Focusing Academy

 

Focusing Academy
January 22 - February 19 2025

Main class will be held on 4 consecutive Fridays
Optional Welcome and Optional Felt-Sensing Sessions on Wednesdays

Register by December 31 for 20% off whichever price you choose
apply code  DEC2024

Orientation - Wednesday January 22 (optional but encouraged)
Main Class - Fridays - January 24, January 31, February 7, February 14 (registrants attend all four sessions live)
Guided Felt-Sensing Exercises and Discussions - Wednesdays - January 29, February 5, February 7, February 12 (optional)

The Focusing Academy is a chance to learn Focusing or to re-charge your Focusing practice!

This online Academy will allow you to immerse yourself in one introductory Focusing Main Class held on four consecutive Fridays,  as well as experience other Focusing teachers through a variety of stand-alone Guided Felt Sensing sessions offered by teachers from around the world.  This event is oriented toward beginners as well as experienced Focusers who would enjoy a chance to begin freshly or try a new style of Focusing with a new teacher. The Academy is also a great opportunity for Focusing teachers to get inspired by a fresh perspective.

Coming from the work of Eugene Gendlin, Focusing is an experiential, embodied and evidence-based practice of self-reflection. During Focusing, your attention will open up to multiple layers and aspects of living. It’s called Focusing because it requires a special kind of “focus” to notice what is not yet clear; what is fuzzy and vague and seems to carry some kind of implicit meaning.  This fuzzy dimension of experience is called the “felt sense.”  Focusing on the felt sense allows an in-depth clarification process to happen.

You’ll choose one of the three "Main Class" teachers to study with.  Each main class is a 12-hour Introductory course in Focusing.  Each teacher's class is 3 hours long and begins at a different time of day.  (Be sure to check the "your time here" links in the descriptions to see which class best fits your schedule in your time zone.)

You'll also have the chance to attend Guided Felt-Sensing sessions with other teachers.  The schedule is designed so that no matter where you are in the world, you should be able to attend one Main Class for four days, and at least one Guided Felt-Sensing session.  There is an optional Opening session on Wednesday January 22

You’ll have recordings of everything available to you through July 31, 2025.  So, even though you'll choose one teacher's class to attend live, you'll have the recordings of all the Main Classes.

Please note that if you sign up, you are expected to attend your Main Class each day for all four Fridays.   All else on the schedule is optional.

This is an extraordinary chance – don’t miss it!  Read details below.

The heart of the Focusing Academy will be your  “Main Class.” The Main Class is a 12-hour Introductory Course in Focusing. When you register, you will choose to work with one of the three Main Teachers (Jeffrey, Lynn or Harriët). Note the time of their class, as not all might be doable for you in your time zone!

You will be with your teacher for four days of the Academy, 3 hours each Friday. Live attendance is required.

Attending Live
The Main Classes are intended as live experiences, so please block out the time for those in your schedule.  Classes will be recorded, and made available as soon as possible, however you are expected to be fully present. We ask that you have your camera on as much as possible.  If you know that it is impossible for you to attend any part of the 12 hours (3 hours a day for 4 Fridays), please discuss this with your teacher in advance. If a last minute emergency comes up, then please be sure to watch the missed session before attending the next session.

MAIN CLASS TEACHERS

Harriët Teeuw (Netherlands) Main Teacher #1 Fridays 7:00am - 10:00am NY Time  Your time here- (afternoon in Europe & Africa / evening in Asia, late night in eastern Australia)

MAIN CLASS: Dynamic Expressive Focusing
 A Fresh Approach to Being with Your Inner World

In this Introduction to Dynamic Expressive Focusing, we will explore creative expression and non-verbal communication, to achieve foundational listening skills. The primary aim is to foster authentic connection and open communication through simple, structured exercises that support reconnection with yourself. You'll also learn how to bring this authenticity into your daily life.

This workshop invites you to engage in hands-on activities that provide a direct experience of the tools, techniques, and the inherently gentle, playful approach of Dynamic Expressive Focusing. All activities will take place in a safe environment, with clear boundaries that honor privacy and vulnerability.

What you’ll learn:

• How to integrate an experiential dimension into your everyday life and professional practice.
• Techniques to build greater resilience and improve self-care.
• A deeper understanding of personal, bodily-felt experiences from both theoretical and practical perspectives.

Join us for an enriching experience that equips you with practical skills for fostering meaningful connections in both personal and professional contexts.

