Focusing in Poland

 

Click here to read in this article in Polish.

Just before Christmas 2023, at a meeting of the Polish Focusing Institute, somewhere between preparing the carp and cooking bigos (traditional Polish Christmas dishes), we found the time to reminisce for a while about how it all began.  As the stories emerged, we found that it began differently for everyone.  What the stories all had in common was the experience of looking for something.  Some were looking for a method to respond to the needs of patients, others for a way to engage the body in psychotherapy and supervision, others wanted to get back in touch with themselves or just experience something new.  One was looking specifically for Focusing.

I learnt many things from books, but with Focusing, that just couldn't be done. - Majka Król-Fijewska

That one was Majka Król-Fijewska, one of the founders of the INTRA Centre for Psychological Help and Education in Warsaw, founded in 1991, which became the mothership of the Polish Focusing Institute. Where did the idea come from to expand INTRA’s work to include Focusing?  In the 1990s, the INTRA team was endeavoring to define its identity.  They came to see that they identified most with humanistic psychotherapy, and that there were no other organizations in Poland that taught it. Since we were no longer separated from the West by the Iron Curtain, it was now possible to look for friends outside the country. First on this path came the Gestaltist Seymour Carter.  We owe thanks to Hanna Szczepańska for introducing him to us after she participated in a workshop led by Seymour. The joint meetings between us at INTRA and Seymour revitalized us with new knowledge and experience. Sadly, this adventure was interrupted by Seymour's death. However, it did not stop the search.

To put it jokingly, it all started when Mia Leijssen stood us up. - Darek Tkaczyk, who was asked to invite Mia

Further curiosity led Majka towards Leslie Greenberg's Emotion Focused Psychotherapy (EFT). This type of work is woven through with Focusing (among other things) so, in order to know EFT, one needs to know Focusing. So we began to look at the literature on the subject of Focusing. Not everything was clear. No, wait a minute, better to say: everything was unclear. We invited a therapist specializing in bodywork, Joanna Kosmala, to explain to us what Focusing was. Joanna laid everything out beautifully, yet we still didn't know what it was all about. It became obvious that we needed a practitioner to lay it out for us. This is when Majka found Mia Leijssen of Belgium.

Mia accepted the invitation, but despite her willingness, she ultimately decided not to travel to faraway Poland. But she did not leave us stranded; she recommended her student, Claude Missiaen, and so it all began. The first workshop took place in April 2012 and since then it has not even crossed our minds to part with Claude.

Claude's Focusing was nothing short of an illuminating of existence. I had been waiting for this way of thinking and therapy for years.
- Ireneusz Kaczmarczyk

To this day, everyone recalls the positive impressions shared behind the scenes at the first workshops. Claude's warmth, kindness, authenticity, and Rogerian demeanor (even his facial expressions), appealed to everyone. Focusing itself also proved to be a hit. People started to discover more confidence in this gentle way of working, which allowed them to be in deep contact with others, taking into account the information coming from the body.  Claude turned out to be a great friend, introducing us to The World Association for Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapy & Counselling.  Through all of these seeking and finding, the question of our identity was answered in our newfound sense of belonging.

Before I even began to have contact with my body, I kept coming back to Claude, to that atmosphere of acceptance and tenderness.
- Krzysztof Górski

Initially, Focusing workshops were mainly attended by psychotherapists, and Claude's annual visits became meeting places for the wider community of experience-oriented therapists. For many, the subject matter didn't matter; they came to meet the instructor, talk to each other and to Focus, and to take in the atmosphere of acceptance and tenderness. These moments were a "spa for the soul." The workshop on the inner critic, which is still repeated every year, was a particular hit - it is probably the most well-known concept that, along with Focusing, has made its way into the practice of Polish psychotherapists.

After each workshop, like mushrooms after the rain, new Focusing pairs sprang up; they were the driving force behind the practice of listening to the body. Proposals to form a partnership sometimes sounded like confessions of love, because we were indeed united by our love of Focusing.

What do I like most about Focusing? There's a lot of that. The first thing that comes to me is the way it is practiced. That moment when I sit across from my companion and feel their presence. It's a unique relationship, there's nothing like it in the world.... I find my home in Focusing. I really live through it. - Jacek Kaleta

In 2014, Darek Tkaczyk took the Focusing baton. From that moment on, workshops have also been held in Claude's absence, although we always look forward to his visits to benefit from advanced workshops and supervision. There was even a desire to meet daily. This is how a Saturday Focusing group formed, led by Darek, who in 2016 started (and in 2018 completed) his training to become the first Polish Focusing Coordinator.

