So you’d like to learn Focusing! You are welcome to take your Focusing training from Focusing Resources. Our phone seminars are accessible from anywhere in the world. Inner Relationship Focusing–Services & Programs
However, if you are looking for a Focusing teacher who lives near you or who has a specialty that you like, there is a worldwide network of Inner Relationship Focusing teachers. And we recommend them!
California
Ann Weiser Cornell, Ph.D.
I learned Focusing in 1972 from Eugene Gendlin, the award-winning psychologist who developed the Focusing process, and others. In 1983 I created the first workshop on the language of Focusing guiding. I am internationally recognized as one of the leading innovators and theoreticians of Focusing, and am known for my clear language and the safe space I create for inner work.
Since 1988 I have traveled to twenty countries on five continents, teaching my special approach to Focusing, emphasizing Focusing as a healing, nurturing relationship with your inner self.
I am a Certified Coordinator for The Focusing Institute. I am editor and publisher of The Focusing Connection newsletter, which since 1984 has linked hundreds of Focusers worldwide. My book, The Power of Focusing has been translated into German, Dari, Dutch, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Hebrew. My second book is The Radical Acceptance of Everything (Calluna Press, 2005).
I earned my Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Chicago in 1975, and am a Past President of the Association for Humanistic Psychology.
In person sessions in Berkeley, California. Phone sessions as well.
Phone: 510-225-0690
Email: ann@focusingresources.com
Website: www.focusingresources.com
Click here to see workshop listings for Ann Weiser Cornell.
Abbe Blum
I am a Certified Focusing Professional who loves to guide people in Inner Relationship Focusing, also bringing in elements of Wholebody Focusing. I am trained by Ann Weiser Cornell and mentored by Francesca Castaldi. I have a PhD in English literature from Yale University and teach college and graduate students, as well as introducing mindfulness into K-12 classrooms through the Mindful Schools program. My background teaching meditation and Tibetan yoga for many years informs my Focusing, as does my ongoing exploration of dreams through the Ullman and Gendlin methods.
Focusing has been a great gift to me since I sought it out 8 years ago as a modality to help my Swarthmore students who were blocked and suffering. But what rocked me personally during my very first session with Ann was finding deep, practical help with a long-standing meditation issue that my meditation teachers could not touch. Learning how to listen to myself, and gaining skill in sensing the next right steps are among the greatest treasures Focusing has given me.
As a teacher and writer and lover of literature, I particularly resonate with the struggles of students, writers, and academics, those who gets “stuck”—whether through procrastination, perfectionism or overwhelm. I also work with people who want to explore the right next steps for their novel, dissertation, college or med school application, or creative project.
Any and all issues people bring to Focusing interest me. They are sometimes in transition, facing a turning point or hitting an impasse in their spiritual journeys. Among those I’ve guided are people considering marriage or enduring separation; those applying to graduate school or switching careers; those feeling bogged down in their personal meditation, yoga or artistic practice; and people who work with other people—company managers, therapists, teachers—who are seeking balance and renewal for themselves.
Aided by a Focusing guide like me, a Focuser can resonate with his or her deeper insights, welcome what has been feared or exiled, and move toward becoming a real companion for him or herself. That’s what I want: for our whole culture to become skilled in exploring and working with both our inner and outer environments.
I provide:
- Guided Focusing sessions in person and by phone
- Group work with students, writers, artists who are involved in challenging projects
- Focusing classes and workshops
Phone: 510-295-8870
Email: abbeblum1@gmail.com
Bret Lyon, Ph.D.
I am a Certified Focusing Professional who loves to guide people in Inner Relationship Focusing, also bringing in elements of Wholebody Focusing. I am trained by Ann Weiser Cornell and mentored by Francesca Castaldi. I have a PhD in English literature from Yale University and teach college and graduate students, as well as introducing mindfulness into K-12 classrooms through the Mindful Schools program. My background teaching meditation and Tibetan yoga for many years informs my Focusing, as does my ongoing exploration of dreams through the Ullman and Gendlin methods.
Focusing has been a great gift to me since I sought it out 8 years ago as a modality to help my Swarthmore students who were blocked and suffering. But what rocked me personally during my very first session with Ann was finding deep, practical help with a long-standing meditation issue that my meditation teachers could not touch. Learning how to listen to myself, and gaining skill in sensing the next right steps are among the greatest treasures Focusing has given me.
As a teacher and writer and lover of literature, I particularly resonate with the struggles of students, writers, and academics, those who gets “stuck”—whether through procrastination, perfectionism or overwhelm. I also work with people who want to explore the right next steps for their novel, dissertation, college or med school application, or creative project.
Any and all issues people bring to Focusing interest me. They are sometimes in transition, facing a turning point or hitting an impasse in their spiritual journeys. Among those I’ve guided are people considering marriage or enduring separation; those applying to graduate school or switching careers; those feeling bogged down in their personal meditation, yoga or artistic practice; and people who work with other people—company managers, therapists, teachers—who are seeking balance and renewal for themselves.
Aided by a Focusing guide like me, a Focuser can resonate with his or her deeper insights, welcome what has been feared or exiled, and move toward becoming a real companion for him or herself. That’s what I want: for our whole culture to become skilled in exploring and working with both our inner and outer environments.
I provide:
- Guided Focusing sessions in person and by phone
- Group work with students, writers, artists who are involved in challenging projects
- Focusing classes and workshops
Phone: 510-295-8870
Email: abbeblum1@gmail.com
Glenn Fleisch, Ph.D., MFT
I am a licensed psychotherapist, in private practice for 28 years, and a Focusing trainer. I have been trained by Ann Weiser Cornell and incorporate the Inner Relationship model into my work. In addition, I have had training with Janet Klein and Mary McGuire in Interactive Focusing, and most recently, have been working directly with Kevin McEvenue in experiencing and learning Wholebody Focusing.
Over many years, I have worked with a variety of issues and problem areas, specializing in anxiety, stress, addictions, depression and relational issues. I am very interested and excited by whole body processing in Focusing as the whole person includes both inward felt sensing as well as outward expressiveness that activate energy and generate spontaneous, inner-directed movement.
I received my Master’s degree in Counseling from Temple University (Philadelphia) and my PhD in Clinical Psychology from The Center for Psychological Studies (Albany, CA). I offer individual sessions and workshops on Wholebody Focusing to therapists and Focusing trainers. I also have done extensive writing on Focusing and change-steps in therapy, recently written an article for publication on gestures in focusing and therapy.
In person sessions in Mill Valley and Vallejo, CA. Phone sessions as well.
Workshops: Moving Forward: An Introduction to Wholebody Focusing; Wholebody Processing in Focusing-Oriented Therapy.
Phone: 415-384-0144 or 707-644-5421
Email: glennfleisch@aol.com
Jane Bell
I began my spiritual journey in 1977 when I became a serious student of meditation. In 1989, I quit my corporate life to merge my heart and my path. Experiencing a spiritual epiphany in Egypt in 1992, I became a student and eventual partner to Nicki Scully of Shamanic Journeys where I lead tours to Egypt and Peru.
I became a Focusing Trainer in 1996 and have served as a Certifying Coordinator with The Focusing Institute. My interest in building spiritual community inspired my healing circle, which I held in my home faithfully for 4 years. I currently teach workshops in Focusing, manifestation, and metaphysics.
In December of 2002, I founded Presence of Heart. Under this umbrella, I teach, inspire, and offer private sessions for transformation and healing. Realizing that sacred sites offer great opportunities for personal and planetary growth, I lead spiritual journeys to Egypt and South Africa. In January of 2004, I opened the Presence of Heart Center for Spiritual Transformation and Healing in San Francisco.
I work primarily by phone, but in person sessions in San Francisco, CA, can be arranged.
Phone: 415-751-0813
Email: belljane48@gmail.com
Lerissa Patrick
I first heard about Focusing from my co-authors on a book called Sensible Self-Help, about the stages of emotional wounding and healing. I bought Focusing and a tape, but didn’t make any headway in teaching myself the technique.
Then in 1994 I took a workshop with Ann Weiser Cornell on Releasing Action Blocks. I began traveling to Berkeley to take Ann’s weekend workshops and then to study with her and Diana Marder (of Huntington Beach) to be a Trainer.
I was certified by the Focusing Institute in 1998, although I had been teaching others in San Diego in 1996. When Reva Bernstein moved to San Diego from Chicago in 1997, I gained another mentor. I recently started studying Tibetan Buddhist meditation, and find that it has deeply enriched my Focusing experience and teaching — and that Focusing has made my path into meditation easier.
I love teaching Focusing. I love watching the light of discovery go on in the eyes of a new Focuser.
In person Focusing sessions in San Diego, CA. Phone sessions as well.
Workshops I offer Levels 1 through 4. Please see my website for my workshop schedule.
Phone: 619-957-2493 or 619-583-1024
Email: lerissa@clarityfocusing.com
Website: www.clarityfocusing.com
Lucinda Hayden, M.A.
In private practice since 1988, I’ve worked with the wide range of challenges that we face in our human experience from developing healthy, satisfying relationships and work that empowers the soul to the grief surrounding major life transitions such as divorce, illness and death. I also work with performance anxiety of all kinds.
My specialty is helping people who struggle with emotional eating. As well as being a Focusing Professional and Clinical Hypnotherapist, I am also a nutrition consultant, personal fitness trainer and yoga/Pilates instructor and so can guide you in making healthy food choices and finding a way of moving that your body wants to do. I also apply Focusing and Hypnotherapy to quitting smoking. My passion is helping you grow a relationship of unconditional love, support and friendship with yourself which allows those parts to begin to contribute their energy in positive, life-enhancing ways.
My work has been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle and other local newspapers as well as in national magazines and numerous radio and television shows.
I work primarily by phone, but in-person sessions can be arranged in San Francisco, CA.
Phone: 415-668-7457
Email: lucinda@lucindahayden.com
Marcia Rafinski, L.C.S.W.
I am a psychotherapist with more than 30 years experience working with individuals, families, and groups. I help people transform painful feelings, resolve inner conflict, find positive ways to communicate and create healthy relationships. I have been fully trained in Focusing with Ann Weiser Cornell and Jane Bell, and have been continuing to attend consultation groups with Ann Weiser Cornell to deepen my sense of the work. In addition to Focusing, I was trained in Gestalt, bioenergetics, hypnosis, psychosynthesis, spiritual emergency, and family therapy. My warm, interactive style creates a safe, nurturing space for deep personal transformation and healing.
