Your Path to Lasting Change
The Focusing Training Program
This program takes the place of our 4-part Levels Program.
Already taken Level One and Level Two? Then you’re ready for Part Two of our new program. Click here to sign up.
Is your life stalled? Does it need a jump start to get it going again?
Does stress have you running in circles not knowing what to do?
Do you run into a brick wall when you try to figure out how to change?
What if there was a way you could trust yourself to go forward, positively and confidently?
When you join us and start to create Your Path to Lasting Change, you’ll:
- Get bigger than what’s bugging you so nothing in your life can get you all the way down
- Discover you have an inner compass that can guide you to find your own way forward – and stay with it
- Learn to tune into inner signals that something needs your attention (before disaster strikes!).
- Re-write the past so you’re not the prisoner of what happened long ago
- Learn a helpful process called Focusing (it’s not what you think!)
Your Path to Lasting Change: At A Glance
| Who | For anyone who wants to be more centered, more self-compassionate, calmer, clearer, more creative… and ready for your next adventure. Also for Healing Professionals who’d like to find new ways of helping your clients. |
| What | Powerful skills for life change based on self-acceptance and being present in the moment. Guidance and encouragement from skilled teachers with many years of experience. |
| Where | Live Online Course – join us from anywhere in the world! |
| When | Your Path to Lasting Change: The Focusing Training Program, Part One meets for 2 hours a week over 9 weeks. Part Two also meets for 2 hours per week over 9 weeks. Courses start 4 times per year. Find out when our next course starts here. |
| How | We use an online video conferencing system to connect you to other students and the teacher. You can use a computer, tablet, or phone to call in. Students receive access to a private webpage where materials can be found. |
| Why | Because you deserve to have a way that works to sort out your clamoring feelings and get free to move forward with your life. |
“For the first time, with Focusing, I feel like I’m safe enough inside to feel all of my emotions. It’s so empowering for me to be able to learn how to hold myself with compassion and patience. In most practices, you need a therapist in order to get to this depth. I think one of the true strengths of Focusing is that after just a couple of courses, you have access to the process for yourself.”
Emma Gran
Find out More About Focusing on this Free Webinar
You can do it…
You can move beyond feeling overwhelmed, confused, discouraged, and frustrated about your life. You can move past the painful self-doubt and self-judgment that stops you cold — and start to find more freedom and joy in your life.
You’ve probably been taught to distrust your feelings. You might even believe you have to “pull yourself together” and “get on with your life.” But that strategy doesn’t work long-term, does it?
You can learn to trust what’s happening inside. You can discover how to turn toward your feelings. And when you do, you’ll find a surprising and powerful truth: Nothing inside you is trying to hurt you.
Sometimes it’s like there’s a multitude of clamoring voices in your head. With all that inner noise, it can be hard to connect to the larger You that is always pulling for what’s best for you.
We can show you how to find clarity in the midst of all that internal noise. For more than 35 years, we’ve helped thousands of people just like you find their way to their just-right life.
What a huge relief it is to find out that there is a place inside that can be trusted so absolutely… and that there is a proven, practical method to help sort out all the conflicting thoughts and emotions that often leave us feeling like we’re running around in circles.
If you’re struggling with stress, or over-analyzing every move you make, Your Path to Lasting Change will help. Our program will help you break free from old emotional habits and patterns so you can live the life you were always meant to live: calm, confident, and free to choose your next adventure.
“Inner Relationship Focusing is the juiciest, most no-nonsense, boots-on-the-ground, beautiful butt kicking program ever. I’m so thrilled to have found it.”
Vanessa North
A word from Ann Weiser Cornell
Your Path to Lasting Change is my latest Focusing course, with all the tips and insights I’ve gained over 35 years of teaching. My good friends Lucinda Hayden and Carol Nickerson join me as teachers. I am the creator of the course itself, and you’ll see me in videos nearly every week.
Never heard of Focusing? Don’t worry! Many people haven’t… It’s a subtle process that is the essence of change, but which is rarely talked about directly. Learning Focusing is like getting into the deep structure of what helps you really change your life.
Focusing has been around for a while. Maybe you read the “little book with the stones on the cover” in the 80s. That book was by Eugene Gendlin, the philosopher/therapist who developed Focusing out of research into successful psychotherapy. After I learned Focusing from Gene in 1972, I further developed it, with his blessing. We taught together for years up until his death in 2017.
Helping you become more empowered, free from stuck patterns, and able to live the life you really want to live is my life’s work. I’ve tried a lot of different methods in my life, and Focusing is the one that has helped the most. I welcome you to try it for yourself… and see your life start to change for the better.
