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The Refined Hakomi Method
A Brief Overview

The unique contribution of the Hakomi method is this: the method contains, as a necessary element, precise experiments done with a person in a mindful state, the purpose being to evoke emotions, memories and reactions that will reveal or help access the implicit beliefs and early experiences and adaptations that are influencing the person’s nonconscious, habitual behaviors.
Hakomi deals with the organization of experience. For people having experiences – that’s you, me and everyone else – an experience just happens, full blown and immediate. We see what we see without feeling or sensing how the brain creates images. We see the shapes and colors, we speak words and sentences, we make hundreds of movements with our eyes, all without experiencing how our brains do these things. All experience is the outcome of complex organizing processes of the brain processes which take place outside of consciousness.
For vision, there are fifty or so different centers in the brain that contribute to the final visual experience. These centers handle things like color, depth and sequence. Their functions become obvious only when they cease to function normally. There unconscious organizers exert very strong influences on our whole way of being. Hakomi therapists are interested in these organizers. We’re interested in the organizers of emotions, beliefs, attitudes, motivations, and behavior. We’re interested in the adaptations that have been made to the most important situations in the client’s life. We call these organizers core material. It is the material that created and still maintains the kind of organization of experience we’re observing in our clients.
Often, core material is inaccessible to the client’s ordinary consciousness, but not as inaccessible as the brain functions that create vision. Through using this method, however, some core material can be made conscious. The method makes core material conscious.
Unnecessary suffering can arise through the influence of certain kinds of core material. The method is designed to access exactly this kind of core material and to provide ways to reduce its influence. This kind of suffering is unnecessary because it is being organized by core material that is no longer appropriate to the present. In addition, the cognitive components, like the beliefs that are implied by the habitual behavior, are over-generalized. Some adaptations and implicit beliefs that developed early in life, while still active, no longer pertain. Though the current situation has changed, the old adaptations are still habitually and automatically applied. Outdated or not, they go on organizing experience, causing problems and unnecessary suffering.
So, we work to bring core material into consciousness. Once in consciousness, core material can be examined and revised and its influence eliminated or greatly diminished. The way we do this is unique.
We do something that no other therapy that I know of does. We do “experiments” with clients while they are in a mindful state. These experiments are brief and evocative. They are created on the basis of what we have observed about the individual and they are designed to evoke reactions that will lead directly to healing processes of emotional release and insight. For this, mindfulness is essential. When a person is in a mindful state, his attention is on the spontaneous flow of moment-to-moment experience. The person in a mindful state is letting things happen without trying to control them. The quality of attention is very different from ordinary attention. Attention is turned inward and just observing. In that state of being, the usual protective mechanisms that prevent certain thoughts and emotions are somewhat weakened. Evocative interventions at such a times can produce strong, significant reactions.
Here’s an example. A person who habitually talks rapidly while carefully watching his listener, may be being influenced by a implicit belief that people do not have time for him. Speaking rapidly is often an indicator of such a belief. One experiment the practitioner may do, again with that person in a mindful state, would be to say something like this: “Please notice your immediate reaction when I tell you, “I have time for you.’”
If our guess about the belief is correct, that statement should get a reaction. It could be something like an immediate, spontaneous thought, “No one ever has!” Or, the reaction could be a sudden feeling of sadness. It could also be a memory of not being heard by a significant person. A whole scene may appear. When these reactions are noticed by the person, it’s not just the belief which is made clear. The feelings and memories that arise also bring with them the knowledge that this issue is still a source of emotional pain.
At this point in the process, there are things to do that will ease the hurt and modify the core material and the behaviors it is organizing. Getting to this point is what experiments in a mindful state are designed to accomplish.
However, experiments in mindfulness aren’t done until several other important things have been established. As a session begins, the practitioner puts him- or herself into a compassionate state of being called loving presence. This state of being is created by focusing on those qualities of the other person that inspire and support appreciation, sympathy and understanding. It is an habitual form of attention for Hakomi practitioners. The client usually responds to loving presence, either consciously or unconsciously, by feeling safer and calmer.
The next thing the practitioner does is to begin to gather two kinds of information. At this early stage, one kind of information we’re looking for are signs of the person’s present experience. These signs are found in posture, gestures, facial expressions and tones of voice. They are things like a shrug of the shoulders or a slight redness starting in the nostrils which may be a sign of sadness arising. Constant, habitual attention is paid to these signs. This kind of attention is essential to loving presence and is an important influence on establishing good working relations. Information like this allows the practitioner to let the person know she is paying attention and is aware of what the person is feeling. It allows the practitioner to respond to the person’s moods and needs before they’re spoken about or even noticed by the person himself. Knowing and responding to the signs of present experience, without having to ask about them, is one of the best ways to establish intimacy and safety.
Once all loving presence is established and the signs of the client’s present experience is being tracked, a second kind of information is gathered, the kind needed to create experiments. This kind of information is not normally gathered by asking questions or obtained through conversation. It’s gathered by observing the person’s habitual, nonverbal behaviors. We call these “indicators”. As Kahlil Gibran has pointed out, The reality of the other person is not in what he reveals to you, but in what he cannot reveal to you. The search for and use of indicators is central to the process. Both of these kinds of information can be gathered within few minutes. The practitioner concentrates on looking and listening not just for the signs of present experience, but for behaviors that might be the external expressions of core material. Indicators are numerous and many are quite common and easily noticed, like speaking rapidly or any constant facial expression. The indicators people have are habitual. They happen automatically, as most habits do, without conscious awareness. Because they are so often expressions of core material, they are the most fruitful when used in experiments. I train students extensively in “reading” nonverbal behaviors for such indicators.
When the practitioner finds an indicator to work with, she draws the client’s attention to it and together they set up and do an experiment designed to bring the nonconscious organizers of that indicator into consciousness. With the person in mindfulness, the practitioner does something designed to evoke a reaction. This process is designed to bring the unconscious material organizing indicator into consciousness or at least closer to it. If the practitioner has chosen a good experiment and has done it carefully with the full cooperation of the person, then a telling reaction is often the results. The reaction itself is in consciousness simply because the person is in mindfulness. When a reaction is noticed, it is immediate and experiential. Its connection to core material may also be obvious or at least, suggested.
These experiments in mindfulness often evoke emotions. When such emotions are not interrupted, they have the power to draw memories and other associations into consciousness, associations that make sense of the reactions that occurred. Once core material is in consciousness, the work moves into supporting the expression of emotion and the integration of the material that has surfaced. Essential to this process is allowing time for the spontaneous integration that usually follows and the creation of new, more realistic and satisfying habits around the revised material. This sounds easier than it may be.
To become good at this work, students and practitioners have some important things to practice. We must learn to cultivate loving presence. We must practice being loving. We must train our attention to be continuously focused on the present moment. We must learn to recognize indicators of core material. We must become good experimenters. So, we have to learn to make good guesses about what various indicators may indicate. And, we have to create experiments that will test our guesses and bring core material into consciousness. Finally, we have to be good at helping people through the painful moments that arise after experiments and to help them discover new and better ways to organize their experiences. All of this is described in detail below in the section on the Six Skill Sets.

