Hakomi Mindfulness-Centered Somatic Psychotherapy
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ANNE FISCHER, Dipl Psych accredited professional psychotherapist, and supervisor in private practice, was a long-term Hakomi trainer until 2012. She is a member of the advisory board for the German Journal of Sexuality Research (Zeitschrift für Sexualforschung). Anne completed postgraduate training in somatic psychotherapy, psychodynamic therapy, and trauma therapy. Her special interest lies in the combination of psychodynamic concepts with mindfulness and body-psychotherapeutic approaches, as well as the potency of the therapeutic relationship. The main focus of her current work is with ethnic minorities and couples therapy. She lives and works in Hamburg, Germany.
ROB FISHER, MFT, is a certified Hakomi trainer and the author of Experiential Psychotherapy With Couples: A Guide for the Creative Pragmatist and of a number of articles published internationally on couples therapy and the psychodynamic use of mindfulness in journals such as Psychotherapy Networker, The Therapist, Journal of Couples Therapy, USA Body Psychotherapy Journal, Psychotherapy in Australia, and others. He is an adjunct professor at JFK University, and the codeveloper and lead instructor of the Mindfulness and Compassion in Psychotherapy Certificate Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Rob is a speaker at conferences and workshops around the United States such as CAMFT, USABP, Psychotherapy Networker, and the Relationship Council, where he presents as a peer, master, or keynote speaker.
MAYA SHAW GALE, MA, BCC, is a certified Hakomi practitioner and trainer, a nationally board-certified life coach, and a certified trainer for the Circle of Life Coaching Institute. In her practice in Santa Barbara, California, her approach integrates mindfulness, eco-psychology, indigenous wisdom, and body-mind practices to midwife individuals, couples, and small organizations through crisis and transition to creative breakthrough. Since 1975, Maya has led workshops, retreats, and training sessions across the United States, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand. For eight years, as adjunct faculty for Cambridge College Graduate School of Education, she trained educators in curriculum applications of somatic awareness, mindfulness, and emotional intelligence. A published poet and playwright, she is currently authoring a book on the healing power of ritual, ceremony, and immersion in nature.
UTA GÜNTHER, Dipl Psych, accredited psychotherapist, and lecturer for the Bavarian Chamber of Professional Psychotherapists, is a trainer for the Hakomi Institute of Europe. She has completed postgraduate education as a psychodynamic therapist and several other psychotherapies and body-psychotherapies such as Rogerian, trauma treatment, psychodrama, NLP, structural body therapy (Rolfing), systemic family constellations, and ego state therapy. Since 1985 she has worked in private practice with individual, couples, and group therapy, and coaching, supervision, and professional training. Uta began her career as the director of a psychological counseling center in Nuremberg, Germany. Her specific interest lies with the use of mindfulness and body-psychotherapeutic interventions for the treatment of narcissistic disorders and trauma.
JACI HULL, MA, LMFT, is a certified Hakomi trainer leading workshops and training internationally. She is alumni faculty of the Somatic Psychology Department at Naropa University and the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, and was a codeveloper with Rob Fisher of experiential couples psychotherapy. Jaci received her master’s in contemplative psychotherapy from Naropa University. Her postgraduate training includes a certification in family therapy, EMDR, somatic trauma resolution, brainspotting, group genius, and certification as a relational life therapist. Jaci maintains a private psychotherapy practice in Boulder, Colorado.
GREG JOHANSON, MDiv, PhD, LPC, NCC, a founding trainer of the Hakomi Institute, has a background in therapy as well as theology. He is a member of the American Psychological Association as well as the American Association of Pastoral Counselors. He has been active in writing, publishing over 175 items in the fields of psychotherapy and pastoral theology including (with Ron Kurtz) Grace Unfolding: Psychotherapy in the Spirit of the Tao-te ching. Greg has served on the editorial board of six professional journals and as editor of Hakomi Forum and has taught as an adjunct in a number of graduate schools. He has a special interest in integral psychology, which relates spirituality to individual consciousness and behavior in the context of social and cultural issues.
