Atlas›Domain IV · Body-oriented psychotherapy›Guide 072
Guide IV-072

Lomi somatics

Robert K. Hall, Alyssa Hall, Catherine Flaxman, Richard Strozzi-Heckler1970Santa Rosa, California
A 21 · L 44 · M 3518 interventions in the Trinity explorer
Client cardCompare
[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

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 descendant of Lomi body work. The present-day Lomi Psychotherapy Clinic (Santa Rosa) and the Italian Somatic Gestalt (Lomi) training are noted where they add context. [source: Hall 1994; Gates et al. 2012; Strozzi-Heckler 2014; lomi.org; CTSG]

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 trained and done (pressure types, session order, training format; see 2 and 4.9). Still not verified: no Lomi training manual, curriculum or phase model exists in any source used; Hall's Groundworks chapter and the text of The Anatomy of Change are not drawn on here; no published step-by-step procedure is cited for Lomi breathwork, Polarity-style holds or Aikido-derived partner practices, so those steps remain [synthesis] and [uncertain].

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 [source: lomi.org "Our Story"]. Hall (1934–2019), a psychiatrist, had apprenticed with Fritz Perls (Gestalt therapy), Ida Rolf (Rolfing/Structural Integration) and Randolph Stone (Polarity Therapy), and practised meditation (first with Charan Singh, later Vipassana; later a Spirit Rock teacher) [source: tosea.net; Dharma Seed; LibraryThing; CTSG; Hall 1994]. Founders: Wikipedia's Strozzi-Heckler article names Robert K. Hall, Alyssa Hall, Catherine Flaxman and Richard Strozzi-Heckler as co-founders, citing B. Frost, "Lomi Therapy", Yoga Journal (Nov–Dec 1993), which is not drawn on here; tosea.net says Hall founded it in Santa Rosa, California, with his wife Alyssa and two other couples, with Randolph Stone as partner and teacher [source: Wikipedia, Richard Strozzi-Heckler; tosea.net]. A 1979 interview with Lomi-trained bodyworkers credits Heckler with starting "Lomi work" as a blend of Rolfing, Polarity and Gestalt, taught in California by Heckler and Hall [source: The Sun 1979]. These are all secondary sources; the full founder list (the two "couples" are not named together anywhere) remains [uncertain]. Methods named for the school: touch, group process, breathwork, attention training (Vipassana-derived) and movement, alongside psychiatric and psychoanalytic methods [source: Wikipedia, Strozzi Institute, citing Johnson 1997]. Do not confuse it with Hawaiian lomilomi massage; whether the school's name was borrowed from that word is not stated in any source opened [uncertain].

How change happens (the school's own theory). Lived experience is held and expressed in the body as sensation, posture and habitual contraction. Bringing non-judging attention to sensation, in contact with a present therapist, lets held patterns loosen; Hall writes that the body is the Lomi "curriculum" and that "all is process" [source: Hall 1994]. In his Gestalt work he holds that "the awareness itself is healing" and that awareness dissolves the bodily contraction that holds an emotion [source: Gates et al. 2012]. Strozzi-Heckler adds that under stress people fall back on conditioned somatic tendencies that new information alone cannot change, so change needs repeated bodily practice of a new "shape" [source: Wikipedia, Strozzi Institute; Coaches Rising]. Hall's references to "life energy" and an "energy field" are his theory, not physiology; he uses them to mean working with what enlivens the body rather than its structure [source: Hall 1994].

2. Framework

No Lomi source gives a manualised sequence of phases, session counts or formal transition criteria [uncertain]. 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 [source: lomi.org]. Strozzi bodywork is taught as a 5-day in-person immersion that requires prior Strozzi training [source: Strozzi Institute, Bodywork]. Historical format (one 1970s regional training, secondary): Lomi bodywork was taught in three-day weekends over about six months, combining "the deeper muscle work" with imagery and therapy; a Lomi-trained practitioner's individual session ran roughly 1.5–2 hours and moved, as the client needed, from relaxation or centering to meditation, then Gestalt-style talk, then bodywork, "custom-geared" rather than fixed [source: The Sun 1979]. Use that order (center, settle, talk, body, talk-through) as the default session shape [synthesis, built on The Sun 1979 and Gates et al. 2012].

Founders' arc (described, not manualised).