The Therapist’s State of Mind: Loving Presence

In this model, what is seen as primary in shaping experience is not external reality-not what is cognized, not the object of awareness-but rather the properties of that moment of mind itself. -Daniel Goleman
The phrase state of mind has much more precise meaning nowadays than it had just a few decades ago. Neurological research has revealed much about exactly what states the brain can be in when people interact. Many books have been written on the interaction of caregivers and the infants in their care. Adults in relation¬ship also affect each others’ states of mind. For the very intimate relationship between a therapist and client, the therapist’s conscious awareness and deliberate control of his or her state of mind is essential. The effect of the therapist’s state of mind on the process of this method is without doubt the single most important factor in it’s success.
To best serve others in their self-study, the therapist must be able to sustain both pres¬ence and compassion. The therapist has to maintain a constant focus on present activity and present experience, both her own and that of the client. That kind of presence is needed. A feeling of compassion is also essential. When presence and compassion are combined and constant, the therapist’s state of mind can be called, loving presence. In training people in this method, the development and practice of this state of mind are primary goals.
In a very short time, loving presence can establish in the client, a sense of being safe, cared for, heard and understood. Self-exploration, especially when using mindfulness, places clients in extremely vulnerable positions. A therapist in loving presence helps cli¬ents to allow this vulner¬ability and provides best context for assisted self-study to hap¬pen. Here’s a quote:
“Loving presence is easy to recognize. Imagine a happy and contented mother looking at the sweet face of her peaceful newborn. She is calm, loving and attentive. Unhurried and undistracted, the two of them seem to be outside of time… simply being. Gently held within a field of love and life’s wisdom, they are as present with each other as any two could be.”
For the therapist to develop this state of mind, he or she must first of all look at others as living beings and sources of inspiration. As one therapist put it:
If you cannot see anything lovable in this person that you can respond to in a genuine way, then you are not the right person to help this person.
It is this intention and habit of seeing something lovable in the other that creates the feeling state necessary for loving presence. The first thing I instruct students to do: create this habit as the primary thing in any interaction! Create it and sustain it throughout your sessions!
I want to start with the most importing thing I have to say: The essence of working with another person is to be present as a living being. And this is lucky, because if we had to be smart, or good, or mature, or wise, then we would probably be in trouble. But, what matters is not that. What matters is to be a human being with another human being, to recognize the other person as another being in there. Even if it is a cat or a bird, if you are trying to help a wounded bird, the first thing you have to know is that there is somebody in there, and that you have to wait for that “person”, that being in there, to be in contact with you. That seems to me to be the most important thing.
There are any number of things that will support this intention. The first goal is to establish a relationship that will support self-study; the habit of gathering information by asking questions and considering an¬swers is not the way to do it. First, one must avoid being drawn into a conversation about abstractions-ideas, explanations, the meaning of the past and such. The therapist’s words and actions must demonstrate that he or she is paying attention to what the client is experiencing right now, cares about what the client is feeling, and understands what that means for the client. This connection through present experience is the key to limbic resonance. So, the therapist searches for what there is about the client that is emotionally nourishing or inspiring of appreciation and connection. Another thing that helps build the right relationship is realizing the proc¬ess as a collaborative enterprise where feelings of partnership, teamwork and mutual re¬spect are basic. The idea that we are not separate, that we are inescapably parts of a whole greater than each of us alone, is the root of loving presence.

Nonverbal Indicators and Formative Experiences

Accessing the kinds of beliefs that pervasively and unconsciously influence experience requires that the therapist get ideas about what the client’s formative early experiences were or what implicit beliefs the client’s behaviors are expressing. To gather this information, the therapist focuses attention on the qualities of the client’s habitual posture, tone of voice, facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, speech patterns and such. Many of these qualities are habitual nonverbal expressions of implicit beliefs. We call them indicators. (In the vernacular: “clues.”)
As you may imagine, there are many such indica¬tors. Some can be completely obvious as to what they say about the client. Others require that the therapist learn them over time. In Bioenergetics, for example, the indicators are often postural. A sunken chest and locked knees for a Bioenergetic therapist would be indicators of “an oral pattern”. Given that pattern, the therapist has both a diagnosis and a way to proceed with treatment. Almost all methods of psycho¬therapy use particular sets of indicators this way and usually refer to them “symptoms”. In this method, we use indicators differently. We use them to get ideas for experiments.
As we interact and relate to others, we don’t normally focus on their little, seemingly insignificant habits. In an ordinary interaction, conversation is most important; we might not consciously think about a person’s subtle nonverbal behaviors. We might ignore a slight feeling of discomfort (about not being believed) which results from the way the other person is looking at us with her head always turned to one side. Odds are she won’t be consciously aware of either the angle of her head or the skepticism it indicates. This level of in¬teraction is usually handled by the adaptive unconscious. In Hakomi, we consciously search for indicators and the turning of the head is a common one. Through experimenting with it many times, I have come to expect that it can indicate formative experiences of not being told the truth or not being understood. The emotion associated with it is usually hurt. Though the hurt is not being felt at the moment, it is an expression of the implicit belief: “I must be careful about what people are telling me! I could get hurt again.” Though not conscious, this belief is controlling present behavior and experience. Indicators are the external expressions of this process.
In Hakomi, we use indicators to create experiments, experiments designed to trigger reactions. This is a vital piece of the method. It is our clear intention to study a cli¬ent’s behavior not for symptoms of disease but for sources of experiments. We anticipate that the experiments we carry out will bring the unconscious, adaptive processes driving that behavior into the client’s awareness. A therapist using this approach is thought of as having an experimental atti¬tude. We are evidence seekers, evidence which is gathered on the spot, evidence that cli¬ents can use to understand themselves. The basic idea is this: (1) indicators suggest experiments; (2) experiments create reactions; (3) reactions are evidence of implicit beliefs. Gathering evidence is what experiments are all about and that’s exactly why we do them.
For instance, if the client’s habit is to hold her head a little bit off center and turned slightly away, we might do an experiment where the client, while in a mindful state, slowly turns her head back towards center. Most such clients, when doing this movement deliberately and carefully will react with fear. This fear is about being emotionally hurt and it is associated with memories of that happening and beliefs about how to avoid it. The habitual turning of the head is only one indicator and the experiment only one that could be done. There are endless numbers of possible indicators and the experiments that can be done. Finding indicators and devising suitable experiments is one of the things that makes this work so interesting. It is a combination of searching for clues like a detective and testing them like a scientist. It is a long way from “the talking cure”.

