Hakomi · Atlas

1. Introduction

Version followed: the Hakomi Institute method as summarised by Johanson (2015, SAGE encyclopedia entry) and taught from Weiss, Johanson & Monda (2015), Hakomi Mindfulness-Centered Somatic Psychotherapy (book not drawn on directly; its contents reach this guide only through Institute authors' papers), with Kurtz's original technique set (Kurtz 1990, via Altman's teaching paper). Where Ron Kurtz's later "Refined Hakomi" (taught by Ron Kurtz Trainings and the Hakomi Education Network) differs, it is marked [Refined]. The label "Hakomi mindful somatic psychotherapy" matches the Institute's current wording but not the book's exact title ("Mindfulness-Centered") [uncertain].

Hakomi is a body-centred, mindfulness-based psychotherapy developed by Ron Kurtz. Kurtz drew on Gestalt, Bioenergetics, Pesso, Feldenkrais, Rolfing, Taoism, Buddhism and systems theory, and moved away from forceful bioenergetic techniques towards nonviolence. He dates the start of the Hakomi Institute to 1979 [source: Kurtz, History of the Hakomi Method, 2009]. Other accounts put the founding in Boulder, Colorado, in 1981; that date and place are not confirmed in the sources [uncertain].

How change happens. Experience is organised by "core material": implicit beliefs and models of self and world, laid down early as adaptations and kept going through habitual bodily and emotional patterns. In a safe relationship, the client enters mindfulness. The therapist then offers small experiments (probes, postures, gestures, taking over) that evoke spontaneous reactions. These reactions make the organising beliefs conscious. The client then has a new experience: the "missing experience" that the old organisation excluded. Insight alone is not enough. A new experience has to counteract the old one, and then it is integrated [source: Johanson 2015; Kurtz, Core of the Method, 2006; Kurtz, Evolving Vision, 2008]. Kurtz later described the work as "assisted self-study" and placed it outside the medical model. His later emphasis is on the therapist's "loving presence" as the most important element [source: Kurtz 2008; Marvin 2022].

2. Framework

Hakomi has no fixed session count or protocol. The stages below describe the arc of a single session or episode of work, and they recur across a course of therapy. The sources give no typical course length [uncertain]. A Hakomi Institute trainer advises against doing deep work of this kind in a first session: build mindfulness capacity and co-regulation first [source: Lavie, Hakomi blog, 2025]. Format: individual sessions of normal length, usually seated face to face. Kurtz also used groups and workshops with assistants, and in private practice he ran groups of four clients who rotated roles; assistants help with taking over and touch [source: Kurtz 2008].

Institute version: five stages (Johanson 2015)

Stage	Goal	What the therapist does	Move on when
1. Establishing the healing relationship (contact)	Safety, trust, cooperation of the client's unconscious	Loving presence; tracking; short contact statements; adjusting to signs of non-cooperation	The client feels safe enough to look inside; signs of cooperation [source: Johanson 2015; Marvin 2022]
2. Accessing	Shift from ordinary consciousness into mindfulness	Invite the client to slow down and notice present experience, often in the body	Signs of mindfulness: eyes tend to close, speech slows, breath gentle, little movement [source: Altman]
3. Deepening	Stay in mindfulness and follow the experience inwards towards core material	Second-order contact; deepening and stabilising questions; experiments and probes; taking over	Core material shows up: strong emotion, a child state, a memory, a belief or a clear meaning [source: Johanson 2015; Altman]
4. Processing	Work with what has emerged until transformation is possible	Riding the rapids, working with the child, going for meaning, missing experiences, exploring barriers	The client takes in the missing experience (relief, ease, satisfaction, a new belief that feels true) [source: Johanson 2015; Altman]
5. Integration and completion	Make the new experience part of how the client lives, and end in ordinary consciousness	Savour; let integration happen in silence; link to daily life; return to conversation	Client signals completion; ordinary consciousness restored [source: Johanson 2015; Marvin 2022]

A trainer-derived summary of the same arc (contact, accessing, deepening, processing, integration and completion) appears in Marco's 2012 thesis [source: Marco 2012, secondary].

[Refined] Kurtz's three phases (Hakomi Training Handbook, commentary by Marvin 2022)

Preparation (not experimental). (a) The therapist settles into loving presence, tracks signs of present experience, offers a few contact statements, and silently notes the client's enduring patterns (indicators). (b) The therapist builds the healing relationship, anticipates needs, and watches for cooperation or non-cooperation from the client's adaptive unconscious. Move on only when the unconscious seems to agree and silent tracking has suggested what to study.
Assisted self-study (fully experimental). An iterative cycle: search for indicators, form a hypothesis about the belief behind one, design and run an experiment in mindfulness, get the data (observe and ask for a report), then refine, reject or re-test. Move on when the client's models become clear and conscious, or when the process moves into healing by itself.
Mental-emotional healing. Signs: emotion, strong beliefs, early memories, insight. Support spontaneous management behaviours, take charge gently if needed, follow spontaneous signals, stay silent during integration, give comfort and the missing experience, and end when the client signals completion [source: Marvin 2022; Kurtz 2008; Refined Hakomi overview].

