Mindfulness

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

                                         – Viktor Frankel

Mindfulness is at the heart of my work.  In it’s most basic definition, it means paying close attention to what is happening while it is happening. As an essential part of the Hakomi method, mindfulness is used to observe automatic responses, including one’s thoughts, emotions, body sensations, memories, mental images, and beliefs. Mindfulness also creates a choice point to test different, more satisfying and effective responses in challenging circumstances.

Mindfulness is extremely necessary and helpful in couples work, as it slows the automatic sequences down between partners and allows for empathy, understanding, and deeper social engagement with one another. This naturally tends to diminish the cycles of reactivity which are often at the heart of marital problems.