Experiments

The method is designed to lead clients towards greater consciousness of the implicit beliefs that organize their reactions and experiences. That kind of information is not readily available to consciousness. So, we don’t just ask for the information. Questioning doesn’t usually yield the kind of information we’re after. What we do is: we create experiments using our guesses about what the unconscious material might be. We get our guesses from behaviors that the surface expressions of those deep structures. We call them indicators. Good experiments almost always evoke the memories, images and beliefs that exist at the deeper levels. In order to make conscious what was unconscious (and to satisfy our curiosity by being detectives and scientists), we think, guess and we experiment. All our techniques serve that end.
The discoveries that clients make are the outcomes of experiments. It’s what this method does that other methods don’t do. This is the only method I know of that does experiments in mindfulness. These experiments create moments of insight, you could say, assisted insight. Here’s the sequence: (1) once our relationship with the client is in place and the client understands what we’re doing, we study the client for indicators and make our guesses about what they might mean and/or what experiment we might do to both test our guesses and possibly bring unconscious material into the client’s consciousness. (2) We set the experiment up carefully: we prepare the client; we help the client become mindful; we explain what we’re going to do. (3) We wait for the exactly right moment and when everything’s ready, we carefully do the experiment. (4) Then we watch for and/or ask for the outcome: the client’s immediate reaction.
The process starts with loving presence and loving presence is maintained throughout. Still, you have to switch gears at some point so that you’re doing two things at once. You’re in loving presence which should be an habitual state of mind that shapes all your behavior (your pace, your tone of voice, the way you look at people). At the same time, another habitual part of you is looking for indicators. You’re also listening for key words and phrases. You’re thinking about the client’s belief system and childhood. All this is going on in the early phases of a session. Loving presence, however is the priority. Some part of you has to maintain loving presence even while you’re doing all this gathering of information. You need information… so you can experiment!
Given that loving presence has been established, you search for indicators. When you find one, you create an experiment using it. You have to have the idea that the indicator is one that will probably lead to deeper material. You have to imagine what kind of experi¬ments you could do with that indicator and maybe even what reactions they might lead to. Your experience with the method over time will help you do that. You do all this in your mind because you have to know what you’re going to do. Since therapy is a real time process, you want do this part rather quickly. Don’t start to set up an experiment before you know what you’re going to do. Then, set it up. Experiments have to be set up in certain precise ways.
Here’s what I mean: There are three essential parts of the set-up. The first is: you describe the experiment to the client. You give clear instructions. You say something like, “I would like to do an experi¬ment where you go into mindfulness and I will…blah, blah, blah. If it’s going to be a probe, you might say something like, “In this experiment, you’ll become mindful and when you’re ready, you give me a signal and I’ll make a statement and we’ll notice what happens. Okay?” It helps clients relax a little when they have an idea about what the experiment is going to be like. You don’t tell them what your statement is going to be-though you could do that and I have done it, without losing the power of the experiment. So, you give them a clear idea of what’s expected of them and what you’re going to do.
After describing what you’re going to do, you get permission to do it. “Is that okay with you?” Track for whether it really does seem okay. A client may say okay when they’re really afraid or want to do something else. If you get clear, sincere permission, then you ask for and wait for mindfulness. You say, “Please become mindful and give me a signal when you’re ready!” You track for signs that the client actually went into a mindful state. Watch for the signs of mindfulness and wait for the signal. The signs are: (1) the client becomes very still and (2) his or her eyelids flutter up and down over closed eyes. This movement of the eyelids is almost always an accurate sign that the client is in mindfulness. I use it all the time.
Of course, mindfulness is a radical shift in the way we pay attention. If you’re working with a new client, you may have to teach him or her about what mindfulness is and you may have to help them get into it the first time.
Then, you do the experiment.
If it’s an effective experiment, you’re going to get results. You’re going to get useful outcomes. There are two kinds of useful outcomes: (1) there are emotional outcomes and there are (2) insight outcomes. Sometimes these are combined. If the emotions are intense, your path is to offer and provide comfort, if it’s accepted. Maybe you take over some of the spontaneous management behaviors, if they allow that. You offer to support the client’s spontaneous changes in posture and tensions. These are ways in which the adaptive unconscious attempts to manage strong emotional experiences. Whatever the client is doing to manage his or her emotions, you support that. For instance, if the client covers her face with her hands, you can have an assistant put her hands over the client’s. That’s if the emotion is intense.
If it’s a mild emotion, you can still get reports about the experience or set up a second experiment based on the emotional reaction that occurred. When a client becomes sad after an experiment, or anytime during a session, I offer to have an assistant sit by the client or put an arm around her or a hand on her. It that is accepted, I sit silently and give the client time to feel the emotion and allow associations to arise. This very often leads to memories and/or insights. If it’s an insight, if the client is quiet and you can see from her facial expressions that she is having thoughts and realizations, then just be silent and watch. I learned to do that late in my career. When the client is having insights, the best thing to do is to do nothing. Don’t interfere! There’s nothing you have to do. Insight is a very legitimate outcome of a good experiment. Just wait! You’ll notice when the client is ready to interact again; he or she will come back into contact with you. Then you can say something like, “Had some insights, huh.” Or, just look quietly at the client and she will probably tell you all about it.
We provide comfort and we provide silence in support of emotional reactions and insights.
Now, it doesn’t always go that smoothly. Sometimes there’s no reaction to an ex¬periment. Sometimes, the client has an immediate thought or an image or a memory. You have to know what to do with those things. With a thought, you might have an as¬sistant take it over. That kind of taking over is a follow up experiment. Set it up the same way. There are experiments you can do with images and memories, also. Sometimes an experiment will evoke a child state of consciousness. Sometimes strong memories. There are ways to work with all of these. I won’t go into the details on that now.
I want to emphasize two things about experiments. One is that they’re central to the process and they require a certain precise care when you do them.
You can create experiments not only from physical indicators but from deductions about what the client is saying or doing. For example, a client may have insights and not share them with you. That’s a kind of indicator. You can think about things like that by asking yourself, “When does someone create a habit of not sharing?” “What kind of childhood did the person have?” “Why not share?” “What kind of belief system is behind that kind of behavior?” You do some of that kind of thinking. We can speculate that the person who doesn’t share probably doesn’t expect any help from others. It’s one hypothesis we could have. So, we can then test that idea. Experiments are first of all tests of ideas. That they’re evocative is part of it for our kind of work, but basically they are ways to testing your ideas about the client.
The test of all knowledge is experiment. Experiment is the sole judge of scientific “truth.” -Richard Feynman
You set up experiments to test your ideas about the client. And the experiments you set up are also designed to evoke something. The reactions evoked give you answers to your questions and, if the experiments are good ones, they move the process towards insight and change. If you think not sharing is the result of a core belief that says, “don’t expect help”, then you do a probe like, “I’ll help you.” Or, you ask the client to fall backwards without looking back and you catch them. If falling back is difficult for the client or if saying “I’ll help you” triggers crying and sadness, then you’ve tested your idea and you’ve moved the process.
I have one more very important thing to say about experiments. When you do an experiment, be sure to get the data. Get the data! Get the results! Your asking the client to, “Please notice your immediate reaction when….” You want to know what happened. If you can’t see and hear what happened, get a report! That’s one reason you did the experiment. To find out what would happen. You’re not just curious, you also need that information to move the process. Of course, many times you will have noticed what happened. In that case, you don’t have to ask for the data; you’ve already got it. Make a contact statement or something!
Well, what if they don’t tell you their immediate reaction? What if they get dreamy and start saying something like, “You know, my mother used to make these cookies.” Do you want to hear about cookies or do you want to know what the client experienced when you did the experiment? You’re not there to listen to stories. An experiment can lead to diversions. If it seems to doing that, interrupt. When you get a chance say, “So, you’re remembering those great cookies, eh. I get that they tasted really good. But, you didn’t tell me what happened with the experiment. Can you tell me that.” Get the data!
To summarize: by noticing indicators and making deductions, you get ideas about the client. Then, you test those ideas by doing experiments. So, it’s get ideas and test. Get ideas and test. That’s the information gathering operation within the therapy process. Experiments often evoke strong emotions and insights. That’s another good thing that can happen. When it does happen, you follow through by working with the management of the emotion. All of this leads to discoveries. The process works when the client discovers something about his or her deepest convictions and models of the world. Because we’re looking for that same information, we’re leading the client to exactly what they need to get for themselves.
So, do experiments and get the data. The data can lead you to the next step in the process. What you do next depends on what was evoked. That’s also going to tell you whether your ideas are right or not. If you really wanted to practice the one thing that will give you the hang of the method, it’s this: get ideas and test them. You’ll not only be doing therapy, you’ll be doing science. It’s also fun. It’s why people go hiking in the woods. It’s why people read detective stories. It’s why scientists stay up at night.