Readiness criteria. The client needs to be able to become present-centred and self-focused, to understand the work as "experiments done in mindfulness", and to be willing to feel painful emotion. Very anxious or distractible clients, or clients expecting movie-style therapy, may need preparation first [source: Kurtz, Core of the Method, 2006].

Organising map: the sensitivity cycle. Altman's teaching notes (drawing on Kurtz 1990) describe a cycle: introspection or getting started, effective action, satisfaction and enjoyment, nourishment, relaxation, and back to introspection. Four barriers can block it: insight (contact and withdrawal), response (action and delay), nourishment (emotional openness and closedness) and completion (holding on and letting go). Experiments and probes are chosen to match the barrier [source: Altman]. The exact form of the cycle in the 2015 Institute text is [uncertain].

Character strategies are used as a non-pathologising map of habitual organisation, never as diagnosis [source: Johanson 2015]. Kurtz (1990, via Altman) lists strategies, each paired with a missing experience. Examples: sensitive/withdrawn and freedom from terror; dependent/endearing and freedom from want; self-reliant and willing support from others; industrious/overfocused and freedom to relax and play. The Institute's 2015 labels may differ [uncertain].

3. Guiding principles

These are the five classic principles [source: Johanson 2015; Hakomi Institute, About Hakomi; Altman].

Unity. People are wholes made of parts and nested in larger wholes. In practice: look for disconnections, both inner (between parts) and relational, and work towards communication between parts rather than one part defeating another.
Organicity. Living systems self-organise and self-correct when their parts are connected, and healing comes from within. In practice: follow the client's process, do not install answers, and treat spontaneous impulses and memories as direction from the client's own system.
Mind/body holism. Beliefs show up in posture, gesture, voice and tension, and the body gives access to the belief system. In practice: watch nonverbal behaviour more than content, and use the body as the doorway to meaning.
Mindfulness. Calm, non-interfering, inward-turned observation of present experience. Kurtz called the method "assisted meditation" [source: Altman citing Kurtz 1990]. In practice: do experiments only when the client is mindful, and study how experience is organised rather than talking about it.
Nonviolence. No forcing, persisting, coercing or overpowering. Go "with the grain" and support defences rather than confront them [source: Kurtz 2008; Altman]. In practice: get permission for every experiment, take over defences instead of breaking them down, and back off when the unconscious does not cooperate.

Further stance principles named by Kurtz and trainers:

Loving presence first. The therapist's state matters more than technique: "Presence refers to attending to the flow of experience from moment to moment" [source: Kurtz 2008]. In practice: before and during the session, look for what you can genuinely appreciate in the client.
Cooperation of the unconscious. Healing needs trust earned at the level of the client's unconscious [source: Kurtz 2009; Marvin 2022]. In practice: read nonverbal agreement or disagreement and adjust before going deeper.
Experimental attitude. Form an idea, test it, and "Get the data!" [source: Refined Hakomi overview]. In practice: treat every intervention as a test and always find out what actually happened.
Present experience over story. Attend to the structure of present experience, not to retelling the past, and do not try to dig up memories [source: Cherry 2024]. In practice: when the client drifts into narrative, bring them gently back to what is happening now.
Don't interfere with integration. Stay silent when insight or integration is happening [source: Kurtz 2006; Marvin 2022]. In practice: no questions while the client's eyes are closed and the face shows inner work.
Contact, not answers. Giving answers implies the client cannot find them [source: Altman]. In practice: reflect experience rather than advise.
Respect protective parts. Defences were adaptive and protective [source: Altman; Lavie 2025]. In practice: never side with the "pushing" part against fear or tension.
Therapists are not the healers. Marvin: "We are the context in which healing is inspired" [source: Marvin 2022]. In practice: aim to create conditions, not outcomes.

4. Intervention inventory

Before you start: rules for touch. Several Hakomi techniques can involve touch: physical taking over, comforting touch and holding, and tactile probes. Touch requires specific training and supervision, and you must check what your licence, employer and jurisdiction allow. Kurtz notes that touching clients may be legally restricted in some US states and advises care in one-to-one sessions [source: Kurtz 2006]. In his workshops, comforting touch was given with permission, usually by assistants, and always with witnesses present [source: Kurtz 2008]. The Hakomi Institute's code allows touch only after the client understands the approach and consents, with consent documented as state law requires. Sexual contact of any kind is prohibited [source: Hakomi Code of Ethics 2024, Secs 3–4]. Taking over is always voluntary, guided by the client, and stops when the client wants [source: Altman citing Kurtz 1990].

Standard consent sequence for every touch technique below:

Explain what you propose, where your hand(s) would go, and why.
Ask, and check that the yes is genuine; clients may agree while afraid [source: Refined Hakomi overview].
Offer a no-touch alternative (the client does it themselves, a cushion or blanket, or imagined touch) [source: Altman lists imagined touch; Lavie lists props].
Agree a stop signal, such as a word or a raised hand [synthesis].
Check in during the touch and talk it through afterwards [synthesis].
Note the consent in the record [source: Ethics code Sec 4].