I welcome sessions with individuals, and my special passion is working with couples. I find that in couple’s work the immediacy and freshness of the moment means that people are more able to relax their defenses, and it’s often easier to work with the structures that are in the way. I enjoy the aliveness and vulnerability of working with couples in the midst of your issues.
In person sessions in San Rafael, California. Phone sessions as well.
$120 for 50 minutes for therapy
$100 for 75 minutes for Focusing
$85 for 50 minutes for Focusing
Fees may be negotiable for people with low income.
Phone: 415-485-6722
Email: marciarafi@aol.com
Northwest US/Canada
Anastasia Brencick MA, LMP
Focusing is great. It slows down my reacting to the world and the thoughts I have about it. How does it do that? Why do I get rushing thoughts, anyway? As the Focusing founder, Gene Gendlin says, “Your body is doing all the living you know you are doing and all the living you don’t know you are doing.” Well, no wonder I am inundated with thoughts! My body is a wealth of information, trying to synthesize, organize and process more input than my conscious mind knows about at the moment. And it’s calling for me to notice what is coming in and to move toward a deep relationship to what my life is becoming. Therefore, if I turn inward, pause to sense the whole of me, I can access all the information that my body picks up and knows something about. Amazing!
Focusing supports me in the work I love, so that I am fully present to myself and for my clients. As a massage therapist since 1996, I want to support and nurture the practice of Focusing for other bodyworkers, healing professionals using touch or laypersons who find touch a vital way to connect with process. Touch allows us to hold the bigger container that is body, while also touching living process, to find our true and authentic life forward movement. When we do this for ourselves, our life is rich and open and moving effortlessly. When we touch others using Focusing, we ground them in a deeper knowing that comes from the body, where new insight and meaning spring forth.
I offer one-to-one sessions, five week tele-classes, mentorship and weekend workshops integrating touch and Focusing. I look forward to connecting with you and welcoming you to the Focusing community!
I live on beautiful Whidbey Island, north of Seattle, Washington. USA
Phone: 206.200.9762
Email: whidbeymassage.ab@gmail.com
Website: www.anastasiabrencick.com
Donna Varnau, M.A.
Imagine being able to easily access your strength and confidence, knowing what you like and don’t like, and to discern what is and isn’t a life-giving decision for you.
Although life definitely has its tough times, I actually think growing and learning can be a lot of fun! I feel fortunate to have had both personal and professional training in Focusing, Voice Dialogue, Body-Centered Psychotherapy, Conscious Relationships, Authentic Movement, Expressive Arts, Christian contemplative prayer, and Buddhist meditation. The blending of these interests have resulted in my highly effective, deeply respectful therapeutic approach, one where I help you trust your inner guidance, and be true to yourself.
I am a Certified Focusing Trainer, Body-Centered Psychotherapist and Couples Counselor in private practice in Edmonds, Washington. I received my M.A. from Antioch University, Seattle, in 1992. By incorporating psycho-spiritual and body-centered perspectives I am able to work with a variety of issues–anxiety, depression, meaning of life, spirituality and relationships. I blend gentleness, warmth, patience, humor and a good sense of challenge into my sessions.
In person sessions in Edmonds, Washington. Phone sessions as well.
Phone: 425-742-3988
Email: dmvarnau@aol.com
Jan Hodgman, MA
I come to Focusing from a strong Buddhist background as an ordained Zen priest with 8 years of monastic training in Japan. Focusing has given me an essential piece of the mind-body Oneness “puzzle.” My Focusing training has been with Reva Bernstein and Ann Weiser Cornell, and I’ve sat in on Eugene Gendlin’s Theory Construction course, an early form of Thinking at the Edge.
It is my experience that our wellspring of inner wisdom holds the nourishment for both spirituality and creativity. Along with Focusing Inner Relationship Levels workshops, I have taught “Focusing for Musicians,” “Focusing for Writers,” and love working one-on-one with people tapping, shaping, and getting to know intimately their spirituality/creativity and helping it function in the world. Most recently, I’ve completed a unit in Clinical Pastoral Education and served as a hospital chaplain. Through this experience I’ve come to appreciate as sacred my role as “midwife” for people facing death or serious illness, and coping with grief and loss.
Personally I’ve found Focusing helpful in being with my mother’s Alzheimer’s, companioning in hospice programs, working with cross-cultural issues, making career decisions and learning to give space to my Inner Critic.
In person sessions in Anacortes, Washington. Phone sessions as well.
Phone: 360-293-2367
Email: jhodgman@comcast.net
Website: www.zenjan.com
Jane Nelson
Focusing for me is both a guide to living fully and a spiritual practice. On an almost daily basis I am in touch with one of my Focusing partners, sharing my Focusing through teaching a phone class, or expressing my feelings or experience in a Focusing way with my friends or my life partner. After a long life (I am retired from careers in teaching and in law) marked by considerable introspection and work, I have been consistently amazed by the surprises which Focusing brings — whether about my deepest heart’s desires, my capacity for change, or new directions for growth.
On another level, I find that Focusing constantly reinforces and strengthens my ability to be in the Now, and to apply the ‘Radical Acceptance of Everything’ to whatever arises in me, or in my life. Because of the joys and strengths that Focusing has brought to me I particularly enjoy sharing it through teaching, whether to groups or individually.
Sessions by phone.
Workshops: I am available to teach Inner Relationship Focusing Levels I or II by phone, either one-on-one, or to a group of two, at times to be arranged at our mutual convenience (generally during weekday hours, Pacific Time). Larger groups can be accommodated on request.
Classes for Levels I through IV can be arranged at Hood Canal (Union), Washington, approximately 1 hour 45 minutes southwest of Seattle.
Phone Seattle: 206-706 9747
Hood Canal: 360-898 2014
Email: JaneWN@aol.com
Jeffrey Morrison, M.A., L.M.H.C.
I am a Focusing Oriented Psychotherapist and Certified Focusing Trainer providing individual, couple and family therapy. My experience with Focusing dates back to the early 80s. I continue to study Focusing with Ann Weiser Cornell and others. My formal education has included art, philosophy, religion and psychology. I have a master’s degree in Existential Phenomenological Psychology from Seattle University.
I believe that all people deep down know what is right for them and what will move them forward. At our core is an inner sense of knowing which if listened to will open up and guide us toward healing. Inner Relationship Focusing facilitates this process in ways that continually amaze me.
My vision is to bring Focusing into the mainstream of the healing professions. I am interested in speaking to groups about Focusing and its many applications. Presentations are experiential, fun and give participants a taste of the Focusing process. Workshops teach Focusing for both personal and professional use. Advanced training and coaching help people integrate Focusing into their profession or area of interest.
In person sessions in Seattle, Washington. Phone sessions as well.
Workshops: Introduction to Focusing and Levels One through Four.
Phone: 206-935-7850
Email: jeffrey@morrisontherapy.com
Website: www.morrisontherapy.com
Michael Nagel MA
Greetings
I am a counselor in private practice in Portland Oregon. I am privileged to integrate Focusing into my private sessions with clients and to teach focusing classes and workshops to persons seeking a more intimate experience of themselves. I value Focusing as an essential aid to the fostering of personal authenticity, presence, and the establishing of a dynamic engagement with one’s self.
Individual Sessions, Workshops and Classes
Individual sessions in person and worldwide by telephone or Skype. The workshops and classes which I teach are offered in the Portland and Soouthwest Washington areas and worldwide by invitation.
Inner Relationship Focusing Levels One to Four and Practicum
The classes and workshops which I teach include the four levels of Inner Relationship Focusing and workshops about personal authenticity which integrate Focusing.
Experience that supports my teaching
- Ten years of private practice as a counselor, accompanying my clients on their path to personal growth
- M.A, in Psychology with Distinction, Saybrook Institute
- B.A. in Psychology, University of Kansas
- Certification, RADIX Therapy Practitioner, RADIX Institute
- Certification, Clinical Hypnotherapist, Knightsbridge Institute
- Certification, Certified Hypnotherapist, National Guild of Hypnotists
- Certification, Neuro-Linguistic Programmer, Grinder & Delozier Associates
- Certification, Instructor of Hypnosis, National Guild of Hypnotists
- Certification, Qigong Teacher (various forms), Oregon College of Oriental Medicine
- Seven years of work with the Ridwhan School / Diamond Approach of Hameed Ali / A.H. Almaas
Phone: 503-226-2771
Email: michael@whole-person-counseling.com
Website: Whole Person Counseling
Skype ID: michael_l_nagel
Nina Joy Lawrence
Inner relationship Focusing has nestled down in my core and replaced my counseling practice, become integrated with my spiritual practice as a Friend (Quaker), and with my daily living. Previous to finding Focusing, I had a lifetime of Quaker practice and 12 years of working on my inner journey through Jungian seminars. I was a counselor with Child Protective Services.
Holding Presence for everything inside fits so satisfyingly with my spiritual practice and with my belief in building peace. This way it comes from the inside out. It fits with my desire to be grounded in my body, and follow a trustable way as life opens forward.
One way forward I have been following is teaching Focusing in Afghanistan when I can. My colleague, Dr. Patricia Omidian and I use Sufi poetry as the medium.
In person sessions in Corvallis, Oregon. Phone sessions as well.
Focusing Group
A Focusing group takes place in Corvallis every other weekend for 2 hours. Contact me for details. Anyone who knows focusing is welcome to join us.
Oregon/SW Washington Focusing Gatherings
We tend to meet quarterly. Contact me for information.
Phone: 541-745-5377
Email: ninajoy@mac.com
Patricia (Pat) Omidian, PhD
I learned inner relationship focusing from Ann, but first through Nina Joy Lawrence in 2001 as we struggled to bring a healing practice to Afghans traumatized by more than three decades of war. At that time I was living in Pakistan and Afghanistan so it took me several years to complete all the levels from Ann. I could only take them when I returned to the US on my yearly one-month visits. In between those trainings I learned to teach others. Inner relationship Focusing allowed for an organic learning and teaching that went hand in hand. I taught what I learned as I was learning it to people who really needed something to help them cope with lives filled with war, displacement and loss. It was a time of shared discoveries, as we learned together what worked best for each of us.
