Meet Our Faculty

Our Hakomi California Team has been teaching together since 2007. We have a collaborative team that is dedicated to teaching high quality Hakomi training.

Ashley Ross, MA, LMFT

Certified Hakomi Therapist and Teacher

Ashley Ross, MA, LMFT

Certified Hakomi Therapist and Teacher

Ashley is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT 115141), a certified Hakomi teacher and a holistic reproductive health practitioner. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa and attended The Wright Institute in Berkeley, where she earned her Master’s in Counseling Psychology. Prior to attaining her MFT license, Ashley provided counseling to adults, couples and children and designed and facilitated support groups in a variety of settings. She has been a part of the Hakomi community since 2006. Ashley is currently in private practice in Los Angeles where she works with individuals, couples and groups. Ashley’s dual training in somatic psychotherapy and holistic health opened her to the benefits of using our bodies to achieve an integrated state of wellbeing. She brings this sense, along with a deep love of our messy humanness, to her work and teaching.

Email:[email protected]

Brian Lim, MA, LMFT

Certified Hakomi Therapist and Teacher

Brian Lim, MA, LMFT

Certified Hakomi Therapist and Teacher

Brian Lim, MA, LMFT, is a Certified Hakomi Teacher and Therapist. He holds a master’s degree in Holistic Counseling from JFKU. He supervises MFT associates, teaches at CIIS, and is in private practice serving adults and couples. Brian is passionate about somatic and attuned relational experiences each person needs to heal and transform the limitations from past wounding toward establishing a full hearted, sovereign, abundant life. In his work, he interweaves: Hakomi, Neuro-affective Touch, Recreation of the Self (RCS), EMDR, Sensorimotor, Trauma to Dharma, Somatica (intimacy and sexuality coaching), and an Integral cross-cultural lens to meet the complex multifaceted dimensions of our life.

Phone:510-214-2088
Email:[email protected]

David Fish, MA, LMFT

Certified Hakomi Therapist and Teacher

David Fish, MA, LMFT

Certified Hakomi Therapist and Teacher

David is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LFMT 52446). He has been a Certified Hakomi Therapist since 1996. Cultivating mindfulness and compassion are central threads that run through all of his work, and since he sees awareness and change as best served by flexibility and the ability to perceive things from multiple perspectives, he also draws from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Functional Analytic Psychotherapy, Focusing, and relational psychodynamic approaches. David teaches Hakomi as an adjunct professor at California Institute for Integral Studies, and also leads DBT groups and sees clients at the DBT Center of Marin, where he helps people who struggle with intense emotions and impulsive actions, or borderline personality disorder. David is a seasoned meditator, and his warm, collaborative, down-to-earth teaching style is lively, well-informed and human.

Phone:415-295-2519
Email:[email protected]

Dominique Lando, MA, LMFT

Certified Hakomi Therapist and Teacher

Dominique Lando, MA, LMFT

Certified Hakomi Therapist and Teacher

Dominique is a Certified Hakomi Therapist and Teacher, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT 44542) and an organizational coach. She works with individuals in California and British Columbia and coaches leaders and teams internationally. Dominique is a co-founder of Anam Cara in Berkeley, a community-based therapy center. She also serves as adjunct professor teaching somatic psychology in various graduate programs. She draws not only from her training in somatic psychotherapy, Sensorimotor Trauma Therapy, family systems and EMDR but also from her years of spiritual practice, and working in the field of community development as an activist, eco-psychologist and permaculture farmer. Originally from France, Dominique was raised in a diverse global family and she integrates her multicultural background into her approach. She places a strong emphasis on group synergy, which greatly informs her work as a teacher, coach and organizational consultant.

dominiquelando.com

Phone:415-295-2519
Email:[email protected]

Emmy Akiyama, MA, LMFT

Certified Hakomi Therapist

Emmy Akiyama, MA, LMFT

Certified Hakomi Therapist

Emmy is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT 51047) and Registered Art Therapist, 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 has been studying Hakomi since 2016, and her 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.