Touch is only ever to arms, shoulders, hands, back, head or neck, as the sources describe. Hakomi has no genital or sexual touch.

4.1 Loving presence (therapist practice)

Purpose / when: The foundation of every session, before and throughout. Kurtz called it the most important element of the method [source: Kurtz 2008; Marvin 2022].
Steps:
1. Before the client arrives, settle your own attention: breathe, drop your agenda, and recall what inspires you.
2. As the client speaks, look actively for something you genuinely appreciate or find nourishing in them, such as their courage, humour or care [source: Refined Hakomi overview].
3. Stay with moment-to-moment experience rather than gathering information through questions.
4. When you notice yourself judging, hurrying or trying to fix, return to appreciation.
- The sources give no fixed duration; Marvin points to Donna Martin's book on the practice [uncertain].
Example language: Mostly none. Presence is non-verbal.
Watch for: The client's body softening, more eye contact or less vigilance. Altman notes that boredom in the therapist means you have lost track of the client [source: Altman].

4.2 Tracking

Purpose / when: Continuously, to follow the client's present experience "like radar" and to find material for contact and experiments [source: Kurtz 2008].
Steps: Watch more than you listen to content [source: Kurtz 2006]. Track:
- voice: volume, rhythm, pauses, pitch, slips;
- body: posture, movement, held areas;
- eyes: gaze, blinking, tears;
- face: blended or concealed expressions, micro-expressions;
- autonomic signs: breath, swallowing, flushing, sweating;
- speech style;
- state of consciousness [source: Altman].
Recognise four states:
- ordinary: eyes open, conversational;
- mindful: eyes tend to close, speech about half speed, gentle breath, still;
- child: younger voice, simple sentences, shy or wondering;
- strong emotion: waves of movement, laboured breath [source: Altman].
Example language: None; tracking is silent. It feeds the contact statements in 4.3.
Watch for: Mismatch between words and body; shifts in state. These tell you which intervention fits.

4.3 Contact statements (first- and second-order)

Purpose / when: Show understanding and stay connected without interrupting the client's flow. First-order contact builds the relationship; second-order contact invites curiosity about inner experience [source: Johanson 2015; Altman].
Steps:
1. Track one present-moment sign.
2. Name it in a few words, simply and obviously, as an offering open to correction. Johanson's model ends with a questioning "huh?" for this reason.
3. Track the effect, then contact that. If it misses, back off and try again [source: Altman].
4. Keep statements few, short and non-disruptive [source: Marvin 2022].
Example language: Johanson's examples: "A little sad, huh?" (first-order) and "Some emotion arises?" (second-order). Altman's: "Holding your breath…", "Feeling younger…", "Quieting down…". Illustrative: "Something softened just then." / "Lot of effort in that."
Watch for: Nods, the client continuing more deeply, a sigh. If the client stops and explains or corrects at length, the statement was too long, too interpretive or wrong.

4.4 Jumping out of the system

Purpose / when: When a habitual relational pattern is being played out between you and the client, such as reassurance-seeking, talking fast or deferring to you [source: Johanson 2015; Lavie 2025].
Steps:
1. Notice the pattern you are being pulled into.
2. Step out of it rather than playing your usual part.
3. Name it kindly and with curiosity, without judging.
4. Offer it as something to study in mindfulness.
Example language: Johanson's example names fast talking as possibly expecting no room to be heard. Illustrative: "I notice we keep ending up with me giving advice. Curious about that. Want to slow down and see what happens when I don't?"
Watch for: Surprise, relief or recognition. Defensiveness means slow down, contact the defence and support it (see 4.11–4.14).

4.5 Indicators and hypothesis ("reverse engineering")

Purpose / when: Phase 1 and Phase 2 [Refined]. Indicators give you something to experiment with.
Steps:
1. Silently note enduring habits: posture, head angle, gestures, voice quality, pace, style. A few minutes may be enough [source: Kurtz 2006; Marvin 2022].
2. Guess the implicit belief that could organise the habit. Kurtz's examples: a habitual shrug may suggest loss of hope; rubbing the hands or touching the face may suggest a need for comfort [source: Kurtz 2006].
3. Hold the guess lightly. Use it to design an experiment (4.8–4.9), not to interpret to the client. You may also experiment with an indicator for which you have no hypothesis [source: Marvin 2022].
Example language: None at this stage; the indicator is not announced until an experiment is proposed.
Watch for: Fixed lists of meanings. Kurtz and Marvin both warn against them; stay open.

4.6 Accessing: inviting mindfulness

Purpose / when: To move from conversation into mindful self-study, usually when the client touches something alive [source: Johanson 2015].
Steps:
1. Check that the client feels safe and cooperative [source: Altman].
2. Explain mindfulness briefly the first time: quiet, non-judging noticing of what happens inside.
3. Invite it by slowing down yourself: speak slowly, simply and softly.
4. Anchor it in the body or in breath [source: Marco 2012].
5. Wait until you see mindful signs: stillness, eyelids fluttering, slower speech [source: Refined Hakomi overview].
Example language: Johanson's model invites the client to slow down and notice how a conflict registers in the body. Illustrative: "Would you be willing to slow down for a moment… close your eyes if that's comfortable… and just notice what's happening in your body as you think of her."
Watch for: Eyes may stay open; that is fine if attention is inward. Continued fast talk or watching you means mindfulness has not taken; go back to building safety.

