Embodied Mindfulness
Sue Reynolds
Hakomi Basics and Personhood
with Donna Martin, Senior Trainer and Legacy Holder
Two hours Friday evening,
6-8 pm Eastern time on the following dates:
November 27, 2020
January 29, 2021
February 26, 2021
March 26, 2021
April 30, 2021
Training in the Hakomi method begins by establishing a focus on self-study and assisted self-discovery and moves on to developing effective communication and relational skills based on embodied mindfulness, loving presence, compassionate witnessing, and perceptual wisdom. Studies have shown the importance of “personhood” and presence in creating a context for healing. Hakomi is an experiential method. In the Hakomi Basics and Personhood program participants are introduced to Hakomi through a variety of experiential practices to cultivate self-awareness and a genuine appreciation for oneself and others. You’ll begin to learn and practise some powerful ways Hakomi has to respond more effectively to suffering. This is like an immersion program to learn a language. By being immersed in an experiential Hakomi way of bringing conscious awareness to the habits and beliefs that are organizing experience, you develop a feel for this way of working and learn to cultivate the skills that will make you a better therapist (or helping role). This is also an excellent review of the basics of Hakomi for anyone and in particular, for anyone thinking of becoming a Hakomi teacher.
You Do Not Have To Be Good:
Psychotherapy and Spiritual Practice
(An integrated approach to healing the spirit, by Donna Martin)
Here is a poem called “Wild Geese”, by Mary Oliver
(from her book, “Dream Work”, 1986.)
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
A Video Interview about Hakomi
with Donna Martin and Wendy Wildfong
This video is posted on Wendy Wildfong’s YouTube channel at THIS LINK. If you wish to view it directly on YouTube, there are also some other interviews there between Donna and Wendy, illuminating aspects of the Hakomi Method.
The Hakomi Way
by Donna Martin, (edited by Ron Kurtz)
The Hakomi Method of psychotherapy has been described by its creator, Ron Kurtz, as a method of assisted self-study.
What Hakomi is interested in studying is the organization of experience. To do this, Hakomi uses mindfulness – a kind of quiet, non-interfering attention to present moment experience – and little experiments to evoke experiences to study. The attention in Hakomi is on present experience.
The Hakomi practitioner is trained to pay attention to two things about present experience: first, what it is (i.e. what is happening now); and second, how it is being organized. We call this way of paying attention “tracking”. First, we are tracking signsof the client’s present experience. Secondly, we are tracking for indicators (that may be signs) of how the client is organizing present experience. Continue reading
Georgia Marvin
is a Hakomi practitioner, senior trainer and legacy holder. Georgia was trained in the Hakomi tradition with Ron Kurtz and Donna Martin for twelve years. She loves the Hakomi method because it blends subtle and masterful tools of modern sciences of the mind with Buddhist principles of mindfulness and compassion to provide its students with a life long practice of self study. Georgia leads the training team in Vancouver and Powell River, BC, contributes to the development of Hakomi trainings in Canada, Mexico, Norway, Japan and Spain, and is creating opportunities for Hakomi to be taught worldwide. Her intention is to mentor new teachers and trainers to carry Ron’s legacy forward.
Click here to visit Georgia Marvin’s website.
Donna Martin
from Kamloops, BC, Canada, is a certified Hakomi therapist and international trainer who worked closely with Ron Kurtz (the creator of the Hakomi Method) for twenty years. She was named in his will as one of seven “legacy holders” of his work and is a senior person in the international training association he created before his death, now called the Hakomi Network. Donna has many years of experience as a body psychotherapist, stress management specialist, yoga and meditation teacher, and addictions counsellor. Donna has led Hakomi trainings and/or yoga retreats throughout Canada and the United States, Hawaii, Japan, Europe, Indonesia, South America, and Mexico. She has developed an original approach she now calls “psoma yoga therapy” which integrates yoga and Hakomi (mindfulness-based assisted self-discovery).
For more about Donna please vist her website.
To view a video of Donna talking about Hakomi please click here.
Susan Dempsey
Susan Dempsey
Hakomi practitioner and trainer
Victoria and Vancouver, BC, Canada
Associated with Vancouver Hakomi Education Network
Susan Dempsey became a certified Hakomi practitioner in 2014 after studying for 5 years in Vancouver, Salt Spring Island, Ashland, Hawaii, and Mexico with brilliant teachers and trainers. She holds a BA in Psychology, an MA in Counselling Psychology, and is a Certified Canadian Counsellor.
Susan has worked in the counseling and psychotherapy field for over 25 years, in community and post-secondary settings. She brings a strong intuitive and elective approach to her work, incorporating the compassion and wisdom of Hakomi into her practice.
Roland Bérard
Roland Bérard
Hakomi practitioner and trainer
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Roland Bérard is a certified Hakomi Therapist and Trainer. He has been studying with Donna Martin, Ron Kurtz and Greg Johanson, since 2002. In 2003, in collaboration with Donna Martin, he introduced Hakomi to the Montreal area and has assisted Donna and served as organizer of these bilingual trainings for the last 6 years. He continues to support the Hakomi community in the area.
Roland is also a graduate of Barbara Brennan School of Healing practitioner and teacher training programs, a graduate of Core Energetics, a Reiki Master/Teacher, Fasciatherapist (Danis Bois’ Method) and a practitioner of Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). Roland worked as an engineer and project manager for over 25 years before making the career change to therapist and healing practitioner in 2001.
Roland is totally bilingual and has a private practice in Montreal, Québec, Canada. His passion for healing and his unique way of combining these different approaches help his clients move towards health and well-being.
Angela Davis
Angela has been studying Hakomi since 2004 with the Vancouver Hakomi Education Network and has also had the honour of learning from Ron Kurtz and Donna Martin. She was certified as a Hakomi therapist in 2007 and as a Hakomi Trainer in 2015.
In her life and in her work, Angela has been cultivating a deeper understanding of the Hakomi principles. This grounds her as she balances the pursuit of academic knowledge with other ways of knowing. Supporting VHEN as a trainer and supporting the growth of Hakomi in the world continues to be a joy and vital endeavor for Angela. She is currently nearing the completion of her Master of Psychotherapy and Spirituality program and has a private Hakomi practice in Kamloops BC.
Please click here to visit Angela Davis’s site.
