Felt-Sensing and Spacious Listening in Everyday Life - Noticing, nurturing and normalizing felt-sensed, authentic relationships within our everyday lives

Wednesday, September 20, 2023, 1:00 pm-3:00 pm New York Time

Times worldwide: convert to your time zone

Live attendance required - no recording.

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

Roundtable Topic:

This Roundtable‒part of a series on Focusing and Listening‒will invite an interactive exploration of how we might live in a Focusing way within the “real world” of everyday life, especially in those circumstances where Focusing is not already an explicitly shared cultural value and/or practice. In particular, our discussion will center around two integral components of Focusing practice: felt-sensing and spacious listening.

Mary Elaine and Christina will briefly share instances from their own lived experiences and offer a few brief exercises to illustrate the power of pausing to invite freshness in conversations with others, create space for instances of “natural” felt-sensing to emerge and invite new possibilities that may arise from spacious listening.

Utilizing breakout rooms as well as full group discussion, participants will have the opportunity to recall both successful and missed-opportunity instances from their own everyday life experiences (especially with non-Focusers).

Who might be particularly interested in attending this Roundtable?

This Roundtable is intended for anyone who is interested in bringing Focusing practice more into everyday life.

CONNECTION>CONVERSATION>COMMUNITY

What to expect from Focusing Rountables:  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. Registration is limited and on a first-come, first served basis. Participants are encouraged to create follow up opportunities for connection among themselves after the Roundtable.

About your hosts:

Mary Elaine Kiener, Ph.D., CFT is the “ME” at ASK ME House LLC and its Creative Energy Officer (CEO). Her daily purpose - in both life and work - is to continually “choose courageous wellbeing: inside me, with you, and among us."

Characterized as a wonderful listener - especially to those faint whisperings at the learning edges of peoples lives, Mary Elaine is often described as a “transformation midwife” -- helping others "come back home to themselves."

A “natural” Focuser (and Certified Focusing Professional), Mary Elaine incorporates a Focusing-oriented approach while assisting others to nurture and sustain the unfolding of their own life-forwarding process. For over a decade, she has convened twice-monthly Virtual Changes Gatherings, welcoming both new and experienced Focusers from around the globe.

Christina Papadimitriou, Ph.D., is Associate Professor, Interdisciplinary Health Sciences, Sociology at Oakland University. She received her Ph.D. from Boston University and did postdoctoral training at Northwestern University.

An active qualitative researcher who uses a social justice and equity approach, Christina studies peer health navigation and peer mentoring for persons with physical disabilities in the USA. See her website here. With a group of scholars, practitioners and community partners, she is developing a relationship-centered assessment for persons who cannot engage in decision making due to cognitive disabilities.

In the early 1990s, Christina was introduced to Gendlin's work. She has been an intentional everyday focuser since 2017. She is also a student of mindfulness meditation.

A native of Greece, she has made Ann Arbor, MI, USA her home where she lives with her spouse, daughters, and dog.