“Ann Weiser Cornell and I have been working closely together for thirty years, and she knows as much about Focusing as I do. Ann is a powerful force for good in the world.”
— Eugene Gendlin, author of Focusing
Getting Started is Easy.
You’re 3 Steps Away from Powerful Change
“Here’s what’s so different about Focusing: You discover this ability to build a relationship with conflicting parts and feelings inside you and not wish for them to be any different than they currently are. It’s absolutely radical.”
L.B.
A few of the many things that Focusing can be used for:
With Focusing Training, you’ll be able to:
- Trust your sense of direction and get on track for the life that is really right for you
- Work through troubling issues on your own
- Increase your sense of self-esteem and self-acceptance by shifting your relationship with inner critics
- Increase your ability to feel enjoyable, positive feelings
- (If you’re in therapy:) Enable your therapy to go deeper and really get somewhere
You’re going to love Focusing partnership!
Have you tried Focusing before but find it hard to stick with it? Or maybe you’ve tried similar methods like meditating… you start out strong but in a few weeks you just don’t make the time and it’s just another good idea down the drain?
In Your Path to Lasting Change, we teach you Focusing partnership. In a series of confidence-building exercises, we show you how to support another person in Focusing, and also how to receive that support. It’s not counseling. You don’t even have to know what the person is talking about. And it’s actually calming… for both people.
Focusing partnership is the magic that makes it easy to keep doing this powerful process as long as you need it. All you do is keep a weekly appointment that lasts about an hour. With our Focusing training, lasting change gets built into your life!
Here’s the coolest thing: Focusing partnership is free! Yes, we still believe in therapy; some people need it. But most of the time all we need is a friendly neutral person who gives no advice and allows us to explore what is true.
Plus, what you learn about being a good listener can help all of your relationships. With your partner/spouse, your kids, your parents, your co-workers… what you learn in the Focusing Training Program helps you be a better communicator and a calmer listener. The result: Much less interpersonal conflict!
“Since I started Focusing, my sense of continual hunger is gone! I’m down 10 lbs and still dropping. I’ve been able to restart my exercise routine. Even my media addictions are gone. And I’ve stopped buying stuff on Amazon and Ebay cold turkey. In a recent Focusing session, hunger came up and I was able to sit with it. Until that moment, I hadn’t realized that buying was part of the hunger. What a cool thing to discover! I’m so grateful for my Focusing companions for their contribution to these significant changes in my life!!”
Bill Kelly
The Structure of the Focusing Training Program
- There are two Parts. You can take each one separately or sign up for both in advance
- Each Part is a nine-week course that meets for two hours per week on Zoom, an online live webinar platform
- The teachers are highly experienced, very knowledgeable about Focusing, and skilled in giving personally tailored attention so each person can find their own way
- A 50-minute one-to-one session with Lucinda Hayden is included before Part One, so you can experience expert guidance through the Focusing process before you learn to guide yourself
- Classes include presentations, discussions, demonstrations, and meeting in pairs with other class participants for practice of that week’s exercise
- You’ll be assigned a new Focusing partner each week from the class participants. The two of you will meet by phone, Skype, or Zoom to do a clear and carefully structured exercise, gaining confidence and skills each week. You’re likely to meet a lifelong Focusing partner!
- Readings for the program come from The Focusing Student’s and Companion’s Manual which is provided as part of the course (by downloadable PDF for free or in hard copy at cost)
- What happened to the Levels? Your Path to Lasting Change Part One is equivalent to Levels One and Two. Your Path to Lasting Change Part Two is equivalent to Levels Three and Four. If you have questions about where to start, email Allison.
What you learn in Part One
- How to cultivate an inner environment of calm, open, curious awareness, as well as why that’s so important and what to do if you can’t
- How to create an inner relationship with what you feel so change emerges naturally without being forced
- Guidance and help with the various trouble-spots that can come up in the learning process
- PLUS you’ll learn the surprising reason why trying to “fix” yourself doesn’t work to bring lasting change
- What the research shows about the real key to change: a funny kind of body sense called a “felt sense”*
- How to get a felt sense… and how to tell the difference between a felt sense and other body sensations
- Why sensing what you feel without judgment is so important. How to sense what you feel without evaluating it and what to do when you evaluate anyway!