  • Hall: exploring personal history comes first; then attention moves to bodily experience, where the body is felt as a field; then (for those who want it) the work moves from psychology into a contemplative or spiritual frame where drama is seen as impermanent and impersonal [source: Gates et al. 2012].
  • 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 new actions, postures and commitments [source: Coaches Rising]. Strozzi-Heckler developed this after Lomi, in the Strozzi Institute; using it as Lomi's phase model is my adaptation [synthesis].

Working phase structure for a psychotherapist [synthesis, built on the above].

  1. 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 and stop signals. Move on when the client can name and tolerate a body sensation for a short time and has agreed the frame.
  2. Resourcing and awareness (several sessions). Centering, sensation tracking, breath observation, naming emotions in the body. Move on when the client can return to a centered, settled state on their own after mild activation.
  3. Process work (the bulk of therapy, open-ended). Gestalt dialogue and polarity work, body reading of the conditioned shape, bodywork with touch where trained and agreed, movement and breath. Work in short pulses of activation followed by settling. Move on when the old pattern is recognised as it starts and the client can let it go and stay with the in-between.
  4. Practice and integration. Daily practices that rehearse the new shape (centering under pressure, meditation, movement), linking body change to relationships and choices. End when gains hold under everyday stress and the client keeps practising alone.

3. Guiding principles

  • The body is the curriculum. Study the client's (and your own) direct sensation rather than a theory about it; ask what is felt now [source: Hall 1994].
  • Process over form. Attend to what enlivens and moves in the body more than to fixing structure; track change, not a target posture [source: Hall 1994].
  • Sensation without concepts. Invite clients to follow sensations as they arise and pass without labelling or explaining them; save interpretation for later [source: Hall 1994].
  • Awareness itself is healing. Your main lever is the quality of attention the client brings, not catharsis; hold off on pushing for discharge [source: Gates et al. 2012].
  • Emotion is to be investigated, not removed. Treat emotion as something to feel at the level of sensation, not an obstacle; slow the client down when they are swept away [source: Gates et al. 2012].
  • Pace and educate. Deep work can happen too fast and overwhelm; pair every intense piece of work with explanation and a talk-through afterwards [source: Gates et al. 2012].
  • Here-and-now contact. Following Gestalt, look at how the client makes and interrupts contact with you and the world, and at how interruptions have become chronic bodily, mental and relational habits [source: CTSG].
  • The whole person in context. Work with the client as a body-mind organism in a social setting; link body patterns to relationships and life choices [source: CTSG].
  • Integration of three traditions. Hold psychotherapy, somatic practice and meditation together; do not let any one of them stand alone in a session plan [source: lomi.org].
  • Centered presence comes first. Being centered is described as the key ingredient for real contact and healing; center yourself before and during the work [source: senseswideopen.com; Strozzi-Heckler 2014].
  • Change needs practice, not insight alone. Conditioned tendencies return under stress; set repeated practices rather than relying on understanding [source: Wikipedia, Strozzi Institute].
  • Honour the old shape. A habitual pattern once kept the client safe; acknowledge its function before asking it to change [source: Coaches Rising].
  • Awareness over cure. The tradition stresses awareness rather than a fixed goal or cure; keep outcomes open while holding the agreed therapy goals [source: senseswideopen.com].
  • The practitioner practises. Lomi-trained practitioners are encouraged to keep a meditation practice and a body discipline of their own; your own capacity to sense is a clinical instrument [source: senseswideopen.com; Hall 1994].
  • Fit method to client. The current Lomi Clinic chooses among CBT, psychodynamic, attachment-based, trauma-informed and art/movement methods per client; somatic work is offered, not imposed [source: lomi.org].
  • Energy language is theory. When you use the school's "energy" vocabulary, present it as a way of describing experience, not as physiology, and never as a treatment for physical disease [synthesis, per house rules].

4. Intervention inventory

Scope note: the sources name the techniques below and give their purpose and outline, but no Lomi treatment manual with step counts or timings is cited. Where steps go beyond what a source states they are marked [synthesis]. Key books not drawn on: Strozzi-Heckler, The Anatomy of Change (1984; 2nd ed. 1997), whose publisher describes it as a set of practices drawn from Aikido and Lomi Body Work and which has a foreword by Hall [source: Penguin Random House; LibraryThing]; and Johnson (ed.), Groundworks (1997), confirmed to include Robert Hall writing on the Lomi School [source: MIT Press Bookstore] [contents uncertain]. The only procedural account of Lomi bodywork cited is a 1979 interview with two practitioners who trained in it (secondary) [source: The Sun 1979]. All example language is illustrative unless quoted and cited.

