Lomi somatics

Domain IV · Body-oriented psychotherapy · Robert K. Hall, Alyssa Hall, Catherine Flaxman · 1970 · Santa Rosa, California

What it is

Lomi is a training tradition and school, not a manualised therapy. It was founded in 1970 to bring psychotherapy, somatic practice and meditation together in one coherent form. Hall (1934–2019), a psychiatrist, had apprenticed with Fritz Perls (Gestalt therapy), Ida Rolf (Rolfing/Structural…

Format

• Strozzi-Heckler's Arc of Transformation: (1) the current shape, a pattern that once kept the person safe; (2) letting go, by acknowledging what the old shape protected; (3) the unbounded shape, an unsettling in-between that the client learns to stay with; (4) the new shape, built gradually through…
• Assessment and agreement (1–3 sessions). History, risk, medical screen (see touch and breath contraindications in section 4), the client's goals; observe posture, breath and how the client makes or breaks contact; explain what body work, sensation tracking and any touch would involve; agree consent…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• No Lomi source gives a manualised sequence of phases, session counts or formal transition criteria. What the founders and early practitioners describe, and the recommended frame, is below. Session format in current use: the Lomi Clinic offers ongoing, sliding-scale individual, couple, family and group therapy, choosing methods per client within a mindfulness-based somatic model. Strozzi bodywork is taught as a 5-day…
• Version followed: the Lomi School of Somatic Studies tradition (founded 1970, Santa Rosa, California) as its two best-documented co-founders describe it: Robert K. Hall's own accounts of Lomi body-and-sensation work and of his Gestalt-plus-meditation practice (Inquiring Mind, 1994 and 2012), and Richard Strozzi-Heckler's centering and bodywork practices as published by the Strozzi Institute, the main living…
• Source status. Sources support: founding year 1970 and the co-founder names given by secondary sources (Wikipedia and tosea.net; see 1); Hall's dates (1934–2019) and training; that Groundworks (Johnson 1997) contains a chapter by Robert Hall of the Lomi School; that The Anatomy of Change draws on Aikido and Lomi Body Work and carries a foreword by Hall; and a 1979 practitioner account of how Lomi bodywork was…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Practice dropping off; see section 5.
• Lecturing too early; wait until the client is settled.
• Pain or injury limits; let the client set range and speed.
• Witnesses who become activated; check in with the group before closing.
• Trauma reactivation with approach; set distance and speed by the client's signal.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.