RON KURTZ was the originator of Hakomi therapy and the founder of the Hakomi Institute. He was the first to pioneer integrating the use of mindfulness in psychotherapy. Ron was the author or coauthor of three books that have been influential in the world of experiential psychotherapy: The Body Reveals with Hector Prestera, Body-Centered Psychotherapy: The Hakomi Method, and Grace Unfolding: Psychotherapy in the Spirit of the Tao-te ching with Greg Johanson. After resigning as executive director of the Hakomi Institute, he also founded Ron Kurtz Trainings and the Hakomi Educational Network, based on his later work with Hakomi Refined. He received a lifetime achievement award from the United States Body Psychology Association and an honorary doctorate from the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute.
CAROL LADAS-GASKIN, MA, is a certified therapist, teacher, and trainer of the Hakomi Educational Network and a clinical member of the U.S. Association of Body Psychotherapy. She is licensed in the state of Washington as a certified counselor and a massage practitioner who has had an ongoing counseling practice in the Seattle area for many years. She teaches Hakomi workshops and courses in the Seattle area as part of the Seattle Hakomi Educational Network (www.seattlehakomi.com). She has been a certified consultant and workshop instructor in Progoff Intensive Journal, a mindfulness-based journal practice. She is the author of Instant Stress Relief, coauthor with J. David Cole of Mindfulness Centered Therapies: An Integrative Approach, and published Unfurling, a book of poetry (www.mindfulnessbooks.com).
SHAI LAVIE, MA, MFT, is a certified Hakomi therapist in private practice in San Rafael, California. He is also certified in the somatic experiencing method of working with trauma. Shai serves as adjunct professor at Sofia University and John F. Kennedy University and teaches in the Mindfulness and Compassion Certificate Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He also serves as a Hakomi teacher on the faculty of the Hakomi Institute of California. Shai enjoys leading transformational groups with adults that integrate Hakomi, somatic experiencing, group process, and dream work. His articles have appeared in Psychotherapy Networker and The Therapist.
DONNA MARTIN, MA, has been the senior Hakomi Education Network trainer in North America, England, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Hawaii, Israel, Russia, and Buenos Aires. She has a background in stress management and addictions, and during the 1990s she was the clinical program director of outpatient services at the Phoenix Center for Alcohol and Drug Addiction in Kamloops, Canada. Donna coauthored with Ron Kurtz the Practice of Loving Presence series, now available as e-books (www.ronkurtz.com and www.reflectivepresence.com). Other books include Seeing Your Life Through New Eyes (with Paul Brenner), Simply Being (with Marlena Field), and Remembering Wholeness, plus the chapter on Hakomi in Inner Dialogue in Daily Life, edited by Chuck Eigen (see www.hakomi.ca, www.donnamartin.net).
MANUELA MISCHKE REEDS, MFT, is a licensed psychotherapist, international Hakomi trainer, and author. Manuela specializes in integrating somatic and mindfulness-based psychotherapy with a specialization in trauma and stress. Her areas of expertise are in the fields of somatic trauma therapy, attachment psychotherapy, infant mental health, and continuum movement therapy. Her integrative teaching style is influenced by her longtime studies of Buddhist psychology and meditation practice. Manuela has developed a dharmic trauma training and teaches in Germany, Australia, Israel, and San Francisco. She is the codirector of the Hakomi Institute of California and maintains a private psychotherapy practice in the San Francisco area. Manuela is the author of The 8 Keys to Practicing Mindfulness in the Norton 8 Keys series.
LORENA MONDA, MS, DOM, LPCC, is a practicing psychotherapist and a doctor of oriental medicine. Lorena is a trainer for the Hakomi Institute and adjunct faculty at the AOMA Graduate School of Integrative Medicine i
n Austin, Texas, where she teaches courses in clinical communication integrating Hakomi skills. She is the author of The Practice of Wholeness: Spiritual Transformation in Everyday Life; a coauthor of The Clinical Guide to Commonly Used Chinese Herbal Formulas and The Clinical Handbook of Chinese Veterinary Herbal Medicine; and a coeditor of I Have Arrived, I Am Home: Celebrating 20 Years of Plum Village Life. Lorena lives in New Mexico with her husband John Scott and teaches Hakomi in the United States and internationally. She is currently working on a book called Mindfulness, Qi, and Transformation.