As a medical anthropologist I enjoy finding ways to blend Inner Relationship Focusing into the local culture wherever I find myself. From my time in Afghanistan I value the partnership and sharing with those who are my students. Because my students are encouraged to do as I did–teach as they learn–they become adept at focusing and at paying attention to inner guests (body felt senses of whatever comes). In this way, Focusing spreads out organically and in culturally relevant ways.
I offer in person and internet-based workshops in Focusing (levels 1-4); Taking care of yourself–Focusing for Aid Workers; Supporting Community Wellness through Focusing; Focusing, Psychosocial Wellness and Resiliency; Islam/Sufism and Focusing.
I am now based in Corvallis Oregon but I continue to travel to Pakistan and other countries to give workshops.
Phone: 925-482-7983
Email: omidianp@gmail.com
Website: https://patriciaomidian.com
Skype: pomidian
Paula Gamble-Grant, M.A, CSD, CFP
You are not a problem to be solved… You are a sacred story.
And you do not have to get more organized, fit, “together” or “on top of it” in order to be seen, heard, valued and welcomed by God, by those of us here at reFresh, and hopefully, by your very own self.
I have been companioning weary and disoriented, spiritually hungry souls for over 35 years. As an experienced Spiritual Director, Retreat Leader and Supervisor of SDs, I hold sacred space for people to overhear their hearts and live into a more authentic version of their God-given self.
During my training with Ann Weiser Cornell and Peter Gill, I developed my own Focusing curriculum called, “Doorways to the Soul.” In this 2 part, 20-week class, heart and soul-centered healing professionals learn how to live at E.A.S.E. – in their Embodied Authentic Self Essence. And they learn how to be with what feels at “dis-ease” with Loving, Caring, Presence. Participants also begin to learn how to integrate IRF into their own practices.
In the heart and art of IRF, I’ve found nothing better that gives us permission to both let ourselves, and others, explore the natural beauty, wonder, and messiness of all things human. But not only permission: Focusing gives us a Loving and Compassionate way to welcome all the parts of our humanity and to more deeply listen to the parts of us we’ve tried to deny, overcome, pray away or set aside.
One Spiritual Director who participated in Doorways said this: “Focusing is like vital water – both for me and my clients.”
I believe that every pastor, missionary, chaplain, Spiritual Director and soul-centered healing professional would benefit from taking a sip of this vital water which nourishes the whole self. So whether you’d like to try some individual guided sessions or join a workshop or the Doorways course, you can connect with me here:
Email: info@mysoulrefresh.com
Website: www.mysoulrefresh.com | mysoulrefresh.podia.com
Rebekah Driessen Patrick, MA, LCPC
I am a Focusing Oriented Psychotherapist providing individual therapy to adults and adolescents. I trained in Inner Relationship Focusing with Ann Weiser Cornell in Berkeley, California for several years before relocating to Bozeman, Montana.
I was first licensed in California as a Marriage and Family Therapist in 2008, and am now licensed in Montana as a Clinical Professional Counselor as of 2018.
As a Focusing Oriented Psychotherapist, I support my clients in learning to attend to their own emotions and experience while developing their ability to disidentify from parts of themselves that tend to take over and restrict functioning based on habitual defenses. We work together to unravel inner obstacles to living your fullest life, providing you more and more freedom and access to your fullest, wisest self.
I prioritize assisting my clients in developing self-compassion, and find that this is essential whether what brings you to me is trauma, life changes, depression, anxiety, divorce, stress management, etc. My clients express appreciation for my gentle, validating presence with them; Inner Relationship Focusing is central to my approach as a therapist, and to how I help clients discover the power in validating themselves.
I am also trained in movement-based expressive arts therapy, and incorporate focusing-oriented art therapy with interested clients.
I can accept Blue Cross Blue Shield, Pacific Source, and Mountain Health Co-op insurance from Montana residents.
I provide in person sessions in Bozeman, Montana. Telehealth sessions are available as well.
Phone: 406.600.3300
Email: rebekah@
Website: www.
Midwest-Central US/Canada
Cielle Backstrom
I help people who long to awaken to their full potential. Who want to replace confusion with confidence. To release fear and hurt. To clear action blocks. To learn to trust their intuition.
You may be one of these people.
You may also have dreams of living an embodied spiritual awakening.
We sense an omnipresent, universal field, a vibrant essence, a ground of pure consciousness that comprises and connects everything in creation. Yet we may not be in touch with its silent, constant support.
I can help you awaken to it.
Just as water “knows” how to flow downhill, our body knows how to move us forward through life. And, just as water encounters obstacles in its path, so do we. Fortunately, deep within, we know how to pull out of the mud of stagnation or the squeeze of conflict. But, in the midst of the squeeze, we sometimes need help finding this deeper knowing in ourselves. One of the most powerful tools for moving life forward is Inner Relationship Focusing. It is a simple, effective process to open to this inner knowing, which, like the water, knows what we need and how to move towards that.
Let me guide you to this inner knowing that is already, always there. Your life will move forward—will resolve, integrate, and flow towards awakening.
I have been studying modalities for healing and awakening all of my adult life. Over the years, I have worked with hundreds of people to facilitate their movement towards freedom.
You can connect to the universal, forward energy that lives in and as you. Let me assist you.
Offering:
One-on-one sessions: In person in Fairfield, Iowa. Elsewhere by phone or Skype.
Workshops: In person and by teleconference
Website: www.ciellebackstrom.com
Email: cielle@ciellebackstrom.com
Karen Wallace
I study Inner Relationship Focusing with Ann Weiser Cornell and Wholebody Focusing with Glenn Fleisch. In my work as a Registered Art Therapist and counsellor, I combine my knowledge of Somatic Experiencing, Expressive and Play Therapy, Mindfulness Meditation Practice, Focusing and other therapeutic trainings to offer a rich, deeply respectful therapeutic experience for my clients. I lead creativity, archetypal, art therapy and art workshops and I have a private practice as an Art Therapist in Regina, SK, Canada. I teach Art Therapy at several retreats and schools in Canada and internationally. I teach Art Education at the University of Regina and I bring Focusing into all parts of my working experience. I am a Certified Focusing Trainer and I use Inner Relationship Focusing as my foundation combined with Expressive Art Therapy and a Wholebody approach. The simple yet profound process of Focusing allows for an organic process to unfold where clients learn to listen to, dialogue with, and trust their felt sense and inner knowing. My sessions make room for safety, patience, humour, insights, creativity, gentleness and Presence to allow you, my client to have enriched creative process in which to play, explore, grow and move forward.
I am available for phone and in person sessions. I teach Focusing Levels 1 through 4, Learning Focusing to Help Free the Artist in You and Focusing Centered Expressive Therapy. Please visit my website for dates and times.
Phone: 306-569-2974
Email: kwallace@islandnet.com
Website: www.islandnet.com/~kwallace
Linda Hedquist, L.M.T.
From the beginning of my involvement in meditation and the healing arts it has been my desire to facilitate access to the healing power that lies within each of us. So it was with great joy that I discovered Inner Relationship Focusing in 2001. I immediately began to incorporate Focusing into my daily life and soon afterwards into my bodywork practice. In 2008 I became a certified as a Focusing Trainer with Ann Weiser Cornell and Ruth Hirsch.
In teaching Focusing my emphasis is on helping students to systematically and enjoyably build strong Focusing skills, and then to go on to discover the richness of life that comes from bringing Focusing and Presence into their day-to-day activities.
I integrate Focusing into all of my bodywork sessions and classes as it naturally deepens the mind/body connection and makes it so much easier to navigate through difficult feelings that can arise during the healing process.
Private sessions in Inner Relationship Focusing, Tong Ren Therapy, Breema® Bodywork, and Jin Shin Jyutsu® form the core of my private healing practice.
In person sessions in Fairfield and Libertyville, Iowa. Phone sessions as well.
Workshops: I offer Levels 1-4 by phone or in person.
Phone: 641-693-8921
Email: Linda@hedquist.com
Website: www.healer-within.net
Marianne Lonergan Curtis, CAMT, CFT
I have been in private practice since 1991. My training is extensive and my hope is that I will never stop learning as our “body-mind” is vast and multi-dimensional and my sense is that I am here to gain mastery over this body-mind vehicle in order to be the Temple of the Holy Spirit that we are meant to be. After all, the Kingdom of God is within us!
My passion is bringing Inner Relationship Focusing into all areas of my life and helping you do the same. Christ came to bring a New Covenant, that “no man can teach another about God for you will know Him in your heart in the Spirit of Truth” – then I want to be sure that I foster the discernment that affords me the ability to listen and Know Who I AM, Who I AM under God, in Christ and a temple for the Holy Spirit! To Know my authority and from whence it comes is critical to every aspect of life and my prayer and my gift is to help you find that for yourself through Inner Relationship Focusing.
In these many years utilizing IRF, I have healed many wounds and gained great freedom and joy and have done the same with many others. One unexpected benefit from IRF is the way Scripture comes alive in my body-mind as the Living, Breathing Word that it is. After all, all law in our land (and for most civilizations) has been based on the bible and as I gain deeper appreciation for the Living Word I find IRF having a powerful effect on the ability of the Holy Spirit to bring Wisdom and a deepening of my own first person experience of the Divine, of the Father, of Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
My education is in Acupressure Massage Therapy, Jin Shin Jyutsu, Oriental Medicine, Bioresonance Therapy and of course, Inner Relationship Focusing and Treasure Maps of the Soul…just to give you the basics.
If you want to explore or find the Source of your being I would be honored to work with you. If you want to learn a tool that will help you make better decisions more easily, heal emotional wounds, find clarity and peace in a world that is always demanding more, I would be honored to work with you. When you feel that the world and people in your life are invading your space and suffocating your being, IRF is a great tool for aiding one to set boundaries and hear where you end and “they” begin.
I work with people on the phone or one-on-one in person at my studio in Lawrence, Kansas.
As a Certified Focusing Trainer, training sessions are taught via teleconference or in person via small groups. I also train the basics of IRF one-on-one or in couples as a great tool for communication. Training other practitioners to utilize IRF is one of my greatest joys–as my hope is that everyone can benefit from the deep satisfaction that comes from a good IRF session!
