The Hakomi Principles: Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the fourth of the core Hakomi principles. In this context, the word “mindfulness” simply means the ability to have an experience and notice it at the same time.  

As Ron Kurtz, the progenitor of Hakomi therapy said it in his book Body-centered Psychotherapy (1990), “In psychotherapy, nothing is more useful than mindfulness” (p. 3). And I’ve found this to be incredibly true in my own work with clients. 

The reason it’s true (as far as I’m able to tell through my clinical work) is that mindfulness allows us to directly employ the power of what Freud termed the observing ego: which, according to this Psychology Today article, is defined as “a person’s ability to step outside of themselves to observe their actions, affect, defenses and motivations, and determine the effect they’re having on whomever they’re interacting with.”

“In psychotherapy, nothing is more useful than mindfulness”

In Hakomi, we use mindfulness to study our “unconscious organizers of experience”: the feelings, defenses, and drives that are just outside of awareness but that nonetheless have the gravity of motivating us to think and feel and behave the way we do. 

This is because mindfulness allows us to become aware of things that we don’t normally pay attention to, like our automatic thoughts and behaviors or our unconscious beliefs, emotions, and driving forces. And so, by paying attention in a mindful way, we not only gain more perspective on our experiences, but we also gain the capacity to effect change in our lives.

In effect, mindfulness allows us to first observe, then to gain understanding of, and ultimately to exercise choice around how we show up in the world. And when we use mindfulness in therapy, this allows for the even more powerful change that can only occur through thoughtful collaboration. 

So in short, mindfulness is the phenomenon by which we can observe our experiences as they unfold in order to come to know ourselves better, and cultivating mindfulness can allow us to disidentify with our experiences with enough space to begin to understand and have self-compassion for them. What Hakomi calls mindfulness, Michael Ceely, LMFT calls the “observer mind,” and he provides tips on cultivating it in this blog. Feel free to let us know if these are helpful! 

Interested in pursuing therapy that utilizes mindfulness and respects the connection between your mind and body? Schedule an Initial Consultation to see if this work might be a good fit!