Engage Ann to present a keynote speech, convention breakout, motivational program, presentation, seminar, or workshop.
Ann has spoken at numerous conferences around the globe: from Switzerland to Australia to Hawaii to Argentina. She has shared the stage with other notable speakers, such as Rick Hanson, Nathaniel Granger, Jr., Dr. Peter Levine, Dr. Dan Siegel, and Richard Schwartz.
She is pleased to be able to bring her inspirational and transformational message to audiences of all types, including psychotherapists, coaches, work communities, and anyone interested in living a more empowered and fulfilling life. Do you stop yourself from being your best self? Do you have an inner voice that seems to undermine your success? Hear Ann’s inspiring message that “There are no enemies inside” and learn how to be as big as the world needs you to be.
Some Popular Presentation Topics
The Three Secrets of the Inner Critic
Are you your own worst enemy? If you’re like most of us, you treat yourself more harshly than you treat anyone else. All your life you’ve heard that relentless voice in your head that says, “You’ll never make it” and “There is something wrong with you.” Inner critics cause needless suffering and prevent us from living our full potential.
Would you believe that nothing in you wants to hurt you? That every part of you is doing its best to help you? And that inner critics can transform and melt away? In this inspiring and life-changing presentation, Ann Weiser Cornell reveals the three “secrets” of the inner critic – secrets that shift our sense of empowerment and possibility as we get in touch with our true inner resources.
How to Trust Your Desires
Desire is juicy… we love to follow our desires! But can we trust them? What about all those times that following our desires got us in trouble? How can we tell the difference between the desires that lead us down the path of disaster, and our true desires that point us toward our unique, joyful contribution to a fuller life for all?
Starting with her own stories, Ann Weiser Cornell shows how a special kind of body awareness can help us tell the difference between desires that can be trusted and those that lead us astray, without getting caught up in “right” and “wrong.” The result: a greater sense of living forward joyfully, guided from within.
Focusing in Clinical Practice: Facilitating Breakthrough Moments in Therapy
When our clients are stuck, it can seem as if they’re going in endless circles or digging deeper in a hole they can’t get out of. It’s obvious that thinking and analyzing doesn’t help. Research into successful therapy shows that it’s possible for our clients to have a fresh, immediate experience that takes them outside the box of their narrow, frozen ways of experiencing life. It’s called a felt sense… and it leads to breakthrough experiences even for clients who feel hopeless and at a dead end.
In this practical and empowering presentation, Ann Weiser Cornell shows how to recognize and support the felt senses that our clients are having naturally, and how to create opportunities for felt senses to form in clients who are out of touch with themselves. You’ll learn moves that you can bring into your client sessions immediately, no matter what your modality of therapy, to empower your clients to live their fuller lives.
Get Bigger Than What’s Bugging You
Do you have too many stresses to think straight? Are you on emotional overload? If you’ve ever struggled with anything like this, you know from experience that our strong emotional states can sometimes feel like they’re taking us over. You feel small, overwhelmed…or maybe you have thoughts of not being able to handle it. Whatever you’re going through…you’ve tried talking yourself out of the feelings, but they persist anyway.
There is another possibility.
The secret is to get bigger. Ann Weiser Cornell created this inspiring talk full of examples and practices to show you exactly how to do it. The good news is that these practices are not hard – they’re easy to bring into your daily life. Have Ann come talk to your group or organization about how you can change your life to be calmer, more manageable and a lot more fun.
> Booking Information: Find out how to book Ann for in-person engagements, virtual interviews, or guest blogging opportunities
A few places Ann has presented…
Selected Talks & Events
2023 Speaking Engagements
Selected Past Speaking Engagements
Virtual Events & Guest Blogging
Want Ann to be a part of your telesummit, online interview series, or blog?
Recent Virtual Events:
Excerpts of Past Talks
Ann Weiser Cornell offers the riveting story of the complete healing of her writer’s block and what that taught her about the power of radical acceptance and interested curiosity. This talk is divided into two parts above.
“We cannot fix ourselves, and no one else can fix us.” But change is possible, and Ann Weiser Cornell shares the core secret of change from 40 years of searching: radical acceptance of the dark places.
What People Are Saying
“I can’t thank you enough for the wonderful presentation you gave to our Los Angeles CAMFT Somatic Therapies Special Interest Group… It was an excellent presentation and your command of the subject is clearly broad, well-honed and impressive.
This is exactly the kind of material we are happy to present to our members as they look to increase their knowledge of the possibilities within the somatic therapeutic world.”
–Cathy Graf, MA, MFT, SEP, Chairperson, LA-CAMFT Somatic Therapies Special Interest Group
“Ann Weiser Cornell is at the leading edge of taking Focusing to the next level with the somato-linguistic pathways she has developed that help people get right to the heart of things, and in a substantially high percentage of cases get someone in touch with their larger wisdom directly.”