*Wondering what a “felt sense” is? Click here
What you learn in Part Two
- Mastery of the structure of the process so you’re able to improvise
- How to nurture positive feelings as a resource (both for yourself and in working with others)
- More ways to help yourself (or a partner) when feeling overwhelmed by strong emotional states
- A step-by-step way to build the skills to guide another person through the process, starting with your classmates
- Understanding the most typical block to Focusing: getting stuck with a “feeling about a feeling,” (eg, not liking being afraid) – and how to help yourself and other people shift this experience
- How to turn things around so your inner critics are on your side
- A wider understanding of the concept of “body” and what makes our bodies so wise
- How to let go of “rules” and still do Focusing — staying true to what is essential
We so believe in the work that we do that we strive to make it easily available, regardless of the size of your pocket book. Your investment in your well-being can start with just $300.
The way Inner Relationship Focusing is taught has an intense clarity about it. The whole process is about being open to the unexpected and unplanned which can, and will, move us forward if we are open to it. What I’ve learned has fed into my teaching, the way I work with others, and how I live my life. After completing the course, everything is more interesting than it was before. Life was never dull, but relationships are now an inexhaustible source of self-knowledge. I always knew that and was taught that, but the practice of Focusing shows it to be a reality. I have an increasing circle of Focusing friends and, paradoxically, a growing sense of detachment as well as one of deepening participation in everything.
Jill B.
Meet Your Teachers
Lucinda Hayden
Lucinda is a gifted, warm teacher who inspires and connects to help bring out the life-forward direction in each of her students. She has been working closely with Ann Weiser Cornell for many years. She has over 20 years of experience as a teacher and as a healing professional. She is also a world traveler with a gift for connecting with people of many cultures.
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 years. Today Ann is internationally recognized as one of the leading innovators and theoreticians of Focusing. She has taught Focusing in over twenty countries, and her Focusing books and manuals have been translated into eleven other languages.
Carol Nickerson
Carol is a committed, empathic teacher whose priority is to meet her students where they are and to facilitate a respectful, open and attuned relationship with those she works with. Carol’s students, many of whom are helping professionals themselves, have described her as “down to earth,” “easy to be with,” and “intuitive.” Carol loves to share practical and transformative tools for personal growth and healing.
Register for the Whole Focusing Training Program:
Your Path to Lasting Change, Parts One + Two
(and save $297!)
Join Us September-November…
We offer 3 options for signing up.
Get started with a $300 deposit or pay in full
Registration is limited to no more than 40 participants per course.
Part 1 + Part 2 as a Package
Choose this option if you’d like to save $297
Dates: Part 1: September 11 to November 6, 2019
followed by Part 2: January 15 to March 11, 2020
Time: Each part meets 9 Wednesdays, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM Pacific
Taught by Ann Weiser Cornell, Lucinda Hayden, and Carol Nickerson
Cost: $1297 through end of day August 21, 2019, $1497 after
Don’t Miss Out: The last day to register is September 4, 2019
Part 1 Only
Dates: September 11 to November 6, 2019
Time: 9 Wednesdays; 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM Pacific
Taught by Ann Weiser Cornell and Lucinda Hayden
Cost: $797 through end of day August 21, 2019, $897 after
Don’t Miss Out: The last day to register is September 4, 2019
Part 2 Only
Dates: September 17 to November 19, 2019 (skip November 12)
Time: 9 Tuesdays; 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM Pacific
Taught by Ann Weiser Cornell and Carol Nickerson
Cost: $797 through end of day August 27, 2019, $897 after
Don’t Miss Out: The last day to register is September 10, 2019
Your Next Opportunity to Get Started on Your Path to Lasting Change:
Part One:
October 15 – December 10, 2019
9 Tuesdays; 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM Pacific
Part Two:
February 11 – April 7, 2020
9 Tuesdays; 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM Pacific
More About What People Are Saying
“I used to experience painful depressions that I felt I had little control over. I haven’t experienced depression since learning Focusing. I had trouble handling disagreement and differences of opinion. I listen to others with greater caring now, and am enjoying all my relationships more.
Before Focusing, my husband and I often had painful, confusing conflict. My marriage is now the joy that I want it to be. It used to be hard for me to know what I was feeling, because there was so much I was on the verge of knowing about myself that I was afraid to know. Now, I can turn toward all that.
I have the ability to notice feelings of all kinds, and relate to them in a friendly way that helps them relax and reveal what is important in them. I used to be very hard on myself, believing I had to be perfect, and berating myself for my failures. I now have a much more compassionate relationship with myself, owning (and cherishing) my own humanness and imperfectness.
At one point in my life, I truly thought there was something essentially defective about me. Now I feel so……well, human. And joined in that humanity by everyone else.”
Jill Drummond, Manalapan, New Jersey
“The pacing of the classes has been great. I’m actually amazed at how well it works to learn this material in the online course format! It feels quite dynamic.”
