Resources

The resources below include articles and books by Hakomi faculty, a directory of Hakomi practitioners, and guidelines that Hakomi Institute requires Hakomi practitioners to follow when advertising their services as a Hakomi practitioner. 

Books
Articles by Hakomi Faculty
Professional Journal

Body Centered Psychotherapy, The Hakomi Method, Ron Kurtz. LifeRhythm 1990.
To order this book directly from the publisher, call 707-937-1825.

Hakomi Mindfulness-Centered Somatic Psychotherapy: A Comprehensive Guide to Theory and Practice, Halko Weiss, Greg Johanson, Lorena Monda, Certified Hakomi Trainers. Norton, 2015. 

Grace Unfolding, Psychotherapy in the Spirit of the Tao Te Ching, Greg Johanson and Ron Kurtz. Bell Tower, 1991.

The Practice of Wholeness: Spiritual Transformation in Everyday Life, Lorena Monda, Certified Hakomi Trainer. Golden Flower Publications, 2000.

Experiential Psychotherapy with Couples: A Guide for the Creative Pragmatist, Rob Fisher, MA, MFT, Certified Hakomi Trainer, Zeig, Tucker & Theisen, Inc., 2002.

8 Keys to Practicing Mindfulness: Practical Strategies for Emotional Health and Well-Being, Manuela Mischke-Reeds, LMFT, Certified Hakomi Trainer. Norton, 2015. 

The Somatic Therapy Toolbox: 125 Worksheets and Exercises to Treat Trauma & Stress. Manuela Mischke-Reeds, MFT, Certified Hakomi Trainer. PESI Publishing, 2019. 

Additional Books on Hakomi can be found on on our international website: https://hakomiinstitute.com/resources/books-reviews

Applying Hakomi Principles and Techniques to Mainstream Psychodynamic, Behavioral and Systemic Couples Psychotherapy, Rob Fisher, MFT and Jaci Hull, MFT, Certified Hakomi Trainers

Categories of Psychological Wounding, Neural Patterns, and Treatment Approaches, Jon Eisman, Senior Certified Hakomi Trainer

Mindfulness in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, Rob Fisher, MFT, Certified Hakomi Trainer – From “The Therapist” CAMFT Journal (California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists)

Transference/Countertransference Systems – A Practical Model of How to Assess Them and How to Intervene, Rob Fisher, MFT, Certified Hakomi Trainer

Dancing with the Unconscious: An Approach Freud Never Dreamed Of, Rob Fisher, MFT, Certified

To the Use of Mindfulness in Couple’s Psychotherapy, Rob Fisher, MFT, Certified Hakomi Trainer

Working Experientially and Somatically with Couples, Rob Fisher, MFT, Certified Hakomi Trainer

Loosening the Grip of Addiction: A Mindful Recovery, Julie Murphy, RAC, LMFT, Certified Hakomi

Mindfulness-Based Family Therapy, Shai Lavie, MFT, Certified Hakomi Trainer

Trauma States, Mindfulness and the Body, Manuela Mischke Reeds, MFT, Certified Hakomi Trainer

In Search of a Lost Self: Reclaiming Our Missing Experiences, Shai Lavie, MFT, Certified Hakomi Trainer

Held Experience, Using Mindfulness in Psychotherapy to Facilitate Deeper Psychological Repair, Shai Lavie, Certified Hakomi Trainer

Hakomi Accessing, Jon Eisman, Senior Certified Hakomi Trainer

Shifting States of Consciousness: The Re-Creation of the Self Approach to Transformation, Jon Eisman,  Senior Certified Hakomi Trainer

Selected Bibliography on Mindfulness and Therapy, compiled by Greg Johanson, PhD, Certified Hakomi Trainer

Additional Articles about Hakomi can be found on our International Website: https://hakomiinstitute.com/resources/article

The Hakomi Forum is the professional journal of the Hakomi Institute, and contains informative articles about Hakomi Therapy, its applications, and its relationship to other psychotherapeutic and healing arts modalities. The Hakomi Forum has been published since 1984 and all back issues are available online. https://hakomiinstitute.com/resources/professional-journal

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

We call on ourselves and our community to consciously and collectively use our hearts, minds, and actions to employ the Hakomi principles in meaningful ways to promote the spirit of healing. We acknowledge that  silence and complacency of past and current generations continues to cause harm and suffering to BIPOC, LGBTQ2, and other marginalized  communities.  We are committed to educating ourselves and overcoming our conditioned and unconscious behavior shaped by the dominant culture.