4.1 Sensation tracking (following sensation without concepts)

  • Purpose / when: The core Lomi attention practice, from Vipassana and Polarity: build the client's capacity to feel what is happening in the body, moment by moment. Use from the first sessions and as the base of all other work [source: Hall 1994].
  • Steps: (1) Client sits or stands comfortably, eyes open or closed by choice [synthesis]. (2) Invite attention to whatever sensation is most noticeable now. (3) Ask the client to stay with it and report its qualities (pressure, warmth, tingling, movement, size, edges) without explaining why it is there [source: Hall 1994, for "without putting a concept" on sensations; specific prompts are synthesis]. (4) Follow as it changes, arises and passes; let the client notice that it shifts. (5) If a story starts, gently return to the sensation. (6) Close with two or three breaths and a short talk-through of what was noticed [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "What are you aware of in your body right now?" "Stay with that tightness. What is it like, just as sensation?" "Let the explanation wait. Is it changing?"
  • Watch for: Working: sensations described more precisely, noticed change, softening, emotion surfacing at a manageable level. Not working or too much: blankness, numbness, spaced-out eyes, rapid escalation; switch to grounding in the room (4.4) and shorten the pulses [synthesis].

4.2 Naming the emotion and feeling it in the body

  • Purpose / when: Hall's addition to bare awareness: help clients who are cut off from, or swept away by, emotion to recognise it and hold it at the level of sensation. Use when an emotion is visible (voice, face, posture) but unnamed, or when a client floods [source: Gates et al. 2012].
  • Steps: (1) Notice cues of a held emotion; Hall reads tone of voice as a cue to anger [source: Gates et al. 2012]. (2) Offer a tentative name and check it. (3) Have the client say the name, simply, more than once; Hall's own model is "Repeat with me, this is anger" [source: Gates et al. 2012]. (4) Ask where the client feels it and what it is like as sensation. (5) Let awareness stay with the contraction without forcing release. (6) Afterwards, explain how the emotion works and what has just come into awareness [source: Gates et al. 2012].
  • Example language: Hall: "This is anger. This is anger." (quoted, Gates et al. 2012). Illustrative: "Where is the anger in your body right now?"
  • Watch for: Hall warns this can move too quickly and overwhelm; slow down if breath becomes ragged or the client loses contact with you. Working: the client can name, feel and stay with the emotion while staying present [source: Gates et al. 2012].

4.3 Breath awareness and returning to the breath

  • Purpose / when: Anchor attention and settle activation; the base of meditation in Hall's lineage and part of centering [source: Gates et al. 2012; Strozzi-Heckler 2014].
  • Steps: (1) Ask the client to notice the breath without changing it. (2) Note where it moves (chest, belly, back). (3) Invite, without forcing, a breath that is deep and rhythmic and reaches the lower abdomen [source: Strozzi-Heckler 2014]. (4) When attention wanders or emotion surges, return to the breath. (5) Use 1–3 minutes at the start or end of a session, or between intense pieces [timing synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Just notice your breathing. No need to change it." "If it wants to, let the breath drop a little lower, toward the belly."
  • Watch for: Trauma survivors may find breath focus activating; offer eyes open, attention on feet or the room instead [synthesis]. Distinguish this gentle work from intensified breathwork (4.11).

4.4 Centering (length, width, depth)

  • Purpose / when: Strozzi-Heckler's core practice from the Lomi/Aikido lineage: align with gravity, notice habitual contraction, and return to a relaxed, present state. Use at the start of sessions, before and after activating work, and as daily home practice [source: Strozzi-Heckler 2014].
  • Steps (standing; seated version is a synthesis adaptation): (1) Length: line up head, shoulders, hips, knees and ankles vertically so the body is not working against gravity. (2) Width: weight evenly on both feet; hips, shoulders and head level side to side. (3) Depth: balanced front to back, not tipped forward nor sitting back in the heels. (4) Center: bring attention down to the belly center and let it organise all three dimensions. (5) Relaxation check in each dimension: soft eyes, jaw and shoulders; deep, rhythmic breath reaching the lower belly; muscles resting on the bones. (6) Feel: sense length as dignity, width as connection with others, depth as support from behind (one's history, people, heart) [source: Strozzi-Heckler 2014]. (7) Close by asking what changed [synthesis]. No fixed duration is given in the source; 1–3 minutes in session is a starting point [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Let your head float up over your shoulders, hips and ankles." "Is your weight even on both feet?" "Check your jaw and shoulders. Can they let go a little?"
  • Watch for: Strozzi-Heckler contrasts living centering with a wooden, stiff posture; if the client stiffens into a "correct" stance, return to sensation and ease [source: Strozzi-Heckler 2014]. Working: easier breath, softer face, the client finds it faster each time.

