Presence Therapies

What is Presence Scotland??

2011-07-13T05:51:00.001-07:00

Presence Scotland is the name for my business working with the Hakomi Method. Hakomi is a therapeutic approach which is based on this basic awareness that permeates all experience, which may also be called 'presence', as it is right here, right now, always present.

When as human beings we suffer and feel stuck in patterns we often seek to know how to change and feel better. With Hakomi we know that the wholeness that we seek is already present, and that all we need is to know how to see this, invite it to unfold and to feel safe enough to allow that.

Emotional healing, psychological healing, whatever you want to call it, these are basically acts of faith in our own resources, our innate wholeness and awakeness. Healing can be thought of as a shift towards wholeness which happens spontaneously when conditions allow it.

Hakomi is a way that one person skillfully supports another to recognise and access their innate wholeness. Through another person's faith in you and in the healing process, you can come to have more faith in yourself.

So using this method we pay attention to present experience with curiosity, compassion, humour and love. We support what is happening spontaneously in body, mind and emotion and get curious about what 'wants to happen'. We are bringing the unconscious material that organises our perception, our feelings, our life into clear awareness. We are learning about ourselves through direct experience. It is a journey of self discovery on which old pains arise and are given the attention and nourishment to allow them to resolve. What was buried finds the warmth and kind attention that it was waiting for and life flows through us more freely.

More detail about the INTRODUCTORY WORKSHOP

2011-07-07T07:10:00.000-07:00

I recently had an enquiry from a potential workshop participant asking if I could give more detail about the content of these workshops and if it is aimed at lay or professional people. Here's what I replied....

Happy to give you a bit more information. The workshop is really for anybody curious about self exploration and supporting others. Previous workshops have attracted therapists and lay people alike and people who are interested in studying therapeutic practices.

The content of the workshop will be a combination of experiential exercises and discussion. We try out things with an experimental attitude and then talk about what we discovered. Exercises are usually in pairs or small groups as Hakomi is about learning to support other people and to be supported in a loving way. It differs from meditation in that we are exploring how we are organised habitually in relation to other people in the moment.

Our first task is to create an open and spacious state of mind with which to meet the other so it is useful to uncover what habits we have when attending to other people. So an example of a common exercise is to have a group of three and one person talks and the others listen and use mindfulness to notice what automatically happens when they listen to another. What assumptions do you have? What role do you take? Where does your attention go? What are you drawn to do? So the intention in this exercise is to notice any habits and then let them go - don't act on them, and then see what happens. People always have a wide range of experiences in this exercise. Some feel a great relief that they don't have to do anything but sit and notice. Others can find it very difficult not to act on their habits. This doesn't matter, the point is just to learn what your habits are so that they can become choices.

The exercises are all quite different and there is quite a large and ever evolving menu of Hakomi exercises. The style is very open and playful and experimental. It is always inspiring to have others be willing to study their automatic habits and unconscious patterns inour presence. There is usually some nervousness as we will often be strangers but the spacious and gentle style of the work creates a lot of safety and these feelings are held with compassionate awareness as part of the process of self study.

Hakomi is a therapeutic method which takes several years to train in and many years to master. These intro workshops aren't really geared to teach you the method but just to give a taste. I like the metaphor of Hakomi as a very nourishing stream and this workshop is a playful splash around and taste of the waters, which if people want to follow can lead into the wider river which may be skillfully navigated. The intention is for people to have a nourishing experience more than to learn something theoretical about the method although that usually happens too.

I hope this gives you a bit more of an idea of the sort of thing involved. Please ask more if you feel the need.

All the best,

Diarmid.

- Show quoted text -

Hakomi Workshop July 2011

2011-07-07T06:06:00.000-07:00

‘Deep Nourishment Through Mindfulness.’
INTRODUCTORY WORKSHOP IN THE HAKOMI METHOD
July 30th and 31st 2011

At 'Gathering Essence.' School of Daoist Yoga and Qigong Meditation.
14a Broughton St Lane.
Edinburgh.

Take some space and time to slow down and open your awareness to yourself, to others and to all moves between us. Get a taste of this method for accessing our innate ability to relate to each other with compassion. Hakomi is about 'less is more'. Learn some unique skills to untangle emotional pain and be truly present for others in distress. Hakom is a therapeutic method and way of life that is reflected in the principles of Mindfulness, Loving Presence, Non-Violence, Unity, Organicity and Mind-Body Holism.

Two days of:

- Developing our capacity for mindfulness.

- Discovering liberating new possibilites.

- Supporting each other to study our embodied experience.

- Increasing awareness and compassion for self and others.

- Learning to create nourishing experiences.

The workshop gives an experiential taste of Hakomi and introduces some basic techniques. We will use simple experiments done in mindfulness to help each other bring direct awareness to limiting patterns as they are lived in the present moment, thus opening us more to needed nourishment.

The Hakomi Method integrates scientific understanding and spiritual wisdom, drawing upon Buddhism and Taoism, along with modern influences such as systems theory, neuroscience and body psychotherapies.