Statement
Resources
Affinity Groups

Hakomi Institute Anti-Oppression Statement

This is a living statement that will be updated as we continue to learn, grow, gather momentum and make more substantive changes toward our goal of anti-oppression. In alignment with our principles of unity, nonviolence, mindfulness and organicity, as well as our core practice of loving presence, the leadership of the Hakomi Institute and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Action Group are committed to taking an active role in dismantling racism, patriarchy, homophobia, transphobia, ageism, ableism and other forms of oppression, marginalization and discrimination. As a community dedicated to individual and collective holistic healing and growth, we realize that one aspect of discriminatory and oppressive behavior and structures is implicit bias. We are actively engaged in acknowledging and bringing our biases to conscious awareness. We honor and are grateful for the long history and lineage of Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Queer and Trans Communities working diligently toward healing and social justice—bringing awareness to the need to uncover and transform unconscious bias as part of healing for all people. We are in solidarity with this effort and want to play our part in unraveling harmful beliefs and behaviors and creating new, more generative and supportive cultures. We know that we cannot be healthy and healed when the societies in which we live are sick from the belief that there is a hierarchy of human worth based on identities. We know that these limiting core beliefs continue to cause harm to people with marginalized identities as well as to the people that hold them.

 

Who we are

The Hakomi Institute, faculty and board are primarily white people. We have valued members of our community of many races, gender identities, sexual orientations, abilities, religions and cultures from many countries across the globe. In this statement, the use of the term “we” and the responsibility to do better, learn and grow primarily refers to the majority white leadership and faculty. We also honor the greater “we” in all the members of our community and their rich and diverse identities

 

Our Commitment

The founders of Hakomi wanted to combine the philosophy and spiritual practices of the East with the psychological thinking and techniques of the West to form an entirely new method of psychotherapy. Six men—Ron Kurtz, Jon Eisman, Phil Del Prince, Greg Johanson, Dyrian Benz, Halko Weiss, and two women—Devi Records and Pat Ogden—were pioneers and activists. During the ‘60s and ‘70s, they individually engaged in fighting racism, misogyny, homophobia, the military industrial complex, and challenging the white dominant male power structure. Nonetheless, they were white, able-bodied, and cis-gendered people from various economic backgrounds. As much as they were trying to change the structure, they were also a product of that structure and influenced by the dominant culture’s unconscious beliefs, active power dynamics and unearned privileges. We also know that many of the Hakomi principles and methods reflect the common needs of humanity across the globe, beyond identities. We want to continue to offer that richness to the world through the lens of responsible, unfolding awareness and understanding and the deeper embodiment of our principles. The leadership of the Hakomi Institute is committed to actively becoming anti-discriminatory in all forms. We commit to examining and owning our unearned, identity-based privileges, to recognizing and transforming our implicit biases, and to becoming more culturally humble and aware. We are actively committed to increasing the diversity in our leadership, faculty and community and working to center and learn from marginalized perspectives.

 

Our Learning Edges

Hakomi faculty members are at differing levels of awareness, education and commitment in doing this work. Given this reality, expect us to experience our own learning edges as we work alongside you in our trainings and workshops. When working with issues of identity and oppression, we’re committed to interacting in ways that support deep truth-telling grounded in Hakomi’s core principles of mindfulness and nonviolence. Although unintentional, we are aware of times when our unconscious biases and lack of skill have caused harm. We are working toward creating an accountability structure that will ensure that when this commitment does not play out in real time and people with marginalized identities are harmed, there is a way for students and members of the community to be heard and attended to. We are committed to setting up systems through which the work of repair can be done. We recognize that we must learn from the harm that is caused and evolve our faculty and staff so that the same harm is not caused again.

 

Our Overarching Goal

Our goal as an organization is to break free of the unhealthy power dynamics into which we’ve been socialized. These include racism, heteronormativity, ableism, transphobia, homophobia, patriarchy, classism, and other forms of oppression based on identity. We want to become a vibrant, diverse, actively anti-racist and anti-oppressive, culturally humble and supportive community. We know we will need to stretch to do so. It will require a lifetime’s work, if not the work of several generations. Our commitment to this goal arises from several things that matter deeply to us: embodying Hakomi’s principles more fully in our lives and in our work, developing compassionate, humble, anti-oppressive and self-aware helping professionals, and creating a learning environment that is as safe, inclusive, welcoming and accessible as possible.
Hakomi’s DEI Committee informs our work to support diversity, equity and inclusivity. For more information, please contact [email protected]
To offer feedback or suggestions about how to improve diversity, equity and inclusion within the Hakomi community, or to seek repair for culturally insensitive interactions within our community, please contact the administrator or director of your Hakomi regional training.

