| TABLE OF CONTENTS |
We are seeking volunteers* to help lead daily Zoom conversations in exchange for free attendance at the Summit. See details below.
Once again, we’ve combed through our archives of the many engaging people who have offered workshops, lectures and classes over the last several years. We’ve curated a collection which will give you a broad experience of many facets of Focusing and Felt Sensing.
You'll get 12 videos for 12 days! All 12 videos will be available to you for the whole 12 days. The full list of videos is available at the link below. All will inspire you with the many ways that life and society can break free from pre-set patterns.
We are offering this Summit during the week of Easter/Passover, which we know will be a week off of work for many of you. This might be a time when you have more leisure to watch these videos and to connect on Zoom.
The Summit includes two Zoom conversations each day at opposite ends of the day, to accommodate all time zones. We hope you’ll attend as many of these as you can. The Zoom sessions are unscripted opportunities for you to share reflections on what you’ve watched with other participants in the Summit. We are in the process of inviting the video presenters to see if some of them can join us for these Zoom calls. When we have those details, we will let you know.
After the Summit, these videos go back into our archives, so don’t miss this opportunity!
We warmly welcome you to join us for this exploration of the many Facets of Focusing!
*Work/Study opportunity:
We are seeking volunteers to act as co-facilitators of the Zoom meetings, which will take place at 8am and 8pm New York time (Eastern Daylight Time). You will receive free registration for the Summit in exchange for co-facilitating two of these meetings. If interested, please send an email to: [email protected]
Exploring The Edges And Bridgeswith Meister Eckhart
Thursday, Friday, Saturday
May 5-7, 11am-2pm
US Eastern Time
An Interactive 3-day Workshop
That Eugene Gendlin had a special relationship with the medieval German mystic Meister Eckhart was already evident from the fact that he had his sermons and treatises on that nearby shelf next to his work-armchair, where otherwise only his own manuscripts were waiting for further processing. Meister Eckhart‘s book was literally close at hand.
In this workshop, Donata Schoeller intends to curiously explore edges and bridges between Gendlin’s process-thinking and Meister Eckharts' approaches. An obvious entry are the passages Gendlin underlined and emphasized in his copy of Meister Eckhart’s work.
There will be presentations by Donata, we will read some of these passages, and we will relate and “cross“ their approaches. And of course, we will do exercises inspired by both of their texts. This will support us to explore our own path, our own mysteries, questions and intuitions. In this way, we will read in their books and we will read in the “book of our own experience.“ Together with “Master” Gendlin and “Meister” Eckhart, we will think about the challenges, paradoxes and gifts of lived selfhood.
For more information and registration please click below.
(A New Focusing Institute in Poland)
Focusing wciąż rozprzestrzenia się w świecie, tym razem w Polsce, w Warszawie, gdzie powstaje właśnie nowy Polski Instytut Focusingu. Utworzenie Instytutu jest wynikiem wieloletniej współpracy szkoły psychoterapii INTRA z Claude'em Missiaen’em, który od prawie 10 lat uczy praktyki Focusingu. W jego warsztatach uczestniczyły dziesiątki terapeutów i trenerów, czterech uzyskało certyfikat FOT z Darkiem Tkaczykiem pełniącym funkcję Koordynatora FOT.
W powstanie Instytutu zaangażowani są: Joanna Kaczmarek, Darek Tkaczyk, Krzysztof Górski, Irek Kaczmarczyk, Katarzyna Kawka, Sonia Ruszkowska i Piotr Wardawy z nieocenioną pomocą Claude'a. Renata Wasik wspiera Instytut organizacyjnie. Instytut powstaje z potrzeby rozpowszechniania Focusingu w Polsce i tworzenia warunków do rozwoju umiejętności posługiwania się mądrością ciała jak największej ilości osób. Pierwsze grupy osób już zidentyfikowano, Joanna Kaczmarek mówi: "Moim osobistym marzeniem jest, aby Focusing trafił do szkół". Zapraszamy do odwiedzenia zakładki na stronie Intry https://osrodekintra.pl/
Są tam już podstawowe informacje a kolejne będą dodawane, w tym: dwie ścieżki certyfikacji dla FOT i trenerów, lista umiejętności focusingowych, biblioteka i inne. Utworzymy również grupę na Facebooku, której celem będzie budowanie społeczności focusingowej.
For a couple of years now, it's been a tradition for new Coordinators to stop by so that we can congratulate them and thank them for their work. At our March meeting, we welcomed a former Board member, Mary Jennings, in her new role as Coordinator. Mary expressed her interest in expanding the application of Focusing beyond individuals to community interactions. Both the Board and the Executive Director are mindful to apply principles of Focusing, TAE, and flexibility in our discussions and processes. We don’t always succeed! It is an ongoing learning, adapting, and listening process to balance the needs of the organization and the diverse individuals that make up the Board and the membership.
