The Hoh method is a unique form of self-healing in which obstructive emotions present themselves in such a way that they can be discharged in peace. During a session this takes place in an inactive manner. Without targeted action regarding negative emotions, such as living through it, letting it go, giving it a place or understanding or analyzing it.
Negative emotions naturally dissolve in a free experience. The method is therefore an expression of Wu Wei, a tenet of Taoism in which original life is regarded as a non-active, free-flowing spirit. During a session you will be guided to allow this non-active flow to surface within yourself as a free experience. This is a liberating feeling that always coincides with an inner rootling. This grounding within yourself is characteristic of a free experience and provides deep peace and relaxation. Words given to the experience vary from openness, freedom, light, spaciousness, love, breathing life, to enthusiasm and joy.
Read here how clients experience the Hoh method.
Cramping, narrowing and uprooting
Recurring and often dormant negative feelings cause a life under stress. Chronic stress manifests itself in physical and psychological complaints. Physically these are different forms of cramping. Muscles and tendons can cramp, but the vagus nerve is also sensitive to cramping and can cause a range of physical complaints. On a psychological level, chronic stress manifests itself as constrictions in the mind, such as frustration, loneliness, uncertainty, stress or anxiety.
A physical cramp or a narrowed mind can be traced back to a feeling of uprooting. The personal identity experiences no connection with its originality, which means it feels itself without roots or ‘without a foundation under its feet’. This creates a life with an underlying existential fear, the deeper source of chronic stress. As modern humans, we are often outliving our existential fear. Many people long to heal the feeling of uprooting or alienation within themselves. Mental, emotional complaints, but also many physical symptoms that I encounter when asking for help, are therefore often interpreted as this deepest wish for self-healing.
Healing Open Heart
The Hoh method originated here in practice and responds to the lack of rooting with regard to the innate grounding of life. Based on Taoist ideas, classical Chinese metaphysics and aspects of transpersonal psychology, there appears to be a surprisingly simple and effective way to bring the rooted life and its free experiences within yourself to the surface in a treatment.
Hoh is an abbreviation of Healing Open Heart, it refers to the opened heart that is present in every person and is central to a Hoh session. In practice, I regularly hear people say that they cannot feel or that they think their heart is closed, broken or traumatized by everything they have had to endure in their youth or adult life. A Hoh session proves the opposite of this misunderstanding again and again. Everyone can not only feel but also truly feel completely. Why? Because the heart simply cannot close. It can perceive constrictions of the mind and identify with it but is never constricted itself. It has perceived all traumatic moments in your life as constrictions but has never itself been affected or distorted by trauma.
Non-rationalizing flow
In the non-rationalizing flow of a Hoh session, the brain serves the heart. Feelings are only named but not understood, analyzed or explained. You are never asked why a feeling arises and feelings cannot be captured in your personal narrative.
The Hoh method is a ‘flowing’ session in which you naturally descend from superficial constrictions in the mind, such as feelings of uncertainty, anxiety or fear, to more deeper constrictions in the mind. Clients are often surprised that they can so easily penetrate one of their deepest negative feelings. This corresponds to an aspect of water, which naturally flows to the lowest level. The name Hoh (H2O) therefore symbolizes the spirit as flowing water.
Space and relief in everyday life
Just as the free experience surfaces in a session in a non-active manner, it also continues to work in a non-active manner after the session. Clients report that they experience more space in their daily lives. You will notice that the negative hindering emotions decrease in intensity more end more. You notice that you can set boundaries with your environment more easily. Relationships that previously were a trigger and released negative emotions are softened and experienced in much more peace. Because the existential fear fades into the background and eventually disappear, the original roots within yourself can become your natural foundation again. You experience a deeper connection within yourself and therefore a deeper connection with people around you.