MARILYN MORGAN, MHSc (Hons), SRN, MNZAP, PhD, was a psychotherapist for 25 years. Before her untimely death, she was a certified Hakomi therapist and trainer who was program coordinator for the diploma in integrative psychology (Hakomi) at the Eastern Institute of Technology in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. She was a beloved teacher in the Hakomi Institute who brought a special interest and talent from her medical background in nursing to relating Hakomi to the latest trends in neurophysiology and interpersonal neurobiology. She published articles in Hakomi Forum and her PhD dissertation was worked into a book, The Alchemy of Love: Personal Growth Journeys in Psychotherapy Training.
JULIE MURPHY, MA, LMFT, certified addictions treatment counselor and certified Hakomi trainer and therapist, has decades of experience consulting, teaching, and working in the healing arts. Julie trains mental health professionals in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Israel. She is adjunct faculty at John F. Kennedy University and was an instructor in the California Institute of Integral Studies Certificate Program in Mindfulness and Compassion in Psychotherapy. She specializes in experiential somatic psychotherapy, mindful recovery, creative process, attachment theory, and developing well-being. She is a marriage and family therapist who practices with individuals, couples, adolescents, and families in Santa Cruz.
JOHN PERRIN, CHT, has nearly 20 years experience in the practice of mindfulness-centered psychotherapy. He is a certified Hakomi therapist and trainer who holds a diploma in psychotherapy and relationship counseling from the Jansen Newman Institute in Sydney, Australia. He is a member of the Hakomi Institute South Pacific Team, is faculty for the Hakomi professional training in Sydney, Perth, and New Zealand, and leads Hakomi workshops throughout the region. He maintains a private practice in Sydney. John studied for many years in the Zen Buddhist tradition and has a particular interest in the role of embodiment in psychotherapy.
T. FLINT SPARKS, PhD, has nearly 40 years of experience in the practice and teaching of psychotherapy. Flint is a Zen teacher who leads retreats and teaches throughout the United States and Europe. His academic training includes graduate degrees in both biology and psychology, and he has extensive postdoctoral training in mindfulness-based psychotherapies and group therapy. His Zen teaching weaves together the skillful methods of both the Hakomi and internal family systems models into what he calls the practice of liberating intimacy. His traditional Zen training began at the San Francisco Zen Center and continued at the Austin Zen Center, which he founded and nourished in its early years. Currently he is a resident teacher at Appamada, a center for Zen in Austin, Texas.
HALKO WEISS, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and a lecturer for the Bavarian Licensing Board for Psychotherapists, the University of Marburg, and several other professional schools. He is a cofounder of the Hakomi Institute both in the United States and in Germany, working closely with Ron Kurtz for many years, and continues to provide new directions for Hakomi through developing programs such as a course in interpersonal skills called H.E.A.R.T. (Hakomi Embodied and Aware Relationships Training). Halko is the author and editor of six books, both in German and in English: To the Core of your Experience (with Dyrian Benz); Auf den Körper hören (with D. Benz); Handbuch der Körperpsychotherapie (editor, with G. Marlock); Das Achtsamkeitsbuch. Grundlagen, Anwendungen, Übungen (with M. Harrer and T. Dietz); Das Achtsamkeitsübungsbuch. Für Beruf und Alltag (with M. Harrer and T. Dietz); and Handbook of Body Psychotherapy and Somatic Psychology (editor, with G. Marlock, C. Young, and M. Soth). Aside from his work as a teacher of body psychotherapy and as a couples therapist, he is a frequent trainer and coach for corporate executives.
Positioning & Awareness
People always ask how to follow Tao. It is as easy and natural as the heron standing in the water. The bird moves when it must; it does not move when stillness is appropriate.
The secret of its serenity is a type of vigilance, a contemplative state. The heron is not in mere dumbness or sleep. It knows a lucid stillness. It stands unmoving in the flow of the water. It gazes unperturbed and is aware. When Tao brings it something that it needs, it seizes the opportunity without hesitation or deliberation. Then it goes back to its quiescence without disturbing itself or its surroundings. Unless it found the right position in the water’s flow and remained patient, it would not have succeeded.