Call me to find out what works best for you.
Phone: 785-856-0702 (office); 510-334-2212 (cell)
Email: marianne@acupressure.net
Mary Elaine Kiener, RN, PhD
My formal practice of Focusing (especially Inner Relationship Focusing with Ann Weiser Cornell) is of fairly recent origin. I became a Certified Focusing Professional in April 2010. However, I have come to believe that I had been a lifelong “closet” Focuser who blessedly found her way out of exile into a sun-filled room of amazing Focusing colleagues.
While attending FISS 2008, I quickly discerned that Focusing offered a language and a framework that would help me understand how I had somewhat miraculously managed to find my own way back to myself, following a series of major personal and professional challenges during the previous two decades. Knowing first-hand the implicit challenges within a journey through profound healing and change, I am continually filled with wonder and amazement as I witness the ever-increasing flow of life-forward energy made possible through regular Focusing practice. My evolving skills (and the relative ease with which I began to incorporate, articulate and share a Focusing-oriented approach to life) have fueled a deep, continuous longing to assist others to nurture and sustain the unfolding of their own life-forward energy.
As a nurse with nearly four decades of knowledge and experience within both allopathic and integrative health traditions, I have continually strived to follow Florence Nightingale’s guidance to provide “an environment which facilitates, rather than disturbs, the natural healing process.” And, as a scholar, I have maintained an ongoing fascination to better understand and facilitate individuals’ journeys through growth and change).
As the Creative Energy Officer at ASK ME House, LLC, [www.askmehouse.com] my goal is to facilitate clients’ efforts to care for themselves as well as they care for others. I specialize in offering an “inside-out” approach to holistic stress management and wellness [www.stresswell.com] that begins with helping individuals to adopt a personalized, strengths-based program of Focused Self-Care.
Phone sessions. Also in-person sessions in Lansing, Michigan.
Teaching Levels One and Two (both one-to-one tutorials and small group classes)
Workshop titles include:
- Sick of Stress? Strategies to Ransom a Kidnapped Life
- Sick of Caregiving Stress? Strategies to Heal Your Nurturing Spirit
- Resolved to Change – Aligning Your Head and Your Heart
- Surviving Difficult Times: How to “Be With” While Struggling to “Make Do”
- Restoring Hope in the Midst of Suffering: Awakening Your Inner Healing Environment
Phone: 517-484-3127
Email: me@askmehouse.com
Websites: www.askmehouse.com | www.stresswell.com
Eastern US/Canada
Anne-Marie Lafortune
I am a life coach certified by the International Coaching Federation (ICF), Master in Neuro-Linguistic Programming and REIKI, and trained as well in Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) and Nonviolent Communication (NVC). I have a holistic approach specialized in health and well-being: Body, Mind, Heart, and Spirit. Focusing made all the difference in my life as a coach and a human being. Focusing is like coming back home, a guest house full of mystery and magic. Focusing is about sensing the life force, sensing pain as something calling for a compassionate attention and craving for self in presence; sensing the body as a being of its own rhythms and intentions, infused with aliveness. However, Focusing is not only about pain and trauma, or longing, it is also about sensing dreams, joy, peace and all the love and gratitude within.
This is why, I would love to have the privilege of facilitating your journey to come back to your home, to your guest house.
I offer Focusing sessions by phone and in person (in French and English) and Focusing classes (groups as well as individual tutorials by phone and in person). If you would like to see a piece of my work, you can find my research project on “Distance Process’’ in Focusing that can be found on the Focusing Resources and The International Focusing Institute websites (you’ll need to scroll a bit to get to the Completed Certification Projects section of the page).
I am grateful for your commitment to yourself in search of a Focusing trainer and The Guest House, written by Rumi, is my Focusing token to you.
Phone: 819-360-7359
Email: aml.ucoaching@gmail.com
Arnold Zeman
Arnold Zeman is thrilled to join the Focusing community as a Certified Focusing Professional, having been trained by Ann Weiser Cornell in Inner Relationship Focusing. His Focusing journey was literally ‘what should come next’ in his living. He kept bumping into Focusing over some 15 years, first through a professional mediation mentor, a therapist, and in his training as a professional coach. Some three years ago, he started his Level 1 training culminating in 2020 with certification.
Arnold is also a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach trained by the Harvard of professional coach training, the Co-Active Training Institute. He has also been certified by the International Coach Federation as an Associate Certified Coach.
Prior to becoming a coach, he had a 33-year career as a Canadian public servant in progressively more senior positions, completing his public service career with his appointment as Assistant Inspector General of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. After retiring from the federal government in December 2006, Arnold trained and was accredited as a family mediator by the Ontario Association of Family Mediation. He was on the court roster as a family mediator in Ottawa for a number of years and also had a standing offer with Health Canada to facilitate discussions about workplace conflict. He also believes that we are all each other’s guests while here on planet Earth and seeks to cultivate Self-in-Presence in his living.
Phone: +1 613-203-5346
Email: dialogicmediation@gmail.com
Carol J. Sutherland Nickerson, MSW, LICSW
I am a psychotherapist in private practice (Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker) and Certified Focusing Teacher/Professional on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. I have been in the field of human services/mental health for over 20 years. I work with all ages and a variety of issues. In addition, I provide clinical supervision to mental health professionals and consultation service to public and private schools as well as agencies. I love my work as much now as I did when I was starting out in this field.
I earned my B.A. in Sociology at Ithaca College, NY and my Master’s Degree in Social Work at Boston College, MA. I study and practice a variety of treatment approaches including, but not limited to: Internal Family Systems (IFS), Family Systems, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Expressive Art Therapy, Solution Focused Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and Attachment Therapies. Each approach provides me with rich learning and valuable tools. However, it is the practice of Inner Relationship Focusing that best serves to bring together my education, experience and training, in a simple yet powerful way of working with people as they take steps to improve, feel better, and to experience deeper meaning in their lives.
I have studied with Ann Weiser Cornell since 2004. I was easily able to integrate Inner Relationship Focusing into my clinical practice and I consider it to be the best relational, mind-body, mindfulness process. This process enables people to cultivate the capacity for optimal well-being due to its positive neuro-bio-psycho-social-emotional benefits.
I provide:
• Focusing Oriented Psychotherapy
• Guided Focusing sessions in person and on the telephone.
• Focusing classes/workshops.
Phone: 508-432-5640
Email: carollicsw@comcast.net
Website: www.carolnickerson.org
Cathy Pascal, MEd, MSW, LCSW
I am a psychotherapist (Licensed Clinical Social Worker), Focusing trainer and Focusing Certifying Coordinator practicing in Chapel Hill, NC. Having worked in the counseling field since 1981, I was introduced to Focusing in 1994, and began training with Ann Weiser Cornell shortly thereafter. Inner Relationship Focusing has become an invaluable and central tool in my own inner work and in my work understanding and helping others. Since 1999, I have been offering individual Focusing sessions, classes and workshops, and Focusing oriented psychotherapy through my private practice, Carolina Focusing Center. I have found Focusing to be a deeply gratifying and enriching process that continually brings one closer to authenticity, equanimity and acceptance of self and others. It is a privilege to share such an effective and respectful method of insight, growth and healing.
In person Focusing sessions in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Phone sessions as well. I offer sessions on a sliding scale from $50-$80/hr.
by Phone? Yes.
Workshops: I now offer Path to Lasting Change, Part One workshops twice a year (spring and fall). Students may then join a nine to twelve month training group for Focusing partnership that meets for at least three daylong workshops and includes regular partnership Focusing and coaching/ individual guiding sessions with me.
Phone: 919-932-9933
Email: cathy@integratedlifepractices.com
Website: www.integratedlifepractices.com
Emily Agnew
Focusing is my personal, professional, and spiritual Swiss Army knife: I use it in every area of my life. I completed Focusing certification with Ann Weiser Cornell in 2013 and now teach several courses for that program. I’ve also assisted with Ann’s “Guiding New People” course and with a Treasure Maps retreat, taught Focusing Levels One to Four online, and published articles about Focusing.
My first passion was music and I studied to become a classical oboist. I started doing inner work during a five-year stint with the Honolulu Symphony, looking for a “fix” for the crippling anxiety I experienced taking orchestra job auditions.
Everything I tried—from therapy to yoga to Zen meditation—led me to my second passion and profession: working with clients who thrive when they are connected to themselves and to their spiritual intuition, but get overwhelmed, anxious, and depressed when they lose that connection. I had experienced both extremes as an oboe player. I had felt the joy of becoming completely one with the instrument, and the anxiety of tightening up and losing that flow.
Searching for a way out of this cycle, I found some relief during many hours of training in Nonviolent Communication©. But in two other processes I finally found a way to create lasting change for me and for my clients. The first one, Inner Bonding®, is a six-step process that provides an elegant conceptual framework for the causes and healing of depression, anxiety, addictions, and relationship problems. The second one is Inner Relationship Focusing.
Experiencing the synergy of these two processes, you feel a tangible sense of spiritual connection, grounded in your body knowing. Your anxiety begins to lift and you enter a satisfying flow of right action. Best of all, you know what you did to get there, and how to do it again.
I’ve worked with creative, sensitive, anxious clients around the world by Zoom, Skype, or phone since 2001. To learn more about the unique offerings I’ve created, please visit my website at www.sustainablysensitive.com, where you can also schedule a complimentary 20-minute call to explore working together.
Website: www.sustainablysensitive.com
Email: emagnew123@gmail.com
Phone: 595-500-9530
Gina Cenciose
I work ongoingly and deeply with individuals and groups in realizing our full potential, living from Presence and learning to embody our most sincere ideals and dreams. Inner Relationship Focusing is a huge gift to me personally and to the hundreds of people I work with every year. I live a focusing life and it is an integral part of my being. I am also a Certified Trainer and Certifying Coordinator in Nonviolent Communication (NVC) – these 2 practices help bring me alive daily.
I have been a social and peace activist for 30 years – have a wonderfully nourishing meditation practice, a natural musical practice and a huge link to the natural world, to poetry and to laughing!
