Exploring the Fundamentals of Focusing: Experiencing and Crossing

Join us on Wednesday, November 10th (Asia: Thursday, November 11th) from 4:00 - 6:00PM PST (Click here for your time zone).

If you cannot attend the Live Presentation via Zoom, the recording will be available for you to watch at your convenience for up to 2 months!

Presentation Description:

Dr. Akira Ikemi first met Gene Gendlin in 1979, then became a graduate student at the University of Chicago where Gene was a professor.  The first part of this workshop will begin with Akira Ikemi’s personal reflections about what was inspiring about Gene. Listening to stories like these helps to illuminate and carry forward deeper understandings of the living roots of Focusing and its philosophy— which continues to unfold in new ways today. 

Akira Ikemi will then share about the influences of Wilhelm Dilthey’s hermeneutics on Focusing, a method which Gendlin developed. After, Akira Ikemi will lead a Focusing exercise that he created— Crossing with Animals— which helps to teach two concepts of Gene’s philosophy, Experiencing and Crossing.  Participants will then learn to apply the principles of Experiencing and Crossing to art images or expressions. This will also enrich the understanding and practice of Focusing-Oriented Expressive Arts.

About Akira:

Akira Ikemi, Ph.D. studied with Professor Eugene Gendlin at the University of Chicago around the time the book Focusing was published. He has taught full time at universities in Japan, and is currently professor at Kansai University Graduate School of Psychology. Akira is a Certifying Coordinator of The International Focusing Institute (TIFI) and has served as a board member of that institute, as well as of other academic organizations, including the World Association for Person Centered and Experiential Psychotherapy and Counseling, and the Japanese Association for Humanistic Psychology. He is one of the founders and past-presidents of the Japan Focusing Association. Dr. Ikemi has written many articles and books in Japanese and in English, and teaches internationally online. He was named a “Living Luminary” by the Journal of Humanistic Counseling (USA) and he is the fifteenth person to receive the prestigious Japanese Association of Humanistic Psychology Award.

Cost and Registration:

This offering alone is $25. We are also offering a special 2021 Bundle (includes both Akira's presentation and Expressive Arts Pioneer Shaun McNiff's presentation on December 6th) for $40! To learn more about Shaun's presentation, click here.

Registration deadline for both is Sunday, November 7th, 2021. Click one of the buttons below to register now!

For scholarship/work study inquiries please contact us.

This special event will be offered by the Focusing and Expressive Arts (FOAT) Institute as part of our new Roots, Branches, and Wings series. Click here to learn more about the 2021/2022 presentation series with Pioneers, Master Teachers, and more!