February 2023 Newsletter

We have an amazing, generous community!

THANK YOU for your financial gifts. Smaller donations carry us forward and larger donations allow us to make big strides. Every donation counts and is helpful and appreciated!

Your generosity allows us to have sliding scales on all our programs to keep them accessible to allmake constant improvements on our websitecreate new initiatives to make Focusing findablecontinue to serve our membersand so much more!

The list below is just a small portion of the generous donors from 2021. Click here to view the complete list.

 

 

We are once again in awe at the energy and dedication of our community. An amazing 157 of you fulfilled 262 different roles in 2022. Those roles vary from serving on the Board, to organizing conferences, to teaching classes, to writing articles for the newsletter, to translating or providing Zoom support to presenters in workshops and conferences, and more!

Thank you to our amazing volunteers who come from 29 countries: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China (Mainland & Hong Kong), Costa Rica, Germany, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malta, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Palestine, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, the UK and the USA.

The list below is a just some of the many people who volunteered their time and talents in 2022. Click here to see full list.

Thank you all 157 of our 2022 volunteers!

We want to celebrate all of you at our annual Volunteer Party

We hope you can join us for a personal thanks and meet each other.

Tuesday, March 7 at 2:00pm US Eastern Time

Please watch your email for your invitation!

Defining the word “organically” - a relationship between elements of something such that they fit together harmoniously, as necessary parts of a whole - illuminates Eveline Moor’s journey that led to an invitation to the International Focusing Institute’s Board of Directors.

Eveline felt an “unbalance” while studying hotel management in her 20s. Compelled by more intellectual desires, she advanced to degrees in counseling and psychotherapy, as well as a master’s degree in prevention and health promotion, to name a few.

While researching and learning, her teacher and mentor said, “You should do Focusing, Eveline.” The first Focusing book Eveline read resonated with her so strongly that the language felt intrinsic; like she had been speaking it all along and now it had a name! Continuing onward, Mary Hendricks Gendlin certified Eveline as a trainer in 2000.

When Eveline met her husband, he owned a 5-bedroom guest house for meditators. In an example of “the relationship between elements,” her gifts of hospitality, of seeing the bigger picture, of Focusing leadership, and hotel management skills sparked “Casa Civetta” into becoming a 14-bedroom “Focusing Home” for Switzerland.

Eveline lives “life fitting together harmoniously” - managing the house and employees, welcoming guests to the retreat home, training beginners, certifying people as a Focusing Coordinator, committed to her Focusing Community, and serving on the Focusing Institute’s Board of Directors - all “necessary parts of the whole.”

“Feeling fulfilled” attending her first board meeting and trusting the “mission ahead to unfold organically,” Eveline added: 

“I know the pandemic changed me. I am at home everywhere - living more me. I feel Focusing is ready to be more present in society. Time is ready for Focusing, perhaps because the world is not so afraid to go inside now.”

Eveline is serving a three-year term as a board member while residing in the Italian part of Switzerland with her husband. 

 

Deborah Jones

Deborah Jones is an Interior Designer, Rhode Island Massage Therapist, and a Certified Focusing Professional

The TIFI Board welcomed ILC members Claude Missiaen and Massimo Zarghetta to their November 2022 meeting. Claude and Massimo were invited to present the Coordinator Certification Process and to discuss how to create more connection and interaction between the Board and the ILC.

While a board member currently attends ILC meetings, the discussion generated additional suggestions to increase connection and interaction. Two suggestions were:

• sharing a copy of the Board’s agendas with the ILC prime mover in advance of the Board’s meetings
• having a member of the ILC attend board meetings
   

These two suggestions were approved and will be implemented beginning with the February 2023 meeting..

On another issue, the Board voted unanimously to review all of the feedback received from Coordinators regarding TIFI’s intention to add the words “Experiential Focusing” to its website as an aide for automatic translations to recognize Focusing in its special, rather than common, meaning. The Board agreed to take no further action until they have digested all of the feedback and have made a decision on what direction to take.

The Board is also starting its annual review of accomplishments from 2022 and will begin its planning process for 2023 at the February board meeting.

The Eugene T. Gendlin Center for Research in Experiential Philosophy and Psychology (Gendlin Research Center for short) is continuing to announce a new prize for young scholars in philosophy.

The Gendlin Philosophy Prize of $500 will be awarded to the best paper regarding any aspect of Gendlin’s philosophy or writings.

