Advanced and Certification Weeklong 2022

Advanced and Certification Weeklong 2022

Weeklong 2022 para Avanzados Y Certificación

Crossing and Belonging/Versionar y Pertenecer

October 16 - 21, 2022
16 al 21 de octubre de 2022

The 2022 Weeklong will be a hybrid model with three choices/El 2022 Weeklong será un modelo híbrido con tres opciones

(1) All online  including your Home group/En línea, incluido su Grupos Hogar
or
(2)  Hybrid (Some online, with Home Groups and more in person) -  United States: Mercy by the Sea Retreat Center - Madison, Connecticut (2 hours from New York City)
or
(3) Hybrid (Some online, with Home Groups and more in person) -  Ireland: Dominican Retreat Centre - Tallaght Village - Dublin 24

The Weeklong is the flagship event of The International Focusing Institute (TIFI) and began in 1979.  It is a warm and intimate event, and features a certification ceremony. In the early days, anyone who wanted to become certified by the Institute was required to attend a Weeklong.  Now, the Weeklong is still a celebration of our international certification, but it is so much more. At the Weeklong, you are invited to connect or re-connect with our diverse international community.  It is a rare opportunity to be with an intimate group of advanced practitioners, to learn from one another and to share your wisdom. 

It is intended for all those who are certified by The International Focusing Institute (TIFI) or will be recommended for certification by the start date of the Weeklong.

The Weeklong can reinvigorate or launch your work, and strengthen the foundation of your life-long participation in our global Focusing community.  It is led by a Facilitation Team of Coordinators from different countries and backgrounds.  They are supported by several Collaborating Coordinators, and together this team creates an event rich with learning and sharing.

At the Weeklong, you will deepen or learn new skills, connect with others through common interests, experience a variety of cultural perspectives, and build upon the legacy of Focusing and The International Focusing Institute. There are also ample opportunities to share your skills and your particular Focusing approach.

At the Weeklong, you will gain:

• A deeper understanding of your special place in the ongoing evolution of Focusing and the worldwide Focusing community;
• Deep and life-long connections to Focusers from around the world who share your passion and interests and can offer you continuing support and contact as you take your next steps;
• Practical skills to help you to deepen your Focusing practice, professionally and personally;
• A new or renewed sense of clarity and confidence about how you can offer your own gift of Focusing freshly to the world.

At past Weeklongs, people found they were able to more deeply discover themselves, their gifts, and their aliveness through the experience of deep connection in a profoundly accepting and supportive community — a community that has continued long after the week was completed. The Weeklong is not just about deepening our understanding and practice of Focusing, but deepening our understanding of ourselves and what we bring to the global community.

Daily Presentations (required) – Each day the plenaries will be offered live but will also be recorded for those who cannot attend live due to timezone.  These presentations will include simultaneous translation to Spanish.

Home Groups (required) – These are groups of about 10-15 people, facilitated by one of our Facilitation Team (or a Coordinator who has volunteered to lead one).  Home Groups give you a chance to form deep connections with a small group. The Home Groups are a time to process what you're experiencing during the Weeklong.  They are an important part of the Weeklong.  Each will differ slightly based on the personalities of the leader and the group, and each will include Focusing time, sometimes as a whole group and sometimes in dyads or triads.

Opportunities For You To Present Workshops (optional)– Once you have registered, you can submit a workshop to offer during the Weeklong.  Please send the following information: (1) your workshop title and a one line description, (2) if you are attending online, include the time zone you will be in during the Weeklong. Normally, we provide the zoom room and zoom support. Email to [email protected]  We will do our best to accommodate all who wish to give a presentation.

Opportunities To Hang Out For Fun, Conversation Or Focusing (optional)– We will create times during the week when the Zoom room will be open for you to be spontaneous with one another. 

Certification Ceremony - We finish our week in celebration. It is a warm and intimate event. During the certification ceremony, whether you are newly certified or certified in the past,  you will be able to locate yourself and your teachers in the history of the Focusing movement on our Focusing timeline. 

Online Schedule English        Horario en línea Español        In-Person Schedule Mercy by the Sea, CT, US     

In-Person Schedule Dominican Centre - Dublin, Ireland

IMPORTANT: IF YOU SIGN UP, YOU ARE COMMITTING TO ATTENDANCE  – The hallmark of the Weeklong is the building of community cross-culturally among Focusers from all over the world.  To maintain the nature of the intimacy of the Weeklong, if you sign up, you must commit to attending all Home Groups and all Plenaries. (Plenaries may be watched after-the-fact if you live in a place where the time of day is impossible for you, but we ask that you do your best to watch them prior to your Home Group.)  We also ask you to make an effort to attend as many of the optional events as possible.

