Meet the Teachers
Peter Afford – Facing climate change with the felt sense.
Exploring ways we can face climate change together, with the felt sense. The felt sense of self, of others, and of the natural world. Staying in the ‘felt sense zone’. Felt sense approaches for groups: embodied dialogue, dynamic facilitation, appreciative enquiry’.
To read more about Peter click here.
Greg Madison – Focusing Oriented Therapy is more than just Focusing, but what’s the ‘more’?
Gendlin was clear that therapy is more than just Focusing, but as FOTs we rarely talk about the ‘more’ and how it fits with our Focusing attitude. In these sessions we will work together to explore some more advanced questions of Focusing-oriented therapy. Does FOT indicate that we direct the client towards their bodily experience or does it mean that I, the therapist, am focusing, or both? Are we concerned about being directive with the client’s process? Does our felt sense during sessions tell us about ourselves or the client? Is there space for disagreement and challenge in FOT? Do we need theory to guide us during sessions? Are we working with parts or the whole? Is there one person in there or many? What do we mean by ‘body’ and what do we think a ‘feeling’ is? Are we consistent with Gendlin’s philosophical understanding or do we fall back into assumptions from other models, mixing them with our Focusing style? If we integrate other body approaches what happens to the principles we learn from Gendlin’s teaching and theory of psychotherapy? How do we defend the value of uncertainty and ‘not-knowing’ and being guided by a ‘murky’ felt sense when life demands answers? What are our challenges as FOTs working in a profession where our approach is little known and even less understood? Each session will include opportunities for experiential explorations, discussion, reflection on client work, anonymous supervision, and larger questions about whether our approach offers insights into making progress outside the consulting room.
Course prerequisites: People attending this course will need to have Focusing training to at least level 2 or equivalent and be comfortable with the emphasis on therapeutic material.
To read more about Greg click here.
Barbara McGavin – Workshop Title TBC
Barbara McGavin’s greatest joy is exploring the frontiers of the Focusing process – what it is and how it can be applied in daily life.
Since 1991, she has been developing Inner Relationship Focusing with Ann Weiser Cornell. Since 1994, the two of them have been exploring Focusing in some of the most difficult areas of life. Untangling™ has grown out of this and is the core of Barbara’s own Focusing practice.
Barbara’s other great interest is in how Focusing can be used in the creative arts. She has developed a process called From Spark to Beacon to help people develop and release their creative capacities.
Fiona Parr – Deepening your Spiritual Connection Using Gene Gendlin’s Thinking at the Edge (TAE) practice
This is an experiential exploration into the meaning and significance that spirituality has for you. Through Focusing you have direct access to what is important to you about your spiritual connection.
Pre-requisite for this workshop is Level 2, or equivalent. You will be guided through the initial steps of the TAE process
To read more about Fiona click here.
René Veugelers – Being Seriously Playful.
Back to what you really ‘know. A Dynamic Expressive approach towards your (implicit) inner child experience and a way to being with children and adults. It will be an experience full of experiential Listening & Focusing skills, Non-Verbal Communication, Creativity & Therapeutic Art making, Inner Child Contact and Deepening Bodily Awareness.
To read more about Rene click here.
Astrid Schillings – Sensing the Existential Ground in Us – Focusing with the Whole Body (FWB) in Challenging Times.
Echoes of war, tensions in society, the critical environmental situation and on the personal level with times of transition or crisis. How can we stay informed and caring human beings in the face of these situations as well as supporting ourselves in our forward living every day? Astrid will present Focusing with the whole body as a way to provide many trauma-prophylactic process elements as well as some of the process-elements that she has developed over the course of her work: The Body-Process Language, Relational Em-Bodying, Grounding into Being Here, Life Living from Itself, Pendulating between what is more and a life situation.
The Pre-requisite for this course is Level 2, or equivalent.
To read more about Astrid and this workshop click here.
Paula Charnley – An Introduction to Focusing
These sessions led by Paula at the conference are an opportunity to get to grips with the basics of Focusing. The sessions are for those who are completely new to it, those who have had some experience, or anyone who would like to a refresher.
By the end of this series, you will feel more confident in your understanding of Focusing practice and have the skills needed to Focus with a partner.To read more about Paula click here.