Actions in life can be reduced to two factors: positioning and timing. If we are not in the right place at the right time, we cannot possibly take advantage of what life has to offer us. Almost anything is appropriate if an action is in accord with the time and the place. But we must be vigilant and prepared. Even if the time and the place are right, we can still miss our chance if we do not notice the moment, if we act inadequately, or if we hamper ourselves with doubts and second thoughts. When life presents an opportunity, we must be ready to seize it without hesitation or inhibition. Position is useless without awareness. If we have both, we make no mistakes.
—DENG MING-DAO
When you’re not getting what you want,
there can be two reasons:
either the environment isn’t offering it to you (position),
or you aren’t taking in what’s available (awareness).
Hakomi Therapy works with both reasons.
First we help people look at and discover
how they are organized to refuse what’s available.
And, of course, since you are a part of your environment,
you can influence your environment
and help change it so that all,
including yourself, may benefit.
—RON KURTZ
Acknowledgments
SINCE IT IS axiomatic that editors and writers are never singular players, but always selves-in-relation, embodied in multiple contexts, a publication such as this reveals an underground of communal significance.
So many people have been involved on myriad unseen levels. Supposedly solitary participants should perhaps take a poll of all those who are part of their immediate communions before embarking on such prolonged endeavors: partners who organize years of their lives around endless publishing concerns; children who wonder why a parent is so preoccupied; relatives who worry about where one’s life is headed; friends who feel they are on a never-ending cheering squad and get worried about writer-clinician-teaching-community members being stretched out in too many directions; colleagues who get antsy waiting for energy to be made available for other projects; and more. Decisions matter for individuals. They carry significant weight for the communities individuals comprise.
Certainly, a major acknowledgment we have as editors is to the faculty, organizers, administrators, and committed Hakomi therapists of the Hakomi Institute in Boulder, Colorado, who have striven since 1980 to preserve, build upon, and teach Hakomi therapy throughout the world to professional psychotherapists and others in cognate disciplines. We thank our current administrator, Laurie Adato, for her enthusiastic encouraging of this text.
Hakomi Institute faculty who contributed chapters to this volume are all scientist-artist, mind-body practitioners dealing with the demands of working with clients as well as offering the time, skill, and energy to teach Hakomi therapy, often far from their homes. A number of them are not professional writers, but agreed to take their part of a major project that meant engaging in the demanding processes of researching, composing, rewriting, and meeting ever-moving deadlines. Likewise, we want to thank the faculty
of the Hakomi Educational Network, those who worked closely with Ron Kurtz as he sought to simplify the Hakomi method in his later years to make it available to a larger public, for their willingness to contribute to this common project.
Our gratitude extends to those who actually make teaching Hakomi therapy possible, namely our students of these many years who recognized something significant in what we were doing, and trusted us to teach them a unique, and, for many seasons, new kind of psychotherapy whose name they needed to learn to pronounce.
The references in this volume reflect the larger community of learning of which this contribution is part of a long, ongoing dialogue. As editors and contributors we have had opportunity to study with some in this great cloud of thinkers and writers that have gone before. Some we have only met in print, and have been enriched by the opportunity to compare our experiences with theirs.
For helping this volume itself to become a reference, we want to thank Deborah Malmud of W. W. Norton, who had the generosity to look at a manuscript by multiple authors not attached to a household name, and then support us with high-level professionalism, energy, and appreciation.
This work is dedicated, of course, to Ron (Ronald S. Kurtz), the brilliant, charismatic originator and core professional inspiration of the work before we ever found the name Hakomi, and the founder of the Hakomi Institute. He served as mentor, friend, and colleague to many of us, though his lasting contribution is that he encouraged others to take stewardship of the work and to train people around the world. There are now over three generations of Hakomi trainers in many countries all over the world who are able to pass on the work to people who never had the opportunity to study with Ron directly. We are grateful that Ron was able to contribute a chapter on his latest thoughts to this book before he died, and we want to mention his beloved wife, Terry, and daughter, Lily, who hold his memory dear. We trust that this book will be a suitable legacy to the healing Ron fostered in the world.