Notes on Healing Processes

Here are your waters and your watering place.
Drink and be whole again, beyond confusion.
- from Directive by Robert Frost

The impulse to heal is real and powerful and lies within the client. Our job is to evoke that healing power, to meet its tests and needs and to support it in its expression and development. We are not the healers. We are the context in which healing is inspired.

1. Wholeness is there from the beginning.
Because humans arise from a single fertilized cell, our body is never composed of separate systems, but rather of wholeness which is our underlying origin and maintaining force. Dr. Blechschmidt understood the embryo as perfect, whole and fully functioning within its environment at every moment of its development. Each tissue is a participating and integral part of the whole. Rather than a possibility of becoming something significant, it is always significant.
2. How wholeness is damaged
a. through the vulnerability of complex systems
b. by parts opposing other parts, conflicts of all kinds.
c. automaticity: the need to conserve consciousness requires the development of habits which function outside of awareness. Some habits can prevent the integration of painful material.
3. Mental-emotional healing
a. adaptations, habits and implicit beliefs need to made conscious.
b. mental-emotional healing processes are spontaneous, driving by patterns organized from within.
c. the method works to initiate such processes by doing experiments in mindfulness. It follows with support for the unfolding process and support for integration and completion.
d. healing involves not just the integration of painful material, it involves a change of beliefs, both implicit and explicit, either spontaneously, by internal cognitive activity or supported by the practitioner and assistants.
e. the role of consciousness: as Ramachandran has pointed out, consciousness allows choice. This is the exact opposite of automaticity, which saves consciousness, but doesn’t allow choice.
f. grief, sadness, anger, frustration, fear and terror are the emotions that require integration and healing, where as overgeneralized, implicit beliefs are the cognitive components.
g. part of a healing process is the sharing, being known, trusting, and belonging that are created.
4. How the practitioner, the assistants and the group support the mental-emotional healing process.
a. by demonstrating: awareness, wakefulness, warmth, intelligence and nurturing, loving presence, and trustworthiness. For more on this, see Trungpa on Full Human Beingness and David Kaetz on Feldenkrais
b. first, by initiating (evoking) an e-m process
c. through touch, holding, comforting, and nourishment (see Feldenkrais story about baby crying in Kaetz, endnote 19.)
d. by maintaining and offering a state of peace, patience, calm and silence when needed.
5. Healing is a spontaneous, organic process, it takes its own time. And, it’s important to understand how to support it without interfering.
Like a doctor, I learned to create
from another’s suffering my own usefulness, and once
you know how to do this, you can never refuse.
- What I Learned from My Mother by Julia Kasdorf

