Certification
as an Inner Relationship Focusing Professional
Build a profession teaching Focusing, add Focusing to your current profession, or bring Focusing to your family and community with our two-year intensive program.
Registration is limited to 20 participants
Has Focusing changed your life in a profound way? Do you feel called to help facilitate that kind of powerful change for other people?
Our two-year live, online program will give you the skills you need to become a Certified Focusing Professional.
Becoming a Certified Focusing Teacher/Practitioner
is a possibility for someone from any walk of life.
You don’t need to be a therapist or have other formal credentials in order to become a Focusing Teacher/Practitioner.
You just need to go through the training process and demonstrate your ability to provide safe and empowering Focusing experiences for others, both one-to-one and in groups.
At the end of the program – having met the requirements – you will receive Certification as a Focusing Professional from The Focusing Institute, the international nonprofit organization. Ann Weiser Cornell and Focusing Resources are authorized to offer this certification.
This program is offered once yearly starting in October, days of the week and times vary. The prerequisite for entering certification training is Path to Lasting Change Parts One and Two (or the equivalent) with an Inner Relationship Focusing teacher.
“Being in the certification program has brought me many things that I expected: among them new friends, a deeper understanding of myself, better listening skills, and more competence in focusing. The class is brilliantly designed and masterfully taught. Ann guides us through the learning process with skill and compassion and the mentors bring added depth through the sharing and support of their years of experience. It is an outstanding training.”
In Our Two-Year Comprehensive Certification Program You Will:
What You’ll Be Able to Do:
At the end of the program, we expect you will be able to:
Get Started in 3 Easy Steps
Have a 20-Minute Chat
Ann can help you explore whether the program meets your needs. Click here to get started and fill out our pre-chat form.
Complete Your Application
A link to our program application is provided after you have your chat with Ann.
Register for the Program
Get ready to learn and grow as you embark on this two-year training program. Click here to get started.
Training and Support In:
Individualized Attention:
And More:
Read more from a satisfied student…
“So much of education is like a factory floor with machines churning out biscuits that are all the same shape and size. This is a completely different approach that cultivates each person’s interests, passions and capabilities. It’s sensitive, supportive, and substantive.
“The way the teachers in this program give to students is unlike any education program I’ve ever witnessed, including all the countries I’ve worked in around the world and all the programs I’ve supported other people teaching…
“Here’s an example of what I mean… When I first started seeing practice clients, I’d write a few notes about each session. By the end, I’d try to transcribe entire sessions. Why? Because if I did, I’d get these incredible emails that offered suggestions for every single line. Who does that? The depth of caring is truly quite remarkable.
“Even with that remarkable caring, a part of me was worried about being judged during the observed sessions. When I finally had them, they weren’t judgmental at all! It was like a love fest that helped me better understand my capacity to support people.
“From a personal perspective, I’m so much happier and more grounded than I was before I took this program. I’m so much more in tune with what I want to share with the world. Were my family in this room, they’d be saying thank you!
“And on the professional side, well… My first paid Focusing client said to me, ‘You know, I’ve been going to therapy for so many years. They always said I could find what I needed inside but I never felt like I could until I started Focusing.’ To be able to help someone see that within themselves is the biggest gift I could be giving. Thank you so so much!”
~Marie
Some of the Benefits You’ll Enjoy
Build connections of mutual support with fellow students so your skills grow along with your ability to enhance the skills of others.
Grow in confidence and skills in your ability to take other people through Focusing, with a step-by-step mentored learning process and lots of practice.
Deepen your own Focusing process and your own emotional healing far beyond where you are right now.
Curriculum
Although this is the planned schedule, it is not guaranteed that a particular teacher will teach the week listed. Topics are also subject to change. Click the “+” or “-” to expand each year.
Want a free taste of our program?
Watch a recording from our webinar from July 11th with Ann Weiser Cornell, Barbara McGavin, and the other teachers of this program. You’ll:
Payment & Registration Options
This program runs on rolling admissions. We accept up to 20 trainees each year.
Registration closes when program capacity is reached. We encourage you to apply early.
Registration is a three-step process. Please complete the steps in order.
Chat Deadline Has Passed
Please contact our Customer Happiness Manager if you have any questions. We welcome you to check back with us for the 2025 program.
The Application Window is Closed
Please contact our Customer Happiness Manager if you have any questions. We welcome you to check back with us for 2025.
Registration is Closed
Please contact our Customer Happiness Manager if you have any questions. Registration for 2025 will open soon.
Included in Program Fees:
Paid Separately:
Additional Information
Continuing Education Credit& Record of Completion
Two-year program meets the qualifications for 78 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. 44 CE Credits are awarded for completion of Year One, and 34 CE Credits are awarded for completion of Year Two. (Demonstrations of Facilitating Focusing class and the Treasure Maps retreat also award CE Credits when taken.)
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 Credits. Records of Completion are awarded at the end of each year of the program upon completion of all requirements and the course evaluation for that year. (If you don’t want CE Credits but would like a Record of Completion, the $25 fee does still apply.)
Program Cancellation Policy
Any student may withdraw from the Training within one week (7 days) after the first training class meeting and receive an eighty (80) percent refund of the tuition. This refers to the total tuition payable including by installment plan. No refunds will be granted after the first week of training.
Students will be held to this agreement, regardless of future attendance and/or completion of the training. In extraordinary circumstances,we will consider requests for refunds or release from the payment contract. However, the final decision in such matters will rest with Focusing Resources, Inc.
Attendance Policy
Regular attendance is a requirement of the program. Participants should plan to attend 80% of the scheduled classes for Year One and Year Two curriculum.
This roughly translates into being able to miss no more than 8 class meetings over the course of two years.
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.