Hakomi Therapy – Somatic Psychotherapy
I saw that my physical habits were repeating my emotional ones as I studied kung fu. I became aware of my tendency to give up while I was trying something. Where I put my attention when learning a form and where I didn’t. How I wanted to focus on what seemed like insignificant details and how that would effect how I continued practicing. It opened my eyes.
I knew I wanted to combine the physical when I opted to study therapy. It’s almost sneaky how it gets past my overly analytical mind. So, someone put forth Hakomi therapy. I knew I was interested since I had done my study. I submitted an application and was accepted to the Hakomi Institute in Boulder, Colorado to learn Hakomi Therapy from Phil del Prince and Melissa Grace.
The encounter was amazing. All of the instruction was hands-on. I learned a lot about fusing our bodily consciousness with our psychic awareness from the two-year training group, which was run with great care and experience.
Integrating physical awareness into our sessions is helpful to me as I deal with clients right now. Trauma survivors frequently lose both their bodily and emotional consciousness. Trauma survivors frequently still have thoughts about their experiences. One explanation for this is that we feel more in control of things that we can comprehend cognitively. Additionally, cognitive understanding is a skill that is frequently taught to us. Understanding must be felt, experienced, AND understood in order to heal. In other words, for someone to heal, they must be fully aware of their body, mind, and soul. Healing can occur as we start to combine cognitive understanding with emotional and physical awareness.
I’ve worked for organizations that cater to people that are multi-cultural, low-income, and at risk. These individuals are frequently characterized as being unable to comprehend or make use of remedies that are thought of as alternative or unconventional. My personal experience is different. Customers have understood and valued a more comprehensive approach. Doing a psycho-ed piece before therapy can help clients who are new to Hakomi take to the therapy, which is a crucial factor. I inform clients that as they are recounting circumstances, I will be asking them about what is happening in their bodies. I provide an illustration of a bodily sensation.
I’ll occasionally utilize the scenario of entering a party and seeing someone you don’t like. You might sense a pit in your stomach as a result of the encounter. Or occasionally, we feel stiffness in our shoulders. Anyhow, those are illustrations of bodily sensations. I say that I’ll inquire about a physical sensation. I might try out a gesture. I add that when individuals are grieving, they frequently droop their heads. It can be beneficial at times to observe a gesture that someone makes repeatedly while they are speaking.
Making clients feel like they can reply to my inquiries and feel comfortable during the session is frequently dependent on explaining to them what to expect from a therapy session. All types of clients have responded favorably to somatic therapy after comfort and understanding have been included into the session. Hakomi therapy and other somatic therapies, in my opinion, are helpful at cutting through the tale and addressing the root causes of problems in a thorough and efficient manner.