Some Details for Discussion

1. Assisted self discovery
(1) seeing the work as assisted self discovery is one of the major differences between this refined method and the original Hakomi and other psychotherapies.
(2) a second major difference between Hakomi and other psychotherapies, one that is unique to Hakomi at the moment, is simply that we do experiments in mindfulness.
Quote: The unique contribution of the Hakomi method is this: the method contains as a necessary element precise experiments done with a person in a mindful state, the purpose being to evoke emotions, memories and reactions that will reveal or help access those implicit beliefs influencing the client’s nonconscious habitual behaviors.
(3) the method of assisted self discovery requires not only the skills of the practitioner, it also requires explicit commitments on the part of the person being assisted
2. Qualities and skills required of a practitioner
(1) practitioners must be able to sustain a compassionate and present-centered state of mind (Loving Presence)
(2) loving presence combines several habits of feeling, attention and mindset. It is an integrated combination of attitude, emotional state and focus of attention.
(3) compassion is the first and most important element, being present is the second.
(4) to be continuously present…
i. is to continuously stay focused on the observable behaviors of the moment, especially the client’s non-verbal activities which modulate communication and regulate the relationship, in particular:
ii. the signs of the client’s present experience and the client’s general qualities and habitual behaviors
iii. requires overcoming one of our strongest, most common habits, namely gathering information through questions and conversation.
(5) practitioners must become masters of reading the information in nonverbal behaviors
(6) six skill sets necessary used by practitioners are described in the outline that follows this one.
3. Commitments and skills required of the “client”
(1) often still called “the client”, but no longer thought of as the clients in regular psychotherapy are. Clients in the refined method may be thought of as self-studying, that is seeking after the truth of who one has become and how with help one may explore and resolve the issues that trouble and confine one.
(2) the client must be capable of entering into a present-centered, experience-focused, non-controlling and vulnerable state of mind (mindfulness)
(3) the client must understand that the process includes as a central element, experiments done in mindfulness. The client must be willing to enter into that process even though painful emotions may arise.
(4) these are the commitments and skills required of people who are clients in the refined method of Hakomi
Note: If the person is very anxious or easily distracted, or is someone who does not understand what the process actually requires, then the work can be difficult or impossible without some prior preparation.
4. Experiments
(1) are done with the client in a mindful state
(2) experiments are specifically designed to evoke reactions that will help bring unconscious material (such as foundational memories, underlying emotions and implicit beliefs) into consciousness
(3) reactions to experiments are noticed in mindfulness and reported
(4) reactions can be thoughts, feelings, images, impulses, memories, tensions or any combination of these
5. Nonverbal Behaviors
(1) there are two kind of nonverbal behaviors that are of primary interest: the external signs of the client’s present experience and observable indicators of core material.
(2) noticing the momentary ones is one of the ways we build and maintain our relationship with the client.
(3) noticing the habitual ones gives us clues to the memories, emotions and implicit beliefs that organize what the client can and cannot experience and is an important step in setting up and doing experiments
(4) habits are often expressions of adaptations to powerful formative events and may point toward important, underlying issues that control the client’s behavior
6. Nonverbal Awareness: Tracking
(1) practitioners gather two kinds of nonverbal information, signs of the client’s present experience called tracking and indicators of core material
(2) tracking is noticing what the client is doing and possibly experiencing, moment by moment. It is an essential part of being present.
(3) we use the information gain by tracking to connect with and to stay connected with the client, by making contact statements
(4) a contact statement names the client’s present experience, quickly and simply
(5) tracking and contact are two basic techniques in the original Hakomi method
7. Nonverbal Awareness: Indicators
(1) practitioners train themselves to notice behaviors that could be indicators of core material. These are certain personal qualities and habitual behaviors of clients, such as postures, gestures, facial expressions, tones of voice and speech patterns.
(2) A few simple examples of indicators are: habitually shrugging ones shoulders, or tilting ones head, or interrupting ones own speech, or speaking very quickly. The expression left on a relaxed face is a prime indicator.
(3) habits like these are designed to operate automatically, without conscious attention. Habits like these allow consciousness to be preserved for the non-routine things that require fresh decisions.
(4) indicators are one of the two main sources of experiments. (The second source involves listening to statements for implications and assumptions.)
(5) Knowing how to create an experiment using indicators is essential.
(6) the practice of searching for and using indicators has become a significant part of teaching and practicing the refined method.
8. Experiments and Their Effects
(1) experiments are done with the client in a mindful state.
(2) when a particular indicator has been noticed and chosen, the next step is to get an idea for an experiment.
(3) once you have one, you ask the client to become mindful and to signal when ready.
(4) when the client signals that he or she is ready, you do the experiment.
(5) if you’ve chosen a good indicator, and if you’ve done a good experiment with it, you’re likely to get a reaction that can begin the healing and discovery process for the client.
(6) the reaction may also suggest or bring into consciousness the core material associated with it.
(7) if the reaction is an emotional one, I do two things that weren’t done in previous versions of the method: I touch the client (More likely, I have an assistant touch the client.) and secondly, I remain silent while the client if the client turns inward and looks like he or she is doing inner work.
9. About Using Touch
(1) touching clients is normally not recommended for psychotherapists. This is primarily due to legal considerations. When I use touch, I first get permission and, since I use assistants and may have several other observers present, I feel quite comfortable using touch.
(2) once permission has been established, assistants will generally touch without asking again.
(3) for a client who is experiencing sadness as a reaction to an experiment, a gentle touch signals the client that we are aware that he or she is emotional, and that we are sympathetic and paying attention.
(4) if there are signs that the client is working internally, (eyes closed, facial movements and nods of the head) we do not interrupt. We waiting patiently for the client to open his or her eyes, look at us and speak.
(5) in these moments of silence, the client is integrating something, making sense of the feelings, memories and thoughts that arise in reaction to an experiment.
(6) silence, accompanied by gentle touch, helps the client to stay with his or her experience
10. The Natural Course of a Healing Process
Mastery of the world is achieved
by letting things take their natural course.
- Tao Te Ching
(1) mental-emotion healing processes are often start after an experiment in mindfulness. These are spontaneous processes that will unfold given the right conditions. As best we can, we provide those conditions. Among them are:
i. the process must not be interrupted or interfered with
ii. gentle touch or holding and comforting when appropriate
iii. attention, silence and patience
(2) as part of the natural course of a healing process, memories and thoughts that make sense of the emotional reaction are drawn into consciousness the that make sense of it. And that’s exactly what we want to have happen!
(3) during this process, we track for the external signs that the client is having memories and insights and is integrating the emotional experience, signs of deep concentration on the face and nods of the head, indicating realization or agreement with some idea.
(4) during this process, the client is gathering memories and ideas and is making sense of them, making sense of what just happened and what happened long ago that left confusion, that left painful feelings unfinished and unsorted out.
(5) after an experiment in mindfulness, clients often start doing this internal work. While doing this, they often have a precise memory that makes sense of their reactions and they may be able to articulate the implicit beliefs it created.
(6) the process may cycle through emotions, associations, insights, memories, deeper emotions, more associations, and so forth.
11. Missing Experiences
(1) certain powerful formative experiences required painful but necessary adaptations.
(2) for some of these experiences, the elements that might have promoted healing were missing. (Janet says, they couldn’t be made sense of and as a result, they didn’t get integrated. They remained “an irritation” unconsciously affecting feelings and behavior in a negative way.)
(3) some aspects of those unintegrated experiences express themselves through habits and implicit beliefs that help manage the difficulties they are still causing. These habits are functions of the adaptive unconscious.
(4) there is one fundamental missing experience: the presence of someone calm, sympathetic, patient and understanding to care for the suffering person and support healing process.
(5) beyond this fundamental missing experience, there are a great variety of other healing experiences that can be created for the client.
(6) during the healing process, the client, often relives an old painful event. Quietly comforting the client is one of the main components of the missing experience.
12. Integration
(1) slowly, resolutions are accomplished. New, more realistic beliefs are formed. Energy is drained away from the long struggle and becomes available for living this very moment. Confusion yields to clarity. A delicious joy is felt and the pleasure of seeing new positive possibilities arises
(2) this is the process of integration, the natural course of things.
18. All the above elements help make the work simpler, faster, easier and more effective.