Welcoming Two New Members to the
Gendlin Research Center

The Gendlin Center for Research enthusiastically welcomes two new member to the Steering Committee: Siebrecht Vanhooren and Sigridur Thorgeirsdottir (Sigríður Þorgeirsdóttir). Dr. Vanhooren was the first recipient of the Gendlin Grant for Original Research in Psychology, and is a professor of psychology in Belgium. Dr. Thorgeirsdottir is a professor of philosophy in Iceland, working with Donata Schoeller and others on the Embodied Critical Thinking project at the University of Iceland. Read more about them in their bio's below. Read more about The Gendlin Center at gendlincenter.org.

A few weeks ago, I was hosting a Changes group with a handful of people from my Doorways to the Soul classes. I asked each of the participants to share what they like about Focusing. Here are a few of their responses:

• “It’s healing my body and soul.”
• “I love entering the mystery of Focusing.”
• “I feel more empowered as I listen to my body and emotions.”
• “I have a practice of bringing compassionate presence to myself rather than a theory about self-compassion.”
• “I feel more rooted and grounded in love.”
• “The tender awareness I bring to myself is awakening things in me.”

When they asked me, I paused, smiled, and said, “The people!”

As a person more newly-involved with TIFI, I am so in awe of the people who are part of this stream of living in a Focusing way. And this was true, once again, at the recent Felt Sense Conference, “Spirituality and the Murky Edge.” Because of the people I interacted with and learned from, I now want to travel to Ireland, Argentina and Israel to soak in with others who are learning to embody this Focusing life. I am sure Gene would be very, very proud.

As a part of the organizing committee, I got a taste of all the behind-the-scenes effort that goes into offering these amazing conferences. Melanie, Elizabeth and Catherine, primarily, welcomed 170 participants from 30 countries, and managed 16 presentations, 12 translators and 13 others offering technical support. This was a logistical masterpiece and having worked in global organizations before, I understand what a gift this was to all of us.

The conference itself left me with the feeling that “this is a place where I can be me.” As I participated in Serge Prengel’s offering, especially, I realized that the ways in which we talk about Focusing and Focusing topics are important, but the manner in which we interact with one another is essential. We started as a room full of strangers and after a relatively short two hours, left with a sacred connectedness – one that formed mostly around our humanness.

Focusing has a unique way of helping to foster an unhurried, radical welcome: Come as you are, not as you think you should be. This is so refreshing in a world full of expectation to be something other than who we are. So many participants shared that they found a community that they didn’t know existed, and they want more.

If you’re reading this, let me say to you what Gene would say: “If you’re here, you belong here.” Please continue to be involved with and support the offerings of TIFI - your very presence adds deeply to the beauty of this sacred “we-space.”

Quotes from the Felt Sense Conference

"My personal Focusing experiences built on each other from one day to the next, deepening and widening more than I had imagined was possible."

"This so totally was an excellent, stimulating, and informative collection of offerings. I think most people, even beginners, could get much out of the multiple fine presentations."

"Amazing speakers and content. Thoroughly enjoyed it and gained so many pearls of wisdom from a felt sense perspective and way of being. I thought the event was very well organized and supported throughout. Thank you."

"El taller al que assistí me ayudó a darme cuenta de la importancia de acercarse y tomar distancia, desde la conciencia, de la sensación sentida. Me ayudo a darme cuenta del gran poder que hay en cada uno de nosotros para conectar con la conciencia global para curar nuestras heridas más profundas mediante el acercamiento/distanciamiento del Felt Sense con Focusing."

"I loved the conference thank you - it has inspired me to study Focusing and become a certified trainer."

Paula Gamble-Grant

Paula is a Focusing Oriented Spiritual Director and Supervisor of SDs. As a Certified Focusing Professional, she also teaches Focusing to heart centered practitioners in her soul-curated curriculum, “Doorways to the Soul”

Thank You to Elaine Goggin

We want to extend a very big thank you to Elaine Goggin
for the extensive amount of work she has contributed to the Gendlin Online Library.
Thank you, Elaine!

We are happy to congratulate the following new Coordinator, Coordinator-in-Training (CiT), Certified Focusing Professionals (including Trainers and Focusing-Oriented Therapists) and Proficiency in Partnership Awards (PFP). Congratulations to each of them on their achievement. We wish them all the very best in their ongoing endeavors!

Matheus Cautiero, Brazil Português
Mentoring Coordinator: Paula Travaglini
Supported by Elena Frezza, Carolina Preve and Suzanne Noel

Matheus first encountered Focusing in 2002 and has been teaching and participating in study groups since 2011. Says Matheus, "Gendlin is in my heart. My life was transformed with this learning... I am happy to be one more to disclose this treasure in my country." Currently in their 6th year presenting a work called the Gospel Meaning is Oficina da Alma, where they use Focusing to interact bodily with the Gospel.

New Certified Focusing Professionals

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