Email:[email protected]

Gal Szekely, MA, LMFT

Certified Hakomi Therapist and Teacher Love Made Simple Founder

Gal Szekely, MA, LMFT

Certified Hakomi Therapist and Teacher Love Made Simple Founder

Gal is a Certified Hakomi Therapist and Teacher and a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT 50301) with a private practice in El Cerrito. Gal is passionate about working with couples and individuals on relationship issues and, together with his wife, he founded The Couples Center, a relationship counseling and education center. Besides Hakomi, Gal teaches the Tamura Method, a form of therapy that integrates touch and table work in psychotherapy. He is an adjunct faculty member at the California Institute of Integral Studies and is an experienced teacher and workshop leader. In addition to a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology, Gal also holds a master’s in Social-Organizational Psychology and has a background in the business world and as a management consultant. His work is influenced by a long time meditation practice, his appreciation of the body and a multicultural background.

thecouplescenter.org

Phone:415-938-6636

Jon Eisman, CHT

Senior Hakomi Trainer Founder of Re-Creation of the Self

Jon Eisman, CHT

Senior Hakomi Trainer Founder of Re-Creation of the Self

Jon is a founding member of the Hakomi Institute and a Senior Hakomi Trainer. Mentored personally by Ron Kurtz, he and Ron were training partners for many years in the Pacific NW. Jon helped establish and was Director or Co-Director of Hakomi branches in Toronto, Chicago, Santa Fe, Eugene, Portland, Edmonton, and California, For the past 50 years, Jon has taught and practiced throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, and has trained or mentored many members of the current Hakomi faculty. With an ongoing passion for and devotion to the evolution of the Method, Jon has ongoingly developed numerous elaborations, refinements and articulations of the theory and practice of Hakomi, as well as incorporating elements of neurobiology, attachment theory and the nature of Self into his teaching. He has written several volumes of Hakomi Training Manuals, and has authored a variety of articles about the nuances of the work. In addition to Hakomi, Jon is also the creator of two complementary models of therapy: Mindful Experiential Therapy Approaches (M.E.T.A.), which references a core, resourced Self and integrates the various categories of psychological wounding that displace a person from this core; and The Re-Creation of the Self model (R-CS), a powerful and paradigm redefining approach to working with fluid psychological states of Self in therapy, group work, relationship, performance and spiritual practice.

Phone:541-631-9383
Email:[email protected]

Julie Murphy, MA, LMFT

Certified Hakomi Therapist and Trainer

Julie Murphy, MA, LMFT

Certified Hakomi Therapist and Trainer

Julie is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT 83806), a Certified Hakomi Practitioner, and a Senior Trainer with over 35 years of experience consulting, teaching and working in the healing arts. Julie has led trainings for health professionals in Hakomi Mindful Somatic Psychology, attachment psychotherapy and other special topics in the United States, Australia, Bali, Canada, China, Israel and New Zealand. Bringing together years of study and professional experience in the fields of anthropology, contemplative psychology, addictions, attachment theory, massage therapy, Buddhism, and poetry, Julie has developed an archetype-based personal growth method–“The Mythic Body”; a somatic approach to creative writing–“Embodied Writing™”; and co-developed the workshop “Waking Up from the Family Trance.” She also created the highly praised training “Attending to Attachment,” a mindfulness-based approach to working with adult attachment issues and relationship repair. Julie served as adjunct faculty at John F. Kennedy University and taught in the California Institute of Integral Studies Certificate Program in Mindfulness and Compassion in Psychotherapy. Julie has presented at numerous professional conferences including the American Massage Therapy Association, the Hakomi Institute International Conference, and the U.S. Association of Body Psychotherapy. Julie has been interviewed twice for The Global Summit. You can listen to her presentations here. In 2011, she published “Loosening the Grip of Addiction: A Mindful Recovery” in The Therapist. A practitioner of meditation for over 40 years, Julie’s teaching integrates a strong contemplative approach with cutting-edge research in neuroscience and human relationships. In addition, she has studied with master poets from all over the United States and her poems are published in numerous literary journals. These varied studies extend her range of teaching beyond psychotherapy to mindfulness and meditation, contemplative and creative writing, mindful recovery and embodiment. Julie maintains a private practice in Santa Cruz, offering somatic psychotherapy and addictions counseling to individuals, couples, adolescents and families.