What fascinated me, and continues to fascinate me, is learning not from the great, but from the felt senses of myself and others.
- Krzysztof Górski

When we reminisce about those first moments, several members of the Institute become visibly agitated. There is a fervent discussion where we tried to establish when these meetings took place and what those days were like.  We already know that the meetings were held every week on a Saturday between 2014 and 2018; someone finds a mailing from this period to verify dates more precisely. When they first began, everyone came to them: trainers, psychotherapists and other Focusing enthusiasts. Theoretical issues were discussed, work was done in pairs, and feedback was gathered about what helps in accompanying the other person. This learning from each other and each other's felt senses was an important guide on this path. Since 2017, the meetings have evolved into a supervision group.

Meanwhile, in 2016, Focusing classes began to appear in the curriculum of the INTRA School of Psychotherapy. Initially on a limited basis, taught only by Darek, but in the next edition (in 2017) he was joined by Joanna Kaczmarek and Krzysztof Górski to form the first team from whom INTRA students will be able to learn. It is impossible to count how many Focusers have emerged from under their wings.

Focusing was like the missing link to inner integration..... After the first workshop, I felt in my body that this was it and that I had already intuitively been doing it before. - Piotr Wardawy

Although the Polish Focusing Institute was born from among psychotherapists, it is not limited to them. In 2018, the first Polish-certified trainer, and the first clergyman in Poland to integrate Focusing into his work, appeared: Piotr Wardawy. A year before he received his certification, he led his first workshop and from then on, the Honoratianum Spirituality Centre in Zakroczym became a spiritual Focusing haven. Several times a year Piotr conducts workshops there for all who are interested, incorporates Focusing into his own practice of spiritual accompaniment, and inspires other Focusers to use Focusing in the development of their own spirituality. Many have drawn from this source.

At first my body didn't want to speak to me. Even now I am the last one whose felt sense emerges, but I gained confidence in myself and in my clients' processes. Focusing has changed my world view, I have started to live at a different pace. In various situations I stop, look inside and wait. - Joanna Kaczmarek

This is where our Focusing story comes into its own. More and more people are running workshops open to everyone.  Interest in body work is growing, and students from more psychotherapy schools are being trained in Focusing. The INTRA Centre also runs an experiential seminar, which resulted in a book published in 2019, Experience and Psychotherapy, the thread woven through its chapters being none other than the concepts of Gendlin and those continuing his legacy.

In the meantime, Darek runs a Focusing “matchmaking” service, helping others to find Focusing partners. As more Focusers join the Focusing caravan, a leader for this trip is needed. Majka Król-Fijewska from the INTRA Centre for Psychological Help and Education in Warsaw, where these first activities are taking place, started looking for such a person. Interviews were not easy, as most people are heavily burdened with work. Fortunately, the love of Focusing prevailed and a founding meeting with Claude Missiaen took place on April 29, 2021. Joanna Kaczmarek became the head (and also the heart) of the Polish Focusing Institute, accompanying everything that happens in the Institute: gathering people, creating the training program, organizing meetings and teacher visits, running the group on Facebook, promoting workshops and delegating tasks (which is sometimes not easy), taking notes and trying to respond to the various needs of the members themselves and anyone who needs information. Thank you so much, Joanna, for all you put into this work!

We consider September 30, 2021 to be the symbolic date of the founding of the Institute. This is the day of the first meeting and the first Institute note. The first line-up included: Joanna Kaczmarek, Darek Tkaczyk, Krzysztof Górski, Sonia Ruszkowska, Kasia Kawka, Irek Kaczmarczyk, Piotr Wardawy and Renata Wasik, who has consistently made our ideas a reality. Over time, Monika Mandecka and myself, Sara Katulska, have also joined. A year after its formation, this small, informal organization already had its own page on the INTRA Centre website and its own Facebook page, which is a platform for the exchange of ideas, a noticeboard for important Focusing events, and the home of the matchmaking service for Focusing pairs.

This is how the Institute started, but the seeds of Focusing in Poland were cast much earlier. In 1992, we got our first serious mention of Focusing in a book by the late Martin Siems. For many of us, this book was our first contact with Gendlin's ideas and inspired further research. We owe another Polish publication to Agnieszka Klimek, who translated and brought to publication The Power of Focusing. Practical guide to emotional self-healing by Ann Weiser Cornell (Polish title: 'Focusing. Mądrość ciała. Przewodnik po emocjonalnym uzdrawianiu siebie'). This yellow booklet published in Poland in 2015 is familiar to anyone who has heard of Focusing.

Focusing is one of the greatest gifts in my life. It is a gentle practice of reaching out to connect with myself, bridging the gap between feeling alive and a sense of meaning and significance by not separating mind from body and body from mind. Every day, even when it's not easy, Focusing allows me to get in touch with and transform different states of the body. - Agnieszka Klimek

Agnieszka is an extremely important figure in our Focusing world. Alongside her Focusing activities around the INTRA Centre, Agnieszka started her own trainer's path in autumn of 2012. As Focusing in Poland was still in its infancy, she searched abroad where she met Ann Weiser Cornell and Barbara McGavin. She then began running her own workshops in 2015, traveling to various Polish cities teaching Inner Relationship Focusing. Importantly, her activities have attracted not only coaches and psychotherapists, but people from all kinds of backgrounds, reaching a huge number of people over the years.