Facilitator: Diarmid Baillie, Certified Hakomi practitioner.

Cost: £100/75 low waged or student.

For enquiries contact Diarmid on : 07854 083131.

Or email: diarmidbaillie@gmail.com

Introduction to Hakomi. 26th-27th June 2010. Glasgow Buddhist Centre.

2010-05-03T10:58:00.000-07:00

I am leading a 2 day introductory workshop in the Hakomi Method at Glasgow Buddhist Centre on 26th and 27th June.

Come and enjoy a taste of this powerful method of self discovery and take home skills and insights you can use in your life and work. This workshop is open to all who have an interest in the method whether you are looking for a new approach to personal growth, a therapist interested in new techniques or are considering doing the full training.

The workshop will introduce excercises from the training, allowing us to begin to use the method to reveal how we are organised around core beliefs. Hakomi invites the emergence of new possibilities for nourishment and new depths of connection with self, other and world.

Cost £90/£75 low waged.

For enquiries & booking contact:

Diarmid Baillie 07854 083131 diarmidbaillie@gmail.com

To book send a deposit of £25 and your name and contact details to:

Diarmid Baillie Flat 1/7, 25 E Mingarry Street
Glasgow G12 8NS

For more on Hakomi have a look at my website http://www.presencescotland.co.uk/hakomi.html
also: http://hakomiway.ca/whatishakomi.htm

Some Upcoming Workshops and Events

2009-04-03T08:57:00.000-07:00

Dates: 24^th to 30^th April: Earth Rituals with Larry & Ratnadevi (www.dhanakosa.com)

16^th May: Work that Reconnects at the Tramway in Glasgow (2 hour introductory workshop)

23^rd May & 20^th June Creative Conflict Resolution with Claralynn

30^th May: Singing & Chanting our Ecological Selves with Ratnadevi (venue tbc Glasgow)

25^th & 26^th July: The Big Tent Festival in Fawklands, Fife

(for more details go to www.bodhi-eco-project.org.uk and download our latest newsletter)

Waking Up Our Ecological Selves: Workshop 28th March '09

2009-03-10T07:59:00.000-07:00

Waking-up Our Ecological Selves

A workshop to hold the pain that we feel for the world, awaken us to interconnection and inspire us to action.

Saturday 28th March 11am to 5pm
Phoenix Centre: 201 St. James Road, Cowcaddens, Glasgow

‘What we are capable of loving from moral duty is limited, but when we widen and deepen our sense of self....then our protection of nature is felt and conceived of as protection of our very selves’ Arne Naess (who coined the phrase deep ecology).

We will offer a sequence of experiential exercises based on the Work that Re-connects pioneered by Joanna Macy http://www.joannamacy.net/html/work.html

This work reveals our interconnectedness with the web of life and can powerfully move us to take action on its behalf. This work is one of the foundations of the Transition Town Movement.

Facilitators

Diarmid Baillie is a massage therapist, psychotherapist and Hakomi practitioner, he has worked for Bodhi both as a director and researcher. Call Diarmid if you need more details on: 07854083131.

Larry Butler is a writer, tai-chi teacher & drama therapist; he is one of the founding directors of Bodhi, and has done a facilitator training in the Work that Reconnects.

To book a place, please email: info@bodhi-eco-project.org.uk and send a donation to help cover the cost of the room and refreshments to:

Bodhi, 2/1, 14 Garrioch Drive, Glasgow G20 8RS

Suggested Donation: £10

Professional History and Credentials (with hyperlinks)

2009-02-13T16:18:00.001-08:00

After gaining an MA honours in Philosophy at University of Glasgow, I lived in USA from ‘98 to ‘02, studying a Masters in Counselling Psychology at CIIS, San Francisco. This included a 2 year placement at the Centre for Somatic Psychotherapy. I first experienced Hakomi on this degree; inspiring me to take the full, four year training upon my return to the UK. I’m now fully trained by the International Hakomi Education Network.

In San Francisco I trained in Swedish Massage at the SF School of Massage, which met the standards for the Scottish Massage Therapists Organisation. I have since worked in Harvest Clinic, Shiatsu Natural and Recharge in Glasgow, and for 2 ½ years as a stress therapist for an organisation in South Lanarkshire. Since then I’ve been building my private practise and am now working at ‘The Practise’.

I’ve been through more than 3 years of personal therapy, which helped me to grow and understand myself more deeply. Hakomi is learned by trainees working directly with each other, this has given me a lot of deep therapeutic experience, essential for being able to help others and understand the nature of a healing process.

I bring authenticity and a sense of humour to my work, as I feel these are essential in any healthy human relationship. My style is creative, experimental, playful and informal whilst needless to say maintaining essential professional boundaries.

I am a member of and adhere to the professional codes of ethics of:
The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.
The Scottish Massage Therapists Organisation.

