ANNUAL REPORT 2025
All information in this report covers January 1 – December 31, 2025
MEMBERSHIP & PARTICIPATION
MEMBERSHIP
We have 2,667 members in 2025, an increase of approximately 8% over 2024
67 Countries have TIFI members: Uruguay, United States, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Thailand, Taiwan, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, South Africa, Slovenia, Singapore, Russian Federation, Romania, Portugal, Poland, Philippines, Peru, Norway, New Zealand, Netherlands, Morocco, Mexico, Mauritius, Malta, Malaysia, Luxembourg, Kuwait, Korea, Japan, Italy, Israel, Ireland, Indonesia, India, Iceland, Hungary, Hong Kong, Guatemala, Greece, Germany, Georgia, France, Finland, El Salvador, Egypt, Ecuador, Denmark, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Costa Rica, Colombia, China (mainland), Chile, Canada, Cameroon, Bulgaria, Brazil, Bolivia, Bermuda, Belgium, Austria, Australia, Aruba, Argentina, Albania, Afghanistan
CERTIFICATIONS AND AWARDS IN 2025
New Coordinators
We welcomed 16 new Coordinators in 2025. You can read about each of them on the Milestones page of our website at focusing.org/more/milestones.
CERTIFICATIONS BY COORDINATOR
This link lets you know how many students our Coordinators have certified, listed by Coordinator. More specific information is available at focusing.org/milestones.
PARTICIPATION IN EVENTS
Participation in TIFI’s online events — classes, conferences, and membership gatherings — grew significantly in 2025:
CONFERENCES, CLASSES & GATHERINGS
TIFI offers many online events and occasional in-person events, all of which can be found at focusing.org/events. The following were noteworthy in 2025.
Planning for “Sensing Forward” - the International Focusing Conference in Vienna
A huge effort went into planning for the 2026 conference which is being held in the city of Gene Gendlin’s birth for his centennial.
TAE Symposium
In April, TIFI held its first-ever TAE Symposium. This was a new event which was designed to bring together those who already have some experience in Thinking At the Edge, to share learnings and insights. This News Feed article reviewed the event, and includes reflections in English, German and Japanese.
Children & Focusing Academy
The first Children & Focusing Academy took place in the fall. This continues TIFI’s Academy-style format which offers participants a chance to go deep with one Main Teacher while also going broad with several teachers. In our Academies, participants choose one Main Teacher for twelve hours over the course of a month, which they attend live on Zoom. However they also get access to the other Main Teachers through recordings, and there are sprinkled in several excellent teachers who offer one-hour supplemental sessions. This News Feed article reviewed both the CF Academy as well as the 2026 Focusing-Oriented Therapy Academy
Deep dives into Gendlin’s writings
In 2025, TIFI offered an expanded series of courses where outstanding teachers led deep engagement with Gendlin’s works:
- A Process Model — Rob Parker (two sessions, including a cohort oriented toward Spanish speakers, arranged by Naty Calviño)
- Experiencing and the Creation of Meaning — Rob Parker
- Let Your Body Interpret Your Dreams — Leslie Ellis
- Thinking Beyond Patterns — Evelyn Fendler-Lee
Guided Tune-Ins
These monthly sessions are led by Laura Storey. These short online opportunities to sense inside are free for anyone (not only members). To attend, watch your email for notices, or check our Events page.
Weeklong for Advanced Focusers (focusing.org/weeklong)
This year's Weeklong for Advanced Focusers took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina. For the first time since the pandemic, it was an in-person only event (with no online component). It was the largest Weeklong ever, with 70 participants from 14 countries, including Hong Kong China, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain and 9 countries in North, Central and South America. We also had a record number of Coordinators in attendance: 20! Everything was conducted in Spanish, English and Portuguese. You can read all about it in this News Feed article.
The Daylong
A new event debuted in 2025: the Daylong. It combined the Honoring Milestones ceremony with three workshops led by the Weeklong Core Team, an orientation and history session, and a Changes group. Free for all certified members, it offered a meaningful gathering for those unable to attend the Weeklong. The Honoring Milestones ceremony celebrates newly certified people and newly minted Coordinators, and remembers Coordinators who have died. Those honored in 2025 were Christine Langeveld of the Netherlands (tribute given by Aaffien de Vries), Mary Armstrong of Canada (tribute given by Nancy Falls) and Karin Bundschuh Mueller of Germany (tribute given by her husband Clemens Steier).