I am blessed to have created a profession in which I lead groups in year-long Transformation of Consciousness programs (17 days or more per year for 1-3 years) where we come together to delve deeply into the inner life, and the space between us, as human beings. These programs cover a broad range of topics such as facilitating open and participatory group process, learning to live with and learn from conflict, and inquiring into how to co-create a more wonderful world within ourselves, in the family, at our places of work and faith. I have 15 years full time experience of working this way and enjoy working with parents, in prisons, schools, workplaces and in creating more life serving systems on all levels. I offer all levels of Inner Relationship Focusing and often combine it in weekend workshops and ongoing programs with NVC and other life enhancing processes such as movement, song, nature experiences, Inquiry and the various circle and dialogue practices. Inner relationship and relationships between us, fascinates me. I have years of experience working with pain, trauma and the releasing of blocks to loving action that brings about more wholeness in the world.
Phone: 450-297-3766
Email: gincen@sympatico.ca
Website: www.embodyingempathy.com
Jocelyn Jacks Kahn
What I most value about Focusing is that it shows us how to allow the nitty-gritty issues of our daily lives to become stepping-stones into a rich life lived from our deepest, largest self. It shows us how to sense and follow the inner thread of our own aliveness – and how to pick it up again when we lose it.
Before encountering Inner Relationship Focusing, I had been professionally practicing and teaching energy healing for 20 years. What most sparked me about energy healing was seeing the illumination that came when a client first realized that their hurting place was just one part of something much bigger.
Once I encountered IRF in 2008 and realized that it was largely about connecting with something bigger and deeper than the hurting part, I never looked back. I was certified as a Focusing trainer and guide with a specialty in IRF in 2010.
I have also participated in a two-year training in Wholebody Focusing with Kevin McEvenue and Karen Whalen and was approved as a WBF trainer in 2013. I particularly value WBF for giving us an expanded felt experience of our “body” and showing us how to heal our relationship to it.
Guided Sessions
I offer guided Focusing sessions in person in Hawthorne, NJ and via phone, Skype or videoconference. For details, please visit my website and then contact me with any questions you may have.
Among the classes I have taught (and currently teach) are:
- Inner Relationship Focusing, Levels 1-4
- Wholebody Focusing
- “What Am I Hungry For?,” a 16-week mentored course using IRF and WBF to explore food, weight and body image
I teach both in person in Hawthorne, NJ and via phone, Skype or videoconference.
Phone: 201-790-5604
Email: jocelynkahn@gmail.com
Website: https://www.healing-growth-and-wholeness.com
Judy Archer MASc
I first discovered Focusing through my counseling training at the University of Waterloo in 1973 with Ralph Bierman PhD, a colleague of Eugene Gendlin. I started out freelancing in organizational change and gradually was drawn more to the wisdom and expression of the body through Trager™ movement re-education, personal growth teaching and landscape oil painting.
My learning with Ann began with her first telephone classes in the fall of 2003 and several classes/retreats in Chicago and California. I was Certified as a Focusing Trainer in 2005. I have also learned from Ann and Barbara McGavin in Treasure Maps workshops. I use Focusing as the rudder to guide several self integrating and nurturing processes including writing, visual arts and BodyTalk. I love being with people as they learn to drop into the spaciousness of focusing.
Since 2006 I also work as a BodyTalk Practitioner, a type of energy work that facilitates communications within the bodymind complex. www.bodytalksystem.com
I teach Inner Relationship Focusing from my base north of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Locally I host a monthly Focusing Changes Group which is supportive of partnerships and practice.
In person sessions in Orillia, Ontario, Canada. Phone sessions as well.
Workshops: Path to Lasting Change, Part One-Four
Phone: 705-325-2055
Email: judyarcher@rogers.com
Website: www.judy-archer.com
Kelly Verret
Kelly Verret brings a background that blends professional nursing (RN), Literature (BA), Spirituality (M.Div), her love of nature, and Focusing together with a spectrum of life experiences that enable her to walk with people in and across all of life’s situations. She has accompanied people internationally and locally through some of the most vulnerable times in their lives and has witnessed the power of Focusing to affirm, lift, and empower people to deepen their experience of their own unique and unfolding life journey, find fresh forward movement, and re-discover, tap into, and cultivate the creative capacity to direct their lives through the power of their own inner wisdom. It is said, “the edge of evolution is messy.”
Kelly invites you to come sit with her at the unfolding and often messy and fuzzy edges of your life and experience the release and transformative insights that can happen when we pause and give safety and acceptance to all that arises within us about any life situation. She is also developing a program that blends Focusing with our daily experiences of nature and the world around us, writing, and contemplative photography, called: Haiku Focusing: Discovering the Poet’s Heart Within You.
Phone: 860-707-6147
Email: Everunfoldingself@gmail.com
Website: https://www.everunfoldingself.com/life-coaching-services/
Laura Storey
In a recent international survey (Gallup), about one-third of people globally reported feeling stressed, worried, and angry. People struggle, feeling stuck – held back in life. I provide customized online Focusing Sessions and Level 1 – 4 courses that help them thrive in their personal, professional, and spiritual life. You, too, can get the support and skills you need to listen to yourself and thrive in life.
Meet Laura Storey, your Certified Focusing Practitioner & Teacher.
At Focusing With Laura, we know that you want to listen to yourself and thrive in life. In order to do that, you need the skills and tools to get unstuck and experience emotional healing and life change. The problem is that life can be demanding. Stress, worry, and anger can leave you feeling stuck – unable to move forward. We believe you deserve the support and skills you need to listen to yourself and thrive in life. We understand and care about you and your emotional and spiritual well-being, which is why we’ve supported hundreds of individuals like you in over twenty countries worldwide for over ten years. Experience a somatic approach, Focusing – developed by Dr. Eugene Gendlin. Access your intricate bodily felt-sensed experience and inner knowing held within the wisdom of your body.
Learn more by visiting https://www.focusingwithlaura.com and schedule a complimentary consultation so you can stop feeling stuck and held back in life and instead; cultivate mind-body awareness and experience life change. Your life can move forward in all the ways it needs.
In the meantime, you may also be interested in the animation video I created on YouTube, titled “Gene Gendlin Biography Video (Focusing 6 Steps Pioneer)”.
Email: laura@focusingwithlaura.com
Website: https://www.focusingwithlaura.com
Lauren Taub Cohen, M.S. Ed., SEP
Prior to Inner Relationship Focusing (IRF), I had a chronic tendency to appease and please. I would meet just about everything with a friendly, reflexive “yes,” even when I knew something didn’t fit or feel right. The desire to stay connected often came at a great price…abandoning myself. This behavior was just one of many adaptive strategies I developed in childhood as a way of trying to keep the peace and avoid conflicts but knowing that didn’t shift my behavior one bit…I still kept doing it!
Thankfully, during my Somatic Experiencing Practitioner training, I was introduced to IRF. IRF’s gentle and empowering process helped me untangle that habit and start voicing what I call my knowing no. What once seemed unshiftable had finally begun to shift. And, that was only the beginning! I went from being highly self-critical to more on my side…from reactive and anxious to more steady and resilient.
These invigorating, beyond-what-I-thought-possible shifts inspired me to study directly with Ann Weiser Cornell and to become a Certified IRF Professional and Trainer. IRF isn’t something I do to clients, but rather something I use with clients to help them create an inner environment in which tension eases, insights arise, healing occurs and next steps emerge.
Life is predictably unpredictable but it is possible to meet what comes your way without getting knocked over or pulled under…to have your feelings without being them. Curious to learn how? I offer one-to-one sessions via Zoom and teach a variety of online courses. Please reach out if you’d like to explore working together, and we can discuss if what I offer meets what you’re wanting.
Phone: 646.450.9580
Email: lauren@metamindsnyc.com
Website: www.metamindsnyc.com
Marcella Calabi, MA, MM
For 30 years, I have taught voice – for singers, for public speakers, and as a path to self-actualization. For 15 years, I have also consulted on decision-making, communication, negotiation and conflict resolution, through my business Clarityworks.
These two endeavors converge in a passion for helping people to find and live from their fullest, truest, free-est voice. “Voice” can be understood literally: how you use your physical voice to express yourself, personally or practically or artistically. It can also be understood as your voice in the world: how you communicate and interact, and accomplish what you choose to do.
I teach Inner Relationship Focusing and guide individual sessions. I also use Focusing as a tool in my voice teaching, my consulting work, and my own life. I am grateful: it is the most powerful single approach among many I have studied, invented or practiced. I was certified by Ann Weiser Cornell.
Available on the phone and in person in/near New York City. Specialized workshops (tailored for participants at different levels of Focusing training) include Singing for Joy, Focusing and Your Whole Free Voice, Getting Where You Want to Go, and Real Change and Real Relief.
Phone: 917-584-5931
Email: mc@clarityworks.net
Focusing: focusingchoices.com
Clarityworks consulting: clarityworks.net
Singing: marcellacalabi.com
Sandy Jahmi Burg
Focusing has been my way of being as long as I can remember. I can recall hours outside under the stars, tears rolling down my cheeks, holding space for all the parts within me to find peace around big changes I’ve been called to make. I also carried the understanding that this aspect of life – my inner world – was mine to walk alone. All of my personal growth and spiritual studies confirmed this.
And yet, something in me was sad and longed for someone to take my hand and say “I’ll go too.” Possibly, that longing is part of how I found my way to Focusing. We are not alone here. We’re in it together.
I personally thrive on authentic live connections! I love exploring what can happen when two or more are gathered in a state of ‘Presence’.
I believe in the power of a community of Focusers. I am developing both a local community of Focusers here in SW Virginia and a virtual online community of Focusers and together we are a strong pool of Focusing partners. For both communities, I hold a vision of thriving among others who appreciate experience/trust/knowing that life forward flow is there.
Always there.
In the pause.
My local community uses facebook a lot to communicate and so in addition to a blog & website, I maintain an open facebook group called Floyd Focusing. I’d love to meet you there!
As an Inner Relationship Focusing Trainer, I enjoy working with individuals and teaching groups. I offer Levels 1-4 and specialty courses. I also enjoy team-teaching with other Focusing professionals or related specialists when opportunities arise.
