mind like, “It’s useless to even try in this relationship” or “No matter what I do, this other person won’t see my needs.”

Do you get stuck working with judgment states with clients?  Or in your own life?

Then you need to know how to go beneath the judgment states to the underlying core material. 

In this workshop you will learn to track the “pre-judgment states” that underlie judgment systems, help the client build acceptance and curiosity for the underlying somatic/emotional experiences, and meet the missing experiences that have been waiting to be held and healed, relationally and somatically.  

As we slow down the experience, we can use a specialized cluster of techniques called CROPs (Creative Reorganization at Origin Points) to support the deeper needs which are waiting to be held with compassion and creativity.

One of our key goals is for the client to develop a conscious relationship with the felt-sense of the pre-judgment state.  This will disrupt the automaticity of the judgment state.  Your client will experience freedom and relief, finally having a way out of these painful patterns!

In working with judgment statess in this way, we will build the foundations for working with other protector parts.

In this workshop, participants will learn to work with systems of self-judgment in which clients commonly get stuck.  We will focus on the following elements in working with self-judgments:

1. Understanding some of the evolutionary psychology underneath self-judgment systems.
2. Tracking for systems of self-judgment, and contacting both the system as a whole and its key parts.
3. Framing the process—what is happening internally for a client that leads to a judgment system, and helping the client build context and compassion for their own experience.
4. Framing the intervention that will be used, and tracking for consent before starting.
5. Resourcing the client adequately before starting.
6. Engaging the central intervention: Creative Reorganization at Origin Points (CROPs).  This involves slowing down time and using mindfulness to explore the key feeling states (and the underlying Self-States) present at the moment before the self-judgment process does its “Big Bang” and captures the clients mental framework.
7. Supporting the client’s unfolding experience as these elements are witnessed.
8. Supporting new transformative experiences that emerge in this process.

9. Integration skills to help client bring these new possibilities into their life outside the therapy space.

The workshop will combine lectures, demonstrations, small group practice sessions, and big group discussions.

Learning Objectives

This workshop is designed to help you:

1. Identify systems of self-judgment 
2. Prepare the client for understanding the system and working with self-judgment
3. Utilize supportive interventions for working with self-judgment both in session and applied to the clients life outside of the therapy space

Instructor Bios

Shai Lavie, M.A., Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, works with adults, adolescents, and families in private practice in San Anselmo, California. He got his Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies in 1995, and received his MFT license in 1999.

Shai is certified in the Hakomi Method of mindfulness-based psychotherapy, and is a Certified Hakomi Trainer on the faculty of Hakomi Mallorca and the Hakomi Institute of California.  He is also certified in the Somatic Experiencing method of working with trauma, developed by Peter Levine.

Shai has been practicing Vipassana meditation for over 35 years. For many years beginning in 2001, Shai taught meditation in the Teen and Family Program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center (see www.spiritrock.org). 

Shai has also led psychotherapy trainings for therapists at numerous agencies and training centers in California.  

Please look for articles from Shai Lavie in the September/October 2011 issue of Psychotherapy Networker (“In Search of a Lost Self”) and in the September/October 2011 issue of The Therapist (“Mindfulness-Based Family Therapy”). These articles can be found on the Hakomi Institute website. Please also look for Shai’s chapter (“Experiments in Mindfulness”) in the new book: Hakomi Mindfulness-Centered Somatic Psychotherapy: A Comprehensive Guide to Theory and Practice (W.W. Norton, 2015). Shai’s newest article, “Held Experience: Using Mindfulness in Psychotherapy to Facilitate Deeper Psychological Repair” published in the Fall 2015 issue of the International Body Psychotherapy Journal.

Shai lives in Fairfax, California with his wife and daughter. He loves wilderness hiking, paddle boarding, climbing, frisbee, martial arts, and music.

Emmy Akiyama is a Certified Hakomi Teacher and has been studying and practicing Hakomi since 2016. She is also a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT 51047) and Registered Art Therapist (ATR), with a private practice based in Southern California. She has experience in hospital and community mental health, as well as school-based settings, providing psychotherapy and case management services for a diverse portfolio of patients.  Emmy’s appreciation for the Hakomi Method continues to deepen as she experiences how it powerfully transforms clients, as well as the beings of the practitioners themselves.

Karen Daley, MA, MFT, Certified Hakomi Teacher.  Alongside twenty years of experience in the field of community mental health, she also brings ten years as a senior leadership trainer/organization development consultant with AmeriCorps and various other non-profits.

Karen co-created and for four years directed the Resilience Clinic at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, where the goal was to partner with families and build on their own knowledge by introducing both caregiver and child to nervous-system regulation and tracking, to mitigate the effects of stress.

She believes in collaboration and the power of equanimity as we deepen our awareness and understanding of our own social location as well as the social location of others. Karen believes in the transformative power of the Hakomi Method to facilitate deep healing both on an individual and a collective level.

When not with others, Karen can be found tending her garden or going on long walks.

12 CE’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.