A FOCUSING LEVEL ONE WORKSHOP – BEGINS JULY 8, 2023
I am offering an online (Zoom) Focusing training spread over July – 4 Saturday afternoon sessions. (See ‘Time Commitment’ below.) Contact me at christopher at thefocusingspace dot com if you wish to attend, or have any questions.
Level 1 Focusing is designed to:
- invite the experience of felt meaning;
- stabilise it as a ‘this’ which can be recognised and worked with;
- develop the skills of relating to a ‘felt sense’ as the kind of creative life-forward movement that it is. (With these skills, you learn to enhance interaction with felt meaning in all circumstances of life, so as to carry your life forward.)
- And in this workshop I will introduce the basic skills for use in Listening Partnerships; especially, ‘Focusing-style listening work.’
We will use the ‘Six Steps’ model which Eugene Gendlin developed. This will be a purely Gendlian-style approach – no added bells and whistles, nothing omitted, and no importation of concepts from other disciplines. The reference for this course is Gendlin’s little book Focusing.
Fee: There is no fee for this workshop. If you would like to make a donation to support the spread of the practice of Focusing, then that will be gratefully received. I’ll give you details at the time of the workshop.
Time commitment: Normally, a standard Focusing workshop is a full weekend. I’m presenting this one on Zoom, over four Saturday afternoons: 8th July to 29 July, 1:00-4:15, Sydney time. (A quarter of an hour break in the middle of a three hour class.)
As well, I request that you spend three quarters of an hour (or so) during the week, so that you can have a 20 min focusing session with another person from the group. One of you focuses first 20mins, and the other listens; and then you swap.
Focusing Partners: Preferably, for your learning, it would be good to have four different focusing partners during the course. Different listeners, different dynamics!
Suggestion: We can have a Level 2 workshop by the end of the year, if people so want. Level 2 develops our listening skills further. (Focusing Certificate Level 2).
Further development. This will be a Level 1 workshop recognised by other teachers certified by the International Focusing Institute. So, if you want to do Level 2 with another teacher, you will have a certificate issued by me to say you’ve qualified at Level 1. There are four levels before learning to teach Focusing. In that respect, the concepts used to teach Focusing in these workshops are solely those of Gendlin’s work. As I said above, the reference for this course is Gendlin’s little book Focusing.
If you are entirely new to the concepts of ‘felt meaning’ and Focusing, then you can read some more on the Focusing Institutes ‘What is Focusing‘ page.