Over 150,000 people in 14 countries have experienced greater joy, emotional freedom and love.
Founded in 1967 by Bob Hoffman, the Hoffman Process is an experiential 7 day personal growth retreat that helps participants identify negative behaviours, moods and ways of thinking that developed unconsciously and were conditioned in childhood.
Discover the life-changing results Hoffman graduates have experienced; measurable therapeutic outcomes well documented by scientific studies including reductions in anxiety & depression and increases in overall health & wellbeing.
Beneath the surface of human negativity there is a perfect diamond, the essence of the real you. By removing the encrusted dirt from the diamond, the real loving self can be set free. This is our essence, our true spiritual, perfect self – Bob Hoffman
The Process is a life-changing program that will help you become conscious of and disconnect from negative patterns of thought and behavior. Working on an emotional, intellectual, physical, and spiritual level, significant positive changes in your life are made possible. Through a visceral embodied journey, you will learn to diffuse habitual ways of thinking and behaving, align with your authentic self, and respond to life situations from a place of conscious choice.
The Process provides a safe and supportive environment in which you can first confront and experience your childhood pain, resentment and anger, and then evolve to deeper understanding, compassion and forgiveness. The Hoffman Process uses a unique combination of proven techniques including guided visualizations, journaling and expressive work. During the week-long retreat, you are led through a carefully structured sequence of powerful experiences that enable you to discover, isolate and resolve negative conditioning and recover your natural self-confidence and self-esteem.
The Quadrinity Process is the best method I know for the realignment of relationships with parents and parent surrogates and, more generally, a powerful tool in the service of the development of love for self and others. – Claudio Naranjo, internationally esteemed Chilean psychiatrist, author of The One Quest and a pioneer in the evolution of the Hoffman Process
The Process is based on the concept of Bob Hoffman’s Negative Love Syndrome
“Negative Love is intergenerational pain that is passed down from one generation to the next. Everyone is guilty and no one is to blame.” – Bob Hoffman (1921-1997)
Our early upbringing has a profound effect on our lives, shaping our self–image, attitudes, moods and behavior. As a result of this childhood conditioning, we adapt to our environment by developing survival strategies and ways of being, both good and bad. When our adaptive behaviors still don’t result in the love we want and need, we then consciously or unconsciously blame ourselves and/or others.
The Hoffman Process teaches us how to release and resolve the persistent negative feelings of being unloved and unlovable. We identify the major limiting patterns in our lives, trace the root of the adopted belief or behavior and release the pain, grief, anger, shame and resentment that has been stored there for years.
The Hoffman Process seeks to endow each participant with four outcomes: emotional healing and freedom, compassion, forgiveness, and spiritual awakening. It is based on the principle that the persistent negative behavior, depressive moods and attitudes we experience as adults have their roots in the experiences and conditioning of childhood.
Until this original pain from childhood is resolved, it continues to dominate our adult lives through thoughts, emotions, and actions, whether we are aware of it or not. With the aim of healing and transforming these negative, self-defeating patterns, the Process seeks to bring about a powerful realignment and integration of what Bob Hoffman describes as the four fundamental dimensions of our being – the Quadrinity of intellect, emotions, body, and spirit.
The ultimate aim of the Process is to help everyone reach forgiveness and acceptance for themselves and others. This unlocks a deep sense of authenticity which leads to developing a much more compassionate approach to personal relationships and family life.
Intergenerational Negative Love
Most of us are familiar with the power of the messages about how to live our lives received early in life, when we were too young to know better. Many of us believe that these early messages were the best we could get, considering all of the human factors. However, many of these messages had the effect of crippling our present lives. – Virginia Satir, renowned family therapist, author of Peoplemaking and Conjoint Family Therapy
All children want love and attention from their parents. Children believe implicitly that mother and father “know best”. For a child, imitating a parent’s behaviors, moods and attitudes — literally becoming like them – often seems the only way to earn a parent’s love and attention.
When a child takes on his or her parents’ behaviors and beliefs in an attempt to be loved by them, he or she becomes a victim of the Negative Love Syndrome.