Beatrice Blake, New Hampshire, US.  Focusing coordinator. Beatrice gives online classes, in English and Spanish, in Focusing, Thinking at the Edge, Nonviolent Communication for Focusers, and Trainer Certification.

Tom Larkin, Dublin, Ireland.  Tom is a psychotherapist in private practice in Dublin. He is a Certifying Focusing Coordinator, a Children Focusing trainer and a Forest Therapy Guide.

Dan Schachter, Tel Aviv, Israel. Focusing coordinator, Focusing Oriented Therapist, and clinical psychologist in private practice. Dan teaches Focusing, TAE (Thinking at the Edge) and the philosophy of the implicit, and he is a member of the TIFI Focusing Weeklong Core Team.

Videos from Dan Schachter coming soon!

How TAE helps us think from our own experience - Beatrice Blake

Thinking at the Edge shows us how to bring our felt sense of situations into our thinking process, thus complementing other forms of information. The challenges our planet faces will not be solved only by science and technology, although we very much need what they provide. Their data must be balanced by the very human data provided by felt sensing.

In this workshop, the first step is to get in touch with a felt sense of something that fascinates you, or something you have been curious about for awhile—something you would like to do, create, resolve, explain, etc.

Next, you’ll allow your felt sense to “hand you” two moments in your life that somehow relate to your felt sense--even if it’s not immediately obvious why those incidents are relevant.

We will work on identifying the details of our “instances” and discovering the unique "patterns" they form. Hopefully, we will have time to “cross” these patterns. Crossing  deepens our understanding of the original felt sense.

Focusing With Nature - Tom Larkin

Eugene Gendlin said, “There is no ‘body’ apart from the environment. The body generates itself in the environment, out of environment … Living things are always already both body and environment”*. This workshop will be an opportunity to explore experientially what this statement might mean as it relates to our natural environment. For participants it will open up the possibility to make or remake a connection with nature and will model a way of being in the natural world.

You are invited to participate, by phone, tablet or computer, from a safe and familiar outdoor space near you - that could be from a local park or from your garden or from inside your own home either looking out on the natural world or with house plants. Offering Focusing and Forest Therapy invitations, Tom will guide participants in a gentle exploration of their natural environment.
The process draws its inspiration from, and is a crossing of Focusing with Forest Therapy, a form of Shinrin Yoku (translated from Japanese as Forest Bathing).

The ABC of Focusing - Dan Schachter
 

In his main philosophical work “A Process Model”, Gendlin talks about the space of felt sensing as one in which any known pattern functions as “about to be changed”.

In this workshop we will be playing with making that notion a cornerstone of Focusing. We will think about, and experiment with, what happens when we interact with ourselves, with others and with all our contents in this manner. What kind of processes may happen, what kind of transformative living might be supported, when everything is related to as About to Be Changed….

In the workshop we will:
Read and Focus on a short text from A Process Model related to this notion.
Exercise how to move with the already known in the direction of what is not known, yet....
 

Our collaborating coordinators will facilitate small group meetings - called "home groups" each day and may present a workshop.

Carlos is a therapist from Antigua, Guatemala and has been Focusing since 1997 when he first was introduced through Carlos Alemany of Spain to Focusing as a "philosophy of life." He was self-taught from 1997 to 2005 and later trained with Robert Lee in the Domain Focusing model. Carlos attended his first Weeklong in 2008 where Mary Hendricks-Gendlin invited him to train as a Coordinator. He studied internationally with many different teachers learning a variety of modalities of Focusing. He became a Coordinator in 2012.

Taller: Focusing, Arte y Espiritualidad   Workshop: Focusing, Art and Spirituality
En español con traducción al inglés  / In Spanish with translation to English 

Cecilia is a Coordinator and  body-centered counselor (FOT). Additionally, she is an Hakomi Teacher, EFT practitioner and Energetic Healer. She was introduced to Focusing 24 years ago by Elena Frezza. She enjoys accompanying people in personal development processes by including the use of body-mind-soul resources.