4.7 Deepening and stabilising questions

Purpose / when: In mindfulness, to keep the client with an experience long enough for more to emerge, moving from surface feeling to sensation, image, memory and belief [source: Altman; Johanson 2015].
Steps:
1. Ask one short question at a time, then wait.
2. Keep attention on the specific body area. The answers matter less than the focus [source: Altman].
3. Have the client name experience while staying in it, not turn to chat with you [source: Johanson 2015].
4. Fill out the spectrum: sensation, emotion, image, thought, memory, belief [source: Altman].
Example language: Altman's question types (paraphrased): where it is felt; its shape or size; how deep it goes and where it stops; what it would do if it could move; what keeps it there; what feeling tone it has; what it would say; what age you feel; whether it reminds you of anything.
Watch for: The client switching into explanation (redirect gently to sensation) [source: Marco 2012]. A deepening of state (more stillness, a younger voice) means it is working.

4.8 Experiments in mindfulness (general form)

Purpose / when: The central tool of the deepening stage and of Phase 2 [Refined]. An experiment is a small, open-ended thing the client tries while mindful, to show how they organise experience around an issue. A good experiment produces strong emotion, a clear meaning, or both [source: Kurtz 2006; Altman].
Steps (Johanson's five-step form):
1. Invite self-study: ask the client to notice what happens spontaneously.
2. Describe the experiment, e.g. "when I say some words" or "when you slowly turn your head".
3. Pause so that the "noise" of the instructions settles.
4. Do the experiment.
5. Track and contact to deepen.
Before step 1, ask permission each time and check that consent seems real [source: Johanson 2015; Refined Hakomi overview]. Afterwards, "get the data": watch, and ask for a report [source: Marvin 2022].
Types the sources describe:
- Verbal: probes (4.9), exaggerating or minimising a statement, giving voice to parts.
- Posture and movement: slowing down, speeding up, physicalising a feeling, opening or closing the eyes, reaching out. One example: a client whose head is turned away is invited to turn it slowly towards the therapist and notice what happens [source: Cherry 2024; Refined Hakomi overview].
- Distance: the therapist walks slowly towards the client, who studies what arises [source: Cherry 2024]; closer or farther seating [source: Altman].
- Gesture and touch: repeating or taking over a gesture; touch or imagined touch [source: Altman].
- Sensory and voice: hearing or not hearing; changing the tone, volume or speed of a voice [source: Altman].
- Resource experiments: sensing a grounded state of simply being, separate from achievement, and noticing how the world looks from there [source: Cherry 2024].
- Following an urge: acting on an urge noticed in mindfulness, such as lying down, to test a belief about rest [source: Marco 2012].
Example language (illustrative): "Would you be willing to try a little experiment? … Just notice what happens inside, as I slowly move my chair a little closer… [pause] … What do you notice?"
Watch for: Evoked reactions are spontaneous, so the client does not feel "done to" [source: Altman]. A report of sensation is better data than an interpretation. A flat "nothing" is also data (see Section 5). Use the result to refine, reject or re-test your hypothesis [source: Marvin 2022].

4.9 Probes (verbal, tactile, visual)

Purpose / when: A probe is an experiment in mindfulness that offers something potentially nourishing which the client is likely to reject. The surprising reaction exposes the core belief [source: Kurtz 2008; Kurtz 2009]. It is not used in ordinary conversation [source: Altman citing Kurtz 1990, pp. 91–92].
Steps (Altman, summarising Kurtz 1990):
1. Set up mindfulness and wait until the client is "inside".
2. Say: "Notice what happens when you hear…" (or similar).
3. Pause silently for a few seconds.
4. Deliver the probe softly, neutrally and unhurriedly. Phrase it generally, as if any voice could be saying it.
5. Track spontaneous changes in movement, colour and breath.
6. Ask for a report, e.g. "What happened?"
7. Aim for direct description, such as warmth in the chest, rather than interpretation. Then follow up with where, what and how.
8. A response can become the next probe.
Tactile and visual probes follow the same steps, with a touch or a seen action as the stimulus. Use the consent sequence above for any touch [source: Altman].
Choosing wording: Build the probe as the opposite of the hypothesised limiting belief, or as the client's missing experience [source: Kurtz 2009; Johanson 2015]. Examples in the sources: "It is okay to see" [Johanson 2015]; "I have time for you" [Refined Hakomi overview]; "You don't have to do everything yourself" [Johanson 2015]. Altman pairs probes with barriers: for insight, being seen as you are; for response, your life belongs to you; for nourishment, it is acceptable to need; for completion, it is okay just to be still.
Watch for: Rejection is useful. A tightening, an inner "yes, but" or an inner voice saying "no it isn't" shows the barrier. Follow it with taking over (4.11). Do not argue for the probe.

