About the Institute

Our Mission

Why Focusing?

Everyone has the potential to access and live from their unique bodily-felt knowing. Focusing, a process grounded in experiential listening, is a powerful way of interacting with this body-felt knowing that leads to mutual respect, authenticity and compassion. In this way, Focusing fosters peace and harmony in the world.

Who We Are

The International Focusing Institute is an international, cross-cultural organization dedicated to supporting individuals and groups world-wide who are practicing, teaching and developing Focusing and its underlying philosophy.

What We Do

The International Focusing Institute is committed to the promotion of Focusing and encourages a wide variety of Focusing-based applications and educational methodologies. It also serves as a catalyst for Focusing research, an information hub and custodian of Focusing-related literature, and provides physical and virtual meeting spaces for education, dialogue and interaction. In these and other ways, the International Focusing Institute is committed to sharing and advancing the work of its founder, Eugene Gendlin, and those who have built on his legacy.

GOALS OF THE INTERNATIONAL FOCUSING INSTITUTE

AS DEFINED IN THE 2017 STRATEGIC PLAN

(For the full plan, scroll down)

GOAL 1: Build an organization that has the capacity to keep Focusing alive and available to everyone

GOAL 2: Preserve the integrity of Focusing and foster its development

GOAL 3: Catalyze the development and expand the world-wide availability of programs and applications that are vital, responsive and contextually relevant

GOAL 4: Raise the visibility of The International Focusing Institute and effectively communicate the benefits of bodily felt-sensing as a way for people to carry life forward

About Us

The International Focusing Institute is an international, cross-cultural organization dedicated to supporting individuals and groups world-wide who are teaching, practicing and developing Focusing and its underlying philosophy.

Founder

Eugene Gendlin, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, University of Chicago, 1964 - 1995

Mary Hendricks-Gendlin
November 5, 1944 – March 28, 2015

> Board of Directors

> International Leadership Council

Contacts

Catherine Torpey
Executive Director
[email protected]

Elizabeth Cantor
Administrator
[email protected]

Rita Kirsch
Administrative Assistant
[email protected]

Sherrie Lynne
Assistant to the Executive Director
[email protected]

Renee (La Roi) Shuttleworth
Webmistress, Website Design & Project Management (send content for the website to Renee)
[email protected]

Melanie Korpi
MJ Synergy Consulting
Organizer of Online Classes
[email protected]

Diversity of Approaches Statement

(approved by the Board of Directors December 2021, revising the 2009 statement)

Focusing and Thinking at the Edge always honor what arises freshly in the moment. Frozen structures are antithetical to the ethic of felt sensing. Focusing and Thinking at the Edge and how they are taught by our certified teachers will not be standardized. It is a core value of TIFI that diversity of approaches will be protected. Constructive critiques are welcome among our teachers or between TIFI and individuals presenting or applying practices which arise from Gendlin’s philosophy of the implicit. These should be offered by means of open, respectful communication. TIFI itself will seek to honor the value of diversity of approaches in its offerings.