I Offer:
Guided Focusing Sessions (at my home, possibly yours if you live nearby, via phone or video conference)
Parent-Child Focusing Activity Sessions (at my home, possibly yours if you live nearby, or video conference)
Focusing Classes Levels 1-4 (at my home, your location in SWVA or via video conference)
Being Your Own Best Friend Classes for Tweens/Teens or Adults (at my home or via video conference)
Healing Professionals Focusing Classes Levels 1-4 (at my home, your location in SWVA or via video conference)
Co-Mentor for Focusing IRF Trainers
Emerging Focuser Gathering Opportunities (via video conference)
Public Presentations
Phone: 540-552-0203
Email: sandyjahmi@gmail.com
Website: www.sandyjahmi.com
Facebook Public Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/floydfocusing/
Shulamit Day Berlevtov
I support people in transforming what is painful and difficult into meaning, ease and new life.
I am bilingual (French and English-speaking) Focusing guide, yoga teacher and holistic psychotherapist in private practice in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Holistic psychotherapy focuses on health and wellness at all levels of the person: physical, psychological, and spiritual. Using Focusing, Nonviolent Communication, mindfulness, the Tapas Acupressure Technique®, reiki and yoga, I facilitate self-connection and healing. Both Western and Eastern approaches to health and well being are integrated in my practice and I emphasize the spiritual dimension of inner processing that is available through deep listening.
Focusing quite literally changed my life. It has given me a way to be a companion to even the most painful aspects of my inner life. I now can connect with my inner wisdom and act from solid ground. I am both much more sensitive and much stronger than I ever was before. I love to share this skill of self accompaniment through Inner Relationship Focusing.
I came to Focusing through Nonviolent Communication (NVC)—the Focusing book was on the recommended reading list—and crossing the two is my passion. In NVC, we talk about “the shift” that comes from connection with universal needs. With Focusing, we can learn a reliable way to connect with the inner experiencing that leads to shifting.
Eugene Gendlin, who brought Focusing to the world, said, “No matter what you do, with Focusing, it will go better.” This has been my experience.
I provide:
Focusing-oriented psychotherapy (in French and English)
Guided Focusing sessions by phone and in person (in French and English)
Focusing classes (groups in English by phone; individual tutorials by phone and in person in French and English)
I am the placeholder for the Focusing and NVC working group.
Phone: 613-868-YOGA (Eastern time zone)
E-mail: shulamit@shula.ca
Website: www.shula.ca
Blog: www.shula-yoga.blogspot.com
Twitter: Shuliji
Terry Travers-Davin, M.A.
I was first introduced to Focusing in 1986 while visiting a relative in Pittsburgh, PA. After only a few moments of Focusing, I felt lighter, less burdened, more alive; and the insight that I received provided both meaning into the life issue and direction. Where I was once stuck, I became unstuck. The experience was magical to me, and I set out to learn more about this life-changing tool.
Over a period of two years I studied extensively with Eugene Gendlin and Ann Weiser Cornell. This culminated in my being certified as a Focusing trainer by the Focusing Institute in 1993.
Currently, I am available for individual Focusing sessions and teaching.
Phone: 443-385-0541
Email: terrytdavin@goeaston.net
United Kingdom & Rep. of Ireland
Barbara McGavin
I have been practicing Focusing since 1983 and now teach Focusing full time. I am an Accrediting Mentor of the British Focusing Teacher’s Association and a Certifying Coordinator for The Focusing Institute.
Since 1994, Ann Weiser Cornell and I have been exploring using Focusing in some of the most difficult areas of life. Treasure Maps to the Soul has grown out of this and is the core of my Focusing practice.
I have a wide background in humanistic psychology, teaching, fine art, and graphic design. I am committed to finding the most effective and enjoyable ways to help people to learn Focusing. I am also interested in how Focusing can be used in the creative arts.
In person sessions in Bath, England. Phone sessions as well.
Workshops: Focusing & Dreams; Spark to Beacon; Treasure Maps to the Soul Retreats
Phone: 011-44-(0)1225-311 062
Email: bathfocusing@me.com
Fiona Parr
I am an Accrediting Mentor of the British Focusing Association and a Certifying Coordinator for The Focusing Institute.
I have facilitated personal development in others and myself since 1978, and practised Focusing since 1991. I have lived at the Findhorn Foundation, which is a spiritual community in Scotland, and I am a certified facilitator of the Transformation Game. My spiritual life is most important to me, and Focusing supports my spiritual practice. I am a counsellor and therapist.
I believe that Focusing is a truly wonderful ability for life. It enables people to gain an invaluable resource and support in their lives. I work with people who are working with others, such as practitioners and health professionals, to enhance their work. I offer professional training for graduates of the Focusing Skills Certificate Course, for people who want to continue to develop their Focusing and Companioning skills, and to deepen their practice. I am also on Ann Weiser Cornell’s Certification teaching team.
I offer one-to-one sessions in Devon, England, and by Skype and phone.
Trainings – the foundation Focusing Skills Certificate Course in Devon and online by Skype, Continuing Professional training to Certification level
Workshops – The Transformation Game, Focusing and Dreams, Wholebody Focusing, Focusing and Creative Self-Expression
Phone: + 44 (0)1626 821110 / + 44 (0) 7799 027332
Email: fiona@fionaparr-focusing.co.uk
Website: www.fionaparr-focusing.co.uk
Jerry Conway
I have been teaching Focusing since 2001 and am a member of the British Focusing Teachers Association. Focusing has helped me to become more comfortable with myself and what I am doing with my life. It is an essential tool to daily living and one I am keen to share.
My interests in focusing are:
- Focusing and social care or social work
- Focusing and spiritual development – I have led a group at my Quaker meeting house on a guided meditation based on Focusing
- The psychosocial wellness approach to community mental health developed by Pat Omidian and Nina Joy Lawrence in Afghanistan. I was involved in this project in 2005
Do you have a nagging sense of dissatisfaction with yourself or what you have done with your life? …Do you notice critical voices inside or a sense of dread that everything could fall apart? …Do you have a sense that these feelings are holding you back?…These are the feelings I can recall before I began my journey with focusing. Wouldn’t you like to feel that you could be friends with the person you are? That your unique abilities are being used more fully in what you do? As I reflect back on my journey with focusing I can sense how it has helped me to be more accepting of who I am and what I am doing. This sense brings an enormous liberation.
I am happy to have a half hour chat to you about Focusing for free to see if my way of teaching would suit you. I am also happy to come and give talks to groups interested in Focusing.
I offer individual Focusing sessions face to face or on the phone.
I teach Focusing to individuals and run workshops for groups. If you want to know more about me look on my website.
Phone: +44 (0)7890 603461
Email: jerry@jerryconway.co.uk
Website: https://www.jerryconway.co.uk/JC/Focusing.html
Skype: jerryconway
Location: Kidderminster , Worcestershire , England
Paula Newman
I am a Certified Focusing Professional Teacher having trained with Ann Weiser Cornell. I am also a BFA Recognised Teacher and a BACP Senior Accredited Counsellor and Supervisor.
Over the years I have worked with many people who are seeking healing, personal growth and a new way forward. When a person experiences that their pain is heard, understood and acknowledged and that they themselves are accepted warmly and genuinely, something changes. I have discovered this as a Focuser gently paying attention to something in me that needs my attention, and as a Companion and guide supporting another person’s process.
Guided Focusing sessions
By phone, Skype and face to face in Stanmore, Middlesex. The sessions are suitable for people who are new to Focusing, as well as experienced Focusers. If you have not Focused before you can try it out. Sessions are confidential and at your pace.
Focusing Workshops and Focusing Training
Levels 1 – 5 leading to the British Focusing Association Certificate in Focusing Skills. You might be in a profession where it helps to be self-aware such as counselling, or maybe you are interested in developing yourself and gaining deeper insights.
Counselling and Supervision
I find that Focusing is very much in tune with my Person-Centred counselling approach which includes empathic listening, acceptance and being real. You might like to read my project, ‘Bringing Focusing to a Counselling Supervision Group’. My project shows how Focusing can increase counsellors’ self-awareness, enhance supervisory explorations and enrich the group experience.
You are welcome to contact me:
Phone: +44 (0)7941 958034
Email: paulanewman930@hotmail.com
Website: www.paulanewmancounsellingservices.co.uk
Peter Gill
I have been practicing Focusing since 2003 and now teach Focusing full time. I am Accredited with the British Focusing Teacher’s Association and with The Focusing Institute.
I discovered Focusing on a Buddhist meditation retreat and have not looked back since. It has made a huge difference to my life. Since then I have been exploring the links between Focusing and Buddhist practice and am currently developing workshops and retreats about the meeting of these worlds. I have a background in teaching – both meditation and Buddhism. I enjoy music, art and graphic design. I am convinced that the world needs what Focusing has to offer and am committed to finding ways of communicating what I have found so valuable in my own life.
In person sessions in London, England.
Workshops: Learning Focusing Training, Levels 1 – 5
Focusing & Dreams
Focusing, meditation and spirituality
Half price discounts given if repeating a Learning Focusing Training workshop.
Phone: +44 7905 360318
Email: livingfocusing@fastmail.com
Website: www.livingfocusing.co.uk
Susan Jordan
I’ve been a BFA recognized Focusing practitioner and teacher since 2003, having trained with Barbara McGavin in Bath. I’m also trained in Core Process Psychotherapy, a Buddhist-based approach which works with Focusing, but I’m now in the process of winding down my practice as a psychotherapist and supervisor and returning to Focusing work.
I first came across Focusing in my psychotherapy training and was intrigued to discover it as a practice in its own right. After years of meditation and psychotherapy, it was Focusing that finally taught me how to go about making a friendly relationship with everything in me. There’s always something special about sensing deeply into that open, accepting Focusing place and I love helping people to discover it.
As well as being a Focusing teacher I’m a writer and poet. Among the things I’m interested in are Focusing and creative expression, the relationship between Focusing and meditation and how Focusing can help us find an authentic response to what’s happening in the world.
One-to-one sessions online, by phone and in person when possible. I’m based in Devon, south-west England.
Online and, when possible, in-person courses teaching Focusing skills (no experience required) and exploring other topics (some Focusing experience needed).
Phone: +44 7949 140941
Email: susanjord@gmail.com
Website: www.susanjordan.net
Europe
Agathi Lakioti, Ph.D., MSc, ECP
I am a clinical psychologist, and a certified Emotion-Focused Therapy therapist and supervisor. I am also a certified Focusing Professional and Trainer. I work privately as a psychotherapist and supervisor and I also teach and train people in therapy and Focusing.