One way that we try to stay fluid is by evaluating our processes after employing them. For example, we've a written document describing our process for evaluating the Executive Director’s performance each year. Following the performance review, the Board evaluates the process itself and makes changes, where needed, for the next year. The Board also reviews the list of Portfolios (areas of responsibility for each Board member) to eliminate an area that no longer needs direct Board participation, and to add new areas where direct Board participation would be helpful and supportive.
Another topic of conversation at the March meeting concerned the strategic nature of TIFI communications on the website; in other words, how the website presents TIFI to the world. We discussed our frustration with how challenging it is to find clear language to describe what Focusing is and how it can be useful, and even transformative, so that new people are attracted to try it out. I am guessing that many of you who are teachers or Coordinators have struggled with this issue as well. We discussed the fact that the very word "Focusing" has a public meaning that can exacerbate efforts to make this practice better known. As we raise the visibility of Thinking at the Edge and other practices based in the Felt Sense, we are thinking about how best to fulfill Goal 4 of our mission to "effectively communicate the benefits of bodily felt-sensing as a way for people to carry life forward."
The International Leadership Council (ILC)
Facilitates Zoom Meetings for Coordinators
Early in 2021, when we thought the pandemic was being put into the past, the International Leadership Council (ILC) decided we'd like to lead the Coordinators' gathering at the International Focusing Conference in France. During the winter, all the uncertainties around the newest strain of Covid made it impossible for us to be able to commit to attending the conference. Some of us have vulnerable loved ones, others live in countries where restrictions would be insuperable.
So, we "pivoted." Those Coordinators already committed to attending the gathering indicated a willingness to "go with the flow," and organize their time themselves, for which we are deeply appreciative.
Instead, the ILC will be offering a Zoom meeting on May 7 for all Coordinators and Coordinators-in-Training (CiTs). The meeting will be offered at both 7am to 9am New York time, and 7pm to 9pm New York time, to allow for all time zones.
We will be letting Coordinators and CiTs know about our findings from meetings we held with Coordinators around the world last year. If you're a Coordinator or CiT, you should have received an email invitation from [email protected] dated March 18. For those who cannot attend, we will make a recording available.
We'll also hold a follow-up meeting about three weeks later, for more opportunities for discussions, in a focusing way. We are hopeful that we'll have some fun together, while learning a bit more from one another.
We are always happy to hear from you about this or anything at [email protected].
Milestones
We are happy to congratulate the following new Coordinator and Coordinators-in-Training and
welcome them to the International Focusing Institute.
We wish them all the very best in their ongoing endeavors!
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Mary Jennings, Ireland Mentoring Coordinator: Jane Quayle For 30 years, Mary has found Focusing |
New Coordinators in Training
| Luiza Stefan, Romania Coordinator: René Veugelers, supported by Harriet Teeuw and Tom Larkin |
Michele Jodoin, Canada Coordinator: Patricia Manessy supported by Nada Lou and Marine de Freminville |
Newly Certified Members and their Coordinators
| Jennifer Joy Fletcher, Canada Coordinator: Anne Poonwassie Michelle Fontaine, Canada Coordinator: Anne Poonwassie Shannon Foster, Canada Coordinator: Anne Poonwassie Elissa Gabriel, Canada Coordinator: Anne Poonwassie Ida Garbari, Italy Coordinators: Donatella Morelli & Rosanna Camerlingo Juliet Lui, Hong Kong, China Mentoring Coordinator: Camille Li Kristene MacDonald, Canada Coordinator: Anne Poonwassie Rona Maizler, Israel Coordinator: Chen Ein-Habar Mutsuko Miyagawa, Japan Coordinators: Akiichi Mochizuki and Mieko Osawa |
Nicole Parenteau, Canada Coordinator: Anne Poonwassie Natalia Portela, Argentina Coordinator: Paula Travaglini Patricia Robertson, Canada Coordinator: Anne Poonwassie Ido Shabi, Israel Coordinator: Yarden Kerem Diane Sowanash, Canada Coordinator: Anne Poonwassie Angela Uta, Canada Coordinator: Anne Poonwassie Efrat Velero, Israel Coordinator: Lior Bar Natan Rafael Villeta, Spain Coordinator: Rosa M Martinez Gonzalez Margarita Weiser, Israel Coordinator: Kati Kimchi Haihui Zhang, China Coordinator: Lindsay Chang |