HONORING MILESTONES
TIFI is committed to remembering and appreciating those who have been pioneers and elders in the Focusing community, and those who have significantly carried forward Focusing, Thinking at the Edge, and the philosophy of the implicit.
The Focusing Heritage Gallery at focusing.org/more/heritage-gallery serves as a permanent place of remembrance for those who have shaped our community.
MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS & MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE ACTIVITIES
The Membership Committee meets monthly to discuss ways to serve our members. Mariana Písula of Argentina continued as Chair in 2025. Members of the committee come from around the world. See their web page at focusing.org/membership/membership-committee.
Welcome Conversations
These are offered to all new members, to welcome and orient them to membership in TIFI.
Hello Hello & Pop-Up Focusing
These are chances for Focusers to get together for brief, friendly interaction.
Members-Only Section of the Website
Members are encouraged to explore the Members-Only area of focusing.org to discover benefits and resources available exclusively to them. Please be sure to be signed in to access this area.
In addition to offerings organized by the Membership Committee, these free Programs for Members were offered in 2025:
Roundtables
Roundtables are online conversations for members. For a number of years, Roundtables were offered every month as a free gathering for members. In 2025, a shift was made to have Roundtables only when one arises organically, often because a member or two has a desire to organize one. We are grateful that Elaine Goggin stayed on from the previous Roundtable team to organize them in this more relaxed way. This development is indicative of the success of a number of free-for-members programs which have arisen to serve the needs of members to gather online to explore areas relevant to Focusing.
Mesas Redondas & Cafecitos
These are Spanish-language member gatherings led by a group of Argentinians: Florentina Sassoli, Alejandro Juroczko, Jimena Camón, and Lucia Águilar.
Reading Freshly
A slow, Focusing-based reading of Gendlin’s book Focusing, offered in two monthly sessions (Asia-Pacific and Americas/Europe)
A Fresh Look at Gendlin’s “Small Steps”
Monthly sessions with Beatrice Blake to read "The Small Steps of the Therapy Process," an article by Eugene Gendlin which has much to offer those who are not therapists. Beatrice edited the article to take out explicitly therapeutic language, in order to help readers approach the article freshly.
Being Focusing Together
Monthly sessions with Rachel Hendron exploring how Focusers can be with one another in group settings in a Focusing way. Inspired by the work of Lynn Preston, Rachel used Gene Gendlin's unpublished article "Fitting In, Pouring Out and Relating."
THINKING AT THE EDGE & PHILOSOPHY
TAE Proficiency Award
The TAE Proficiency Award, implemented in 2023, indicates proficiency in TAE partnership and makes recipients eligible for our TAE Partnership Network. In 2025, seven new TAE Proficiency Awards were granted.
TAE Symposium
April 2025 saw TIFI’s inaugural TAE Symposium — a landmark event in TIFI’s ongoing commitment to deepening the practice and reach of Thinking at the Edge. It was designed for those already experienced in TAE, rather than as an introduction, reflecting the growing sophistication of our TAE community. (See link above to read more.)
Philosophy Courses & Programming
2025 saw significant expansion of philosophy and TAE programming. Rob Parker offered multiple sessions of A Process Model, including a course for Spanish speakers. Evelyn Fendler-Lee taught Thinking Beyond Patterns. In October, Donata Schoeller, Greg Madison, and Sigríður Þórgeirsdóttir presented a special session exploring Artificial Intelligence and Gendlin’s philosophy. Since then, Greg Madison has continued to convene a group to further explore the topic.
VIDEO STORE
In 2025, TIFI launched its video store at videos.focusing.org. After a soft launch in April during the TAE Symposium, a full public announcement was made in September once a rotation schedule of new content was established. The store features the Nada Lou “Original Focusing Masters” collection — rare digitized films of Gene Gendlin and early Focusing practitioners.
We are deeply grateful to Nada Lou for her generosity and collaboration in making these invaluable recordings available to the Focusing community worldwide.
CARRYING FORWARD GENE GENDLIN'S LEGACY
THE EUGENE T. GENDLIN ARCHIVE PROJECT
A significant undertaking in 2025 was a systematic review of approximately 40 boxes of Gene Gendlin’s papers, held in storage since his passing in 2017. From June 8–11, a dedicated team gathered in New York to assess the collection: Dana Ganihar and Baruch Brenner (Israeli Coordinators with deep knowledge of Gene’s legacy) and Frans Sandbergen (who is working on Gene’s biography). Volunteers Sondra Perl, Katarzyna (Kasia) Fiorita, Lauren Cohen, and Gail Miklatek assisted with photographing, scanning, and cataloging.
