The Hoffman Process was developed by American psychotherapist Bob Hoffman in 1967. The Hoffman Process is a tool used to help individuals identify negative behaviors and moods developed unconsciously during childhood. Hoffman recognized that during childhood, we imitate our parents to win their love and receive attention. Specifically, we embody aspects of their moods, attitudes, belief systems, spoken expressions, and even gestures. But if we grow up feeling unloved by our parents, we may later develop behaviors and moods that hinder our ability to show affection toward others.
Understanding the Hoffman Process
To counter this situation, Hoffman believed love was the answer. He began creating the Hoffman Process by asking clients to write emotionally charged accounts of their lives from birth to puberty. He then looked at the negative emotional traits exhibited by both parents, who had subconsciously adopted the same negative traits from their own parents.
This notion of intergenerational pain, or negative love, is fundamental to the Hoffman Process. While parents are certainly guilty of transferring negative love to their children, they are not to be blamed because they were once children themselves and in the same situation. This rather deep level of understanding encourages Hoffman Process participants to forgive their parents and have compassion for their shortcomings.
The Hoffman Process is typically taught during a multiday personal growth retreat, with more condensed programs offered online. Participants are given a safe environment to confront and experience their childhood pain using guided visualizations, journaling, and expressive work such as drawing. Ultimately, the process helps each individual discover, isolate, and resolve negative conditioning and rediscover their self-confidence and self-esteem.
The four aspects of self in the Hoffman process
The four aspects of self, which Hoffman called The Quadrinity, is a framework for understanding human behavior.
Each aspect is interrelated and forms part of a complex interactive system, helping participants identify and then disconnect with negative patterns of behavior on the emotional, intellectual, physical, and spiritual levels.
By the end of the Hoffman Process, responding to situations with habitual ways of operating are replaced with conscious and reasoned choice.
The four aspects are:
- Physical self – describing the body, including the brain, which houses the mental aspects of the self. The physical self is connected with the mind via neurological and biochemical feedback and is the carrier of genetic information. Importantly, the physical self also manifests physical symptoms of unresolved mental conflict and exhibits behavioral expressions of the mind.
- Emotional self – which contains feelings expressed through the physical body. Hoffman noted the emotional self is where negative behaviors and moods first appear. A negative emotional self is defined as childish with no sense of time or space and the tendency to regress quickly. Ultimately, the goal is to replace negative patterns such as rigidity and shame with positive characteristics such as spontaneity and joy.
- Intellectual self – Hoffman believed the intellectual self was a logical and problem-solving thought-processor determining our world views, values, and beliefs. Like the emotional self, the intellectual self also houses negative thought patterns. Negative aspects of the intellectual self tend are compulsive and include a tendency to be critical, judgemental, defensive, and argumentative. Positive traits, on the other hand, include a tendency to be rational, understanding, knowledgeable, creative, and logical.
- Spiritual self – or the non-programmed and non-mediated aspect of the self that is positive, pure, and willing to embody one’s authentic nature. The spiritual self operates in harmony with the universe and is intuitive, intentional, courageous, compassionate, peaceful, and grounded.
Key takeaways:
- The Hoffman Process is a tool used to help individuals identify negative behaviors and moods developed unconsciously during childhood. It was developed by American psychotherapist Bob Hoffman in 1967.
- Central to the Hoffman Process is the notion of intergenerational pain. Participants are encouraged to forgive their parents for not meeting their needs during childhood as the parents themselves likely experienced the same thing when they were children.
- The Hoffman Process considers there to be four interrelated aspects of self: the physical self, emotional self, intellectual self, and spiritual self. Each aspect identifies areas where the individual can replace negative and habitual thought patterns with reasoned and thoughtful choices.
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