Harriët Teeuw is a Focusing Coordinator, Focusing-Oriented Therapist (FOT), and Art Therapist based in the Netherlands. She works with children, parents, and adults in her private practice. Since discovering Focusing in 2000, she has been inspired to live a more authentic life and has seamlessly integrated this approach into her professional work. Harriet brings a wealth of experience to her teaching, including leading Children & Focusing programs and the Focusing International Online Certification Program for Focusing Practitioners and Trainers. In collaboration with René Veugelers, she co-developed Dynamic Expressive Focusing, a unique approach for being with children, designed for parents and professionals. https://www.childrenfocusing.org/  https://www.deruimte-info.nl/

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Lynn Rosen (USA) Main Teacher #2 Fridays 11:00 am - 2:00 pm NY time  Your time here (daytime in the Americas / evening in Europe & Africa / wee hours in Asia & Oceania)

MAIN CLASS: A NEW SENSE OF YOU

Are you being Seen?
     How about being Heard?

Do you remember that moment in “The Wizard of Oz” when everything changed from black and white to full color?
That’s what it feels like to Really be Seen…and Heard.

Wholebody Focusing might be “turning a new page” for you. For Lynn, it opened an entirely “new book”! She began to gently sense, really hear what was inside her.  As she learned to listen to her Self, possibilities began unfolding in manageable ways. She became less overwhelmed, exhausted, or sick. Her thinking, feelings, and Bodily-sensing began to connect and integrate.

In each session of our series she’ll invite you to begin Wholebody grounding. You’ll begin noticing how your BodilySelf reacts to what you sense or hear. You’ll participate in experiential activities in the group and partner in small break-outs. You’ll listen to others. You’ll listen to yourSelf. And you’ll speak from your own Direct Experiencing---if you’d like.  

Your sensingSelf and your thinkingSelf will come more into balance and be less in conflict. 

And with your newly refined Sensing Abilities, you can then ask those questions freshly: Am I being seen? Being heard?

Lynn Rosen
Lynn is excited to share her experiencing and understanding of Kevin McEvenue’s work with you. For over 20 years she been privileged to learn with him---in weekly sessions, Focusing Institute Summer Schools, WBF retreats, and both 2-year trainings in Advanced Wholebody Focusing with Karen Whalen and Kevin.

Her Practice of WBF continues deepening and being enlivened by tender partnering with dear friends, Laura Dickinson and Elizabeth Morana. Together they have shared several WBF series for TIFI and FII. The ongoingness of their partnering, with Kevin at the hub of the WBF community, nourishes the Wholeness of who she continues Becoming.

Additional classes with Dana Ganihar, Baruch Brenner, Nahum Ward-Lev and those who come to her to learn, bring the fullness of collaboration into her Life.

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Jeffrey Morrison (USA) Main Teacher #3  Fridays  6:00 pm - 9:00 pm NY time -  Your time here (evening in the Americas / wee hours in Europe & Africa / Saturday mornings in Asia & Oceania - this class is the best choice for Down Under)

MAIN CLASS: Embodied Focusing for Beginners
                        How to listen to your wise self and find steps of change

Jeffrey enjoys sharing his many years of experience with Focusing, meditation, teaching and psychotherapy in this unique embodied focusing class for beginners. Participants will learn and practice the initial steps of Focusing through presentation, guided exercises, demonstration, and most importantly practicing with others. Safely and easily learn how to listen to your body’s inner knowing about any situation your up against. Your embodiment offers a safe and reliable path for turning toward life’s problems, so they give us fresh steps of living.

Jeffrey has a team of assistants to support you while learning. Advanced students will provide individual attention and practice with participants. You will also receive materials that provide understanding, steps for practicing, and practical information for empowering your listening skills. Jeffrey’s years of teaching groups, responding to questions, and offering a framework of understanding will enable each person to learn how to listen to their wise self and find steps of change.

Jeffrey Morrison, MA, LMHC
FOT Psychotherapy and Training, Certifying Focusing Coordinator, Founder and Executive Director, Seattle Focusing Institute
Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapist and Focusing Coordinator, Jeffrey Morrison works with psychotherapy clients, teaches Focusing-Oriented Therapy, and mentor’s students pursuing certification online and in person. He specializes in working with complex trauma and teaching Focusing-Oriented Therapy (FOT) to therapists and other healing professionals. He has developed a Training Program, which blends Focusing, mythology, mindfulness, and other embodied practices for unwinding trauma and restoring wholeness. For more info visit Seattle Focusing Institute. He lives and practices on Vashon Island, Washington, USA.