WELCOME! introducing Diarmid and Hakomi Psychotherapy

2009-02-12T07:43:00.000-08:00

Hello and welcome to the Presence Blog!

My name is Diarmid Baillie and I'm a psychotherapist and massage therapist with my own private practise, working here in Glasgow's west end. I'm on Lynedoch place near Kelvingrove Parkin a beautiful new clinic called 'The Practise' downstairs at number 3 (when working that is, right now I'm at home on the couch writing this).

I do a unique kind of psychotherapy called Hakomi, which is growing fast in popularity in the UK and remains uncommon in Scotland. In fact, I think I'm the only Hakomi therapist in Scotland ( If you know better please let me know, I'd like to share a pot of tea with them :-).

Over the past twenty odd years, Ron Kurtz, the creator of the method has refined Hakomi into a method of unique elegance and artistry, drawing upon the ancient wisdoms of Buddhism and Taoism along with modern influences such as general systems theory and body psychotherapies. Hakomi is considered by many (like me) to be at the very cutting edge of therapeutic practise.

So, why would YOU want to part with your cash for a session of Hakomi? I am guessing you are struggling with something in your life and you've decided that you want help from somebody professional. Whether it's anxieties, depression, relationship problems or just a desire for deeper self understanding and acceptance, I am confident that I can help. Using the skills of Hakomi I can help to shed light on the underlying patterns in yourself and your relationships that are the seeds of your suffering. Once brought into awareness, these previously unconscious processes that stifle you and create pain, can be changed into ones which serve and nourish you. For more on what is involved in a Hakomi session and what to expect see the next post on this blog. I wish you all the best and thanks for reading my blog.

Hakomi Therapy... What and Why?

2009-02-12T07:38:00.000-08:00

WHAT IS HAKOMI PSYCHOTHERAPY?

AS A CLIENT, HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE METHOD.

Hakomi is based on the idea that much of our everyday suffering is in fact unnecessary and is produced by unconscious beliefs that are no longer relevant, true or needed. The method is designed to bring such beliefs into consciousness. Hakomi is a method of assisted self-study and discovery. It can bring normally inaccessible mental processes into consciousness gently and efficiently. Once these mental processes (such as beliefs, memories, habits and emotions) are made conscious, they can be examined and modified to provide a more realistic and satisfying way of being. This work of assisted self discovery requires of clients that they can enter into short periods (a minute or less) of mindfulness. Because of this, clients must be able to become calm and centred enough to observe their own reactions, as if they were observing the automatic behaviour of another person.

The therapist pays very close attention to your nonverbal behaviours, such as your tone of voice, movements, gestures, posture, facial expressions and microexpressions. By observing these, the therapist gets ideas about what unconscious material is controlling your automatic, unconscious behaviours. On the basis of those ideas, the therapist creates little experiments, often just a statement, that are done while your are in a mindful state. These little experiments often elicit clear reactions, often emotional ones. These reactions are the links to the unconscious mental processes that create them. When a reaction is evoked, moments later, memories, beliefs and associations emerge which will help you make sense of the reaction. Once beliefs and memories are in consciousness, they are examined and modified.

WHAT TO EXPECT: This method is not about talking out your problems. It won’t be a long, speculative conversation about your troubles or your emotional history. It is our belief that your emotional history, the part of it that has created the unconscious beliefs and habits with which you meet the world, is operating right now. Your history is written in the way you do things every minute. It is expressed by your style and your defining characteristics. So, you can expect that the therapist will be looking and listening for these and will bring them to your attention as part of setting up the little experiments in mindfulness that are the core of the work.

The therapist will also be very warm and kind and patient. The vulnerability that mindfulness entails, the openness to unconscious material that’s needed, all require a very safe environment, which needs a particularly caring, non-judgmental person. You can expect your therapist to be exactly that.

You can also expect the work to bring up intense emotions at times. At those moments, your therapist will work to contain the process, provide comfort and help you understand what’s happening.

Because the method is based on this very direct route to unconscious material (evocative experiments in mindfulness), it is faster than most other methods. It works very directly with nonverbal expressions and does not spend a lot of time in conversation, analyzing and explaining. Something significant usually happens every session.

WHAT YOU NEED TO BE READY:

It helps if: (1) you can stay with and report on your present experiences; (2) you can study your reactions to experiments in mindfulness; (3) you can stay focused on your present experience; (4) You’re able to get into a calm inward focused state and are relaxed enough to allow reactions; (5) you’re willing to experience some painful feelings and speak about them. It also helps if you don’t need to ask a lot of questions or feel like you must solve problems, explain yourself, justify your actions, have a conversation. And you’ll need the courage and be open and honest. That will be your greatest ally.

THE REWARDS: There are many. Relief from persistent painful emotions and behaviours is probably the greatest reward. And you will gain a much deeper understanding of yourself and with that, more freedom to choose what you’ll be able to feel, greater pleasure in everyday living, and to engage in fuller richer more rewarding relationships. Assisted self-study can achieve all that.

Text by Ron Kurtz