Hakomi Mindfulness-Centered Somatic Psychotherapy: A Comprehensive Guide to Theory and Practice

by Halko Weiss, Greg Johanson, Lorena Monda

The authoritative text on Hakomi methods, theory, and practice. Hakomi is an integrative method that combines Western psychology and body-centered techniques with mindfulness principles from Eastern psychology. This book, written and edited by members of the Hakomi Institute― the world’s leading professional training program for Hakomi practitioners―and by practitioners and teachers from across the globe, introduces all the processes and practices that therapists need in order to begin to use this method with clients. The authors detail Hakomi's unique integration of body psychotherapy, mindfulness, and the Eastern philosophical principle of non-violence, grounding leading-edge therapeutic technique in an attentiveness to the whole person and their capacity for transformation.

Genres: Psychology, Counselling, Health, Self Help, Nonfiction

432 pages, Paperback

First published May 25, 2015

Reviews

[Ian Felton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an important and overlooked modality of therapy. I've studied psychoanalytic and psychodynamic traditions, Logotherapy, ISTDP, AEDP, CBT, ACT, IFS, CFT, MBCT, Gestalt, and other approaches to therapy. My goal has always been to find the approaches to therapy that help people the most. The phenomenological influence on cognitive science, specifically the work of the Enactivists, not only makes the most sense to me, but is also grounded in biology (something lacking in many philosophies). Hakomi encapsulates phenomenology, enactive cognitive science, and is compatible with Eastern wisdom from Buddhism and Daoism. It's existential in that it is concerned with whole people and our need for growth and meaning. It's experiential so that we change from the bottom up and not just get stuck in our cognitions where we can spend years while leaving core beliefs untouched.

Hakomi is the approach to therapy that so far best satisfies my desire for an effective, complete, psychotherapy approach, that is also aligned with my philosophical and spiritual leanings. And this book is the most complete book on Hakomi that I've read. I'm enough of a nerd that the first thing that I do when I get a book that I'm excited about is to go to the references section. One of the most exciting moments of 2021 was going through the names and seeing: Bateson, Bowlby, Cozolino, Fosha, Freud, S.C Hayes, Maturana & Varela, May, Piaget, Schwartz, Shedler, Siegel, van der Kolk, Wampold, and Winnicott--to name only a small few--in the same book.

Two other books on Hakomi to read include: "Body-Centered Psychotherapy" by Kurtz and "Grace Unfolding" by Kurtz and Johanson.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent manual for mindfulness based psychotherapy, but also an incredible compilation of further reading. My list of To Read has grown exponentially after finishing this.