We’ve arranged the schedule so that no matter what time zone you live in, there is at least one Main Class that is at a reasonable hour for you (be sure to check the "your time here" link!), and at least one Guided Felt Sensing Session that is at a reasonable hour for you. You are expected to attend your Main Class live. All sessions will be recorded, so you will not lose out on the sessions taking place at other hours. Read the Schedule
 

We have a wonderful variety of additional teachers. These sessions are optional, will also be recorded, and do not have to be selected in advance.

Ann Weiser Cornell (USA) Wednesday January 29  11:00 am - 12:00 pm NY time  Your time here

Ann Weiser Cornell learned Focusing 52 years ago, was a close colleague of Eugene Gendlin, and is a world renowned Focusing educator who has taught Focusing-related topics in more than 20 countries. With Barbara McGavin she is the co-developer of Inner Relationship Focusing and Untangling.  She is the author of The Power of Focusing and Focusing in Clinical Practice: The Essence of Change, and the co-author of Untangling: How You Can Transform What’s Impossibly Stuck. She is the President and CEO of Focusing Resources, whose mission is to meaningfully contribute to personal, community, and global emotional health.

Michèle Jodoin (Canada) Wednesday February 5 11:00 am - 12:00pm NY time Your time here

Michèle is a certified Coordinator (TIFI). She teaches and supports the practice of Focusing in Quebec, in Europe, and is also an active member of DFQ.  She is an internationally certified Life Coach in NLP with a Diploma in Energetic Medicine.  In her private practice, she helps her clients reconcile and harmonize their inner relationship.  She believes Focusing is a precious gift that must be shared.

Jane Quayle (Australia) Wednesday February 5  6:00 pm - 7:00pm NY time  Your time here

Jane Quayle is a Certifying coordinator and former member of the TIFI board of Trustees.  She is a Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapist, and has taught Focusing in her private practice for more than 20 years.  She has also taught in a variety of tertiary institutions including Western Sydney University, Macquarie University and developed a Focusing Oriented Therapy elective for the Jansen Newman Institute.  Her teaching experience includes counselling skills, supervision of student therapists and Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy

Paola Schiesaro (Italy) Wednesday February 12 7:00 am - 8:00 am NY time Your time here

Since 2009 Paola has integrated into her life methodologies learned such as Non-Violent Communication or Metamedicine, supporting her own personal growth as well as others and supporting improvement of relational aspects both professional and family.

Since 2017 she has integrated all of this work with her certification as a Holistic/Relational Counselor and Focusing /Whole-body Focusing methods.

She conducts courses, seminars, conferences and individual Focusing sessions for private individuals to be able to spread Focusing as a tool for empathic listening for oneself and for the relationship with others.
 

Robert Lee (USA) Wednesday February 12 11:00 am - 12:00 pm NY time  Your time here

Robert L Lee, PhD, has been a theoretical/methodological Innovator in Gendlin’s Implicit Tradition.  He is a licensed psychologist who was mentored by Eugene Gendlin and Clark Moustakas.  He is developing a new architecture for more effective psychotherapy by combining his  methods of Macroshifting™ (Changing the Unchangeable) and Domain Focusing™, and is the creator of Cross-lingual Focusing Partnership (partnership exchange with an imperfect second language), Elusive Felt Sensing (a comprehensive approach for people with difficulties in felt sense formation), and Empathic Opportunity Coupling (couple psychotherapy).  He has brought Focusing to new audiences in Costa Rica, New York City, Boston and among Quakers. Robert led seven of TIFI's Certification Weeklongs and held more than 15 training programs.  He has served on the Board TIFI and of Humanistic Psychology (Moustakas: CDPP-CHTP).  He has mentored many successful Focusing Coordinators and leaders over many years.

The Academy will be in English.  You will need to be proficient in English to participate fully in the Academy.

All classes will be recorded.  Recordings of all sessions will be made available within a few hours of the end of the session (except in the case of

technical difficulty).  You will have access to recordings of all sessions through July 31, 2025.  As stated above, our expectation is that participants will attend their selected Main Class live.  Recordings are intended so that you can re-watch the session later, or to give you the a chance to experience the teachers whose Main Classes you did not take.  If an urgent matter arises and you must miss any part of the 12 hours of the Main Class, please tell the teacher in advance and watch the video of the class you miss before joining in the next Friday's class.  Attendance at the orientation session and the Guided Felt Sensing sessions is optional

-Zoom host(s)  We are looking for a zoom saavy people who are comfortable creating and putting people in breakout rooms. $100 off tuition.
-Administrative computer work (after the conference with attendance lists) - $100 off tuition

Please email [email protected] if you are interested.