4.10 Acknowledging ("contact in mindfulness")

Purpose / when: To name a core, long-denied experience the client is re-living, so that their unconscious knows it has finally been understood. Kurtz's criteria (via Altman): the experience is real, close to the core, has pressed for expression without success, and has had no ally in the client's history [source: Altman citing Kurtz 1990, p. 100].
Steps: Deliver it like a probe: with the client mindful, softly, briefly, then pause and track.
Example language (illustrative): "So alone with that…" / "You really did try so hard." Cherry's example validation, roughly "you did your best", is close to this [source: Cherry 2024].
Watch for: The experience emerges and deepens, often with tears. Then move to supporting spontaneous behaviour, comfort and silence (4.15–4.19).

4.11 Taking over: overview

Taking over means the therapist (or an assistant or group member) does something the client usually does for themselves, as an offer of support. It is the opposite of breaking down defences [source: Kurtz 2008; Altman citing Kurtz 1990, pp. 101–110].

Its effects:

it increases safety;
it lowers "noise" so that sensitivity rises;
it gives distance from the reaction;
it shifts attention from the defence to the feeling the defence protects.

Every instance has three dimensions [source: Altman]:

with or without mindfulness: with mindfulness it works like a probe; without it, it supports spontaneous behaviour during strong emotion;
active or passive: active means the client does something against the helper's resistance; passive means the client lets the helper do it;
verbal or physical.

Altman matches the forms to barriers: active taking over for the response barrier, passive for completion, support of self-support for nourishment, and taking over blocks for insight. Taking over is always voluntary, client-guided and stoppable [source: Altman]. Lavie cautions that taking over can wrongly signal that the pattern has no intelligence of its own. Do it in a spirit of valuing the part [source: Lavie 2025].

4.12 Verbal taking over

Purpose / when: The client reports an inner voice or thought, often after a probe. For example, after "It is okay to see", an inner voice says "Oh no, it isn't!" [source: Johanson 2015].
Steps:
1. Ask whether it would be OK for you (or an assistant) to say the voice aloud.
2. Agree the exact words and tone with the client.
3. Re-establish mindfulness.
4. Repeat the original experiment, and say the voice for the client right after it.
5. Ask what happens now that the client does not have to say it themselves.
Example language (illustrative): "Let me be that voice for you, so you don't have to. I'll say the probe again, and then I'll say 'Oh no it isn't' just the way you hear it. You just notice."
Watch for: Relaxation, emotion breaking through, or a memory. Lavie warns against voicing a harsh critic only so that the client fights it; keep the aim as support, not provocation [source: Lavie 2025].

4.13 Physical taking over: passive (therapist holds the pattern)

Purpose / when: A bodily management pattern appears, such as raised shoulders, a tight belly, hands over the chest, or a lowered head [source: Altman; Marvin 2022].
Starting position: The client is seated or lying as they already are. The helper sits or kneels to one side.
Steps:
1. Name the pattern with a contact statement.
2. Run the touch consent sequence. Explain that you will hold the tension for them so their body does not have to.
3. Place your hands as the client directs, and match the intensity the client coaches. For shoulders tightening in fear, another person replicates the tightening, with the client coaching the exact form [source: Johanson 2015]. For a tense area, place a hand over it and match its pressure, adjusting until the client says it is right [source: Marco 2012]. For self-touch gestures, such as a hand on the chest or hands over the eyes, the helper's hands take over that gesture; in the Refined overview an assistant puts their hands over the client's hands when the client is covering their face [source: Altman; Refined Hakomi overview]. For a client who will not rest, support the head or back [source: Altman].
4. Invite the client to let you hold it fully, and to notice what happens.
5. Hold for as long as the process needs; the sources give no fixed duration. Release slowly when the client signals, check in, and talk it through.
- No-touch alternatives: a cushion, blanket, weighted blanket or yoga band to give the same support; or an imagined helper [source: Lavie 2025].
Example language (illustrative): "Your shoulders are working hard. Would it be all right if I put my hands here and held them up for you, so they can rest? Tell me if I've got it just right… or stop me any time."
Watch for: Softening, a sigh, tears, or a memory: the feeling the pattern protected is coming forward. Discomfort with the touch means stop at once and use a prop or the self-touch alternative.
Contraindications [synthesis]: recent injury or surgery at the site; pain conditions; a trauma history involving being restrained or held; not wanting touch for any reason. In these cases use props or the client's own hands.

