Focusing: The Second Year

Have you gotten a lot from Focusing and know there’s so much more?

Are there times when Focusing doesn’t work well… or types of issues that just don’t shift?

Do you sometimes feel shaky about how to cultivate Self-in-Presence when you need to?

Do you ever feel less than confident as a Focusing partner?

“Focusing: The Second Year” is a 20-week course for those who have completed the four Levels and want to go deeper into advanced Focusing topics in a supported continuing group.

About the Course

In Focusing: The Second Year you will learn how to…

  • Confidently cultivate Self-in-Presence so you don’t get hijacked by your emotional states and you can feel real positive change in your body
  • Learn how to work with “parts” (in yourself or someone else) so that repetitive stuck issues start to shift and you can feel new possibilities
  • Help yourself or someone else work with challenging issues like action blocks, decisions, and unfulfilled longing
  • Feel truly relaxed and “at home” doing Focusing partnership so you can look forward to every partnership as a privilege and a pleasure

At A Glance

Who For Focusers who have completed Levels One – Four of Focusing and want more confidence, more skills, more support in going deeper.
What Go deeper into advanced Focusing topics in a supported group. More partnering, more learning, more connection.
Where Live Online Course – join us from anywhere in the world!
Why You want to be more confident and more skilled with your own Focusing, and as a Focusing partner. You’d like Focusing to feel second nature, to have it “in your bones.” You’d like help and support to apply Focusing to long-term issues like blocks and persistent uncomfortable feelings. You want to be able to “live Focusing” every day.

What is different and special about this training:

I really wanted to put together a program that would take people to the next level, so I developed a curriculum that would give empowerment and support in areas that none of my other courses cover (or cover so thoroughly).
For example:

  • Yes, I have an audio course on releasing blocks to action… but I’ve never before taught how to work as a Companion with action blocks. It’s quite illuminating to discover how many issues can be framed as action blocks! And it’s not too difficult to work with them… if you know how.
  • Yes, we talk about Self-in-Presence in Levels 1-4. But were you aware that there is a Helpful Protector that masquerades as Presence? In this course I will show you how to recognize it, in yourself and in your partners.
  • Yes, we start working with Protectors in Path to Lasting Change, Part Two. But it is possible to be so much more at ease and confident with what to do when Protectors arise… including how to spot them.

Here are some of the reasons people have taken this program and some of the results they’ve received:

“Focusing works well sometimes but other times I just get fuzzy and space out.”

He learned how to build trust in the inner world so he could stay with elusive felt senses.

“I’m so nervous when I’m a Companion, I don’t know the right words and I’m afraid I’ll mess up the other person.”

Practicing with a supportive partner from the course every week, she learned to relax and trust her own instincts about what to say, as well as trusting the process itself.

“When I get triggered, I get overwhelmed easily, and when I do it’s hard to get back.”

She learned how to be with the Small One, the part that carried the early wounding, so that it began to feel safe and to heal, and this built up her ability to be Self-in-Presence.

Want to Take Your Focusing to the Next Level? Now You Can!

Sign Up for Focusing: The Second Year

Get Ready for 20 Weeks of Advanced Training You Can Apply to Specific Blocks & Life Issues

Feel Unshakable in Your Ability to Meet Whatever Comes as a Focuser & a Partner

I'm Ready to Get Started

You will leave with skills and language (and confidence) in helping with:

  • being Self-in-Presence
  • blocks to action
  • critical and “helpful” Protector parts
  • decisions that aren’t easy
  • persistent longings

And perhaps most important of all: deep bonds of connection with a supportive group where you are know you belong and are accepted.

The Structure of The Course:

  • We meet as an online group on Zoom for 20 two-hour classes, usually every week but with breaks for holidays.
  • You will be paired with a different partner from the course each week unless you arrange something different. (For example, you could ask to be with the same person each week, or some other arrangement.)
  • You have a new handout each week with a new exercise to try out with your partner. Many of these are “protocols” where you get the precise language to take your partner through the process.
  • The weekly curriculum can be found here.
  • During class we will have presentations, discussions, group guided exercises, and demonstrations.
  • I am available in between class meetings for your questions by email.

About the Teacher

Ann Weiser Cornell:

Ann Weiser Cornell

Ann Weiser Cornell, author of Focusing in Clinical Practice: The Essence of Change, The Power of Focusing, and The Radical Acceptance of Everything, has devoted her life to helping people learn Focusing easily. Ann learned Focusing from its originator, Eugene Gendlin, in 1972, and worked closely with him for many decades.

Today Ann is internationally recognized as one of the leading innovators and theoreticians of Focusing. She has taught Focusing in twenty countries, and her Focusing books and manuals have been translated into eleven other languages.

This program might be for you if:

You want to go further with Focusing – and me – in a group that lasts 20 weeks instead of 5 so we can really give each other lots of support… and so you can go deeper into your own healing and growth.

You don’t want to take the two-year certification program to teach Focusing to other people – either that’s not your thing or it’s not the right time – but you do want to work with me and go further with your Focusing.

FAQ

Do I have to be present for every class? What about recordings?