None of us were immune to the Negative Love Syndrome and its only result is inauthentic, compulsive, self-sabotaging behavior. The Negative Love Syndrome puts us at war with ourselves and others and disconnects us from our own true source of power, our inner wisdom and authority – our spiritual selves.
Volker Krohn, Director of Hoffman Institute International and Hoffman Centre Australia/ Singapore offers an in-depth exploration of the Hoffman Process. This is the only personal development retreat in the world to be independently backed by research. Learn what the Hoffman Process is, who takes it, how it works and how it can help people becomes their best selves regardless of their history.
Utilising a time-tested experiential and non-invasive methodology alongside cognitive behavioural rationality, the Process creates positive change in brain structure via the limbic brain system where the patterns and emotional memories are stored in the form of images and feelings.
By utilising the cognitive and limbic brain together, the Process helps participants to become conscious of and disconnected from negative patterns of thought and behaviours on an emotional, intellectual, physical, and spiritual level to make significant positive changes in their lives.
The Process dramatically reduces the driving force of self-defeating behaviours, allowing access to previously untapped resources of inner strength, self awareness, personal empowerment, compassion, spirituality and love for self and others.
Participants learn to remove habitual ways of thinking and behaving, align with their authentic self and respond to situations in life from a place of conscious choice. They report that the positive effects of the Process increase over time, making it a truly life-changing experience.
Independent Research
The Hoffman Process is the only personal growth program that’s been independently researched. The research has been conducted worldwide, involving all regions where the Process is run. The latest independent research conducted by the University of California, shows that the Process creates long-lasting reduction of negative affects like depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive behaviors and interpersonal over-sensitivity. In addition, it increases positive affects including higher levels of emotional intelligence, increased capacity for compassion and forgiveness, greater levels of vitality in the body and a deeper connection to the spiritual dimension. For further understanding of the scientific research behind the Hoffman Process, visit the science page.
Emotional healing and freedom
The Hoffman Process creates an opportunity for freedom from life-long negative moods, feelings, and behavioural patterns, including deep and lasting help in the healing of depression, anxiety, interpersonal sensitivity and inappropriate anger issues as well as freedom to be more open, loving, joyful, centered, creative, and spontaneous. For an in-depth understanding how the Hoffman Process can fast track the recovery from depression, read this article.
Featured testimonial from Dianne McCabe, founder, The Happy Path.
A review of existing research from 1985 to 2013 shows that participating in the one-week program has a positive and lasting effect on overall psychological adjustment, in particular, reducing negative affect while improving positive affect, health and wellbeing. The relationship with oneself and with family members has also been found to benefit from HP, along with professional performance and emotional competence in the work environment. – Maria Camara, MSc, PhD
Maria Camara reviewed all existing research of the Hoffman Process(HP) and summarised ‘the HP has a highly beneficial effect on overall adjustment: reducing negative affect, enhancing positive affect, and improving health and wellbeing. Depression levels drastically decrease through working on forgiveness and spirituality as presented in the HP. Relationship with the inner-self and with others improves after the HP.
Emotional intelligence relating to leadership, and empathic responses are more present in the work environment after participating at a HP. The HP is in line with existing scientific models and its evidence-based practices’. Read the full report and learn more about the scientific research behind the Hoffman Process.
There a few things you can do to find out if the Process is for you:
- Take our “Is the Process for me?” self-assessment quiz to learn if the Process is right for you.
- Read our Frequently Asked Questions for more information.
- Read what our Graduates have to say about their experience before and after doing the Process.
- Take advantage of this great offer and book a free 1 hour consultation with one of our professional enrolment counsellors.
Blog Articles
Dr Joan Borysenko discusses the Benefits of the Hoffman Process, the limbic brain system connection and the scientific study by the University of California.
Dr. J.W. Wilson, Executive Director of the Advanced Learning Institute, Canada discusses how the Hoffman Process creates positive long-lasting changes in brain structure.
An in-depth understanding on what depression actually is and how the Hoffman Process can fast track the recovery from depression.
Katy Perry talks to Vogue Magazine about her Hoffman Process experience
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