The review revealed some material of real archival significance, including handwritten notes and annotated articles.
In addition to the physical papers, TIFI’s archival holdings include:
- Gene’s computer files and email correspondence, meticulously organized by his former secretary, Chris Honde
- Transcribed dialogues between Gene and Dave Young from the final years of Gene’s life
- Original videotapes donated by Nada Lou
- Miscellaneous items which have been collected over the years
THE EUGENE T. GENDLIN CENTER FOR RESEARCH IN EXPERIENTIAL PHILOSOPHY AND PSYCHOLOGY
Anna-Katharina Lenz joined the Gendlin Center committee. She is the Lance & Diane White Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship at Miami University of Ohio. She joined the other members Akira Ikemi (Chair), Kevin Krycka, Mary Jeanne Larrabee, Donata Schoeller, Sigríður Þórgeirsdóttir, Siebrecht Vanhooren, and Bill Gayner (Board liaison).
Gendlin Grant for Research in Psychology
The Gendlin Grant for Original Research in Psychology supports scholars worldwide in exploring the applications of Gendlin’s work. The 4th Gendlin Grant was awarded to Marisa Hoslet of Belgium for her project “A Mixed Methods Approach to Enhancing Student Well-being: Exploring Focusing, Mindfulness and Fear of Failure Training.” Read more in the News Feed announcement.
Online Conversations
Members of the Gendlin Center committee offered several valuable online conversations in 2025:
- Donata Schoeller in Conversation with the Venerable Losang Gendun
- Philosophizing with Gendlin: James G. Hart and Sigridur Thorgeirsdottir in Conversation
- Perspectives on AI: What Gendlin’s practices and philosophy contribute to the discussion with Donata Schoeller, Greg Madison, and Sigridur Thorgeirsdóttir
Translations of Gendlin's works
With the assistance of an excellent consultant, we have continued to move issues of Gendlin’s intellectual property forward well. Some of the works and languages which are now underway include:
- Czech translation of Focusing
- German translation of Experiencing and the Creation of Meaning (ECM)
- Simplified Chinese (mainland China) translation of Experiencing and the Creation of Meaning (ECM)
- Hungarian translation of Focusing
- Japanese translation of Experiencing and the Creation of Meaning (ECM)
WEBSITE
From January 1 to December 31, 2025, focusing.org received a total of 626,983 views — an increase of 9% over 2024’s 576,479. The total number of views of all Events listings was 92,608 — an increase of 21% over 2024’s 76,834.
We are especially pleased by the continued growth in Events page views, which is a significant way for our certified members to advertise their courses and events globally. In 2025, TIFI also launched videos.focusing.org, adding a significant new dimension to the organization’s online presence.
VOLUNTEERS
We are grateful for the extraordinary generosity of our community in offering their time and talents as volunteers. In 2025, volunteers contributed across a remarkable range of tasks and programs — from event organizing and translation to archiving and technology support. We thank all of our 2025 volunteers in this News Feed.
FUNDRAISING
We are deeply grateful to all who made donations in 2025. In total, 97 donors contributed a combined total of $121,829. Donations ranged from a few dollars to very substantial gifts. Each one makes our work possible.
Memberships and program fees do not cover all of our costs, so we depend on the generosity of our donors.
We say thank you to our donors annually in our News Feed; please see a list of our donors for 2025 at this link.
COMMITTEES
We have a number of committees which usually meet monthly, usually with the Executive Director, to help shape the organization with input from our members.
Membership Committee
This committee's job is "the care and feeding" (so to speak) of the members of The International Focusing Institute (TIFI). They seek to ensure that our members value their membership with us. They regularly create opportunities for members to connect with one another, and they work with the Executive Director to address issues relevant to the membership. Read about the Membership Committee on its web page.
Nominating Committee
Read about the Nominating Committee on its web page. The Nominating Committee sent a number of wonderful candidates to the Board to fill spots on the Board of Directors and the International Leadership Council (ILC). For the Board, Detlef Girke of German, and for the ILC, Mateja Vrhunc Tomazin of Slovenia and Joanna Kaczmarek of Poland. All 3 were approved and began their service during 2025.
Focusing-Oriented Therapy (FOT) Advisory Group
This small group works with the Executive Director to consider ways in which we can make FOT more widely known, and to serve the needs of our FOTs. Read about the FOT Advisory Group on its web page.
