Hakomi Character Training

Human development unfolds across distinct stages; infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and late adulthood. Each is marked by critical windows that shape the nervous system, relational capacity, and emerging character strategies. This module introduces the Hakomi Character Map as a compassionate, somatic framework for understanding how attachment, bonding, trauma, and systemic influences sculpt lifelong patterns of adaptation. Participants will learn to recognize these patterns not as pathology, but as intelligent, body-based responses shaped by early relational contexts and cultural identities.

Our earliest developmental experiences, beginning in the womb and during birth, lay the foundation for lifelong patterns of safety, trust, and relational capacity. This module invites participants to explore how prenatal and perinatal environments, including maternal stress, birth interventions, and early attunement, imprint the nervous system and shape emerging character strategies. Through a somatic and compassionate lens, we examine how early beliefs and embodied responses, such as contraction, vigilance, or withdrawal, originate from these formative phases. A guided experiential practice supports gentle inquiry into these subtle patterns, offering participants the opportunity to sense, reflect, and integrate early-life imprints with care. This foundational awareness enhances therapeutic presence and fosters a deeper understanding of clients’ pre-verbal origins of character and regulation.

The first three months of life are a profoundly sensitive window in which the roots of attachment, safety, and regulation are laid through consistent attunement and containment from caregivers. This module explores how early interactions shape the development of "containing patterns"—adaptive strategies that emerge from a baby's experience of being held, responded to, or left to navigate overwhelm alone. Through the lens of somatic character mapping, we examine safety related character patterns both the underbounded (Sensitive Emotional) and the overbounded (Sensitive Analytic) safety strategies and their physical expressions in posture, breath, and relational stance. These patterns encode core beliefs about trust, emotional expression, and belonging. A guided experiential practice offers participants a chance to sense into their own early imprints of containment, fostering deeper insight into the subtle body cues that often reflect attachment history. Clinical integration focuses on helping clients renegotiate early attachment wounds through somatic presence and attunement, allowing for the emergence of safety, trust, and belonging in the therapeutic relationship.

This module explores two adaptive strategies that arise in response to unmet needs for physical and emotional nourishment: the underbounded Conserving Pattern and the overbounded Self-Reliant Pattern. Both emerge during early developmental windows shaped by relational misattunement, scarcity, or overwhelming environments.

The Conserving Pattern develops as a protective inward strategy, conserving energy, withdrawing from interaction, and bracing against further disappointment. It often reflects an internalized belief of “there isn’t enough” or “I must protect what little I have.” Somatically, it may manifest as breath holding, muscle contraction, or a collapsed posture; emotionally, it presents as guardedness, caution, and internalization.

In contrast, the Self-Reliant Pattern forms through overboundedness, where one relies solely on oneself, denies needs, and avoids dependence altogether. This strategy emerges when reaching out is met with emptiness or rejection, and self-sufficiency becomes the only perceived path to safety.

Through clinical teaching and a guided somatic meditation, participants will learn to identify and differentiate these two nourishment-related adaptations.

This three-day in-person immersion offers a deep, somatic exploration of early character formation across the human lifespan, grounding theory in lived experience and clinical application. Through embodied practice, group dialogue, and live demonstrations, participants will trace developmental imprints from the prenatal period through elderhood, learning how character strategies emerge and are held in the body. Day one establishes the foundation, reviewing the full developmental continuum and engaging in somatic practices to recognize key imprints across life stages. Day two delves into pre- and perinatal attachment, focusing on the Containing/Safety Pattern, and explores how early experiences of safety or disruption shape somatic boundaries and nervous system regulation. Day three focuses on the two versions of the Nourishment Patterns, examining adaptive strategies of energy preservation and emotional withdrawal formed in response to scarcity or misattunement. Each day includes experiential sessions, panels, and therapeutic demonstrations to support integration, offering clinicians embodied tools and compassionate insights for working with early character structures in practice.

Freedom-seeking character patterns, particularly the Enduring and Judging types, emerge from early relational and environmental dynamics in which a child learns to manage responsibility, expectations, and individuality within constraints. These patterns often manifest somatically as tension, bracing, or stoic postures, and emotionally through loyalty, duty-bound roles, and over-functioning. Clinical integration encompasses therapeutic approaches that gently encourage greater flexibility, choice, and self-permission in clients whose freedom strategies are deeply rooted in cultural and social conditioning.

