About Roundtables
CONNECTION > CONVERSATION > COMMUNITY
Focusing Roundtables are organized by the Membership Committee of The International Focusing Institute as a service to members of the Institute. They are a valuable opportunity to engage in informal peer-to-peer conversation with other members who share Focusing-related interests.
You can find Roundtables listed on the Events page where you can sign up to participate.
What to Expect:
Each Focusing Roundtable is designed to promote informal peer-to-peer conversation. Rather than acting as expert presenters, the Hosts will serve as conversation moderators to encourage sharing and exploration of the topics from the participants’ own perspectives. All participants’ sharings are welcome and valuable, no matter what level of experience or knowledge you have on the topic.
To preserve the nature of informal conversation, the program will be offered live only and no recordings will be available. Participants are encouraged to create follow up opportunities for connection among themselves after the Roundtable.
The Roundtables Team
Margaret Quinn (left), Mary Jennings (center), Elaine Goggin (right)
Roundtables by Susan Lennox
The Focusing Roundtable programs were created by the TIFI Membership Committee in late 2016 as a free benefit for TIFI members. They were intended to be our way of saying thank you for your membership, while creating new opportunities to build deeper connections within the global Focusing community.
We are delighted that our goal of building the international Focusing community has been realized. Organized by volunteer hosts, every program brings members from around the world together to converse informally about a variety of Focusing-related topics. In the last Roundtable, for example, there were registrants from 16 different countries, with two-thirds hailing from countries other than the United States.
The Roundtable program has grown substantially over the years. In its first full year of operation, we offered 11 Roundtables. The number of unique Roundtable programs increased to 14 in 2018, 15 in 2019, and 16 in 2020. However, with the increasing popularity of Roundtables, the number of registrations grew and many programs were offered multiple times to accommodate the overflow. This resulted in the doubling of the number of Roundtable offerings from 11 in the first year to 23 in 2020.
One interesting development in the Roundtable program is the increasing number of Roundtable series. In some cases, this has enabled Focusers from specific parts of the world to build connections. For instance, TIFI members in Australia and New Zealand created a quarterly Downunder Roundtable series in 2019, which continued in 2020 and is currently in the planning stages for 2021. Many thanks to the following members who offered leadership in organizing and presenting the Downunder Roundtables: Jane Quayle, Heather Rogers, Sue Burrell, Frances Conchie Stanley, Biliana Dearly, David Shapiro Del Sole, and Matthew Power.
Italian Focusers have also mounted two previous multi-part series thus far, with another four-part series planned for January through April 2021. Thanks to the following members for their leadership and fine efforts in creating these programs: Francesca Castaldi, Nicoletta Corsetti, Maria Teresa Belgenio, Brigitte Moretti, Olga Pasquini, Agostino Manni, Lorenzo Salvi, and Patrizia Bonaca. The 2021 program will be offered by Patrizia Bonaca, Roberto Tecchio, Maria Teresa Belgenio, Bruna Blandino and Rosa Catoio.
Other Roundtable series have been created to bring together members with particular interests. A primary example is the Therapists’ Circle Roundtables, enthusiastically organized by Julie Ramsey (USA), Mary Anne Schleinich (Canada), and Steve Moscovitch (Canada). These programs are designed especially for members who work with clients in therapeutic settings, and who use or have used modalities deepened by Focusing and the Philosophy of the Implicit. Current and former therapists are welcome, including psychotherapists, counselors, coaches, somatic practitioners, spiritual directors, occupational or physical therapists, nurses and the like. We were delighted to include Salvador Moreno-Lopez (Mexico) as our first guest presenter on “Interaction and the Music of Speech in the Psychotherapeutic Relationship” during the last Therapists’ Circle of 2020.
Some examples of previous rountables
Focusing on Purpose: Finding Your Deep Purpose through the Felt Sense
“Return to the Base”:
The Precursor of the Felt Sense and Felt Sense Literacy (FSL)
The Heart and Soul of Writing:
Focusing as the Way In
Focusing & Neuroscience:
Exploring the Crossing of Focusing with Neuroscience
Focusing on the Ecological Crisis:
Felt Sensing Our Way to a Better World
Focusing on Politics:
“Focusing Needs a Structural Political Consciousness”
Focusing on the Ecological Crisis:
Part 2-Going Deeper
Taking Heart in Turbulent Times:
Crossing Focusing with the Work That Reconnects
Focusing on Politics, Part 2:
Focusing, Structural Oppression & Alienation