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Hopi Indian Concepts
HAKOMI
by Richard Ireland, M.A.
Hakomi is a Hopi Indian word meaning, "what is our relationship with
these many realms?" The therapy operates as a question. The techniques
are designed to allow a person to discover their own patterns and to
experience how these patterns operate in their body/mind. Through quiet
inward attention, the person stays in touch with their experience and can
study how they are organizing their mind and body.
If, for example, a client is speaking and the therapist notices his or
her hand opening and closing, the therapist might say, "Send your awareness into your hand." This dtion implies that the hand is not just randomly moving. It has purpose and meaning. By being minfloe can be present in the mind. This is live exp
erience, the hand is moving now and has purpose and meaning now. Let's follow this example further.
Therapist: "See if the hand is wanting to do something."
Client: "Well, it's like it wants to close."
Therapist: "Notice if it wants to close around something,
or just close."
Client: "Oh, I want to make a fist."
Therapist: "OK, now notice what happens right at the point where
it opens."
Client: "I hear the words 'don't get angry'."
Therapist: "Whose voice is saying those words?"
Client: "It's my mother's voice, I see her standing in the kitchen."
Now the client is getting clearer about what is happening. He or she is
angry and there is an injunction in his/her mind that stops the anger. By
staying in touch with the hand, the childhood memory begins to appear
and the client is accessing what Ron Kurtz calls the Map Maker. The child
learned particular things about anger that were true at the time and created a map of the world whic no longer accurate or useful. It's like
trying to find Astoria with a map of Kansas. It's very powerful to be
able to speak directly to the original map maker.
The techniques for assisting in this self discovery flow out of
five basic principles. The first principle is Unity. Unity comes from
Eastern thought and recognizes that everthing is connected. Applied
to therapy, it acknowledges that the therapist is part of the system
and takes the therapist out of the role of "fixer." It becomes a
journey accompanied by a special companion.
The second principle of" Organicity" which is a term that Gregory Bateson
coined to describe living systems. Systems theory is a way of describing
how life organizes. This organization, whether a cell or a planet,
depends on communication. The organistic view says that a living system
given accurate information will orient to health.
In the above example, getting in touch with the hand gets the whole
system communicating. The anger that is uncovered will eventually lead to the wound that can be hea Believing in organicity allows us to stay
in touch with the body and will lead us to where we need to go.
The third principle of Wholism is demonstrated in the above example as
mind/body wholism. By crossing the mind/body interface, we are recognizing that the mind and body a whole, part of a system.
The fourth principle of Mindfulness springs from meditation. It is
an altered state of consciousness that willfully turns awareness
inward in non-judgemental observation. This principle allows us to
study how the whole system organizes.
The last principle is Non-violence. By going with the system and
supporting defenses, we honor that system and provide the safety to discover how it operates. By foing what is, we do not force the system to open. We trust that it opens in its own way and time.
Healing ourselves happens through loving ourselves, even the parts that seem to be our downfall. Byrating from these five principles, Hakomi ensures the acceptance and understanding which result i elng. Experiencing our childhood wounds with a
loving witness present, allows us to learn to love the child inside in exactly the way that is needeHakomi provides a way to be precise about our loving. Relationships often fail not because of a ako love, but because we are not loved in the way
we want to be. It is useful to know precisely what that love looks or feels like, then we know whatask for or what we can give to ourselves.
Richard Ireland, M.A. has a private practice in
the Sellwood area of SE Portland. He is a
practitioner of Hakomi and therapeutic massage.
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