In this online training, we delve into the Authenticity Patterns, specifically the Tough and Persuasive character styles, which arise in response to early developmental experiences involving autonomy, exploration, and relational boundaries. These patterns reflect a nervous system shaped by the tension between the need for spaciousness and the experience of restriction, often giving rise to beliefs such as  “It’s not OK to be me.” or “I can’t show or even feel my vulnerability.” We’ll explore how social environments—including family dynamics, culture, and authority—either nurture or constrain the natural impulse toward authentic expression. A guided somatic meditation will support participants in sensing the balance between expansion and containment, offering insights into the therapeutic relevance of working with these patterns. This session builds clinical skills to support clients in reclaiming autonomy and relational authenticity. Using social location as a lens, participants will examine how identity and culture shape authenticity patterns and explore the embodied tension between intimacy and self-expression.

This online module explores the Worth Patterns, specifically the Expressive and Industrious character strategies, as adaptive responses rooted in early relational experiences where value and belonging were linked to performance or visibility. Industrious patterns often manifest somatically through forward-leaning posture, muscular activation, and a relentless drive for achievement, paired with beliefs such as “I am only worthy if I succeed.” In contrast, Expressive patterns are expressed through gestures and energetic pulls toward connection, visibility, and validation, shaped by core narratives around being seen and loved. Participants will examine how these patterns interact, reinforcing or counterbalancing one another, and how they influence self-worth, true confidence and relational dynamics. The session concludes with therapeutic applications for helping clients integrate these patterns with resilience, curiosity, and a renewed sense of intrinsic worth.

This advanced training module offers a rich, experiential deep dive into the six Freedom, Authenticity, and Worth character patterns, through a dynamic blend of panels, demonstrations, and somatic practices. Over three days, participants will explore the developmental origins, core beliefs, and somatic expressions of these patterns, which are rooted in early relational experiences and shaped by family, culture, and the social environment. Day one focuses on both of the Freedom developmental patterns, the Burdened/Enduring Strategy and the Judging Strategy. Day two focuses on the Authenticity developmental patterns, specifically the Persuasive and Tough Character Strategies. And day three integrates the Worth developmental patterns, the Expressive and Industrious Character Strategies, illuminating the complex interplay between performance, visibility, self-worth, and relational dynamics. Each day includes live clinical demonstrations and somatic explorations, providing practical tools for working compassionately and effectively with these adaptive strategies in therapy. Participants will leave with an embodied understanding of character patterns and refined skills for integrating somatic, depathologizing approaches into their clinical practice.

This module explores how cultural, racial, and social identities are deeply intertwined with the formation of character and somatic experience. Through a trauma-informed and culturally attuned lens, participants will examine how intersectionality and social location shape developmental pathways, influencing patterns of protection, belonging, and relational engagement. Topics include character formation within Indigenous contexts, emphasizing values of community, land connection, and spiritual continuity, and the experiences of BIPOC children navigating racialized stress, systemic oppression, and cultural resilience. Somatic expressions such as vigilance, contraction, or empowerment are explored as intelligent adaptations to lived cultural realities. A guided experiential practice invites embodied awareness of identity, belonging, and ancestral strength, supporting deeper integration and therapeutic insight. Clinically, this module offers practical tools for honoring social location, facilitating culturally responsive care, and working compassionately with the body’s imprint of historical and contemporary experiences.

This module bridges early character formation with adolescent development, offering therapeutic tools to integrate character theory into clinical practice with nuance and compassion. Participants will explore how early imprints—from pre- and perinatal experiences through childhood—continue to shape emotional regulation, identity, and relational dynamics into adolescence and adulthood. Special attention is given to the developmental needs of adolescents, including autonomy, peer belonging, and emerging identity, all of which are shaped within the broader context of family, culture, religion, and systemic influences. Through a trauma-informed and socially aware lens, the module examines how intersecting identities and social location impact character adaptations, especially in marginalized or at-risk youth. Clinicians will gain practical strategies for recognizing and working with somatic expressions of character patterns, addressing defenses while highlighting innate resilience. A guided somatic practice supports embodied insight into adolescent developmental themes, opening to more profound clinical sensitivity. The session concludes with integration and reflection, grounding theory into therapeutic action.

In this culminating module, participants will synthesize the whole arc of character development across the human lifespan, exploring how early patterns continue to influence adult behaviors, relationships, and somatic responses. Emphasis is placed on using the character map as a compassionate, non-pathologizing tool, one that illuminates adaptive strategies without reducing clients to fixed types. Participants will be encouraged to approach character as a fluid, context-sensitive framework that supports therapeutic insight and fosters client agency. The module provides practical methods for clinical integration, including case conceptualization, intervention design, and real-world examples of practical application. A guided experiential practice offers space for personal and professional reflection, reinforcing embodied awareness, presence, and somatic attunement. The program concludes with a closing circle to honor each participant’s learning journey and to support the embodied integration of character theory into ongoing personal and professional practice.