This is a participatory partnership class and your presence at most of the classes is important, but there is no precise number of classes you need to attend — unless you want CEUs, in which case you need to attend 80% of the classes and make up any missed classes. Every class will be recorded and the recordings will be available to every registered participant.

I’ve taken Treasure Maps; will this be the same?

People who have taken the Treasure Maps to the Soul retreat will recognize the three types of parts and the Not-Wanting/Wanting language, but there is material in this class that wasn’t covered in Treasure Maps, including specific work with action blocks, decisions, framing the issue, and the heart’s desire. In addition, if you took Treasure Maps, this class gives you a chance to carry forward the work with weekly partnership practice in structured exercises.

I’ve not taken Treasure Maps yet, is that OK?

Of course! The only pre-requisite for this class is Path to Lasting Change, Part Two.

What’s the relationship between this course and Certification Training?

Focusing: The Second Year could be taken before, after, during, or instead of certification training. (It does not lead to certification itself, but certainly enhances practitioner skills.) If what you want is to deepen your own Focusing practice (with a partner), then Focusing: The Second Year is the most direct route.

This time isn't good for me; will you be teaching this again?

We offer this course once a year starting in September. It will be at a different time of day next year.

What is the format? How does the partnership work?

Each week I will offer new teaching, including theory, examples, and specific language for taking a partner through the process we are learning about. There are also handouts each week written especially for this course and you can read in advance if you want to. There’s an experiential component to every class; either I will guide everyone through an exercise, or I will work with one person as a demo… and sometimes we will also pair up for a while during class. You will have an assigned partner each week, and you can just tell us if you’re not available that week. It’s also OK to work with the same person all 20 weeks, just let us know.

You’re certainly welcome to bring what you’re learning to your other Focusing partnerships outside the course. And feel free to bring the new skills to your clients if you’re a healing professional—it’s meant to be shared!

Other questions? Let me know by clicking here.

SPACE IS LIMITED to 24

Curriculum

In Path to Lasting Change, Part Two you learned how to help with blocks to Focusing like “The Feeling about the Feeling,” inner criticizing parts, feeling overwhelmed and feeling nothing. As you learned how to help other people with those blocks, you were also learning about them for yourself.

In Focusing: The Second Year we will continue the process of learning how to help yourself and others with specific blocks and specific kinds of issues. Each week there will be a new exercise tailored for that particular area. We’ll learn the theory behind it, practice the process in class with a guided exercise or a demonstration, and then pair up during the week to try it in a session with a partner.

More about the areas we’ll be exploring:

Self-in-Presence

Self-in-Presence, we can’t get enough of it! When we need it the most, it can be the hardest to find. You’ll learn and practice more ways to cultivate Self-in-Presence yourself and support it in your partners. Did you know that a part can masquerade as Presence? You’ll learn how to spot this in yourself or a partner, and how to help it shift.

The Not-Wanting/Wanting Process

We touched on this powerful process in the first year of Focusing but did you really learn the nuances of taking yourself or a partner through it? Now you will… including how to tell if it is the right time for “Not Wanting/Wanting,” and what to do instead if it isn’t.

Working with Parts

What is a Protector part? How do we recognize it and how do we treat it? What about a Defender part? How parts arise from trauma… what is our definition of trauma… and what kind of part is underneath all the warring Protectors and Defenders, a frozen young part we call The Small One.

Releasing Blocks to Action

It’s a block to action if you want to do something and you just don’t do it. It could be organizing your desk, or finally making your own creation, or getting your website updated. If you want to do it and you don’t do it, that’s an action block, and it’s an incredibly rich place to do Focusing. In Focusing: The Second Year you learn how to help someone else work with a block to action. Hint: It all starts with framing the issue, and we’ll learn how.

Focusing with Decisions

If decisions are hard, that’s often because we have two or more parts of us pulling in different directions. The need to make a decision points to a profound moment in which two sides of the self need to be honored and heard in order to move forward from our wholeness. But how? We’ll learn a format for helping a person who needs to make a decision and wants to use Focusing to do it.

Longing and the Heart’s Desire

What were the messages you received around “wanting”? Is it OK to want something you might not get? Perhaps there is a part of us that protects us from wanting, or from wanting too much. We’ll explore making a space for desire AND for the parts that are worried that having desires is dangerous… and work with them both. And we’ll see how to go deeper with wanting (even addictive wanting) to get down to the essential aliveness underneath.

The Relational Dimension of Focusing Partnership

Gendlin says the most important thing is to be a person with a person. When you are a Focusing Companion, do you feel that you are there, you as a person? Do you feel you can be natural, and allow your feelings of warmth, tenderness, enjoyment, and interested curiosity to shine through your voice? We’ll do an exercise in which you tune in to the qualities you’re receiving from your partner as a felt sense that you can share.

 Want to further your Focusing?

Register Here for Focusing: The Second Year

Get started with a $300 deposit or pay in full.