–Robert D. Sheeler, MD, Mayo Clinic, Minneapolis, MN
“Thank you so much for nurturing focusing along and creating such a beautifully accessible way to learn it. I think it is not only best thing since sliced bread…. it is the best thing since bread itself. Thank you, thank you!”
–Nora Wayman, LCSW, Bend, OR
“Ann Weiser Cornell is a fantastic guest speaker. She is warm and personable, intellectually sophisticated and down to earth, consummately professional and deeply human. Many of our students were moved by her presentation and demonstration of the work — not just for their development as therapists-in-the-making, but for their own process of personal self-inquiry. Ann is a true pioneer in the field and perhaps the principal current torchbearer of Gendlin’s fundamental work — moving it ever forward through clarification, discernment and attention to linguistic nuance. She is and remains a gift to the field of somatics.”
— Albert Wong, PhD, Director of Somatic Psychology, JFK University
Book Ann for Your Event
Ann’s Availability
We’re so glad you’re interested in booking Ann for your event! The easiest way to move forward is to send us an email. We’ll schedule an initial chat to determine the needs of your organization. Please include a contact name, as well as the preferred method of communication, possible dates, location, and what you’re interested in. Or, feel free to call our offices at (510) 225-0690. Any member of our staff is happy to assist you with your needs.
Ann’s Professional Biography
Ann Weiser Cornell PhD is an internationally known author and seminar leader who has been working with the Focusing process – and working closely with Eugene Gendlin – since 1972. Ann has given presentations and trainings in Focusing for psychotherapists at the American Psychological Association, the Psychotherapy Networker Conference, the National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine, the National Institute for the Psychotherapies, and the Cape Cod Institute. Ann’s latest book is Focusing in Clinical Practice: The Essence of Change.
Download a printable version of Ann’s bio and resume here.
Ann’s More Personal Biography
Ann Weiser Cornell believes in the radical acceptance of everything inside us, and loves to help people get free of what is blocking them from becoming and living their full potential. She tells her own inspiring story of becoming free of writer’s block by turning with compassion toward the blocking part. Through her talks, Ann touches the heart and inspires the mind to a sense of fresh possibilities. Ann has thirty years’ experience helping people shift their relationship to difficult life situations and move forward in new ways. She is the author of The Power of Focusing and The Radical Acceptance of Everything. Ann’s latest book is Focusing in Clinical Practice: The Essence of Change.
To download Ann’s Speaker resume and personal bio, click here.
Hear More of What Ann Has Shared About Focusing
Selected Publications
“Ann Weiser Cornell’s The Power of Focusing clarifies an essential human skill many of us have forgotten, and takes it a quantum leap farther along its evolutionary path. Here are germinal teachings and deep human wisdom expressed in a way that can improve anyone’s emotions, well-being, life.”
— Dan Millman, author of Way of the Peaceful Warrior and The Laws of Spirit
“Ann Weiser Cornell’s The Power of Focusing clarifies an essential human skill many of us have forgotten, and takes it a quantum leap farther along its evolutionary path. Here are germinal teachings and deep human wisdom expressed in a way that can improve anyone’s emotions, well-being, life.”
— Dan Millman, author of Way of the Peaceful Warrior and The Laws of Spirit
“Ann Weiser Cornell has been teaching for many years in many countries and is well known worldwide. In her previous book and her manuals she has created new specific and accessible instructions for Focusing as well as for the teachers of Focusing. In person and through her students and writings she has given Focusing to far more people than any other single individual. She is a powerful force in making the world better. She has gone on to create different new processes in new dimensions, which are included in this book.”
— Eugene Gendlin, author of Focusing
In addition to The Power of Focusing and The Radical Acceptance of Everything, Ann has written numerous articles on Focusing.
Selected Articles
Get Bigger Than What’s Bugging You
Five simple and powerful practices for getting calmer, getting smarter, getting bigger than your problems, taught by Ann Weiser Cornell and Lucinda Hayden in a one-hour phone course with guided exercises and lots of examples, for beginners and experienced Focusers alike.
Get Clear and Move Forward with Focusing
Remarkably, it’s in the very places where we feel uneasy and unclear that we can find the energy and wisdom to move forward. This introductory seminar includes a guided Focusing exercise that has been described as “transformational.”
Focusing and Pain (and Other Symptoms)
Focusing has gifts for people in pain, whether acute or chronic. If you’re enduring symptoms of any kind of illness or condition, Focusing is not a cure… but it can help you tap into your body’s resources for healing and relief.
Working with Clients Who Are Experiencing Traumatic States Like Overwhelm, Panic Attacks, or Anxiety with Ann Weiser Cornell & Glenn Fleisch
States of overwhelm (traumatic states) can arise at any point in therapy, from the very beginning to experiences that emerge once a therapeutic bond has been established. In this seminar you will learn seven specific ways to use Focusing to allow people to find relief from and healing in states of overwhelm such as anxiety, panic, and trauma.