Latest Thinking
There is now convincing evidence that much of our behavior happens without conscious awareness. On this subject, I can recommend four books two articles. The words used to describe that part of the mind which carries out these behaviors is the “adaptive unconscious”. My study of and application of this idea is the first of four ideas which are the topics of this outline and the most important additions to my thinking over the last few years.
The Adaptive Unconscious.
a. the actions of the AU are generally unnoticed, habitual, and many are indications of early adaptive learning, such as learning the grammar of ones native tongue.
b. some characteristics of the operations of the AU, according to Wilson are, it is nonconscious, fast, unintentional, uncontrollable, and effortless.
c. the operations of the AU can be observed to some extent when a person is in a mindful state.
d. the paper on Cognitive Load by Swiller discusses the limitations of consciousness, as does V. S. Ramachandran in his book, Phantoms in the Brain.
e. understanding the importance of the AU and its operations is basic to an understanding of the Refined Hakomi Method.
The Mental-Emotional Healing Process.
a. Healing, in general, is an inner-directed process. Early in the development of Hakomi, I stated this quite clearly, I wrote “The answer is within.” Meaning, within the client. I have also written, “The impulse to heal is real and powerful and lies within the client. Our job is to evoke that healing power, to meet its tests and needs and to support it in its expression and development. We are not the healers. We are the context in which healing is inspired.”
b. mental-emotional healing is “coordinated and controlled” by the AU.
c. often, our experiments, done with the client in mindfulness, initiate a healing process. This is marked by spontaneous thoughts and memories and/or the sudden experience of an emotion.
d. we support the healing process in several ways:
i. when the client becomes sad, we offer a gentle physical contact, like a hand on the back.
ii. when the client goes inside and shows external signs of processing-like eyes closed, little nods, quick changes in facial expression-we remain silent. This is because…
iii. an emotion will draw associations to it, like memories and thoughts that help explain the presence of the emotion. A good thing to read about this is in a book called, Looking for Spinoza by Antonio Damasio (the key pages are 67-69).
iv. all the attributes of loving presence are important during the healing process
v. when spontaneous management behaviors arise, we support them if we have permission to do so. (The short term for this is “taking over”.)
vi. we pay particular attention to the emergence of spontaneous events, like impulses, memories, thoughts and emotions. These are often clues to the direction the process should take and are signs of the operations of the AU. When such events occur, we try to utilize them in what we do next, like another experiment. This aspect of the process is called Following.
e. I have come to believe that learning and practicing these skills is more important than spending a lot of time discussing theory. Although we do discuss theory some, I provide over 750 pages of reading materials to my training groups, which students can read at their own pace outside of class.

The Process as Three Phases and Six Skill Sets
Here in detail is an outline of the three phases and the six skill sets.
Three Phases
The three phases are: preparation, assisted self-study and mental-emotional healing. All three phases operate within a context characterized by an embodiment within a set of well- defined Principles.
Phase One: Preparation Phase
1. loving presence
a. this phase is highly dependent on your own state of mind skills.
b. search for inspiration (for compassion, appreciation, love)
c. search for signs of the person’s present experience
d. make initial observations of the person’s “qualities”.
2. develop a healing relationship
a. this phase requires good relational skills.
b. this phase requires relating to the adaptive unconscious
c. look for signs of cooperation and non-cooperation
d. make adjustments to the person’s unconscious needs
e. make contact statements about present experience
3. When the person seems ready for it, proceed to the…
Phase Two: Assisted Self-Study Phase
1. Search for non-verbal indicators as expressed by:
a. posture e. gestures
b. facial expressions f. tone of voice
c. pace
d. qualities that describe the person
2. if possible, develop an hypothesis about the person’s models of self and world, based on the indicators you’ve observed.
3. develop and do an experiment with the indicator you’re chosen to work with.
a. these experiments are done with the person in a state of mindfulness in order to bring the actions of the adaptive unconscious into awareness
b. the goals of such experiments are two-fold:
i. bringing the person’s unconscious models into consciousness
ii. initiating phase three: mental-emotional healing
c. experiments can be attempts to offer a kind of mental-emotional nourishment that your hypothesis predicts the person will either have difficulty accepting or will experience as very nourishing, or…
d. the experiment can be a way of working with an indicator for which you have no hypothesis.
e. there is a form for doing experiments that is also described in detail elsewhere in these writings.
f. get information about the outcome of your experiment
i. either by observing it, or…
ii. by getting a verbal report from the person
4. given the outcome of the experiment:
a. refine or reject your original hypothesis about the person’s models
b. do another experiment based on the outcome of the previous one.
c. follow up each time with the getting information about the outcome
d. keep refining your hypotheses, until…
5. the person’s models of self and world become conscious and clear to him or her, or…
6. the process moves spontaneously into the mental-emotional healing phase.
Phase Three: Mental-Emotional Healing Phase
1. this phase requires support for healing skills
2. this phase is marked by emotional expression, strong beliefs, early memories and…
3. behavior controlled by the adaptive unconscious
a. such behavior is sometimes described as “being hijacked”. it is:
i. “nonconscious, fast, unintentional, uncontrollable, and effortless.”
ii. adaptive and usually learned early or under extreme conditions
4. during this phase, the primary tasks for the practitioner are:
a. support the person’s spontaneous management behaviors, such as:
i. changes in posture, such as closing up and/or dropping the head, spontaneous “protective” thoughts
ii. tightening certain muscles, such as the shoulders, chest and stomach
iii. holding the breath
b. provide signals of safety and caring, such as:
i. gentle touch
ii. being calm, softening the voice and having a natural sympathetic facial expression
iii. supplying Kleenex for tears
iv. providing physical support where needed and accepted
c. contain the unfolding process by taking charge and directing the person’s behavior where necessary
d. follow up on the person’s spontaneous images, memories, impulses, and ideas as if these were signals from the person’s adaptive unconscious as to where the process “wants to go”.
e. recognize periods when the person needs you to be silent, by…
i. watching for signs in the face that the person is doing internal work
ii. waiting while the person has his or her eyes closed
iii. when the person does open his or her eyes, wait until he or she looks directly at you and speaks, before you speak
iv. listening to the person’s report about his or her insights, feelings and memories.
f. avoid interrupting the process by encouraging conversation
4. provide physical and verbal comforting and nourishment
5. provide the “missing experience”, that is the experience that was blocked by the person’s adaptations and distorted and/or unrealistic models of self and world.
6. allow the session to come to completion in a natural way when it feels right and/or the person signals that he or she feels complete, perhaps by saying “thank you” or by a few nods of the head or something similar.

