Sensed Ecology Year 1 - Focusing Skills year long course September 2025 - 2026

Sensed Ecology Year 1 - Focusing Skills Programme

British Focusing Association (BFA) Certified & The International Focusing Institute

What if the part of you that longs to let go… isn’t quite ready to be let go of?

There’s something so human in that edge, the place where change wants to happen, but something in us isn’t ready. In Focusing, we learn not to push past it, but to sit with it. Gently. Warmly. Curiously. And from that place of deep presence, something new begins to move. Life shows us the next step, not imposed, but emerging from within.

This programme offers a slow, rooted path into your own inner knowing, where sensing and ecology meet. It is for those who feel called to be more in tune with their bodies, the natural world, and the quiet inner threads that guide us forward.

What is Focusing?

Focusing is a simple and profound practice of inner listening, a way of tuning in to what your body knows but may not yet have words for. It invites us to sense freshly into how we are, beneath the surface stories or reactions. And it helps us be with even the most tangled or stuck places in a way that’s gentle, respectful, and non-judgmental.

When we listen like this, to ourselves, to others, to the world around us, something in us begins to flow again. Clarity comes. Grounded movement. A felt sense of “yes, this is the way.”

This course weaves together the richness of Eugene Gendlin’s Focusing, whole-body sensing, and the grounding context of Sensed Ecology, a practice that reminds us we are not separate from nature, but part of it.

Sensed Ecology Focusing

Sensed Ecology grew from years of listening and study, not only inwardly, but outwardly too: to forests, weather, soil, birdsong, and the slow language of place. It is a way of experiencing ourselves not as separate from nature, but as sensing participants in its unfolding. Just as a forest listens and responds to change, we too have an inner ecology, subtle, alive, and deeply relational that is inherently available.

This practice opens the door to becoming nature, to remembering ourselves as living organisms within a greater web of life. Through attuned sensing and presence, we discover that our inner knowing is not isolated but connected to all that lives. It offers us a space of emergence, where we can meet other beings, human, and more-than-human, with openness and possibility.

Above all, our bodies carry a unique way of relating with life, distinct and alive in each of us. Sensed Ecology helps us find that thread. It’s a return to the body as a place of wisdom, and to the Earth as a co-guide in our unfolding.

Rooted in the philosophy of Eugene Gendlin and informed by ecology, perception, and somatic presence, Sensed Ecology encourages a way of learning and being that emerges from relationship: with the body, with place, and with what is alive in the moment. It’s a way of listening not just with the ears, but with the whole body, with skin, breath, imagination, and instinct.

In Sensed Ecology, Focusing becomes more than an internal practice, it becomes a conversation with life itself. A walking-with. A sensing-with. A being-with. A way of reweaving ourselves into the living web of things, and allowing new understanding to arise from that wholeness.

A Course in Five Modules

September 2025 – May 2026 – 2 groups Morning or afternoon.
Weekly sessions - Wednesday mornings, 10am – 12pm & Wednesdays afternoon 3 to 5 pm (Irish Time)

Each module includes:

• 5 weekly online sessions (2 hours each) – 5 on weekday (Wednesday)
• Nature-based invitations and sensing practices
• Paired practice with fellow participants between sessions
• Optional in-person seasonal gatherings – 4 Saturdays from 10 to 1.30 pm in total (for participants that might live locally)- There will be an online option for those who don´t live locally at the same time.

Themes across the 5 modules:

1. Coming Home– First steps in your Focusing journey
2. Inner Ecology– Deepening Focusing and sensing the biology of perception
3. Joy of Sensing– Exploring the senses and the body as a gateway to presence
4. Walking with Life– Building inner trust and finding your unique rhythm
5. Wholebody Knowing– A sensing lab for integrating depth, slowness, and emergence

What You’ll Learn & Experience

• How to stay with challenging emotions without overwhelm
• A deep sense of body-trust and self-companionship
• A way to befriend the inner critic and invite gentleness
• A new way of listening to others that builds real connection
• A grounded capacity for presence, in life, in relationships, in work
• The sense of being part of something larger, an ecological community
• A Space of Companionship

This is not just a course, it’s a small community. A space where your presence matters, where we share our learning, our questions, and the subtle shifts we each go through. There is space for intimacy, depth, and mutual support. Between sessions, you’ll be invited to practice with a focusing partner to deepen your learning.

What Happens in Each Session?

Embodied welcome & attunement
Introduction to key themes and practices
Guided Focusing exercises and demos
Time in pairs or small groups to practice
Whole-group sharing and integration
Optional nature-based sensing invitations between sessions
 We also draw from diverse strands of the Focusing tradition, including:
 

How We Meet: Online, Gently Held

We’ll meet on Zoom in a shared space that feels warm, relational, and grounded, even though the screen. Each session is recorded for your own reflection. You don’t need prior experience, just a willingness to slow down and listen to what is quietly waiting in you to be known.

Modules 1 to 5

Module 1: Rooting into Your Focusing Journey

A first encounter with body wisdom and the ecology of sensing

Module 2: Deepening the Path — Walking with What’s Here

Grounded presence and the art of accompanying what emerges

Module 3: Awakening the Senses — A Felt Encounter with Life

Wholebody listening, movement, and joy as gateways to connection

Module 4: Listening Alone, Listening with the Land

Confidence in self-guiding and the wild companionship of silence

Module 5: Seasoning the Practice — Resting into the Wider Web

Listening to complexity, creativity, and the deeper unfolding of self and world

Certification

Upon completion, you will receive a BFA Certified Foundation Course Certificate, which is also recognised by The International Focusing Institute (TIFI). This training serves as the foundational step toward becoming a certified Focusing Practitioner, or simply a deeper journey into your own self-accompaniment.

Ultimately, this course is an initiation, into a gentler way of being with yourself, a clearer way of listening, and a more whole way of living.

“Your physically felt body is in fact part of a gigantic system of here and other places, now and other times, you and other people – in fact the whole universe.”
— Eugene Gendlin