Hakomi Therapy
Hakomi techniques recognize that observing and tracking the client can lead to understanding the client’s world. Hakomi supports the idea that no intervention techniques should be undertaken unless they are appropriate based on the client’s conscious and unconscious worlds. Clients with certain serious mental disorders may need pre-therapy sessions to prepare them for the Hakomi techniques. (Capuzi and Gross, 2007).
The Hakomi counselor must be careful before he takes the client into certain states such as child-like consciousness or probing into strong emotions so that this is not done before the client is ready. Since the emotional rapids technique centers on strong emotions and deep-seated beliefs, the counselor must ethically get the client’s consent and warn the client that strong emotions may be displayed. Some cultures guard against emotional displays so the client must be forewarned that this may happen and given a chance to proceed or abstain from this intervention.
Since Hakomi is a body-centered technique, the use of touch may come into play during therapy. As with emotional displays, different cultures have different restrictions about touch. Individual preferences play a role as well. It is the ethical duty of the therapist to find out how comfortable the client is with the use of touch for therapeutic purposes and explain to the client what sorts of touch will be utilized.
As stated by Ron Kurtz, (2006), “assisted self discovery requires a commitment on the part of the person being assisted (still called the client), that he or she be capable of entering into a present-centered, self-focused, and vulnerable state of mind. The client must understand the process as experiments done in mindfulness. He or she must be willing to enter into that process even though painful emotions may arise.” It is the ethical duty of the counselor to make the client aware of this.
References:
Capuzzi, D., Gross, D. R. (2007). Counseling and psychotherapy: Theories and interventions (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. ISBN: 0131987372.
Kurtz, R. (2006) Core of the Method; retrieved from http://www.hakomiway.ca.pdf/Core%20of%20the%20Method%20English.pdf on Feb. 25, 2009;
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