Oceania Focusing Roundtable - Clearing a Space – Gendlin’s Essential First Step of Focusing

Friday, 24th February 2023 - 10:00 am - 12:00 pm AEST (Sydney - Australia)

Friday, 24th February, 2023 - 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm NZDT (New Zealand)

Friday, 24th February, 2023 - 7:00 am - 9:00 am AWST (Perth, Western Australia)

Thursday, February 23, 2023 - 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm EST (New York - US)

Times worldwide: convert to your time zone

Gendlin valued Clearing a Space very highly. He said, "It is enormously important because you are clearing a space for yourself to live in while the rest of the Focusing process is going on." and  “This may seem to be peripheral to the main work, but until it is done, the rest of the work can’t begin at all.”(Focusing by Eugene Gendlin, p 81)

How about you? Is Clearing a Space (CAS) a standard part of your own Focusing practice, or your teaching of Focusing? Or have you replaced it with something else – maybe an attunement? Join us to share what place CAS has in your Focusing practice – is it essential, optional,  irrelevant, or something else?

While we, Merilyn and Sue use and value CAS as a process, we  typically don’t use CAS as Step 1 in our normal Focusing partnerships. However, our reading of decades of research and writing on Clearing a Space has revealed many rich treasures and benefits. And we have learnt so much more about the purpose of Clearing a Space as well as the process itself.

The practice of CAS has changed over time, most significantly in its use as a standalone process which may not necessarily involve learning Focusing. Reading about the use of CAS as a standalone process has opened our eyes to the many benefits of this Focusing step. The list of benefits from regular practice of CAS, validated by research in many areas, is long, including:

• measurable reduction in physical and emotional stress
• enhanced memory, attention and learning in the classroom, for all ages
• activating the pre-frontal cortex, by naming and thus witnessing our physical, emotional or mental distress, thus inhibiting previously unconscious neuropathways
• calming the limbic system, leading greater integration and equanimity, and reduced vulnerability to stress
• increasing the ratio of positive to negative experiences, enhancing the sense of flourishing in life
• improving the quality of life of women with early stage breast cancer
• providing emotional benefits for people who are ill or in physical pain
• alleviating distress and improving immune functioning in patients with cancer diagnoses.

We hope you are interested, intrigued, and wanting to know and share more about CAS. We warmly invite you to join us to discuss, share, explore, experience and get curious about of this important and fascinating process.

P.S.  If you can’t join us, we would very much appreciate your thoughts, experiences, etc. on CAS. Please send us an e-mail. It will be helpful if you can include your level of Focusing experience, and how you learnt Focusing, and whether CAS was a part of that learning.

CONNECTION>CONVERSATION>COMMUNITY

What to expect from Focusing Roundtables: 

We warmly encourage you to register and settle down with us to join other Oceania Focusers passionate to explore topics of interest and get to know each other better. If you have an area of interest, curiosity or passion you would like to see opened up in a future Roundtable, please let us know.

Each Focusing Roundtable is designed to promote informal peer-to-peer conversation. Rather than acting as expert presenters, the Hosts will serve as conversation moderators to encourage sharing and exploration of the topics from the participants’ own perspectives.  All participants’ sharings are welcome and valuable, no matter what level of experience or knowledge you have on the topic.

To preserve the nature of informal conversation, the program will be offered live only and no recordings will be available. Participants are encouraged to create follow up opportunities for connection among themselves after the Roundtable.

The TIFI Membership Committee is pleased to offer this series of Focusing Roundtables designed especially for members of the Institute. Roundtables will afford members a valuable opportunity to engage in casual peer-to-peer conversation with other members who share Focusing-related interests.  If you are not a member, please join at http://www.focusing.org/membership, then return to this page to register.

About your hosts:

Sue Burrell is a counsellor and Focusing Trainer with a background in education. She has trained in Jungian Archetype and Dream Pattern Analysis with the Assisi Institute (USA). Sue co-hosts the Sydney Changes Group, which meets in person and via Zoom on alternate months. All welcome. Details can be found on TIFI website at https://focusing.org/events.

Merilyn Mayhew began teaching Focusing in 2014. She trained with Ann Weiser Cornell, Kathy McGuire and Jane Quayle. She has been certified as a Focusing Trainer with the International Focusing Institute. She and Sue Burrell began the Sydney Focusing Changes Group in 2015 and continue to facilitate it together. Merilyn is also a passionate gardener, knitter, listener and story-teller. Merilyn lives in Sydney, Australia. [email protected]