Breaking Negative Patterns and Healing Your Inner Child Through the Hoffman Process

Sami Spalter and Sami Clarke—aka the Samis—are back with their first “Shoot the Shit” episode of 2025 on Transform this week, diving deep into one of wellness’s most transformative experiences: the Hoffman Process. They’re holding nothing back as they discuss their personal journeys of growth and self-discovery. 

Established in 1967, the Hoffman Process is about examining emotional patterns inherited from parents and excavating trauma and learned negative traits while leading with love. Stars like Hota Kotb, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Oliver Hudson, and Gwyneth Paltrow have done it, and many celebs credit it with helping them break destructive patterns.

Spalter began her year with a profound experience at the Hoffman Institute, where she reconnected with what makes her shine after struggling with self-doubt. The timing of the Hoffman retreat was both divine and busy. For the retreat, you take seven days off, and Spalter was nervous having never done that before with a lot of upcoming work scheduled.

The end result was worth it: “This process showed me who I am when I am spirit led. When I think about my spirit, I honestly think of a goddess. I see myself as someone who needs to shine bright. Now, I can just be me in my boldest sense and give everyone else permission to meet me where I am.”

Check out this week’s episode of Transform as the Samis dive into what the Hoffman Process is like and how it helped them rediscover their confidence and what truly makes them shine.

The Journey to the Hoffman Institute

At the end of 2024, Spalter was not feeling like the best version of herself. She had lost her confidence and when the new year began, she was hit with a series of setbacks. 

“There was like a domino effect. I’m really close to my grandfather, and he suddenly passed away. Then, our dogs got super sick. Then, I had Hoffman nearing, and I had so much work that I had to get done, but I couldn’t be present,” she shares.

While she originally recommended it for her brother, he hasn’t done it yet. “My brother, Frankie, forced me to see that, ‘If it’s so great and all of your mentors recommend it: Why aren’t you going to do it? And that permission was all I needed. I booked it for January 18.” 

Inside the Hoffman Process 

Spalter shares limited details about the enlightening experience because she wants any future clients to have the true experience without judgement: “I think a lot of people have heard of the Hoffman Process, but I went in blind. I didn’t want to know anything, and I’m also not going to tell you guys anything specifically because I believe that there is a lot of magic in the unknown.”

During the weeklong process, you give up all technology (hand over that phone!) and basically your regular life. Clients spend the week unpacking early childhood patterns that they learn from their parents. 

“It was seriously one of the hardest things I’ve ever done and, absolutely, the most rewarding experience. I’ve been in therapy for two decades. I love my therapist, but this shit was different,” Spalter says about her experience at The Hoffman Institute, which is located in Northern California.

Spalter also emphasizes the power of doing the work in a group setting: “This group of people that I was able to get to know. These are people that will forever be in my life. They hold such a special place in my heart.”

From Projection to Acceptance and Forgiveness

Spalter’s mom died unexpectedly two years and a month to the day that she went to the Hoffman Institute. She died suddenly, which didn’t leave time for a proper goodbye. Spalter says that her time at the Hoffman Institute allowed her to better understand her mom. It ultimately led to forgiveness.

“I was really able to forgive my mom,” Spalter says. “Through the process, I was able to tap into a level of compassion of seeing my mom differently. She was once just a kid who was trying her freaking best.”

One thing Spalter learned was the key to forgiveness was acceptance. “I couldn’t find the place within me to forgive her because I didn’t have the acceptance. But I found acceptance and was able to forgive her. I was also able to release her from just this distorted view that I was forcing on her.”

Working With Your Inner Child

Spalter is so grateful to have done the Hoffman Process before becoming a mom. She says that she’s excited to someday get to be a mom from a place of herself versus being a mom from a place of rebellion against what she went through.

“I feel like it was prenatal boot camp for me. I literally cut the cord from the generational trauma that has been living in my family for so long. That is not for me and not for my future kids. If that was the one thing that I could take out of this process, then home run.”

For more on the Hoffman Process and Spalter’s experience listen to the rest of this week’s episode of Transform.