4.5 Centering under pressure (noticing contraction and returning)

  • Purpose / when: Bring the conditioned stress response into awareness and practise recovering from it. Use once basic centering is reliable [source: Strozzi-Heckler 2014].
  • Steps: (1) Center (4.4). (2) Bring in a mild stressor: recall a difficult situation, or the therapist names a demand [synthesis]. (3) Client notices where they tighten; Strozzi-Heckler lists clamping the jaw, compressing the chest, knotting the stomach, squeezing the eyes. (4) Relax that area and return to center [source: Strozzi-Heckler 2014]. (5) Repeat, slowly raising the stressor only as the client recovers each time [synthesis]. (6) Debrief: which contraction appeared first, and what it is linked to in life.
  • Strozzi variant (not drawn on): the Strozzi Institute also teaches partner practices in which pressure is applied physically (e.g. a grab or push) while the client centers; their procedure is [uncertain]. If you add any physical pressure, it involves touch: follow the consent steps in 4.9.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Think of the meeting with your manager. What tightens first?" "Can you let the jaw soften and come back to your center, with that meeting still in mind?"
  • Watch for: Working: shorter recovery time, earlier noticing. Too much: the client cannot return; drop the stressor and resource.

4.6 Body reading: somatic shape and conditioned tendencies

  • Purpose / when: Observe how the client holds themselves and responds to stress, to identify the habitual shape (examples in the Strozzi lineage: withdrawing, fear, trying to dominate, rigidity, over-accommodating). Ongoing, from assessment on [source: Wikipedia, Strozzi Institute; Strozzi Institute, Bodywork, which teaches "reading body patterns"].
  • Steps [synthesis, built on the sources' concept]: (1) Observe standing, sitting, walking, breath, voice, eye contact and how the client makes and breaks contact (Gestalt). (2) Note repeated contractions and where they sit (e.g. chest, belly, jaw). (3) Watch what happens under mild stress (4.5). (4) Share observations tentatively, as description, and ask the client to check them against their own sensation. (5) Link the shape to its history and what it protected (4.16).
  • Example language (illustrative): "I notice your shoulders lift and your breath stops when you talk about your father. Can you feel that?"
  • Watch for: Feedback about the body can feel shaming; describe, never diagnose character, and let the client's experience override your reading [synthesis].

4.7 Gestalt open-chair dialogue

  • Purpose / when: Hall's classical Gestalt method within Lomi: bring a relationship or inner conflict into the present, reveal projections, and let the emotion be felt in the body. Use when a person (alive, dead or internal) carries unfinished feeling [source: Gates et al. 2012].
  • Steps: (1) Set out an empty chair; Hall sits beside the open chair and invites the client into it in the classical format [source: Gates et al. 2012]. (2) The client imagines the other person there and speaks directly to them in the present tense. (3) Track body and voice; when emotion appears, slow down and name it in the body (4.2). (4) Have the client switch chairs and answer as the other person [source: Gates et al. 2012]. (5) Continue switching until something shifts. (6) Explore the projection: Hall's aim is the realisation that the client is speaking to themselves, not the other person [source: Gates et al. 2012]. (7) Talk through and educate (4.15).
  • Example language (illustrative): "Imagine your mother in that chair. Tell her what you never said." "Now sit in her chair. What does she say back?" "Whose voice is that?"
  • Watch for: Overwhelm (Hall: it can happen too quickly); stop at a point the client can integrate. Working: emotion felt and contained, a fresh realisation, posture or breath change.

4.8 Polarity work: top dog and underdog, and the impasse

  • Purpose / when: Work with inner splits that Hall, after Perls, calls top dog and underdog; emotion arises from their conflict, and the goal is integration of the two sides. Use when a client is stuck between "should" and resistance [source: Gates et al. 2012].
  • Steps: (1) Identify the two sides. (2) Give each a chair or a place in the room [Gestalt convention; synthesis]. (3) Let each speak in turn, with the client noticing how each feels in the body (posture, breath, voice). (4) Keep the dialogue going until it reaches a stalemate, Perls's impasse [source: Gates et al. 2012]. (5) Stay at the impasse with awareness rather than rushing a solution; Hall describes a possible transcendence of the split from here [source: Gates et al. 2012]. (6) Debrief what each side needs.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Be the part that says you must. How does it stand?" "Now be the part that won't. What does it feel like in your body?"
  • Watch for: Impasse can feel like confusion or panic; resource with centering. Working: softening of both sides, new options, a felt sense of both being "me".