I have studied Inner Relationship Focusing with Ann Weiser Cornell and I incorporate it into my therapy work. I am especially interested in the use of Focusing in Emotion-Focused Therapy and I explored this in my Focusing certification project through a qualitative therapist-interview study.
In 2021 I founded the Hellenic Institute of Emotion-Focused Therapy (HiEFT) to offer training in Emotion-Focused Therapy, Inner Relationship Focusing and other courses in emotional health and healing.
I offer individual psychotherapy, supervision and Focusing sessions in Greek and English. Sessions can be in-person in Athens, Greece, and online.
I also teach a full Inner Relationship Focusing Training Program as well as a number of other seminars in emotional health incorporating Focusing.
Phone: +30 6944 964 300
Email: agathilakioti@gmail.com
Websites: www.agathilakioti.gr | www.hieft.gr
Location: Athens, Greece
Arno Katz
Hi, I’m Arno Katz, and I was trained and certified as a Focusing Professional by Ann Weiser Cornell.
The most rewarding moments in my life are when I help people to discover and to trust the wisdom of their bodies. I enjoy supporting people to get in touch with their bodily felt experience and to listen to it in a gentle and accepting way. For me it is true magic when a painful experience shifts and transforms into something completely new that couldn’t have been predicted before. That is why I love Focusing so much.
I am also a teacher at a high school here in Germany. My main aim as a teacher is to facilitate the personal growth of my students and their trust in their own sense of rightness. In a system that is based on reward and punishment this is often a real challenge. I teach Focusing to other teachers too. My dream would be a school system that is based on what is alive in people instead of evaluations and grades.
In my free time I enjoy walking, cycling, working out in the gym, and reading a good book. I am married and I have two children.
Please note that I only teach Focusing and do sessions in German. If you book a session with me, I will help you to access the wisdom of your body and to experience yourself as bigger than whatever is going on inside you. In my Focusing classes I will help you to learn Focusing so that you can guide yourself through the process and I will show you how to support other people on their Focusing journey.
Email: arnokatz@posteo.de
Website: www.focusing.me
Beate Wüpper
Focusing is with me and supports me in all aspects of my life: in my relationships to other people, in my job, in my deepest inner processes as well as in ordinary everyday situations. Focusing has mainly contributed to my own life becoming more fulfilled and joyful. It is my wish to communicate to my clients and students the carrying-forward possibilities Focusing may have for their life, supporting them to find their own way and live their own life.
I have been learning Focusing since 2007 with Ann Weiser Cornell and Elmar Kruithoff (Zentrum für Focusing Kompetenz) and have been certified as a professional Focusing practitioner and teacher in 2012. My professional background includes a degree as high school teacher, working as trainer for Bach Flower Therapy and member of the management team of the Bach-Blueten-Institute operating in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
My private practice-work is based on my training as person-centered counselor, on Focusing and Bach Flower Therapy. My clients mainly come with issues around self-clarification, self-development and self-fulfillment in the context of their professional and personal environment.
Sessions (in person, phone, skype), Languages: German, English
Seminars, workshops and groups in Hamburg, Germany.
Phone: +49 (0)40 4807706
Email: mail@beatewuepper.de
Website: www.beatewuepper.de
Elmar Kruithoff
I enjoy working with people and groups with a strong interest to improve their ability to explore, support and be-with their inner experience, their own thinking and feeling before and while acting – as a means to improve creativity, decision making, leadership skills and to support prevention and self-care.
I’ve been working as a research assistant in various research groups at the Dept. for Medical Psychology, as an assistant professor for Somatic Psychology, external IT consultant and counsellor. I am specialized in process-oriented work and how the quality of our attention influences our thinking, feeling and acting and the connection to our body and environment.
I am a Focusing Professional and Focusing Teacher, certified by the Focusing Institute New York . I teach Focusing and listening skills through my own business Focusing Kompetenz Zentrum / Center of Excellence in Focusing and I have taught this process at Hamburg University and various clinics, schools and companies. Inner Relationship Focusing is at the core of any method I use.
Sessions:
Phone / Skype sessions
In person sessions in Copenhagen, Denmark and Hamburg, Germany available
Language:
German, English, Danish
Services:
Seminar with Ann Weiser Cornell
Inner Relationship Level 1 – 5
Advanced Seminars (Improvisation) and Groups (Projectgroup)
Special Topics
Tutorials
Supervision
In-house Trainings
Lectures
Past Co-Mentor with Ann Weiser Cornell for IR Focusing Trainer Certification
Email: ek@focusing-center.de
Website: https://www.focusing-center.de/
Germana Ponte
I have a degree in Sociology (University of Trento, Italy), and three years ago I became a Counselor. I use Focusing with great success in this profession, but mostly I love to teach how to reach Presence through Focusing to every human being willing to learn it.
I have become a Focusing Trainer in the autumn of my life, a period in which everything becomes mature and ready to be shared. Focusing emphasizes all my good qualities and abilities learned during a lifetime; and it is so compatible with meditation, something very important in my life.
I learned Inner Relationship Focusing mainly with Ann Weiser Cornell, and Treasure Maps to the Soul with Ann Weiser Cornell and Barbara McGavin. These two women have brought Focusing to an important evolution with their “radical acceptance” of everything that comes up in the inner world, but mostly for the importance they gave to the state of “Presence,” our real Self.
In person sessions in Milano, Udine, and all northern Italy. Phone sessions as well.
Workshops: Learning Focusing
– 5 days training (one every 2 months more or less)
– 6 individual training sessions (one per month during the first 6 months)
This kind of training is designed for groups, but can be adapted to individuals as well.
Phone: 0039-338-7812626
Email: germana.ponte@libero.it
Website: www.focusing-consapevolezza.org
Julia Richling
I love teaching (Inner Relationship) Focusing online in small, cozy groups (2-5 persons) and also working with individuals. Additionally I offer free 2-hour workshops 3-4 times per year (suggestions about new interesting topics are always welcome).
In class and life, I value kindness and a deep acceptance of everyone and everything. I give my best to teach IRF in a empowering and also trauma sensitive, resource oriented way, be as open and flexible as possible and look out for new creative ways when needed. I also value the exchange of experiences, be it about Focusing or life in genera
Next to the life of a Focusing Trainer, I’m the mother of two sons and enjoy spending time with my family, my friends and Focusing-Partners. I love taking long walks in the nearby forest, reading (‘Pride and Prejudice’ is my all-time favorite) and playing (board games, card games, role-playing, video ones… it doesn’t matter as long as it’s fun and everyone is having a good time). And I’m a proud member of House Hufflepuff.:)
Sessions:
Zoom sessions (also Phone, if wanted)
In person sessions near Hagen, Germany (In-House Trainings)
Language:
German (Class, Workshops), English (only individual)
Services:
Inner Relationship Level 1-4 for small online groups
Personal Trainings
Free Workshops
Blog
Email: julia@focusing-reise.de
Website: https://focusing-reise.de
Theres Fleury
Mit allem, was mich beschäftigt, so in Beziehung sein, dass es klar und verständlich wird und mich und mein Leben weiter trägt – das möchte ich für mich und darin unterstütze ich andere.
I have been practicing Focusing since 1999 and was certified by the Focusing Institute New York as a professional trainer / teacher in 2003. It is by learning more about the importance of “how I am with what I sense” that my interest in Inner Relationship Focusing and in Treasure Maps to the Soul has increased and has also shaped my teaching format.
My professional background includes ten years of work experience in the Human Resources field, both in HR-consulting and personnel development as well as in graphology-based procedures for staff and employee recruitment as a handwriting psychologist.
Since 2005 I meet clients for focusing-oriented coaching and supervision in my private practice in Berne , Switzerland . I am a co-founder of a Changes Group (non facilitated) and facilitator of an ongoing supportive Group for Partnership Focusing and I teach levels 1 and 2 twice a year in groups of 6 to 10 people in Berne, Switzerland. Coaching of Focusing Basic Skills over the phone as well.
Phone: +4131 9219944
Email: theres.fleury@focusing-bern.ch
Websites: www.focusing-bern.ch | for “Changes Group”: www.focusingforumbern.ch
Tine Swyngedouw
I have been practicing Focusing and working as a psychologist and experiential psychotherapist since 1990. I studied Focusing mainly with Mia Leijssen and Ann Weiser Cornell. I became a Focusing Trainer and Focusing-Oriented Therapist in Chicago in 1995 and a Certifying Coordinator in 2012. I’m Chair of Focusing Flanders, a group of people who want to bring Focusing to the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. I have two daughters.
My motto is making connections. This is what I love about Focusing: Being connected with my inner world and from there helping people to find that inner connection with themselves, and making connections between Focusing and different fields, and connecting people with each other.
Being connected to my inner world: Inner Relationship Focusing gave me the sometimes challenging gift of developing and being Self-in-Presence for whatever there is in me.
In my work as a psychotherapist and as Certifying Coordinator I try to pass this gift on and I help people to integrate Focusing in their work and lives.
I’m very interested in making connections between Focusing and different fields. The areas that interest me the most are: therapy, writing, creativity, pain, cancer, children and also Thinking At the Edge and the Process Model.
What I really like is helping to bring Focusing into the world, and to build connections between people, so people can feel connected and at home in our Flemish, European and international Focusing family.
I offer individual psychotherapy, supervision and training to become a Certified Focusing Professional. I offer in-person sessions in Louvain, Belgium, as well as phone sessions.
I teach workshops about my areas of interest.
Phone: +32/484.237342
Email: tine.swyngedouw@gmail.com
Website: www.focussenvlaanderen.be
Wilja Westerhof
Since 1988 I’ve been learning Focusing, first with Rene Maas and then, since 2000, mainly with Ann Weiser Cornell, along with other Dutch trainers. I became a Focusing Trainer with Marta Stapert. I have also attended workshops on Interactive Focusing and Whole Body Focusing.