The Six Skill Sets

I asked him, Do you know what gyroscopic precession is?
He replied, No!
Then I said, But you can ride a bicycle, right?
He said, Yes, of course!
Well, I told him, That’s my point.

Riding a bicycle is a skill. One theory that explains certain behaviors of a bicycle in motion is the theory of gyroscopic precession. It tells you about the behavior of gyroscopes and why the wheels of moving bicycles are similar. It explains why a moving bicycle turns when you lean. But, you don’t need to know the theory at all in order to ride well. You only have to know how bikes act, which is very easy to learn from experience. With experience, you build a model that predicts how the world acts. Habits are expressions of these models and they are functions of the adaptive unconscious. To ride you need skills, not theory.

I’ve summarized the skills needed for the Hakomi Method and organized them into six basic skill sets. If you learn and practice these, you have a very good chance of becoming competent in the method. Although each skill is unique and can be learned and practice separately, they function within a session as an integrated whole. Here are the six sets:
1. State of Mind Skills
The main skill in this first set is a combination of two very important habits which set ones state of mind. The state of mind is called loving presence and it is an integrated combination of attitude, emotional state and focus of attention. These skills help a practitioner develop a state of mind and being that is expressed effortlessly through ones demeanor and actions. This state of mind has a profound effect on the development of relationships.
a. of all six sets, this is the most important. Reaching and maintaining a present-centered, loving state is the first task of the therapist. Learning to do this is an essential part of the trainings. Some people are already good at this and are naturally drawn to the work. Learning how to look and listen to someone with the intention to find something that inspires and maintains compassion, as well as the habit of staying completely focused on what’s happening in the present, are the basic skills.
b. Being present means keeping your mind focused on what is going on for you and the client right now, moment to moment. To train your mind to be present like that, you have to train it away from one of our strongest, most common habits, the habit of gathering information through asking questions and conducting ordinary conversations. Those are bad habits, if you’re trying to be present. So, you have to train your mind not to get drawn away from present experience by getting overly focused on ideas, stories and conversation.
c. Other skills in this set are:
i. being patient
ii. being and staying calm
Without these habits of state of being, not much in the way of a connection to a client and his or her adaptive unconscious will be possible. Without that connection, the process goes very slowly, if it moves at all.
2. Relational Skills
These are skills that build and maintain a strong connection with people. The principle ones are all about demonstrating these qualities and attributes:
a. through your behavior and a few short, accurate, non-disruptive contact statements, you show that you are aware of what the other person is presently experiencing. getting and staying in contact is the primary skill for connecting and staying connected. It creates the sense in others that you are with them, aware of their feelings and present experiences. It makes you able to anticipate their needs and work to provide help.
b. through your tone of voice, pace, posture and gestures, you show that you are patient, sympathetic and non-judgmental.
c. your facial expressions, head movements and gestures show that you understand what the person is saying, thinking and feeling
d. you work to gain a general understanding the person’s present situation and history. You build a model in your mind that makes sense of the way they feel, think and organize their life
e. you make a habit of keeping silent when the client needs time to think and remember
f. ways to intervene to move the process forward are part of this skill set. They are discussed later in a section entitled, When and How to Intervene to Move the Process Forward.
3. Observational Skills
What’s needed most is a good set of attentional and recognition skills. Here’s a few of each:
a. Attentional Skills:
i. keeping your attention focused on present behaviors
ii. regularly scanning the face and body for signs of present experience
iii. regularly scanning the other’s behavior for possible indicators of unconscious material (Note: A list of indicators appears in this document as Appendix 1.)
b. Emotion and Attitude Recognition Skills:
i. recognizing emotions quickly by subtle changes in tone of voice and/or facial expression
ii. recognizing statements implied through tone of voice and gestures.
iii. being able to guess at the meaning of postures, gestures, etc.
iv. “feeling” the emotions in others, through limbic resonance and mirroring
v. recognizing the client’s need for silence
vi. recognizing the signs of integration and memory processes
4. Modeling Skills
The bridge between observation and experiment is the ability to create models of the laws governing the behavior you’re observing. We could call these skills, modeling skills.
a. This is the method of science. Richard Feynman, the Nobel physicist, tells us the three steps of science are: make a guess; calculate the implications of your guess; and test your guess on the basis of your calculations. “If my guess is true, then if I do this, this will happen.” That’s the gist of it.
b. we use our ability to observe behavior, especially indicators and our knowledge of indicators, to make guesses about the person’s beliefs and models of self and world.
c. then we test our guesses by doing experiments. The outcomes of our experiments allow us to evaluate and refine our guesses.
d. There is a mathematical theorem that describes how perceptions (sensory models of the world) are continuously updated in the nervous system. It’s called, Bayes Theorem, after the mathematician who discovered it. It describes mathematically how models and beliefs are changed in the face of new evidence. It helps us understand how some models can be believed so strongly. It suggests to me how models (beliefs, e.g.) can become so strong in the face of contradictory evidence or no evidence at all.
e. The general idea of modeling this:
i. we need to make guesses about what beliefs (models) are organizing the client’s behavior and we need to do that by observing that behavior. This is a “reverse engineering” problem.
ii. we need to be able to sense some general qualities of the client, to get a feel for who the person is and how he or she learned to be in the world. And we need to constantly refine our models by continuing to make new observations and to do new experiments.
iii. modeling and experimenting is how we do it.
5. Experimental Skills
These are the skills you will need to create and execute good experiments.
a. creating hypotheses about core material from your observations of the client
b. helping the client become mindful when doing experiments
c. creating and executing experiments, using this form: describe how you’d like client to participate, get permission, ask for mindfulness and wait for signs or a signal that mindfulness is occurring, do the experiment, and observe its outcome or ask about that
d. follow the spontaneous reactions to an experiment and use them to support the unfolding healing process (not as easy as it sounds)
e. be able to follow up with another experiment, if that seems useful
f. use the outcomes of experiments to think about missing experiences
6. Support for Healing Skills.
a. supporting spontaneous management behaviors
b. allowing time for the other’s internal processing (silence)
c. following the spontaneous behaviors that arise in the person
d. providing comfort and holding when needed and you have permission
e. create and offer missing experiences