4.9 Lomi bodywork on armoring bands (touch with breath and attention)

  • Purpose / when: The hands-on core of the tradition. Lomi bodywork grew from Hall's Rolfing and Polarity training; practitioners trained in it in the 1970s describe it as combining Rolfing, Polarity and Gestalt, aiming to "release deep-muscle tension and emotional repressions" [source: The Sun 1979; Hall 1994]. Its Strozzi descendant works on "armoring bands", described as patterns of contraction that limit sensation, movement, emotion and aliveness, using touch, breath, sound, movement and gesture with directed attention [source: Strozzi Institute, Bodywork; Wikipedia, Strozzi Institute]. "Armoring" is a Reichian theory term; treat it as the school's model, not anatomy. Use only for clients who want it, after stabilisation, and only if you are trained in it.
  • Training and licence: Touch requires specific training (Strozzi bodywork is a supervised 5-day immersion after prior training [source: Strozzi Institute, Bodywork]), ongoing supervision, and a check of what your licence, professional code, insurer and jurisdiction allow. Many psychotherapy licences restrict or forbid therapeutic touch; if so, refer to a qualified bodyworker and work with sensation without touch [synthesis].
  • Contraindications and screening (none listed in sources; all [synthesis]): the 1979 account shows that Lomi bodywork included deep, sustained pressure, so screen as for deep-tissue work [source for the pressure: The Sun 1979]. Screen for: recent injury, surgery, fracture or acute inflammation in the area; osteoporosis, bleeding disorders or anticoagulants (for firm pressure); pregnancy (avoid deep abdominal work and get obstetric clearance); cardiovascular disease; history of sexual or physical abuse not yet stabilised; current psychosis, severe dissociation, active suicidality; recent trauma without stabilisation; a client who cannot say no in the relationship; and any romantic or sexual dynamic in the therapy. When in doubt, no touch.
  • Consent steps (sources mention "precise touch distinctions" and a contained, safe setting but give no protocol [source: Strozzi Institute, Bodywork]; the steps are [synthesis]): (1) Explain exactly what you propose, where your hands will go, why, and how firm. (2) Ask; accept no or "not yet" without pressure. (3) Offer a no-touch alternative (client places their own hand there; sensation tracking; movement). (4) Agree a verbal and a non-verbal stop signal and confirm you will stop immediately. (5) Check in during ("Still OK?"), at every change of area or pressure. (6) Check in after, and again next session; record consent in the notes.
  • Steps [the pressure types are described in one secondary source; areas, positions and durations are not specified in any source: uncertain; outline is synthesis]: What the 1979 account describes: direct pressure with fingers and thumbs; a "slow deliberate iron", that is, slow, steady pressure with thumbs, elbows, palms or knuckles; and Rolfing-style strokes, done within a session that also used centering, meditation and Gestalt talk [source: The Sun 1979]. Firm, elbow or knuckle pressure is deep-tissue work: use it only if you are trained in structural bodywork; otherwise stay with light contact [synthesis]. Outline for a psychotherapist trained in touch [synthesis]: (1) Client clothed, seated or lying on a treatment table, positioned as agreed. (2) Center yourself first (4.4). (3) With consent, place a hand on a non-intimate area of held tension the client has identified (e.g. shoulders, upper back, forearms, calves, feet). (4) Invite the client to breathe toward the area and track sensation (4.1, 4.3). (5) Adjust contact slowly, staying with what the client reports; allow sound or small movement if it arises. (6) Work in short periods; stop at the first stop signal. (7) Remove the hand slowly; let the client re-center and talk through what happened. Never touch breasts, genitals, buttocks or inner thighs; sexual touch is never a technique.
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'd like to put my hand on your upper back, here, with light pressure. You can say no, or stop me any time by saying 'stop' or raising your hand. Would that be OK?" "Breathe toward my hand. What do you notice?"
  • Watch for: Freezing, holding the breath, compliance without real consent, dissociation, sudden flooding of memory: stop touch, re-ground, discuss. Working: the client reports sensation and feeling, the area softens on its own, the client stays present and in charge.