In 1984 I started to work as a physical therapist, and then soon began going more and more into the field of psychosomatic diseases. In 1989, I specialised as a body-oriented therapist (bio-dynamics according to Gerda Boyesen, bio-release, Mona Lisa Boyesen, reiki, acupressure, meditation), and as a guide for pregnancy. I’ve been running my private practice since 1984 and nowadays mostly combine body-oriented therapy with Focusing, in a Whole Body Focusing way and give Focusing workshops on learning Focusing and Focusing with special topics.
In person sessions in Ruinerwold, Netherlands. Phone sessions as well.
Workshops: I offer the learning Focusing series as well as Focusing workshops on special Topics, including working with the Inner Critic, and working with the Inner Child, and a regular Focusing Open House, suitable for those who are new to Focusing and interested in learning more.
Phone: 0031-522-48 24 47
Email: nfo@focusbronnen.nl
Website: www.focusbronnen.nl
Asia
Antoinette Biehlmeier
After years of feeling lost, and depressed, I discovered the magic of Focusing – a compassionate, non-judgmental way to connect with your inner wisdom.
I began my Focusing journey in 2015 with Ruth Hirsch and became a certified Inner Relationship Focusing Teacher in 2023 with Ann Weiser Cornell.
I now have the privilege of witnessing the power of this practice to gently open doors for my clients when other approaches fail. My own path to self-love and acceptance was rocky, so I can empathize with those who feel disconnected from themselves and struggle with relationships or lack fulfillment or meaning in life.
I wish to share the gift of Focusing so you, too, can experience deep self-understanding, overcome inner obstacles, and unlock lasting happiness.
If you are ready to transform your inner landscape, I am here to walk with you.
I offer a supportive space for you to relate to yourself with kindness, find your inner compass, and live a life aligned with your true needs.
Offerings:
Online courses: The Art of Being With Yourself – IRF Path One and Path Two
Sessions: One-on-one in person or online depending on location
Holistic Training:
Certified Trainer in Past Life & Spiritual Regression
Certified NLP Practitioner
Certified Practitioner for Jin Shin Jyutsu, Nutripuncture
Certified HeartMath Coach
Trained in Integral Coaching with New Ventures West
Cert. Focusing Trainer with the Focusing Institute
Phone: +65 – 9012 1933
Email: antoinette@innerdynamicsmap.com
Website: www.innerdynamicsmap.com
Fernanda Cecin
I have lived in ten countries and relocated over twenty times. Each move, together with motherhood, compelled me to strengthen my relational skills and emotional resilience for new beginnings, often amidst mixed feelings for saying goodbye to what is cherished and familiar.
My explorations have helped me see how women around the world can become distrustful of our emotions and disconnected from our inner knowing. It is common for many of us to bury our longings and give up our power in some area of life.
Through Focusing, I learned to deeply listen to parts of me that had not dared to speak. Cultivating a gentle inner relationship allowed frozen, hidden inner aspects to feel safe enough to emerge and be sensed. These reencounters enlivened me.
Through Focusing, you expand your ability to gently relate to the nuances of your inner experiences.
With practice, you naturally move towards experiencing a sense of emotional closeness, even when
facing criticizing and scared aspects of yourself.
By learning to welcome every drop of yourself, you heal and grow into a more integrated person.
Within an unintrusive relational field, you create conditions for trusting your inner knowing while
finding clear purpose and aligned direction.
Join me for a worthwhile transformation!
Offerings:
- One-on-one Inner Relationship Focusing sessions
- Experiential Inner Relationship Focusing courses
- Sessions and Workshops to reconnect with your longings and attune to your emerging future.
Online services in English and Portuguese.
Training:
- Focusing Professional and Trainer certified by Ann Weiser Cornell and accredited by The
International Focusing Institute. - Certified coach for The Compass approach, developed by Arnina Kashtan and rooted in Non-Violent Communication principles.
- Trained in Non-Violent Communication and Theory U, transformative processes that foster compassionate and empowering relationships.
I warmly invite you to contact me!
Email: fernanda@agentlespace.org
Website: agentlespace.org
Australia
Jo Kennedy
I come to Focusing with a long background in film-making, acting and the arts. I had enjoyed a meditation practice for over 20 years when I discovered Focusing. But within 15 minutes of my first Focusing session I realized that in all those years I had never really noticed what Gendlin calls the “felt sense.”
It was so simple… but I had missed it. But I now know this simple life-changing fact – The Body Talks back! There is a wisdom inside each of us asking to be listened to. My recovery from cancer has been greatly facilitated by this as has my relationship to myself and to others. My parenting skills have been profoundly deepened and I can happily say that Focusing brings me an ongoing deep and resonating sense of wholeness.
I would love to share this simple and transformative process with you.
In person Focusing sessions in Melbourne, Australia. Phone sessions as well.
There is a Focusing group that meets in Melbourne every two weeks on a Thursday for 2 hours. All focusers welcome, call me for details.
Learning Focusing Training: Currently teaching Levels 1, 2 and 3
Special Topics Workshops, including: Focusing and Writing / Creativity
Phone: 0418141870
Email: focusingaustralia@gmail.com
Website: www.focusingaustralia.com
Afghanistan/Pakistan
Haqmal Daudzai
What I have found in Focusing and particularly in Inner Relationship Focusing is very useful particularly for my Afghan people who all suffered two and half decades of war, being refugees and in poverty. I learned how easily my people find their inner relationship with their daily life by doing Focusing and how quickly with Focusing they become more resilient.
I have been practicing and teaching Focusing for about 3 years. I became a Certified Focusing Professional in March 2006 with The Focusing Institute of New York. Fortunately on October 2007 I became one of two International Certifying Coordinators for Afghanistan. Besides being a trainer with AFSC, Quaker Service, Afghanistan, I am also a private healing worker.
I have B.A in Economics from Kabul University. From an economist’s point of view I want to say that Focusing is the cheapest self-healing product possible, since we not only help ourselves, but also can donate it to all people in need as an ever useful gift.
I am mostly using Islamic sources (Quran and Hadiz) and Sufi poetry in my Focusing workshops. We can see signs of this human process we now call Focusing in the 1400 years of history in Islam. I invite all human beings in the world to taste the joy of being a Focuser.
In person sessions in Kabul, Afghanistan. Phone sessions as well.
Phone: +93 (0) 772032289
Email: haqmal_2005@yahoo.com
Laila Masjidi
I learned Focusing and Psychology/Sociology from Dr. Patricia Omidain and Mrs. Nina Joy Lawrence in 2002, while I was working with FEP/IRC Afghan Refugees Services in Peshawar Pakistan. I became certified from The Focusing Institute of New York in March 2006, and then I became an International Certifying Coordinator (ICC) for Afghanistan in 2007. I have a Bachelor’s degree in physics from Kabul University.
In my Focusing journey from 2005 until now, I have trained 650 students in Path to Lasting Change, Part One, among them 183 male and 467 female participants. We have 8 Focusing teachers who have already been certified from the Focusing institute of New York at AFSC Afghanistan. Now I am working as Master Trainer for Quaker Service Afghanistan. Under my leadership, last year 8 of my students were certified by The Focusing Institute of New York. This year I have 8 new interns (4 male, 4 female) from the Psychology and Education Faculties of Kabul University who are taking their Psychosocial, Peace Building and Focusing Training in AFSC Quaker Service, Afghanistan.
The way we are doing Focusing in Afghanistan is really Inner Relationship Focusing. I learned from my 6 years of work experience in these fields that Focusing helps all human beings find a comfortable relationship with overwhelming feelings. This is of particular value to Afghan people who have been involved in the past two and a half decades of war and conflict. I present Inner Relationship Focusing as a great tool for people who are healing from physical and emotional illnesses.
In person sessions in Kabul, Afghanistan. Phone sessions as well.
Phone: +93 (0) 799 00 33 87
Email: Laila_masm@yahoo.com
Israel
Ruth Hirsch, MSW, MPH, CMT
Focusing Trainer & Certifying Coordinator, Somatic therapist, and Consultant based in Jerusalem, Israel
Imagine, for a moment, a life that includes…
- Balance, vitality, peace, and joy.
- Access to and trust in your inner wisdom and intuition.
- Better listening and communication skills.
- The ability to make decisions easily and feel better about the decisions you make.
All of this is available to you!
I’m committed to learning, growing, healing – and sharing what I learn with others. Since I was introduced to Focusing in 1993 through a simple five minute exercise, Focusing has enhanced every aspect of my life and work in ways that I could never have imagined.
I specialize in working with professional women , especially those in healing professions – psychotherapists, bodyworkers, and life coaches – who want to grow personally and professionally, whose goal is to make significant, positive changes in their own lives and the lives of others.
I’ve been offering one-to-one Focusing sessions since 1994, and teaching Focusing since 1995. I enjoy and have had consistently good results working with people with various issues, including transition, relationship and work challenges, as well as physical challenges ranging from back pain to life-challenging conditions. My offerings include:
- All levels of Focusing training, from beginner through advanced.
- Coaching for those wishing to integrate Focusing into their existing healing work.
- Conscious Touch, and workshops that combine Focusing and Touch.
One-to-One sessions and Classes available in person and by phone. Toll-free to people in North America and several European countries.
Phone: U.S. Number (rings in Israel): 510-868-0885. In Israel: 02-563-0999
Email: ruth@ruthhirsch.com
Website: www.ruthhirsch.com
South America
Cecilia Lauriano
I’m from Brazil and I fell in love with Focusing when I met Ann Weiser Cornell while she was in my country. Since I came to know Inner Relationship Focusing, everything in me said, “YES! This is what I want to do for the rest of my life – to bring love, compassion and kindness to human relationships, starting with myself and then for my community, students and clients.”
I’m the first Brazilian to become a Certified Inner Relationship Focusing Trainer (Professional) and this makes me very happy for myself and the people of my country.
I have a Bachelor’s degree in Pedagogy and a Postgraduate degree in Psychotramautology, a specialization in Jungian Psychology, in an interlocution between Analytical Psychology and Somatic Experience. I’m also trained at all levels of the Somatic Experience.
Throughout my career as a therapist I have specialized in working with trauma.
I love to meet people in one-to-one sessions, and my life’s greatest passion is being a teacher.
I provide:
Focusing sessions online and in person.
Classes and workshops which I teach include: the four levels of Inner Relationship Focusing and workshops which integrate Focusing in Portuguese – online and in person.
Email: atendimento@
Website: www.cecilialauriano.com.br