juliemurphy.org

Phone:831-212-7373
Email:[email protected]

Karen Daley, MA, LMFT

Psychotherapist Hakomi Teacher-in-Training

Karen Daley, MA, LMFT

Psychotherapist Hakomi Teacher-in-Training

Karen is honored to be traveling with others on their journey…toward wholeness. She uses the Hakomi principles and practices as a container for her work as a licensed psychotherapist (LMFT 106479). 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.

www.manyrivershealing.com

Phone:415-717-3391
Email:[email protected]

Manuela Mischke-Reeds, MA, LMFT

Certified Hakomi Therapist and Trainer ISITTA Founder and Trainer

Manuela Mischke-Reeds, MA, LMFT

Certified Hakomi Therapist and Trainer ISITTA Founder and Trainer

Manuela Mischke-Reeds, MA, LMFT, is a Certified Hakomi Therapist and Trainer, a licensed Somatic Psychotherapist, and a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT 40823). She trains health professionals in the Hakomi Method in California, Australia and Europe. She recently developed a Hakomi based trauma and attachment training for clinicians in Germany. Manuela specializes in integrating somatic psychotherapy with somatic trauma therapy, attachment psychotherapy, infant mental health and movement therapy.

She serves as a faculty member at John F. Kennedy University and Sofia University (formerly the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology). She holds an MA in Somatic Psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies, and a BA in Dance Therapy from the Naropa University.

In addition, she has trained in various methods of working with trauma and counseled survivors of political oppression, torture and trauma. She is a practitioner of Somatic Experiencing, a trauma resolution method developed by Peter Levine. She is a graduate Fellow at the Napa Infant Mental Health Fellowship Program, led by Dr. Ed Tronick. She is a recent graduate of the Child Trauma Institute of San Francisco and has expanded her practice in working with children and parents suffering the effects of trauma.

Manuela has extensive training in the field of movement therapies, and is an authorized Continuum Movement teacher. She has also been a student of Buddhist meditation practice for many years and has authored two books: '8 Keys to Practicing Mindfulness: Practical Strategies for Emotional Health and Well Being' and 'Somatic Psychotherapy Toolbox: 125 Worksheets and Exercises to Treat Trauma & Stress'.

manuelamischkereeds.com

Nicole Heinrich, MA, LMFT

Certified Hakomi Therapist and Teacher

Nicole Heinrich, MA, LMFT

Certified Hakomi Therapist and Teacher

Nicole is a Certified Hakomi Therapist and Teacher, and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT 35701) working with individuals and couples throughout California. Nicole began her long-term study and love of Hakomi in 1988 with Ron Kurtz and has been on the faculty of the Hakomi Institute of CA since 2011. She holds a master’s degree in Somatic Psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies and has over 25 years of clinical experience integrating somatic, relational, trauma-based and psychodynamic approaches into her work. Nicole has supervised dozens of interns throughout her career and taught graduate level classes at CIIS, JFK University and Antioch University, Santa Barbara. She has years of experience and training in various forms of bodywork, meditation and contemplative movement practices. With deep trust in the present moment, Nicole brings a depth of knowledge and an open heart to her teaching and therapy practice.