4.10 Polarity-derived energetic contact

  • Purpose / when: Hall learned from Randolph Stone to place hands on specific points and attend to felt "energy"; he describes this as the turn from body form to the process that animates it [source: Hall 1994]. This is Polarity theory; whether and how it was taught as a set Lomi procedure is not documented in sources [uncertain].
  • Steps: The only procedural detail in Hall's own writing is Stone placing Hall's hands on points and asking whether he felt the energy [source: Hall 1994]. The 1979 practitioners who trained in Lomi describe Polarity only as working with paired "poles" to move energy, without naming points or holds [source: The Sun 1979]. Specific points and holds are not described in the sources used [uncertain]; do not improvise them. If trained in Polarity, follow that training and the touch consent steps in 4.9 [synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "As my hand rests here, just notice anything that moves or changes."
  • Watch for: Present any sensation reports as the client's experience; avoid claims about energy flow or physical healing.

4.11 Breathwork (Reichian-influenced breath)

  • Purpose / when: Breathwork is named among Lomi methods, and Reichian breathwork among practices used to stimulate embodied awareness [source: Wikipedia, Strozzi Institute; senseswideopen.com]. No source gives the procedure, rhythm or duration; the 1979 account of a Lomi training does not mention breathwork at all [uncertain]. Use only the gentle form below unless you hold specific breathwork training.
  • Contraindications and screening (not named in sources; [synthesis]): pregnancy; cardiovascular disease or high blood pressure; asthma or other respiratory illness; epilepsy or seizure history; glaucoma or retinal problems; recent surgery or injury; panic disorder with hyperventilation; psychosis; severe dissociation; active suicidality; unprocessed recent trauma without stabilisation.
  • Steps (gentle deepening, [synthesis] built on 4.3): (1) Center. (2) Track the natural breath. (3) Invite a slightly fuller breath into the belly and back for several cycles, eyes open if preferred. (4) Track sensation and emotion that arise. (5) Return to normal breathing whenever dizziness, tingling in hands or lips, or panic appears; these suggest over-breathing. (6) Close with feet on the floor, eyes open, and a talk-through.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Let the breath be a little fuller, nothing forced. If you feel lightheaded, go back to normal breathing."
  • Watch for: Hyperventilation signs, sudden flooding, dissociation; working: fuller, easier breath, sensation and feeling coming into awareness at a tolerable level.

4.12 Movement awareness

  • Purpose / when: Movement and movement practices that build sensory awareness are listed among Lomi methods [source: Wikipedia, Strozzi Institute; senseswideopen.com]. Use to let a pattern found in stillness show itself in action, and for clients who find stillness hard.
  • Steps [specific movements not given in sources; synthesis]: (1) Pick a simple movement linked to the theme (reaching out, pushing away, turning toward or away, stepping forward). (2) Do it slowly several times while tracking sensation. (3) Exaggerate, then reduce, the habitual way of doing it. (4) Try an alternative. (5) Debrief.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Reach your hand toward me, slowly. What happens in your chest as you do?"
  • Watch for: Pain or injury limits; let the client set range and speed.

4.13 Aikido-derived partner practices

  • Purpose / when: In Strozzi-Heckler's line, Aikido principles (centering, facing an attack, extending outward, entering shared space, blending with momentum) are used as physical metaphors without martial context [source: Wikipedia, Strozzi Institute]; Wikipedia describes Lomi work itself as integrating Aikido and bodywork principles [source: Wikipedia, Richard Strozzi-Heckler]. The Anatomy of Change presents "a set of practices" drawn from Aikido and Lomi Body Work, with illustrated exercises [source: Penguin Random House; North Atlantic Books], but the exercises themselves are not drawn on here [uncertain]; Aikido practice is an adjunct, not a core psychotherapy technique.
  • Steps (low-contact adaptation, [synthesis]): (1) Both stand centered. (2) The therapist walks slowly toward the client (a symbolic "attack" or demand), stopping at a distance the client sets. (3) The client notices their reflex (freeze, brace, retreat, push) and re-centers. (4) Practise options: hold ground while centered, step aside and turn with the movement (blending), or extend an arm with a clear "stop". Any hand contact follows 4.9.
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'm going to walk toward you slowly. Say stop when you want me to stop, and notice what your body does."
  • Watch for: Trauma reactivation with approach; set distance and speed by the client's signal.