Endnotes

1. Frith, Chris (2007) Making Up The Mind, How the Brain Creates our Mental World Wiley. ISBN-10: 1405160225,  ISBN-13: 978-1405160223
2. Crick, F. & Koch, C. 1995. Are we aware of neural activity in primary visual cortex? Nature 375: 121-23.
3. Of course, some suffering is normal and perhaps, necessary. Grief over a death might be an example.
4. The importance of making sense of our worlds is beautifully described in Macy, Joanna (1991) Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory: The Dharma of Natural Systems. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, pg. 82.    For more about this, see Damasio, Antonio. (2003). Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain. New York: Harcourt.
5. Writing on the Tibetan model of what shapes experience; Goleman, Daniel. Tibetan and Western Models of Mental Health, In: H.H. Dali Lama. (1991) MindScience—An East-West Dialogue, Boston: Wisdom Publications. (pg. 92)
6. A good example would be the research on limbic resonance. For more about that, see: Lewis, Thomas (Author), Amini, Fari (Author), Lannon, Richard(Author), (2001). A General Theory of Love. New York: Vintage Books. For more about social engagement, see the paper: Neuroception: A Subconscious System for Detecting Threats and Safety, at this web page: http://bbc.psych.uic.edu/pdf/Neuroception.pdf
7. Schore, Allan N., (1994) Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self  (The Neurobiology of Emotional Development), Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, Gerhardt, Sue  (2004). Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby’s Brain, New York: Brunner-Routledge, and Cassidy, Jude (Ed.) and Shaver, Phillip R. (1999). Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research, and Clinical Applications. New York: The Guilford Press)
8. It should be noted that, in this aspect, the method is solidly aligned with the most universal spiritual teachings: agape in Christianity, compassion and mindfulness in Buddhism, nonviolence and non-separation in both.
9. From a forthcoming book on Loving Presence, by Donna Martin and myself.
10. Margaret Brenman-Gibson, (1992) in Worlds in Harmony: Dialogs on Compassionate Action,  H. H. H. Dalai Lama, Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press
11. Gendlin, E. T. The Primacy of Human Presence: Small Steps of the Therapy Process: How They Come and How to Help Them Come, In G. Lietaer, J. Rombants and R. Van Balen eds. (1990) Client-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapy in the Nineties, Leuven/Louvain, Belgium: Leuven University Press,
12. A few examples would be: ending verbal statements with the inflection of a question or an habitually sad looking face or tilt of the head.
13. One book precisely about this is: Depression and the Body: The Biological Basis of Faith and Reality by Alexander Lowen.
14. Talk given in class, August 2003
15. Quote from the 2006 Update Handbook.
16. Blurb, on the back cover of:  The Ontogenetic Basis of Human Anatomy: A Biodynamic Approach to Development from Conception to Birth by Erich Blechschmidt.  2004, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, CA.
17. “This gain in adaptability is won at the cost of structural stability and imperturbability, as the system becomes more open and susceptible to its environment. In order to register and respond to what is going on, the system becomes more vulnerable.” — Described in Macy, Joanna (1991) Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory: The Dharma of Natural Systems. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, pg. 84.
18. Ramachandran, V. S., Blakeslee, Sandra. 1999. Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind. New York: Harper Perennial.
19. Kaetz, David (2007) Making Connections: Hasidic Roots and Resonance in the Teachings of Moshe Feldenkrais, Victoria B.C., River Center Publishing. page 83, and Trungpa, Chogyam, Full Human Beingness, in Wellwood, John. 1983. Awakening the Heart. Boston, MA: Shambala,
20. In Good Poems, selected and Introduced by Garrison Keillor (pg156)
21. For a detailed explanation of mindfulness and how it is used, see the 2008 Training Handbook!
22. Strangers to Ourselves. Wilson, T., The Illusion of Conscious Will, Wegner, D. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. Gladwell, M. Making Up The Mind, How the Brain Creates our Mental World, Frith, C., Bargh, J. and Chartrand, T., The Unbearable Automaticity of Being,  available on the web at:  http://www-pu.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de/trivia/Bargh.pdf
23. Cognitive Load Theory. Swiller, J. available on the web at: http://tip.psychology.org/sweller.html
24. In the Update Handbook of 2006
25. The Principles are described in detail elsewhere in these writings.
26. Mindfulness is described in detail elsewhere in these writings.
27. Please refer to the paper entitled To Heal Is To Be Whole Again which follows The Six Skill Sets. It discusses the spontaneous re-adaptation towards wholeness and integrity.
28. “…we can define automaticity as thinking that satisfies all or most of these criteria.”  Wilson, Timothy D. (2004). Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, Harvard University Press. (pg. 53)
29. In some cases, the person will not spontaneously respond. If that happens, help them to recover.
30. See the paper, Three Habits in the Readings.
31. The book is: Five Easy Pieces.
32. It is written about in Making Up the Mind: How the Brain Creates Our Mental World.
33. Note. Forward and reverse engineering and the method. E.g., forward engineering: 2 + 2 = ? This one is easy. 2 + 2 = 4.  Reverse engineering: a + b = 15. This one is harder. There are many possible answers. 5 +10, 4 + 11, etc. Guessing what beliefs and models are shaping a person’s behavior is a reverse engineering problem. It could be any one of many possible beliefs. Why is he crying? Could be sad. Could be cutting onions. Could be something in his eye. We observe behavior and have to guess about the beliefs and models. That’s a reverse engineering problem. Guesses are required. Hopefully, educated guesses.