A good friend put me on to focusing 15 yrs ago ~ sensing into the Body
was central to her training as a Cranio-Sacral therapist. I was going to
counseling, following a death in my family and unable to move forward,
beyond the story of grief. I was lucky to find that Rob Foxcroft was working in Glasgow back then.

I have gained something invaluable from this wee gem of a skill, though
there is much that still does not gel with me about the way this ' club '
is growing forward.
Since taking the 60Hr Children Focusing Training with Rene Veugelers,
I am a lot clearer about a future without using the ‘ F ‘ word . . . much.

I want less jargon ~ more plain speaking and only language understood
by local culture. Unfortunately, I find that the term Focusing is unhelpful.
I won’t be using the ‘ F ’ word, if I can help it . . . and I do not consider
myself to be a therapist of any kind, whatsoever. I am really just sharing
a very helpful skill ~ that some good people have made clearer to me.

The Children Focusing Training offers both me and as I see it ~ also the
Focusing Community, as a whole, a more playful and creative way . . .
to move forward, beyond an academic, intellectual approach. particularly
at the moments when we, as new people to all this, find ourselves taking
our first steps inside . . . being with children.

Activities . . . I offer individual tuition and workshops in: Listening through the body ~ with Art and how to then form effective
Peer Support Partnerships. As a member of Long Term Conditions Alliance Scotland ( LTCAS ), I am actively raising awareness
of Body Centred Listening and its potential for integration into our existing Educational Institutions and the NHS in Scotland.

I am involved in Arts Projects, run workshops in Glasgow and am now developing a range of Educational Resources designed
for parents, teachers and anyone working with children: Posters, Aide Memoire Objects, Exercises, and maybe in time, a Book
. . . without the ‘ F ‘ word ~ much.

Interests: I am interested in an approach that integrates this way of listening into everyday conversation and exploring ways
of reforming the training I have received, to be less insulated from everyday life. For me ~ the current conventions of teaching
Focusing are creating a cultural clique ~ supported by unnecessarily evolved and over elaborate language that will do little to
further any real possibility of sharing this way of listening in our school system, for example.

If the Focusing community wants to burst its own bubble ~ then we need fresh perspective on the language, protocols and also
the conventions that we have evolved ~ around how we meet in Focusing Circles, for example. I need to take a lot more care
with the language I use to talk about Listening and ask myself if I am, in effect, helping to create a dead-end . . . however rich,
interesting, beautiful and even helpful ~ it may appear to be.

When people in the Focusing community imply that Focusing has some claim on kindness, curiosity, listening, neutrality, care ~
or even our bodily felt sense . . . it does my head in . . . no method has any claim on curiosity or kindness ~ in any context.

I describe this simply as being with . . . and if we need some ‘ extra ‘ language to articulate the dynamics of specific moments,
then fine ~ though it must translate into Glaswegian and for me ~ needs to retain the direct Yes / No language . . . of the heart.