4.14 Group process and witnessing

  • Purpose / when: Group process is a named Lomi method [source: Wikipedia, Strozzi Institute]. Hall runs Gestalt work one person at a time in front of a group and notes that observers live the process vicariously [source: Gates et al. 2012].
  • Steps: (1) Agree group norms (confidentiality, consent to work in front of others, right to stop) [synthesis]. (2) Invite volunteers forward one at a time into the open chair [source: Gates et al. 2012]. (3) Do the individual work (4.2, 4.7). (4) Afterwards, invite witnesses to say what was stirred in them, as sensation and emotion, not advice [synthesis]. (5) Educate the whole group (4.15).
  • Example language (illustrative): "Before we talk, notice what you feel in your own body after watching that."
  • Watch for: Witnesses who become activated; check in with the group before closing.

4.15 Educational framing and talk-through

  • Purpose / when: Hall says deep emotional work needs an educational process with it; after intense work he talks with the person about the emotion that is coming into awareness [source: Gates et al. 2012]. Use after every piece of intense work.
  • Steps: (1) Let the client settle (breath, center). (2) Ask what they noticed. (3) Explain simply what happened (how the emotion was held, how awareness changed it). (4) Link it to their life. (5) Agree what to practise or watch for until next time [steps 3–5 synthesis].
  • Example language (illustrative): "What you just felt has probably been held in your chest for a long time. Noticing it, as you did, is the work."
  • Watch for: Lecturing too early; wait until the client is settled.

4.16 Honouring and letting go of the old shape; staying in the unbounded shape

  • Purpose / when: From Strozzi-Heckler's Arc: letting go involves acknowledging how the old shape kept the person safe, which softens it; the following "unbounded shape" is unsettling and learning to stay with it is central [source: Coaches Rising]. Use when a pattern is recognised but still gripping, or when the client feels lost after it eases.
  • Steps [synthesis, built on the source]: (1) Have the client take the habitual shape on purpose, slightly exaggerated. (2) Ask what this shape has done for them and when it began. (3) Thank or acknowledge it. (4) Let it ease and stay with whatever is left, with centering as support. (5) Normalise the in-between feeling.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Let your shoulders curl in the way they do. When did you first need to do this?" "It's OK not to know yet what comes next. Let's just feel this."
  • Watch for: Hopelessness or disorientation in the unbounded phase; increase support and practice.

4.17 Practising the new shape (recurrent practice and commitments)

  • Purpose / when: The new shape is built gradually through new actions, postures and commitments [source: Coaches Rising]; conditioned tendencies yield to practice, not insight alone [source: Wikipedia, Strozzi Institute]. Use from mid-therapy on.
  • Steps [synthesis]: (1) With the client, name the new shape in body terms (e.g. upright, soft chest, feet grounded) and in action terms. (2) Pick one short daily practice (centering, a movement, meditation). (3) Pick one real situation in which to embody it. (4) Review each session what happened in the body under stress.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Twice a day, center for one minute. And before that meeting, check your jaw and feet."
  • Watch for: Practice dropping off; see section 5.

4.18 Meditation integrated with therapy

  • Purpose / when: Hall combines meditation with Gestalt work; attention from meditation is "very useful in Gestalt" [source: Gates et al. 2012]. In retreats he holds silent days with Gestalt sessions in the evening instead of talks [source: Gates et al. 2012]. Lomi practitioners are encouraged to keep their own meditation and body discipline [source: senseswideopen.com].
  • Steps (individual therapy adaptation, [synthesis]): (1) Open sessions with a few minutes of breath or sensation awareness. (2) Do the process work. (3) Close with a few minutes of awareness. (4) Recommend a regular short sitting practice or a meditation class to clients who want it.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Let's sit for three minutes and simply notice what's here before we talk."
  • Watch for: Spiritual bypassing (using calm to avoid feeling); Hall notes early teachers allowed emotion while ignoring it, which he did not want to repeat [source: Gates et al. 2012].

5. Handling problems

The founders' sources address only overwhelm, pacing and being swept away by emotion; everything else below is [synthesis].