4.14 Active taking over (the client pushes, the helper resists)

Purpose / when: An impulse is being held back, such as to push away, strike out or reach. Or the client is too tense or restless for passive taking over. Altman links it to the response barrier [source: Altman].
Starting position: Seated, feet on the floor, or standing with a stable stance. The helper is positioned to give steady resistance.
Steps:
1. Run the touch consent sequence.
2. Shoulders held high: with a circle grip, ask the client to press the shoulders down against your resistance [source: Altman].
3. An impulse: invite the client to make a fist while you try to get them to swing it and they resist [source: Altman].
4. Blocked expression: with permission, gently hold back the arms or jaw so that the impulse can be felt and emerge. Kurtz stresses that this is voluntary, guided by the client, and stops whenever the client wants [source: Altman citing Kurtz 1990].
5. Match the client's force; do not overpower it.
6. Ask the client to notice feelings, images or words that come.
7. Close slowly and talk it through.
Example language (illustrative): "Would you like to find out what that push wants to do? I'll put my hands against yours and give some resistance — you push only as much as feels right, and say 'stop' any time."
Watch for: Energy and emotion rising together with a clear meaning ("I won't let them"). Mechanical pushing with no feeling means the client should stop and return to mindfulness.
Screening [synthesis; the sources give none]: Ask about pregnancy, cardiovascular conditions, recent injury or surgery, joint or back problems, and a history of assault in which being restrained was part of the trauma. Keep the effort light, and always in a mindful, contained frame. This is not cathartic discharge; Kurtz moved Hakomi away from forceful bioenergetic methods [source: Kurtz 2009].

4.15 Supporting spontaneous management behaviours

Purpose / when: Phase 3 [Refined] or processing. The client protects themselves spontaneously, for example closing up, dropping the head, tightening the shoulders, chest or belly, holding the breath, or having protective thoughts [source: Marvin 2022].
Steps:
1. Do not stop or interpret the behaviour.
2. Signal safety and care: soften your voice and face, stay calm, and offer tissues or physical support if accepted.
3. Offer gentle touch only when needed and accepted.
4. If the client curls in, help them curl (taking over without mindfulness) [source: Altman].
Example language (illustrative): "That's right, take your time… you can close up as much as you need."
Watch for: The behaviour easing by itself, followed by deeper emotion or a memory.

4.16 Following spontaneous signals

Purpose / when: Throughout processing. Kurtz treats spontaneous images, memories, impulses and ideas, the client's and your own, as signals from the adaptive unconscious about what comes next [source: Kurtz 2008; Marvin 2022].
Steps:
1. Contact the emergent element.
2. Ask a deepening question, or offer a small experiment built from it (e.g. let the hand do what it wants to do).
3. Take charge gently only if the process needs direction [source: Marvin 2022].
Example language (illustrative): "A memory came… just let it be here." / "Your hand wants to reach… would you let it, slowly, and notice?"

4.17 Riding the rapids

Purpose / when: Deep material produces strong emotional release mixed with efforts to hold it back. This is not a mindful state, so mindfulness is not requested [source: Johanson 2015; Altman].
Steps:
1. Stop asking questions.
2. Support the release verbally with short, warm sounds and words.
3. Support the client's own ways of managing non-verbally, by taking over (4.13, 4.15).
4. Stay with the client until the wave resolves.
5. Then, as the client settles, return gradually to mindfulness and meaning (4.21).
Example language (illustrative): "Yes… let it come… I'm right here."
Watch for: Waves that crest and settle are working. Escalation without settling, loss of contact with the room, or dissociation is overwhelm; see Section 5.

4.18 Comforting touch and holding

Purpose / when: At the first physical signs of sadness, such as tears or a change in voice, and during emotional release. It conveys awareness, sympathy and presence, and supplies the missing experience of someone calm, patient and understanding [source: Kurtz 2006; Kurtz 2008].
Steps:
1. Consent sequence, ideally agreed earlier in the session or course [synthesis].
2. Gently touch the arm, shoulder or leg, or have an assistant do so. In Kurtz's workshops this was done with witnesses [source: Kurtz 2006; Kurtz 2008]. The Refined overview also describes an arm around the shoulder, or a hand on the client.
3. Stay silent or make soft comforting sounds. Do not ask questions about the feeling, and do not tell the client to "stay with" it [source: Kurtz 2006].
4. If emotion becomes very intense, offer to hold the client, or have an assistant offer [source: Kurtz 2006].
5. Release when the client moves away or settles; check in afterwards.
Example language (illustrative): "Would a hand on your shoulder help right now?"
Watch for: Leaning in and deeper crying usually mean comfort is landing. Stiffening, flinching or apologising means withdraw, and offer distance or an object instead. In one-to-one practice without witnesses, weigh the risk of misunderstanding and the law where you practise [source: Kurtz 2006]. Many clinicians will use only arm or shoulder contact, or none [synthesis].

4.19 Honouring silence (not interfering with integration)

Purpose / when: After an experiment, touch or insight, while the client is integrating [source: Kurtz 2006; Marvin 2022].
Steps:
1. Watch the face for deep concentration, changes in expression, nods.
2. Wait while the eyes are closed.
3. Wait until the client looks at you and speaks.
4. Then listen to their report of insights, feelings and memories, without steering them into conversation [source: Marvin 2022].
Example language: None, then a brief contact statement once the client speaks.
Watch for: The urge to ask "what's happening?" too early. Kurtz's rule for insight is "Don't interfere!" [source: Refined Hakomi overview].