Taller: La dirección hacia la vida en los sueños   Workshop: Life-forward energy in dreams  
En español con traducción al inglés  / In Spanish with translation to English 

João is a clinical psychologist, psychotherapist and Focusing Coordinator from Portugal, living near Lisbon and close to the sea, where he was also born and raised. His professional and psychotherapeutic training took him on a singular path in search of a way to gather and legitimate the majestic wisdom of human experiential processes and the value of practices that use modified states of consciousness. He his trained on Transpersonal, Existential, Focusing-Oriented and EMDR therapies. Also, he has worked on Psychedelic Research as a lead-therapist for the last 2 years and has just returned to his private practice.

Workshop: Focusing, Psychedelics and Mystical Experiences   Taller: Focusing, psicodélicos y experiencias místicas
In English with Spanish translation / En ingles con traduccion al español

Harriet is a Coordinator and Art Therapist, working in her own practice with children, parents and adults in The Netherlands. Teaching “Dynamic Expressive Focusing” and Focusing International Online Certification Program for Focusing Practitioners https://www.childrenfocusing.org/  www.deruimte-info.nl    [email protected]

Workshop: Using symbols as an entrance to the Felt Sense   Taller: Usar símbolos como una entrada al Sentido Sentido
In English with Spanish translation / En ingles con traduccion al español

Being multi-lingual is an important value of The International Focusing Institute and of the Weeklong.  We will offer simultaneous translation to Spanish for all main presentations.  We will offer a Home Group in Spanish online  Certainly, a Home Group could be created in another language as well, if there are enough participants who wish to speak that language. 

Mercy by the Sea Retreat Center - US - Madison, CT - located approximately 2 hours from New York City, the retreat center is located on 33 beautiful acres of waterfront property along Long Island Sound. It is a lovely and peaceful place where we have enjoyed numerous retreats in the past. Visit the website www.mercybythesea.org

COVID-19 UPDATE (Oct 2022) At this time, Mercy's Covid guideline: Proof of vaccination or negative PCR tests are no longer required.  Masks are optional. From TIFI - During your stay, we encourage masks, especially for those not vaccinated; however, they are not required. As we know, the state of the pandemic is in flux and we will of course cooperate with any policy changes which might come from the Mercy Retreat Center.

Dominican Retreat Centre - Dublin Ireland - conveniently located in Dublin this retreat center offers a tranquil setting with comfortable accommodations and lovely grounds. Visit the website https://domrc.ie/

COVID-19 UPDATE In accordance with national guidelines, at this time, the Dominican Retreat Center is not requiring that guests be vaccinated, nor any proof of a negative test. During your stay, we encourage masks, especially for those not vaccinated; however, they are not required. As we know, the state of the pandemic is in flux and we will of course cooperate with any policy changes which might come from the Dominican Retreat Center.

For the 2022 Weeklong, we are moving to our 3-tier pricing model. Last year, we offered a certification discount of $300 for those recently certified. However, even with the discount, the tuition was still not affordable for some in lower income economies. To be more inclusive, this year we are offering options of $100, $250 or $500 based on an individual's personal circumstance.

Additionally, we have Workstudy opportunities and a limited amount of scholarship money through the Janet Klein fund.

Zoom host back-up to support main zoom host (minimum 2 workshops)

Living Room/Sala de estar - Take responsibility for 3 of the Living Rooms. We will provide the zoom; the volunteer must be familiar with hosting on Zoom and able to act as a warm and inviting host to whatever participants show up. We can specify certain Living Rooms as Spanish and others as English but we cannot provide translation./Toma responsibilidad para 3 de las Salas de estar Usarás nuestra cuenta de Zoom; el voluntario debe ser muy cómodo actuando como anfitrion de Zoom, y capaz de ser anfitrion
acogedor a cualquier participante que venga.  No se puede ofrecer traducción en las Salas de estar, pero podemos etiquar ciertas cuantas como de habla español.

Bilingual (Spanish/English) written or spoken support based on individual experience

In person helper at Mercy by the Sea, CT - US

In person helper at Dominican Retreat Centre, Dublin - Ireland

Photographer Mercy by the Sea, CT - US - use your own digital camera or high quality phone for event photos

Photographer Dublin, Ireland - use your own digital camera or high quality phone for event photos

To apply for or ask questions about workstudy: email [email protected].

A limited amount of scholarship money is available. We ask that you first consider a Workstudy discount or the lowest tuition price before applying for this scholarship. To apply please email a short application which includes 1) your name and country  2) your Coordinator's name 3) why you would like to attend the Weeklong; 4) the scholarship amount that would make it possible for you to attend. Please email this short statement to: [email protected]