Rebecca Strauss, ESL Instructor to Adult Refugees, Portland, ME
“After just two courses of Focusing training I’ve discovered things about myself I’m really excited about, and I’m started to be able to do things to move forward that I’ve always wanted to do. I have been working as a coach and therapist since 1988. I took what I was learning from the very first week of the course into to my client sessions, with amazing results. I deal a lot with clients who have anxiety issues…and after 30 minutes of Focusing my clients were saying, ‘Wow, what’s that?’
Even more important is how it’s helped me. I grew up as a little boy feeling anxious, waking up in the mornings not sure what I could count on in the world. What I’ve noticed from the Focusing training is, now I can be with that aspect of myself that feels anxious. I can be with it like an old friend.
I have to say that the decision to take this course ranks up there with the best decisions in my life.”
-Roy Gould, psychotherapist and life coach, New Brunswick, Canada
“In Focusing, I have found for myself “The Something” that I have been looking for so long. Focusing is such a great gift to open and deepen the relationship to and with my inner body. Focusing opens deep hidden inner doors and lets new light shine on buried resources. I believe we can only understand ourselves as a whole in the synthesis of body and mind. Focusing is such a valuable method because I can apply it to myself as an empowered Focuser, as well as to my clients. I am very grateful to learn it step by step through the Focusing Resources Levels courses.”
Michaela Jerusalem, Psychotherapist, MBA and Mediator, Aachen, Germany
You Can Be Effective and Empower Your Clients
Focusing has been linked in over 50 research studies with positive outcomes in therapy including greater emotional regulation, more satisfying relationships, and increased self acceptance.
Would you like ways to be more helpful to clients who:
- don’t know what they feel or feel “nothing”
- struggle with self-criticism and confusion
- feel stuck in their lives
- talk about feelings rather than having them
- get overwhelmed by intense emotion
- struggle with depression, addictions, and other effects of trauma
With Focusing, you’ll learn an experiential, body-oriented process of self-awareness and emotional healing that you can immediately bring into your work with clients. Add our Healing Professionals Track to receive additional content on integrating Focusing with your practice. Read more about our program for Healing Professionals here and add our Healing Professionals Track for only $100 per part during checkout.
Do I fit the Healing Professionals description?
From our perspective, Healing Professionals include: psychotherapists, coaches, bodyworkers, spiritual directors, physicians, healers, nurses and anyone who meets with clients for the purpose of healing and growth.
Got Questions? We’ve Got Your Answers…
What's so different about Focusing?
Focusing goes counter to most of the messages around us. We are told how to feel, or to “get over” how we feel, and we are never ever taught about the body felt sense that is the real way through our difficulties.
Why do you feel so stuck? Why do feel like you’ve tried everything and nothing has worked? Why do you go around in circles, repeating what hasn’t worked, feeling the same emotions, and no farther along than before?
It’s not that there’s something wrong with you. I really want you to hear that! So I’m going to say it again.
It’s not that there’s something wrong with you, it’s that the whole way our modern culture is set up leaves us cut off from our bodies and our source of wisdom. And if you suffered traumatic experiences or came from a dysfunctional family (like I did), that makes it even harder to stay in touch with yourself.
Is this therapy? Coaching? Meditation? Positive visualization?
Focusing isn’t any of those things…. But it has similarities to each of them. (And can be used with those other methods to enhance their effects.)
As in therapy or coaching, you can get positive change on deeply held, long term issues, as well as releasing blocks to taking practical action. But unlike therapy or coaching, you do Focusing on your own or with partners in a free exchange. You learn a way of being that you have with you at all times, and once you learn it, it costs you nothing more.
As in meditation, Focusing has an essential quality of acceptance, and you can find greater inner peace and detachment from stressful emotional states or thoughts. But unlike meditation, Focusing is more engaged, practical, issue-oriented – being about a particular life situation.
As in positive self-talk or visualization, you can access the very best of your potential for moving forward with your life without getting stuck in negative emotions. But unlike positive self-talk or visualization, Focusing is grounded in your whole self, inclusive of all your feeling states, so you aren’t leaving out aspects of yourself that can return in a backlash later.
Do I need to be there every week?
Please plan to attend all 9 class sessions for the full time of the meeting. Missing 1-2 classes can be worked around if absolutely necessary. (There’s a process for making up what you missed.) If you miss more than 1-2 classes, you’ll need to repeat the course in order to move on to subsequent courses. Please note, missing more than 20 minutes of class counts as an absence.
How do online courses work?
All you need is a phone, tablet, or computer and a comfortable place to sit! 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.
What's included in each Part of this program?
- Nine two-hour meetings for a total of 18 hours of class time.