4.20 Working with the child (child state)

Purpose / when: Mindful deepening reaches an early memory, and the client is in a dual state: re-experiencing the episode while knowing they are in session. This allows childhood core beliefs to change [source: Johanson 2015].
Steps:
1. Recognise the child state: younger voice, simple sentences, shy or wondering gestures [source: Altman].
2. Contact it, e.g. feeling younger.
3. Use Kurtz's "therapist as magical stranger": appear with the child in the original scene, where you never actually were. Be present, honest, patient and concerned; talk to the child, explain, and offer holding if wanted [source: Altman citing Kurtz 1990].
4. Offer the missing experience (4.22) to the child.
5. Bring the adult back before you close.
Example language (illustrative): "How old are you there?… I'm here with you now. That was too much for a little one to carry alone."
Watch for: Keep the dual awareness. If the client loses contact with the present (no longer knows where they are), ground them; see Section 5.

4.21 Going for meaning

Purpose / when: After emotion or a child episode, or with any vivid sensation, to reach the belief or model that organised the experience [source: Altman; Kurtz 2009].
Steps:
1. Alternate between non-verbal experience and spontaneous words, at the mind–body interface.
2. Ask what it means for the client, what they are learning, what they believe about themselves or others.
3. Follow the chain from sensation to emotion to thought to belief [source: Altman; Marco 2012].
Example language (illustrative): "And as you feel that tightness… what do you know about the world, from inside it?"
Watch for: A simple, felt sentence, often childlike ("I have to do it all myself"). That is core material.

4.22 Missing experience and nourishment

Purpose / when: The transformation step. Once core material is conscious, design experiments around the opposite of what was organised out, and let the client take it in [source: Johanson 2015; Kurtz 2008].
Steps:
1. Name the missing experience from the belief. For "I must stay self-reliant", the missing experience is that it is OK to be supported [source: Johanson 2015]. Character-strategy pairs can suggest options (Section 2).
2. Offer it as an experiment in mindfulness: a phrase, or a physical version such as leaning into another person's support [source: Johanson 2015]. Or re-offer the probe the client rejected earlier, now that it has been processed [source: Kurtz 2008].
3. Expect barriers to appear, and explore them mindfully (4.23).
4. Add the safety or nurture that was missing originally, so that the barrier can soften [source: Johanson 2015].
5. Let the client savour and take in the new experience [source: Kurtz 2009].
Example language: From the sources: "You don't have to do everything yourself" [Johanson 2015]; "I have time for you" [Refined Hakomi overview]. Illustrative: "Let yourself lean back into the cushion and notice what it's like to be held up."
Watch for: Relief, relaxation, satisfaction, joy, or a clarity that replaces confusion [source: Kurtz 2006; Kurtz 2008]. Polite agreement without bodily change means a barrier is still active.

4.23 Exploring barriers (sensitivity-cycle work)

Purpose / when: The client cannot take in or act on a new experience [source: Johanson 2015; Altman].
Steps:
1. Identify which barrier is active: insight, response, nourishment or completion.
2. Study the barrier mindfully: what happens just as the client starts to take it in?
3. Take over the barrier's management behaviour.
4. Match the experiment to the barrier. Altman gives these aims: safety and allowing, for insight; fullness and acting from the heart, for response; receptivity and telling the truth without blame, for nourishment; self-acceptance and letting go, for completion.
Example language (illustrative): "Just as you started to let that in, something closed. Let's be curious about the part that closes."

4.24 Befriending protective parts

Purpose / when: A part pushes for change while other parts (fear, tension, a critic) resist [source: Lavie 2025].
Steps:
1. Reflect the tug-of-war.
2. Ask whether the fear once served a purpose.
3. Invite the protective part in "just a little".
4. Explore the state just before the critic appears, often chaos or being alone.
5. Offer the missing co-regulation at that moment.
Example language (illustrative): "Maybe that tension has had a good reason to hold on. Could we welcome it, just a little, and see what it's protecting?"
Watch for: Softening in both parts. Collusion with the pushing part deepens the split [source: Lavie 2025].

4.25 Slowing down ("putting the brakes on") and dyadic regulation

Purpose / when: The client rushes into a memory or emotion faster than they can stay present with it [source: Marco 2012, secondary; trainer-reported].
Steps:
1. Slow your own speech.
2. Invite a pause and a breath.
3. Breathe calmly yourself, visibly, so that the client can regulate through connection.
4. Bring attention to one small piece of the experience, or to support from the chair or the floor.
5. Resume only when contact is restored.
Example language (illustrative): "Let's slow right down… just this much… feel the chair under you… we can go one step at a time."

4.26 Integration and completion

Purpose / when: After transformation, to make the new experience usable and to end in ordinary consciousness [source: Johanson 2015].
Steps:
1. Allow time for integration in silence (4.19).
2. Invite the client to savour the new state: where it is felt, and what it is like.
3. Link it to daily life, i.e. new options and new habits [source: Refined Hakomi overview; Cherry 2024 "updating the files"].
4. Return to ordinary consciousness: eyes open, look around the room, talk.
5. End when it feels complete and the client signals completion [source: Marvin 2022].
- [synthesis]: Agree a small way to remember the new experience between sessions, e.g. noticing the posture or phrase, rather than formal homework. The sources describe no homework.
Example language (illustrative): "Take a moment to really let that settle… When you're ready, let your eyes open and come back into the room. What do you want to take with you from this?"
Watch for: The client being oriented, steady and clear before they leave.