Phone:831-466-9497
Email:[email protected]

Rob Fisher, MA, LMFT

Certified Hakomi Therapist and Trainer

Rob Fisher, MA, LMFT

Certified Hakomi Therapist and Trainer

Rob is a Certified Hakomi Therapist and Trainer, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT 22886) and a consultant and certified supervisor in private practice. He has served as an adjunct professor at John F. Kennedy University as well as the California Institute for Integral Studies where he co-founded the Certificate Program in Mindfulness and Compassion. He is the founder of Mindfulness-Centered Couples Therapy, which he teaches internationally. Rob is the author of a number of books, chapters and articles including Experiential Psychotherapy With Couples, a Guide for the Creative Pragmatist, which details the use of mindfulness and the body in couples therapy. He has presented his work at the Psychotherapy Networker Conference and has been a master presenter at the annual conference of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. He and his wife, Hu Ting Ting, teach mindfulness and nature workshops internationally. He lives in an old farmhouse in the Green Mountains of Vermont where he composes music and writes fiction and poetry.

robfishermft.com

Phone:415-389-6340
Email:[email protected]

Scott Eaton, MA, LMFT

Certified Hakomi Therapist and Trainer

Scott Eaton, MA, LMFT

Certified Hakomi Therapist and Trainer

Scott is a senior faculty member of the Hakomi Institute of California, a Certified Hakomi Therapist and Trainer, and a California Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT 23906). A psychotherapist for over 30 years, Scott began studying Hakomi in 1994 and has been actively involved ever since. In addition, he has created and/or led workshops and trainings throughout the world for over three decades. Scott works with adults of all sexual orientations and specializes in LGBTQ issues, sexuality, spirituality, shame reduction, PTSD, recovery, and relationship dynamics. More recently he has been actively working with and coaching those in the process of spiritual awakening. Scott is a long-standing teacher of meditation and an avid world traveler.

scotteaton.com

Phone:415-487-1705
Email:[email protected]

Susan San Tara, MA, LMFT

Certified Hakomi Therapist and Trainer

Susan San Tara, MA, LMFT

Certified Hakomi Therapist and Trainer

Susan San Tara, M.A., M.F.T. is a licensed psychotherapist, Certified Hakomi Therapist, and Certified Hakomi Trainer in private practice since 2000. In 2007, she founded Anam Cara Therapy Center in Berkeley. Susan teaches Hakomi in California, and internationally. Additionally she has serves as adjunct faculty at The California Institute of Integral Studies and John F. Kennedy University. Susan holds a Masters Degree in Transpersonal Psychology from John F. Kennedy University. In addition to body-centered and mindfulness-focused psychotherapy Susan specializes psychedelic integration and Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy. Furthermore, she has studied eco-psychology, Amazonian shamanism, energy systems, and Earth based healing approaches for over 25 years. In her work, Susan weaves wisdom from the natural world, the poetry embedded in the body, and a love of the divine mystery into her warm, nurturing and friendly style setting the tone for a dynamic and satisfying growth environment.

Phone:510-982-6034
Email:[email protected]

Stefanie Wolf, LCSW, CHT

Certified Hakomi Therapist and Teacher in Training

Stefanie Wolf, LCSW, CHT

Certified Hakomi Therapist and Teacher in Training

Stefanie Wolf, LCSW, CHT is a licensed clinical social worker and a Certified Hakomi Therapist. Stef is currently participating as a Teacher-in-Training with the Hakomi Institute. She has a private practice in Santa Cruz, CA where she works with adults and teens using various modalities including Hakomi and Re-Creation of the Self. Stefanie is also certified in EMDR and in Compassion Cultivation. Currently completing the Feldenkrais Teacher Training, Stef loves to support clients and students to understand their habits of movement and mind and move toward living with more ease and resonance to deeper values.

Meet Our Faculty

Ashley Ross, MA, LMFT

Brian Lim, MA, LMFT

David Fish, MA, LMFT

Dominique Lando, MA, LMFT

Emmy Akiyama, MA, LMFT

Gal Szekely, MA, LMFT

Jon Eisman, CHT

Julie Murphy, MA, LMFT

Karen Daley, MA, LMFT

Manuela Mischke-Reeds, MA, LMFT

Nicole Heinrich, MA, LMFT

Rob Fisher, MA, LMFT

Scott Eaton, MA, LMFT

Susan San Tara, MA, LMFT

Stefanie Wolf, LCSW, CHT

Hakomi

Embodywise

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