What is “HOCI”
Hoci stands for healing our core issues and was created and developed by Jan Bergstrom and Dr. Rick Butts over twenty years ago. The idea of Hoci came from Pia Mellody’s work at the meadows and in her own therapy practice, and her treatment model called, “Post Induction Therapy” or Pit. Jan Bergstrom and Dr. Rick took post induction therapy, with the blessing of Pia Mellody and added to that already great work, which is what is known know as Healing our Core Issues (HOCI).
How can HOCI help me?
Great question! Unfortunately none of us had a perfect childhood growing up, and this is because there were too many variables going on throughout our first 18 years of life. HOCI does not blame parents, grandparents, teachers or legal guardians etc. However, it does help with explaining what we all needed growing up physically, mentally and emotionally to feel safe, secure, and loved.
Without receiving these things, mainly from our parents/legal guardians, research shows that this could lead to mental illness, addictions/problematic behaviors, incarceration, medical diseases, and even dying younger. This information came from the study called, ACES (Adverse Children Experiencing scale) to learn more about this study click here.
The Three Phases of HOCI
Phase I
Hoci helps by educating the individual/group clients about the things mentioned above, and then how they can work on healing these childhood wounds. I have spoken to many clients that stated they did not have any childhood trauma/neglect, only to be able to find some of these wounding when going through the DART (Developmental and Relational Trauma) assessment.
HOCI is experiential (in the mind and body)
In HOCI we do this experientially, which means we help the client get into their body and feel the healthy and not healthy things that occurred in their childhood, buy going in and out of some of these memories. I have found that many of my clients have been very encouraged to know that both their parents did the best that they could to raise them, and that also it was important to get the story straight in order to help with their shaming and childhood wounds.
Phase II
Once an individual and/or group client begins to learn about family of origin, and wounding, and they are ready and grounded enough to do even deeper work, HOCI teaches reparenting skills for the client. They learn how to work with their inner child, this is completely safe and taught by the HOCI therapist, and how to love and nurture that inner child. This can result in less anxiety, depression, and can even teach the client to be a better parent, employee, friend etc.
Phase III
The last phase of HOCI deals with standing in your truth. HOCI is very experiential, as mentioned earlier, it will help you to get into your trauma wounds more effectively than simple cognitive therapy. The last phase helps the client to work with their parents, but not in person as in some cases the parent has passed or it may not be safe to speak to the parent. HOCI therapists work with the client to close their eyes and visualize one parent at a time coming into the therapy room.
The HOCI therapist then leads the client into confronting their parent in a respectful, calm and direct way, to work on what the parent may have done whether on purpose or not, that wounded the client when they were a child. The shame and pain is given back to the parent, but in this intervention the parent is not actually harmed by this, as the parent is not even there. However, I have found that the client does feel a lot of the weight of the shame and pain released through this powerful exercise.
How can I learn more about the HOCI Treatment Model?
If you would like to learn more about HOCI, you can click on the link below. Heather our new client coordinator can set up a free 15 minute call when one of our expertly trained HOCI therapists, or if you are ready to jump right in, you can go ahead and schedule a first session with one of our expertly trained HOCI therapists.
HOCI can be done hourly or in groups and intensives.
HOCI can be done during a traditional 50 minute session, a 90 minute session, a half day, a full day and over three days for those who would like to do this intensely. HOCI can also be done with one therapist and client, or one therapist and up to three clients during a three day intensive. Lastly, we have a HOCI psychoeducational group that meets weekly online for those that are not able to attend in person. To learn more please reach out to us today by calling us at 980-351-6603 or by clicking on this link.
Whether you would like to learn more about HOCI or all of our different and researched-based therapies, please reach out to us today, so that we can move forward together.