Books

My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem Written by a somatic psychotherapist of color, this book offers a compassionate deep dive into healing racialized trauma in three specific groups: white people, people of color, and police. It also includes a compelling discussion of intergenerational trauma and its effects from medieval times to the present day. Me and White Supremacy: A 28-Day Challenge to Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla Saad This practical and challenging workbook will support you to engage in a process that’s essential for any helping professional: examining, owning and dismantling implicit bias towards groups that our culture marginalizes so you can stop inflicting (often unconscious) damage on people of color. White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism by Robin DiAngelo This book underscores the need for white people to develop the psychological stamina required to have honest and meaningful discussions about race-related issues, a capacity that the author

Articles

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh Peggy McIntosh coined the phrase white privilege, and first discovered the concept of “privilege” or “advantage” as a feminist studying why men had so many social advantages and privileges compared to women. Understanding the concept of privilege—even if the word initially stirs defensiveness in you—is important for all human beings, and essential for helping professionals. Peggy McIntosh’s article on this topic is a classic, must-read article on the topic. 9 Phrases Allies Can Say When Called Out Instead of Getting Defensive by Sam Dylan Finch The ability to receive clients’ feedback about culturally insensitive behavior on your part in a non-defensive way is an essential skill for helping professionals. This article will get you pointed in the right direction. What Exactly Is a Microaggression? by Jenee Desmond-Harris Understanding microaggressions you’re unconsciously engaging in, how they impact your clients, and how they point to unseen implicit bias and lack of cultural awareness is essential for helping professionals (and all human beings). This article is a good starting point for learning more about the topic. Another way to learn common microaggressions is to go to Google images and type in “microaggression images” to see people from different cultural groups holding signs containing common microaggressions. Understanding Non-Binary People: How to Be Respectful and Supportive The title of this article is self-explanatory—a resource offered by the National Center for Transgender Equality. Avoiding Ableist Language A list of terms that people with disabilities often find offensive and unsupportive. An Incomplete Guide to Inclusive Language Although written for high tech companies, this is one of the simplest and clearest overviews we’ve seen on how to use more inclusive, culturally respectful language.

Other

UNTraining This training is legendary in the San Francisco Bay Area and helps people to unpack implicit bias. This group currently offers “untraining” in racism for four groups: white liberals, people of color, people of Chinese descent, and white Jewish people. The founder of this training shares principles in common with Hakomi and is widely known for being nonjudgmental, nonshaming, compassionate and focused on developing self-love. Free Racialized Trauma E-Course from the Cultural Somatics Institute A course designed by Resmaa Menakem to “somatically abolish White Body Supremacy in 9 generations.” Online Course: Healing From Internalized Whiteness This 10-week online training is primarily for white-identified people; it’s a trauma-informed, healing-engaged, spiritually-grounded, and communally-held approach to anti-racism work. Podcast: You Can’t Resolve What You Don’t Acknowledge: The Illusion of Race This is an interview conducted by a member of our Hakomi community, Sam Sebastian with Dr. Joel A. Brown, a diversity and inclusion strategist who works on cultivating cultures of belonging, meaning, and innovation. Website: Mindful Diversity There are several good articles and a great resource list on this website offered by Angella Okawa, a Hakomi-trained coach, psychotherapist and educator in the Bay Area. Website: Robin DiAngelo: Critical Racial and Social Justice Education The resource page on Robin DiAngelo’s website is chock full of wonderful, practical and accessible articles. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Considerations for Hakomi A thoughtful article by Deah Baird, a Certified Hakomi Trainer from Portland, about the importance of practicing Hakomi with ever-deepening cultural awareness and humility.
The International Hakomi Institute offers BIPOC and LGBTQIAS+ affinity groups to anyone who is currently taking or has taken a Hakomi training, workshop, or introductory workshop.