4.27 Working with assistants and groups

Purpose / when: In workshops and small groups, assistants or group members provide taking over, comforting touch and witnesses [source: Kurtz 2008; Johanson 2015].
Steps:
1. Brief assistants beforehand on consent, stop signals and following the client's coaching.
2. Seat the assistant beside the client.
3. The lead therapist proposes each intervention; the assistant carries it out only after the client agrees.
4. Debrief the assistants afterwards [synthesis].
Watch for: A client who feels watched or performs. Offer to reduce the number of helpers.

5. Handling problems

The sources give general guidance: go slowly, support defences, follow the unconscious, never force. Specific responses below are tagged by origin.

Client can't or won't become mindful (keeps talking, analysing, watching you). Usually a sign of not enough safety [source: Johanson 2015]. Return to contact and relationship (Phase 1 [Refined]). Contact the talking itself ("lots to say…"). Try jumping out of the system (4.4). Very anxious clients may need preparation first [source: Kurtz 2006]. [synthesis]: try eyes-open, brief mindfulness (a few breaths), or mindfulness anchored in an external object or a safe body area first.
Stuck process, "nothing happens" after experiments. Stuckness usually means the client does not feel safe; do not impose an agenda [source: Johanson 2015]. "Nothing" is data: ask about tiny shifts, and repeat the experiment more slowly with a longer pause [source: Altman]. Reject or refine the hypothesis, or pick another indicator [source: Marvin 2022]. Altman's "rescue remedies" (he notes they are not strictly Hakomi): check whether it is fine to leave things as they are; ask what you could do right now that is possible; ask what would be good for them now.
Resistance and defences. Do not fight the defence or split the client into warring parts. Support it, take it over and get curious about what it protects [source: Altman; Kurtz 2008]. If the defence shows up in the relationship, name it non-judgementally and explore it [source: Johanson 2015]. Do not collude with the client's wish to push past fear [source: Lavie 2025].
Overwhelm, flooding, dissociation. Support riding the rapids while the waves settle. If they do not, switch from deepening to stabilising [source: Johanson 2015 on managing states of consciousness]. Then [synthesis]:
- open the eyes, orient to the room, name the date and place;
- feel the feet and the chair; slow breathing alongside you (4.25);
- move into ordinary conversation;
- postpone deeper work.
Do not use holding or touch with a client who is dissociated or confused about where they are. Re-establish orientation first [synthesis]. Cherry warns against trying to evoke memories; some may be best left unremembered [source: Cherry 2024].
Consent that is not real (compliance). Clients may agree while afraid [source: Refined Hakomi overview]. Watch for a body saying no while the mouth says yes. Offer a smaller version, or none. Make declining explicitly fine: "No is a perfectly good answer here" (illustrative).
Touch problems (flinching, sexualised or romantic transference, a trauma trigger, a complaint). Stop at once, acknowledge, and offer distance or props. Document it, and take it to supervision [synthesis]. The Institute code prohibits sexual intimacy or propositions, requires refusing sexual advances, and requires consent before touch [source: Ethics code Secs 3–4]. [synthesis]: do not offer touch to clients whose history makes it ambiguous until this has been openly discussed outside mindfulness, and consider no-touch Hakomi throughout.
Ruptures (the client feels misread, pushed or exposed by an experiment). [synthesis, consistent with nonviolence and contact]: name it, take responsibility for the pace, and contact the hurt. Study the rupture mindfully only if the client wishes; otherwise repair in ordinary conversation. Kurtz's method requires returning to non-cooperation signals before proceeding [source: Marvin 2022].
Client gets "lost in story" / intellectualises. Gently redirect to present sensation, and ask whether they can stay with it [source: Marco 2012; Cherry 2024].
Non-adherence between sessions. Hakomi assigns no formal homework in the sources [uncertain]. [synthesis]: if you suggest practising mindfulness or noticing a new posture or phrase, keep it optional, and explore lapses with curiosity, as data about the barrier.
The therapist's own reactions are triggered. Acknowledge this and be non-violent with yourself; bring it to supervision [source: Altman].
Inner critic dominates. Explore the overwhelmed state before the critic appears, reframe the critic as having once held the client together, and offer the missing co-regulation [source: Lavie 2025].
Clinical cautions not addressed in the sources [synthesis].
- Screen before mindfulness-deepening and child-state work for: psychosis; severe dissociative disorders; active suicidality; acute crisis; recent trauma without stabilisation; intoxication. The ethics code bars sessions under the influence of substances [source: Ethics code Sec 2].
- With these clients, prioritise stabilisation and keep work in ordinary consciousness, or only briefly mindful.
- For suicidal clients, follow standard risk-assessment and safety-planning practice alongside Hakomi.
- Hakomi is a psychotherapy. Do not present it as a treatment for physical disease.
Scope. Refuse work you are not prepared for, and get ongoing consultation [source: Ethics code Secs 6, 7, 27]. Formal Hakomi training (the Institute's comprehensive training, or Refined Hakomi trainings) is expected before you use taking over and touch [synthesis].

Sources

Sources: