Your Hosts
Where & When
After you register you will receive an email confirming your registration. If you don't see it, please check junk/spam/promotions.
Approximately 1 week before the event start, you will receive an email with the Academy Resource Page which will include zoom links and any handouts and information needed.
Focusing-Oriented Therapy (FOT) Academy
January 16 - February 6, 2026
Main class will be held on 4 consecutive Fridays
Optional Welcome and Demonstration (demo) Sessions on Thursdays
Orientation (optional) - Thursday January 15
Main Class (live attendance required) - Fridays - January 16, January 23, January 30, February 6 (registrants attend all four sessions live)
Demo sessions (optional) - Thursdays - January 22, January 29, February 5
The FOT Academy is a chance to learn about the world of Focusing-Oriented Therapy.
Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy (FOT) is based in the experiential, embodied and evidence-based practice of Focusing, as well as the philosophy both developed by Eugene Gendlin. Many counselors and psychotherapists find that learning to integrate Focusing into their practice has an extraordinary effect on their ability to support their clients. FOT honors and supports the client's own ability to find the right way forward for their life. Learning Focusing also helps support the therapist's own process, allowing for greater ease and enjoyment in one's work.
This online Focusing-Oriented Therapy (FOT) Academy will allow you to immerse yourself in an introductory Focusing-Oriented Therapy short course with one of our three wonderful Main Class teachers. You will also get to experience other FOTs from around the world through 1-hour demonstration sessions.
This FOT Academy is oriented toward psychotherapists or those training in psychotherapy.
Since Focusing is integral to the use of Focusing-Oriented Therapy with clients, the practice of Focusing for yourself will be incorporated in the Main Class teaching. The Main Classes will be held on 4 consecutive Fridays and are intended as live experiences, so please block out the time for those in your schedule. The Welcome Session and the Demonstration Sessions will be held on Thursdays and are optional.
During Focusing, your attention will open up to multiple layers and aspects of living. In Focusing, we notice what is not yet clear, in order to bring it more into focus; what is fuzzy and vague and seems to carry some kind of implicit meaning. This fuzzy dimension of experience is called the “felt sense.” Focusing on the felt sense allows an in-depth clarification process to happen.
Eugene Gendlin and Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy has a deep connection to the work of Carl Rogers and the Person Centered (or Client Centered) tradition as well as to Existential Psychology and Humanistic Psychology.
HOW THE ACADEMY WORKS
You’ll choose one of the three Main Class teachers to study with. Each Main Class is a 12-hour Introductory course in Focusing-Oriented Therapy. Each teacher's class is 3 hours long and begins at a different time of day. (Be sure to check the "your time here" links in the descriptions to see which class best fits your schedule in your time zone.)
You'll also have the chance to attend Demontration (demo) sessions with other wonderful teachers from around the world. The schedule is designed so that no matter your time zone, you should be able to attend one Main Class for four days, and at least one demo session. There is an optional Opening session on Thursday January 15.
You’ll have recordings of everything available to you through May 31, 2026. So, even though you'll choose one teacher's class to attend live, you'll have the recordings of all the Main Classes.
THIS IS A LIVE ATTENDANCE COURSE
Please note that if you sign up, you are expected to attend your Main Class each day for all four Fridays. All else on the schedule is optional.
This is an extraordinary chance – don’t miss it!
The heart of the FOT Academy will be your “Main Class.” The Main Class is a 12-hour Introductory Course in Focusing-Oriented Therapy. When you register, you will choose to work with one of the three Main Classes (Lynn, Glenn or Jeffrey) Note the time of their class, as not all might be doable for you in your time zone!
You will be with your teacher for four days of the Academy, 3 hours each Friday. Live attendance is required.
Attending Live
The Main Classes are intended as live experiences, so please block out the time for those in your schedule. Classes will be recorded, and made available as soon as possible, however you are expected to be fully present. We ask that you have your camera on as much as possible. If you know that it is impossible for you to attend any part of the 12 hours (3 hours a day for 4 Fridays), please discuss this with your teacher in advance. If a last minute emergency comes up, then please be sure to watch the missed session before attending the next session.
MAIN CLASS TEACHERS
MAIN CLASS OPTION A:
Lynn Preston - Main Teacher
Fridays 9:00am - 12:00pm NY Time Your time here- (afternoon in Europe & Africa / evening in Asia, late night in eastern Australia)
THE ESSENCE OF FOT: from a relational point of view
Join us for a four session course designed to introduce, deepen, and enliven your understanding of Focusing-Oriented Therapy (FOT). In these sessions, we will explore the ideas, skills, and lived experiences that form the heart of FOT. Both experienced therapists and those new to the work will engage the expanded meanings of:
• Focusing – the life of the therapeutic relationship
• Orientation – the guiding light that helps us stay on a meaningful path
• Therapy – the interaction that fosters growth, healing, and development
We will also introduce the foundations of Process—what therapists need to know about the Process Model as a way of thinking, sensing, and living. Together, we will explore the intricacies of listening, speaking, and relating as therapists, including how Focusing can help us navigate challenging clinical moments and appreciate the rich, nourishing gifts this work so abundantly offers.
The classes will be both didactic and experiential, including brief small‑group exchanges, larger group conversations, role‑plays, demonstrations, videos, and selected readings. Each week will feature an experienced FOT practitioner as a guest with whom we will dialogue.
This course is designed to support therapists, practitioners, and all who wish to cultivate depth, presence, and relational wisdom in their work.
Lynn Preston, MA, MS, LP, is a Focusing-oriented relational psychotherapist, teacher and supervisor based in New York City. She has written and presented internationally on the integration of Focusing and relational psychoanalysis. Her work emphasizes the relationship between philosophy, theory and practice. Currently she is deeply involved in exploring the possibilities of using Focusing to foster community development. She is one of the founders of the international Focusing support group, Help for Helpers and the F.O.R.C.E. (Focusing-Oriented Relational Community Empowerment) training program.
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MAIN CLASS OPTION B:
Glenn Fleisch - Main Teacher
Fridays 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm NY time Your time here (daytime in the Americas / evening in Europe & Africa / wee hours in Asia & Oceania)
Relational co-play: enactive animation in Focusing-oriented whole-body therapy
In the beginning, there was movement. Before words, before roles, before memory- there was the body, trembling with life, reaching out for connection. Our whole body therefore does not just contain trauma; it replays it, enacts it and seeks to transform it through expressive emergence and relational engagement. In Focusing oriented whole-body therapy, we do not just interpret or put these patterns into words. Rather we join them. We enter the pattern and the scene as co-players, sacred witnesses, and midwives of spirit
In this mode of healing, our felt senses are seen as signals from, and portals to the body’s living presence, and each inspirited being within. Every gesture, posture, breath, movement carries this presence- a role, a forgotten voice, a suppressed energy- seeking relational repair and expressive freedom. Relational co-play is the core practice that allows these patterns to come more to life, to animate the underlying energies, impulses, needs, and feelings, letting them express and play out in a safe, supportive and attuned co-presence. This sacred process reawakens lost energies, recovers spirit and restores embodied relational coherence.
CE Credits: California CE provider credits available for Master level therapists. If you are seeking CE credits for the program, please contact Glenn before the event at [email protected] or to ask questions. There will be a $65 processing fee paid directly to Glenn. (If you are licensed in another state other than CA you would need to check with your licensing board to see if they honor California CE provider credits.)
Glenn Fleisch is a licensed psychotherapist in California. He has been in private practice for nearly 40 years, specializing in early life relational trauma, and associated addictions, depressions and anxieties. In addition to his therapy practice, Glenn has taught Whole-body Focusing and Focusing oriented therapy worldwide in person and online. He has written extensively and is currently working on a book project, He is drawn to animistic perspectives, sensing and relating to the spirit and aliveness of all sentient beings.
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MAIN CLASS OPTION C:
Jeffrey Morrison - Main Teacher
Fridays 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm NY time - Your time here (evening in the Americas / wee hours in Europe & Africa / Saturday mornings in Asia & Oceania - this class is the best choice for Down Under)
Learning How the Body Speaks and Listening so it Heals - Focusing and Focusing-Oriented Therapy for Beginners
Focusing is a process of touching into our emerging unclear bodily felt experience and finding the words, metaphors and images that brings the experience into focus. It is a way to “listen” to how the body “knows” the next steps of living in the direction of healing, growth, and spiritual unfolding. Focusing-Oriented Therapy is an embodied, relational, and experiential process of helping clients unwind and heal chronically stuck and traumatic experiences.
This workshop teaches the basic steps and stages of Focusing so you can practice by yourself, with a partner, and invite Focusing moments to occur with your clients. Understanding and working with a “felt sense” (how the body holds living experience about a situation) is the key to moving beyond the typical dead ends of talk therapy. Like mindfulness, Focusing helps us step back and observe our experience and then takes us further into working relationally with our experience, inner parts, and with each other.
CE Credits: Washington (state) CE provider credits available for Master level therapists. If you are seeking CE credits for the program, please contact Jeffrey before the event at [email protected] or to ask questions. There will be a $65 processing fee paid directly to Jeffrey. (If you are licensed in another state other than WA you would need to check with your licensing board to see if they honor California CE provider credits.)
Jeffrey Morrison, MA, LMHC
FOT Psychotherapy and Training, Certifying Focusing Coordinator, Founder and Executive Director, Seattle Focusing Institute
Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapist, author, and teacher, Jeffrey Morrison has over 40 years of experience with Focusing. He specializes in working with complex trauma and teaching Focusing-Oriented Therapy (FOT) to therapists and other healing professionals. He has developed a two year Training Program (www.seattlefocusing.org/training-program), which teaches Focusing and FOT from beginning through advanced levels and certification. His trauma program blends FOT, philosophy, mythology, mindfulness, and embodied practices for unwinding trauma and restoring wholeness. He lives and practices on Vashon Island, Washington, USA. For more info visit Seattle Focusing Institute (www.seattlefocusing.org).
We’ve arranged the schedule so that no matter what time zone you live in, there is at least one Main Class that is at a reasonable hour for you (be sure to check the "your time here" link!), and at least one Demo Session that is at a reasonable hour for you. You are expected to attend your Main Class live. Sessions other than the Main Class are optional. All sessions will be recorded, so you will not lose out on the sessions taking place at other hours.
When you complete your registration you will indicate your Main Class teacher choice. Please be sure to that your choice works with your time zone. Please remember that you will have access to videos of all 3 teachers’ classes through May 31, 2026, so you won't have to miss any of them.
We have a wonderful variety of additional teachers. These sessions are optional, will also be recorded, and do not have to be selected in advance.
These demo sessions are "stand-alone," meaning you can attend one without attending the others. These sessions are also opportunities to meet 3 extraordinary teachers, as well as meeting others in the Academy who are in a different Main Class.
Demo #1 Thursday January 22
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm NY time Your time here
Serge Prengel is a Focusing-oriented therapist, coordinator, and a co-founder of the Integrative Focusing Therapy online training program. He explores creative approaches to mindfulness at ProactiveMindfulness.com
Demo #2 Thursday January 29
11:00 am - 12:00 pm NY time Your time here
Salvador Moreno-López
Psychotherapist, psychotherapists’ trainer, and writer.
Salvador has published several book chapters and articles on Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy, Psychotherapy Supervision, and the Place of the Lived World in Psychotherapy.
His training as a psychotherapist comes from the Person-Centered Approach and from the Philosophy of the Implicit and Focusing. However, he carries out his activity from an interdisciplinary perspective that includes neuroscience, anthropology, literature and music, among others.
The aspects of greatest interest in his work are: a) the interaction with an accompanying empathic presence, b) ways of following the direction and rhythm of the clients and at the same time helping them to attend to their experiencing, c) how to allow himself to be guided by his experiencing to understand clients, d) to integrate body expressions (voice, movement, gestures, looks, silences) in his empathic understanding of his clients, and e) to understand the place of the person’s Lived World in psychotherapy.
Through TIFI, he will offer a demo session on Focusing Oriented Therapy, inspired by Gendlin’s Philosophy of the Implicit and Focusing.
Demo #3 Thursday February 5
7:00 pm - 8:00pm NY time Your time here
Jane Quayle is a Focusing Oriented Psychotherapist, supervisor and educator. She and has taught focusing in her private practice for 25 years. She has also taught in a variety of tertiary institutions, her teaching experience includes counselling skills, supervision of student therapists and Focusing Oriented Psychotherapy. She is a Certifying coordinator and former member of the TIFI board of Trustees. Jane is committed to assisting people to live their lives in fuller, deeper and more self-accepting ways.
LANGUAGE
The Academy will be in English. You will need to be proficient in English to participate fully in the Academy.
- Zoom host(s) We are looking for a zoom saavy people who are comfortable creating and putting people in breakout rooms.
- Administrative computer work (after the conference with attendance lists)
Please email [email protected] if you are interested. Please write Workstudy - FOT Academy in the subject line
Registration Information and Price
Pricing
Regular Price $400 Modified* Price $300 Lowest * Price $200
*Three tier pricing. We offer the regular price plus two lower prices. We welcome you to select the level right for you, while reminding you that if you have a reliable means of support and live in a country with a strong economy, we ask that you pay the regular price. By choosing the highest amount you are capable of paying you help make the sliding scale possible and make our scholarship dollars available to more people. Thank you!
If the lowest price is not affordable, please email [email protected] to check on scholarship funds.
DEI Scholarship. There are DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) Scholarship funds available for anyone in a group under-represented in TIFI's programs, including people aged 30 or younger, those in the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) community and others. For more about our DEI scholarship, please see focusing.org/board. To apply, email [email protected]. Please write DEI scholarship for Focusing Academy in the subject line.
Registration is open until 12:00 pm (noon) New York time on January 15th
Refunds A full refund minus a $25 administrative fee (regardless of the registration fee paid) for cancellations 14 days before the start date. Cancellations less than 14 days before the start date are nonrefundable.
Workstudy Opportunities
-Zoom host(s) for partnership and processing times (see schedule) We are looking for a zoom saavy person who is comfortable creating and putting people in breakout rooms. $100 off tuition.
-Administrative computer work (after the conference with attendance lists) - $100 off tuition
Apply by writing to [email protected] and please write FOT Academy Workstudy in the subject line. If you don't hear back within a few days, please send again.
TIFI reserves the right to cancel, change and alter the program if necessary. Participants authorize TIFI to use their name, statements and likeness without charge, for promotional purposes in publications, advertising, video, web, new media, or other formats.
At many of our events, we will end class by taking a screenshot. All those who don't want to be included will have the chance to leave. Taking screenshots for sharing (such as on social media) are not allowed at other times during the class. Thanks for your cooperation.
By registering for this course with the Institute, and in consideration of the right and opportunity to participate in and contribute to the Institute’s classes, for the purposes of its control of all video and/or audio recordings thereof pertaining to uses serving our purposes and goals, in enrolling in this session you acknowledge and agree to the Institute’s ownership of all rights in such classes, including all rights under copyright therein. In no circumstance shall any portion or clip posted or displayed exceed 3 minutes in duration. If you plan to use, post or display any portion or clips of these recordings, including posting these to a website or to a social media platform or portal, you agree that you will seek and obtain the prior approval of the Institute.
*Three tier pricing. We offer the regular price plus two lower prices. We welcome you to select the level right for you, while reminding you that if you have a reliable means of support and live in a country with a strong economy, we ask that you pay the regular price. By choosing the highest amount you are capable of paying you help make the sliding scale possible and make our scholarship dollars available to more people. Thank you!
$ 400.00
Regular price
$ 300.00
Modified Price
$ 200.00
Lowest Price
Contact
Questions? Please email [email protected]
Registration Information and Price
Pricing
Regular Price $400 Modified* Price $300 Lowest * Price $200