Thinking At the Edge (TAE) Advisory Group
The TAE Advisory Group has generated enormous momentum around this sister practice to Focusing. They created the TAE Proficiency Award a couple of years ago, and in the past have organized the TAE Fest and the TAE Academy. In 2025, they organized the TAE Symposium (read about it above). Read about the TAE Advisory Group on its web page.
Children & Focusing Advisory Group
The CFAG has been active for many years, having revised the pages on Children & Focusing, led many CF Roundtables, and many CF Conferences. This year, they organized the first CF Academy (read about that above). Read about the CF Advisory Group on its web page.
THE TIFI BOARD
After having ably led the Board as President since mid-2020, Nelle Moffett’s second 3-year term as a Board member ended in 2025. The Board voted for Bill Gayner to take over as President. The Board also welcomed new member Detlef Girke of Germany. Throughout the year, the Board considered updates to the Goals of The International Focusing Institute, and sought input from the International Leadership Council and the Membership Committee. The revised goals were published toward the end of the year on at focusing.org/mission. A News Feed explaining the background to the revisions was published in February 2026.
Board members who served during 2025: Nelle Moffett, USA (President), Bill Gayner, Canada (Vice President and then President), Eveline Moor Züllig, Switzerland (Vice President), Darryl Commings, USA (Treasurer), Tom Larkin, Ireland (Secretary), Florentina Sassoli, Argentina and Detlef Girke, Germany
Each board member takes on a “portfolio” in order to have one aspect of TIFI’s functioning that they engage with regularly, in cooperation with the Executive Director and/or a committee of TIFI. The portfolios currently are finance (Darryl Commings), goodwill (Detlef Girke), membership (Tom Larkin), the Gendlin Center (Bill Gayner), ILC Liaison (Eveline Moor Züllig) and Children & Focusing (Laura Bavalics).
The Board continued its tradition of inviting new Coordinators to join the beginning of its monthly meetings, to thank and congratulate them.
The INTERNATIONAL LEADERSHIP COUNCIL (ILC)
The ILC has accelerated its work in gathering Coordinators together for conversations. It made a commitment a couple of years ago to get Coordinators together online at least twice a year. In 2025, it decided that it wanted to get to know particular groups of Coordinators better. To do so, it’s begun inviting groups of Coordinators by language group. The group of Coordinators is invited to have a conversation in their language, with the ILC listening through an interpreter. The idea is to invite the Coordinators to share their passions and their successes in their work spreading Focusing, Thinking at the Edge and the philosophy of the implicit in the world. This gives the ILC a broader vision of what is happening “out there,” and creates a chance for connection. Of course, it also gives those Coordinators a chance to ask questions of the ILC, but the hope is for the ILC to do more listening than speaking in those meetings.
In 2025, Laura Bavalics had to leave the ILC before the end of her second term for personal reasons; however when those reasons cleared up, she was able to join the Board. She is the third person who has served on both the ILC and the Board, the other two being Evelyn Fendler-Lee and Nancy Falls.
The ILC also welcomed Mateja Vrhunc Tomazin of Slovenia and Joanna Kaczmarek of Poland to join the existing members, Natalia Calviño of Argentina, Nancy Falls of Canada and Massimo Zarghetta of Italy.
PERSONNEL
Staff
- Catherine Torpey — Executive Director (full time)
- Elizabeth Cantor — Administrator (full time)
- Rita Kirsch — Membership and Administrative Assistant (half time)
Consultants
- Sherrie Lynne — Executive Assistant
- Melanie Korpi — Organizer of Online Classes
- Sandra ten Zijthoff — Video Editing & Social Media
- Eunice Chen — Video Editor
- Renee La Roi Shuttleworth — Webmistress
- Collin Brown — Administrative Assistant
- Gillian Adendorff — Intellectual Property
- Kim Siegel — Email Marketing & Newsfeed
- Lilia Gwaltney — Vienna Administrator
- Laura Basilicata — Bookkeeper
- Valerie Jashi — Auditor
- Liz Conneally — Accountant
FINANCES
Although 2025 ended with a substantial deficit, this was entirely due to the Institute sending a payment a month early to the venue for the upcoming International Focusing Conference in Vienna. In the overview below, it shows that although we took in $345,461 in income from registrations for Vienna among other programs, there were also very high expenses. The primary expense was the venue for Vienna. This left us with expenses for programs which were about $90,000 higher than our income. We are very pleased that our income from membership and certification has continued to increase at a steady rate, and that donations continue strong. Our “miscellaneous” line includes increasing income from Gene Gendlin’s intellectual property.