I missed meeting a lot. I felt like I was organizing so many meetings but not meeting people at all. Since I have started practising Focusing I really do meet the other person....  For me, the difference between present-listening and what we often experience on a daily basis is the difference between war and peace. - Małgorzata Bochińska

Our Polish Focusing tree now has not only roots but also different branches. Everyone develops it in their own direction, so that it bears more and more fruit and can feed more people. Sonia Ruszkowska works with trainers and coaches, supporting the use of body knowledge in group work and counteracting professional burnout; she conducts workshops at a number of venues including Polin, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. Piotr Wardawy combines Focusing with spirituality in the Catholic tradition, incorporating Focusing into the practice of spiritual accompaniment, teachings, meditation and mindfulness (some of his thoughts are included in the booklet: "Kiedy słowo stało się ciałem. Wskazówki do medytacji" [When the Word Became Flesh. Guidelines for meditation]). Małgorzata Bochińska uses Focusing with persons from Ukraine and also leads workshops combining meditation, mindfulness, Focusing and the Feldenkrais method. In cooperation with Katarzyna Florita, she organizes Changes meetings, connecting persons from Poland and abroad. Jacek Kaleta runs courses on Inner Relationship Focusing, combines Focusing with the Alexander technique and with Nonviolent Communication, and plans to create a Focusing space for men.

Psychotherapists have not been idle either. Kasia Kawka introduces Focusing in business training. Agnieszka Klimek has created a Focusing School. Anna Raczkiewicz and Krzysztof Górski are running a seminar around Gendlin's book Focusing Oriented Psychotherapy and are preparing a Focusing conference. Joanna Kaczmarek is organizing the activities of the Polish Focusing Institute. I, Sara Katulska, am writing a small book on Focusing. More and more people want to participate in supervision and prepare for certification with Darek Tkaczyk – more than he knows what to do with! Irek Kaczmarczyk is introducing Focusing and experiential psychotherapy into work with addicts. He runs supervision groups where the focus is not only on understanding the client, but also on helping them meet their own blocks and process the supervisees' experiences. He also promotes Focusing ideas at numerous conferences and in articles (two of them are available on the website of The International Focusing Institute. From 2019-2020, he and Darek also carried out a publicly- funded project teaching Focusing to addiction therapists.

We all run individual sessions and Focusing workshops in a variety of locations and with a variety of people. And these are just some of the activities we undertake.

In recent years, Joanna Kaczmarek and Monika Mandecka have participated in the International Focusing Conference, “Conscious Body,” held in June 2022 in Ardeche, France and organized by the French Focusing organization, IFEF. There they met the international Focusing community, introduced themselves as representatives of the new Polish Focusing Institute, and of course experienced the wealth of currents, directions and styles of Focusing work. The trip resulted in inviting René Veugelers, a widely known trainer specialising in Focusing with children, to Poland to lead workshops at INTRA in May of 2023.  In May 2024, Frans Sandbergen, who teaches Focusing to organizations, gave a wonderful workshop to us. Thank you, Frans!

Other people in Poland are also organizing important events for the community. Last summer, Basia Krasiczyńska, together with Dorota Özdemir, Anna Raczkiewicz, Anna Gudkowska and Iwona Kańska, prepared the first Focusing conference in Poland with Gabriela Riveros and Edgardo Riveros Aedo from the Chilean Focusing Institute.

By the end of 2023, the website of The International Focusing Institute had the names of thirteen certified Trainers or Focusing-Oriented Therapists, and the Polish Focusing Institute's group on Facebook had more than 540 members. In addition to Claude Missiaen's annual workshops, we permanently offer an open workshop, a workshop for advanced Focusing-Oriented Therapists and group supervisions with Claude.

It is impossible to list all Polish Focusers and their activities, but we are happy nonetheless that the Focusing family continues to grow, and we greatly appreciate how many offspring the work has generated. We know very well that Focusing in Poland is not just an institute, but much more than that. We want each and every one of you to feel yourselves a wanted and expected part of our community, no matter where and in what area you work!

 

This article is based on interviews and materials collected from: Małgorzata Bochińska, Krzysztof Górski, Joanna Kaczmarek, Ireneusz Kaczmarczyk, Jacek Kaleta, Agnieszka Klimek, Majka Król - Fijewska, Monika Mandecka, Anna Raczkiewicz, Sonia Ruszkowska, Dariusz Tkaczyk, Piotr Wardawy and Danuta Ziółkowska. You are my co-authors; everything written here is your thoughts and memories written down by me. Thank you for dedicating your time to this!

Collecting memories and facts: Sara Katulska

English translation: Jan Kurpinski