Focusing: The Second Year

Focusing: The Second Year

$300.00 – $1,095.00

Dates: September 30, 2019 to March 16, 2020
Time: 24 Mondays; 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM Pacific
Taught by Ann Weiser Cornell

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Payment and additional details

Cost: $1095 through end of day September 9, $1195 after
Don’t Miss Out: The last day to register is September 24, 2019

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Not sure? I’d love to chat with you about it! Just click here to set up a free 30-minute call or Zoom meeting with me.

What People Are Saying

  • Mary Ann C.
    "For those of you who've taken courses with Ann, you are familiar with her gentle and genuine interactions, her knowledge of and her passion for what she teaches. Focusing: The Second Year was worth every penny! The curriculum delved deeper into and expanded upon earlier lessons, helping me to "connect the dots" in many areas. I came away as a much more confident Focuser and am eager to begin the Focusing Certification Program with Ann, Barbara and their team of experienced teachers."
  • Taj
    TiffanyManley - SmallFocusing: The Second Year is the most practical, heart-filled-fun focusing class I’ve taken to date. Not only is the knowledge very rich, but it is delivered brilliantly in bite size pieces over 20 weeks. This time span is invaluable because of the opportunity for personal experience with practice partners both as part of class and as companions in between. Although I took it after taking Treasure Maps (also a fun dense class with a very comfortable schedule), I believe it would also be valuable to take it before. Bottom line, if you meet the requirements, just do it!
  • Abbe Blum, Berkeley, CA
    "Focusing the 2nd year became as vital a part of my ongoing development as a Focusing companion and guide as going through Levels 1-4 and eventually becoming a Certified Focusing Professional. It allowed me to explore crucial elements such as Wanting and Not Wanting, the ability to Hold it All during regular sessions, and to find my way into a more nuanced and flexible relational approach to my on-going focusing partnerships. It provided a steady, enriching, and caring conversation each week with the Inner Relationship focusing community, as well as a chance to have Ann’s wisdom and feedback regularly. The longer lasting nature of this class also meant it was possible and practical to try out and refine various aspects of Focusing with my students and clients, and --maybe even more important-- to integrate focusing more fully into all my personal life."
  • Lesta Frank, San Antonio, TX
    "Ann has unearthed great new ways to guide us into hidden issues that have many rich gifts waiting for us on the other side of the work. The most beneficial result is that I know I have become more of my Self in Presence, and more compassionate to myself and others. I don't instantly become aligned with and lost in parts, with the suffering that ensues. When I do merge with them, I recover sooner, realizing the suffering is often from a part stuck back in time that for the first time has a chance to express itself and integrate. This is huge for me. I feel more in present time and enjoy life more."
  • Justin Jacobs, New York
    Justin Jacobs - Small "I am so pleased that I enrolled in Focusing - The Second Year. I look forward each week to two hours full of learning, discussion, self-expression and listening. Having the ongoing support and learning has been invaluable in allowing all that I have learned so far to settle and feel natural. Each week, we discuss what we have experienced and discovered during the week, and we go on to learn more. Each week, there is a handout that details new topics and different areas of life in which we can use Focusing, and ways in which to do that. All of this has helped me enormously in feeling more solid with my Focusing practice and able to go deeper with the process more easily and quickly. Being in a class and having the opportunity to interact with so many new people has been particularly wonderful - giving and receiving compassion for each other, listening and being listened to with respect and gentle caring. Not only have I learned so much more about Focusing itself, I have been helped enormously in dealing with some very tangled life issues and decisions."

Additional Information

How Online Courses Work

We use Zoom, an online video conference platform, to connect you to other students and the teacher. Before the class starts you will receive a Zoom link to use each time the class meets. You can join us via your camera-equipped computer, tablet, or smart phone. Prefer not to be on video? You can turn off your camera. Don’t want to call via computer? You can call in by phone. Zoom is free and easy to use. You will be able to sign on in advance to make sure you can access it, but we’ve had very few problems with it. Students also receive access to a private webpage where course materials can be found.

Prerequisite

Level Four Focusing/Path to Lasting Change, Part Two with an Inner Relationship Focusing Teacher

Continuing Education Credit & Course Completion Certificate

Course meets the qualifications for 30 hours of continuing education credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. Focusing Resources, CAMFT Approved CE Provider #62524

Focusing Resources is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs. Focusing Resources maintains responsibility for this course and its content.

There is a $25 administrative fee for CE units. Course completion certificates are awarded at the end of the course upon completion of all requirements and the course evaluation. (If you don’t want CE units but would like a completion certificate, the $25 fee does still apply.)

Eligibility for CE units requires at least 80% live attendance. Missed classes must be made up.

Cancellation and Refund Policy

Up to 14 days before the first day of class:

We will refund your course fee less a $35 cancellation fee. Avoid the cancellation fee by applying the entire course fee towards a future class with us.

Cancellations received 13 days or fewer before class begins: No refund

 

When Something Doesn't Go As You'd Hoped...

We are always open to discussing experiences with our courses that didn’t work for you or didn’t go the way you expected. Depending on the circumstances, you may want to email your course instructor, the staff member in charge of your course, or Ann Weiser Cornell. Email addresses for all these people will be supplied on registration. We will work with you to find a way to meet your needs.

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