| Focusing Training |
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Focusing is a way of listening to the body’s wisdom. It is a practice of allowing and accepting. This makes it quite different from other processes with which we seek to control parts of ourselves.
Focusing was developed by Eugene Gendlin Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. Gendlin is a philosopher and psychologist, who in collaboration with Carl Rogers researched the question; why is it that some clients have a successful outcome in therapy and some do not? After watching many hours of filmed client sessions it was discovered that the essential ingredient was within the client. Client’s who refer to their bodily felt sense of an issue do better in therapy than those who don’t. Using this discovery Gendlin set about describing this special ingredient and developing a way of teaching it to those people who do not do this naturally. This is Focusing.
The Focusing process consists of specific steps for getting a body sense of how you are in a particular life situation. It begins with the body and occurs in the zone between the conscious and the unconscious. It is more than being in touch with your feelings, more than just thinking about a problem and different from bodywork. When one Focuses on a felt sense one experiences a physical change in the way that an issue is being lived in thebody.
Focusing is an inherent human process that goes on all time within us. In our society we have learned not to listen to or notice this process and consequently it often does not move freely in our lives and is not usually allowed to inform our actions. If we think with our experiencing, as focusing teaches us to do, we always have more than logic in play.
Focusing is much more than a kind of psychotherapy process. It is a way to self-knowledge; a way of moving our lives forward from stuck places; a tool for decision making; a way to be in closer contact with the creativity, competence and joy of our lives.
Outline of the Structure of my training programs – from beginner to advanced.
The programs are delivered via short monthly workshops (eight per year), partnership focusing exchanges and personal coaching / mentoring sessions with me. The advanced level training program also offers students the opportunity to teach in a supported environment. The training programs are designed to give the student a grounding experience in the beautiful simplicity of Gendlin’s work. Once this has been established material from many different Master Teachers will be incorporated, introducing the student to the vast richness and subtlety of the work of our many talented teachers.
The program has three levels:
1. Beginners – eight workshops (one per month):
This course is closely based around Gendlin’s work and teaches the six focusing steps developed and described in his book Focusing. The main references and reading will be from the primary sources of Gendlin’s work.
2. Skills Practice – eight workshops (one per month):
This course expands and elaborates on Gendlin’s teaching and also brings in more of the work of other teachers. The lesson plans are designed around an aspect of a particular Teacher’s work and references given to the website and publications of that teacher. I will also present sessions using my own developments in Focusing, which draw on my work as a psychotherapist and Yoga Teacher.
3. Advanced and Trainer in Training - a two year training course:
The course will further elaborate and expand on aspects of Gendlin’s work and the work of selected Master Teachers. The practice of Focusing embodies a spirit of openness. The training program seeks to honour this by making Gendlin’s work the core foundation of the training and adding the richness of further developments of this practice. To assist students to develop their own practice each student will have the opportunity to complete a "Thinking at the Edge" project to allow them to articulate how they choose to bring focusing forward into the world.
It is my view that to be a Focusing teacher, one must teach from within one's own felt-knowing. This will be an important emphasis of this training course.
The following quote from Gendlin (Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy, p303) illustrates the spirit with which this course will be delivered:Rather than ready, cut-and-dried content, he always presented the method as still in the process of being developed. It provided the excitement of collaborating, contributing and thinking on the edge of what is know.
The Master Teachers referenced in this course include:
Robert Lee – Domain Focusing – Changing the Unchangeable
Kevin McEvenue – Whole Body Focusing
Ann Weiser Cornell and Barbara McGavin – Inner Relationship Focusing
Peter Campbell and Edwin McMahon – Bio-Spirituality
Nada Lou – Thinking at the Edge (TAE)
Elfie Hinterkopf – Spirituality
Akira Ikemi – Collage and Presence Existence and Space.
Janet Klein and Mary McGuire – Interactive Focusing.
Joan Klagsbrun – Focusing with Life Changing Illness
Website: www.focusing.org
Reference: Focusing - Eugene T. Gendlin (2003 Rider)
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