  • Overwhelm and flooding. Hall warns that deep work can happen too fast and become overwhelming, and pairs it with an educational process [source: Gates et al. 2012]. Response: stop the activating technique; eyes open, feet on the floor, name five things in the room; center (4.4) and normal breathing (4.3); speak slowly and name what is happening; resume only in shorter pulses, or not until next session. Plan from then on: one activating piece per session, resourcing before and after [synthesis].
  • Swept away by emotion, no awareness. Hall moves people from story to bodily sensation when they get swept away [source: Gates et al. 2012]. Response: name the emotion (4.2), locate it in the body, keep the client's eyes on you, slow the pace.
  • Numbness, "I feel nothing", dissociation. Response [synthesis]: treat numbness as a sensation to note; move attention outward (feet, chair, room) rather than deeper inward; use movement (4.12) instead of stillness; stop any breath intensification and touch; assess for dissociative disorder and use a trauma-stabilisation approach before further body work.
  • Stuck (sessions repeat, nothing shifts). Response [synthesis]: check whether you are pushing for a goal against the principle of awareness over cure; shift channel (from talk to body, or body to Gestalt dialogue); work with the stuck state itself as the impasse (4.8); revisit what the old shape protects (4.16); review whether a different method fits better, as the Lomi Clinic chooses methods per client [source for the last point: lomi.org].
  • Resistance to body work ("this is silly", refusing to stand or breathe). Response [synthesis]: treat it as information and as a valid boundary; explain the rationale briefly; offer the least intrusive version (seated awareness, eyes open); let the client choose; work through Gestalt dialogue with the part that objects (4.8). Never coerce.
  • Non-adherence to home practice. Response [synthesis]: shrink the practice (one minute of centering tied to an existing routine); explore in the body what happens when they think of practising; link it to a real situation they care about (4.17); review without judgement.
  • Ruptures, including after touch. Response [synthesis]: name it; invite the client to say what felt wrong; take responsibility for your part without defending; ask what they need now; if touch was involved, stop all touch until it has been fully discussed, and take it to supervision; document.
  • Consent problems with touch (compliance, cannot say no, sexualised feelings). Response [synthesis]: do not touch; return to verbal and self-touch alternatives; explore the pattern of compliance as therapy material; if attraction or sexualisation appears in either party, end touch work permanently in that therapy and seek supervision. Sexual contact with clients is never acceptable and is an ethics and, in many places, legal violation.
  • Adverse reactions to breathwork (dizziness, tingling, panic, chest pain). Response [synthesis]: stop, return to normal or slow breathing, eyes open, sitting up; if chest pain, faintness or a seizure occurs, call emergency services. Re-screen before any further breath work.
  • Old memories surfacing during body work. Response [synthesis]: slow down, ground, do not interpret or suggest content; let the client decide what to explore; avoid leading questions that could shape memory; move to trauma-focused methods if needed.
  • Spiritual or energy framing that worries or attracts the client. Response [synthesis]: present Lomi's energy and spiritual language as one way of describing experience; follow the client's own beliefs; never suggest body work treats physical illness; refer medical symptoms to a physician. Hall's move into a spiritual frame is optional and later in his arc [source: Gates et al. 2012].
  • Spiritual bypassing (using calm or meditation to avoid feeling). Hall criticises meditation teaching that allowed emotion yet ignored it [source: Gates et al. 2012]. Response: gently bring the avoided emotion back into awareness (4.2).
  • Suicidal thoughts or self-harm emerging. Response [synthesis]: pause body work; carry out a standard structured risk assessment; build a safety plan with the client, including lethal-means counselling (safe storage or removal) and crisis contacts; increase contact; resume somatic work only when stable, beginning with grounding and centering.
  • Group-specific problems. Witnesses activated, or a member pressured to work in front of others. Response [synthesis]: right to pass is explicit; check in with all members before closing (4.14); offer individual follow-up.
  • Therapist's own activation. Hall relies on his felt sense to "sniff out" repressed emotion [source: Gates et al. 2012]; that same openness means you will feel the client's states. Response [synthesis]: center yourself during sessions, keep your own practice (senseswideopen.com), and take strong reactions to supervision.

Sources

Sources:

Additional sources:

Further reading (not drawn on) [uncertain]:

  • Heckler, R. S. (1984). The Anatomy of Change: East/West Approaches to Body/Mind Therapy. Shambhala. 2nd ed. Strozzi-Heckler, R. (1997). The Anatomy of Change: A Way to Move Through Life's Transitions. North Atlantic Books.
  • Johnson, D. H. (Ed.) (1997). Groundworks: Narratives of Embodiment (Vol. II). North Atlantic Books.
  • Perls, F., Hefferline, R., & Goodman, P. (1951). Gestalt Therapy. Julian Press (named by CTSG as the main Gestalt reference).

Not drawn on [uncertain]: any Lomi School training manual or curriculum; detailed Lomi bodywork (areas, positions, durations), breathwork, Polarity-hold and Aikido partner procedures; a primary-source list of all founders; Hall's Groundworks chapter and the text of The Anatomy of Change (no legitimate preview reached); B. Frost, "Lomi Therapy", Yoga Journal, Nov–Dec 1993 (cited by Wikipedia); the Skidmore thesis on somatics history.

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