- One individual Focusing session (50 minutes) with Lucinda Hayden. (Value: $197.) Information on scheduling your individual session will be provided in your confirmation letter. This is for Part One only
- 1/2 hour group chat with Ann Weiser Cornell during your last class – an opportunity to meet Ann and ask questions about Focusing.
- Your own copy of The Focusing Student’s and Companion’s Manual (value: $23), provided as a PDF file.
- Unique Focusing Exercise Sheets for every paired class exercise so you know exactly what to do to make the exercises most effective for yourself and your partner. (We innovated these Exercise Sheets and they really work.)
- Up to one hour of Focusing partnership, in between class meetings each week, to further develop your Focusing skills.
- A class roster with contact information so you can connect with your assigned partners each week to practice the skills you’re learning during class.
- Access to recordings of every class, usually by the next day and up to 30 days after the end of the class, so you’ll be able to listen again to anything you want to hear twice – or over and over again.
- A private web page where you can access homework, recordings, and other important class information from any web browser.
- Email and/or phone support from the teacher and the class assistants if you have questions between the class meetings or need extra help.
What if none of your dates and times work for me?
Your Path to Lasting Change courses are offered 4 times per year starting in February, April, September, and November. Did you check our listing of future courses?
Can I receive Continuing Education Credits and/or a Certificate of Completion?
Each part meets the qualifications for 22 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. If you miss a class, it must be made up.
Cancellations, Changes & Refunds
Up to 5 days before the first day of class: We will refund your course fee less a $35 cancellation fee. If you’ve had your session with Lucinda, we’ll also deduct the cost of that ($175) from your refund. You can avoid the cancellation fee by applying the entire course payment towards a future class. Changing your registration to a later offering of the same course must also occur 5 days prior to the beginning of class.
Cancellations received 4 days or fewer before class begins: No refund. Changing your registration within this window results in a $75 fee.
When Something Doesn't Go As You'd Hoped
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.
What if I've already taken Level One, Two, or Three?
If you took Focusing Level One from Focusing Resources in the last two years, we’ll give you a discount for taking Part One of the Your Path to Lasting Change. Just email Allison to request the repeat fee discount code.
If you’ve taken Level One and Level Two, you’re qualified to sign up for Part Two.
If you’ve taken Level Three from us in the last two years, email Allison to get a discount code for Part Two.
What additional support is included with the Healing Professionals (HP) Track?
Combined with the Focusing Training Program, our Healing Professionals Track provides additional audio and video content specifically tailored for Healing Professionals (HPs) who want to bring Focusing into their work with clients. Click the link above (opens in a new window) for more information. Read more here.
Testimonials
- Nati Porat
"Before I came to Focusing it never occurred to me that I could feel two (or more) seemingly contradictory feelings, or hold more than one position at once - for example: that I could be hurt, shocked or angry at someone’s actions AND also compassionate, empathic and forgiving at the same time...I thought I had to choose. The language of “something in me” is so revolutionary because it creates space for the complexity and ambiguity that most of us try to resolve artificially by narrowing our experience and identifying with one position. However, complexity of experience is the truth and once we have the language to hold this truth, our being thanks us profoundly!" - Taj
"There IS something worthwhile that can be done to ease people's suffering. Something that transforms the very fabric where people are stuck in their lives. It's Focusing and it gives me practical hope for a better world." - Darryl Commings
"What's special about Focusing is this radical belief that we already have within us the next right step. With other programs, the hoped-for results always seemed to be just out of reach. Someone else was achieving good results, why couldn't I? Now, with Focusing, I am able to reach deeper levels within myself and I trust my inner process more than before." - Paul Fitzgerald, DMin
"I took this course to incorporate Focusing into my work with people as a life coach and spiritual director. I've been leading people in self-discovery for more than 20 years and Focusing is a powerful addition to my work. The course offered me insights from actual experience about Focusing dynamics that were only concepts from the reading I'd done previously. The skills gained in both using Focusing for myself and in companioning others are invaluable." - Laura A.
"Focusing is different. The practice is so powerful. We get something fresh that impacts our whole being in a way that helps us feel, think or see in a new way. It's by far the least intrusive way to take on inner work. After this course, I find I'm more easily in Presence - not reactive, not identified with being in danger, a victim, alone in the world or the many other 'somethings' I used to identify with. 'Somethings' that brought great pain, despair, and disconnection in my life. Changing this has been the best thing for me." - Emma Gran
"For the first time, with Focusing, I feel like I'm safe enough inside to feel all of my emotions. It's so empowering for me to be able to learn how to hold myself with compassion and patience. In most practices, you need a therapist in order to get to this depth. I think one of the true strengths of Focusing is that after just a couple of courses, you have access to the process for yourself."