BIPOC Affinity Group

Anna Harland [email protected]

LGBTQIAS+ affinity group

Gustavo Ribeiro de Mello [email protected]

For Hakomi Students

Ethics
Hakomi Google Group
Hakomi Practice Groups

Code of Ethics

The Hakomi Institute has a formal Code of Ethics and requires all students, faculty and Certified Hakomi Therapists and Practitioners  to adhere to this code.   We see ethical behavior as  the right use of power and influence. We consider this to be a lifelong process of engagement in learning about and taking responsibility for one’s impact in all relationships (including teacher/student and therapist/client)  involving differences in role power and social location.

Ethical Grievance Process

The Hakomi International Ethics Committee has in place an Ethical Grievance Process to deal with ethical complaints with a Hakomi Therapist (CHT), Hakomi Practitioner (CHP), Hakomi Student, Faculty or Staff. The ethical review process is focused on accountability, resolution, repair, and remediation, rather than blame or punishment. The most satisfying results will come from honesty, truthfulness, and openness on the part of both claimant and respondent. The person with greater role power has greater responsibility for the health of the relationship and will be held accountable, but there is an opportunity for learning and growth for both parties.

Contacting the Ethics Committee

For further information or to contact the Ethics Committee, please email  [email protected]A member of the committee will reach out to schedule a time to talk with you. In this initial screening phone call, you will learn more about the Ethical Review Process and be given a form to use to initiate your complaint. Your information will be kept confidential within the committee.

To subscribe to our Bay Area group, send an email to [email protected]. To subscribe to our Los Angeles area group, send an email to [email protected]. In your email, be sure to include your name and what Hakomi training you have taken. Once you receive confirmation of acceptance from the moderator, you can post a message by sending an email to [email protected] or [email protected].

Selected members of our faculty offer Hakomi practice groups for students and graduates of our trainings. Practice groups focus on refining your Hakomi skills, deepening your understanding and practice of therapeutic strategy and developing your inner state as a practitioner. These small groups (usually 4 students) provide an opportunity to practice Hakomi Mindful Somatic Psychology in a live setting and receive feedback from an experienced certified Hakomi trainer.

All Hakomi practice groups currently take place online. We’ll transition back to live meetings in the geographical regions listed below once we’re able to do so. See dates, times and costs below, and please note that all times listed are Pacific time. You’re welcome to contact the individual trainers listed below to find out about new openings in their groups. These trainers can also place you on a substitute list allowing you to participate in an existing group on an intermittent basis.

Hakomi Practice Groups Schedule (PDF)

Continuing Education
The Hakomi Name
Certification Program

The Hakomi Institute is a Continuing Education (CE) Provider in the United States. Hakomi Continuing Education programs provide a rich selection of offerings to Hakomi graduates to enrich continuing education beyond core curriculum on important related topics such as: trauma, neuropsychology, attachment, diversity, couples, systems dimensions of Hakomi, spirituality and psychology, and body practices from the Hakomi perspective.

Using the Hakomi Name

Hakomi graduates (students who’ve completed two years of Hakomi Comprehensive or Professional Training) and practitioners certified in Hakomi Mindful Somatic Psychology are required to advertise their Hakomi-related services according to the guidelines outlined in the document below. Use of the Hakomi Name  For questions about the guidelines above, please contact us.

Origin of the Hakomi Name

In 1980 a group of people inspired by Ron Kurtz’ work were collaborating to evolve his method of body-centered psychotherapy into a teachable format. After months of searching for a name for their newly forming educational institute, one of the group’s members, David Winter, had the word “hakomi” come to him in a dream.  After seeking the meaning of hakomi in several Eastern languages, David found the word in a Hopi lexicon and discovered that it meant “Where do I stand in relation to the many realms?”.  Get the full story

Concerns about using the name Hakomi 

In recent years, concerns have arisen within our community about Hakomi’s name. Some people feel it has been culturally appropriated from the Hopi people. Others feel it was a sacred transmission that was given to us rather than appropriated. What is clear to our community is that we as non-Hopi people need to honor the Hopi people’s authority over their language and its use. Find out what actions Hakomi Institute is taking

Upon completion of both years of Hakomi Comprehensive Training or Hakomi Professional Training, you will receive a Certificate of Completion stating that you are a Hakomi graduate

To become a Certified Hakomi Practitioner or a Certified Hakomi Therapist is a further step. Certification is competency-based and means that the Hakomi Institute recognizes  that a standard of skills have been met.

You’re welcome to read the documents below to familiarize yourself with the process and guidelines for certification in the Hakomi Method.

Hakomi Therapist/Practitioner Certification Process

Hakomi Therapist/Practitioner Certification Guidelines