Indigenous Wisdom in Trauma Recovery: Land-Based Focusing-Oriented Therapy

The Felt Sense and the Four Seasons of Change:
A Western and Traditional Anishinaabe Approach to Healing and Trauma Recovery

4 Tuesdays: March 10, March 24, April 7, and April 28, 2026
5:30pm - 9:00pm New York time

(Note that the date sequence is not four weeks in a row. Also, US clocks change just before the first session.
And clock changes occur around the world during the series.)

Important: Check your start time here for March 10
 

• In this exciting series, participants will have the opportunity to learn from Dennis Windego, and Indigenous elders. These sessions will be interactive, including activities and the option of working with Focusing partners to put new learning and skills into practice.
   
• Anyone seeking to experience these teachings is invited to register. No experience with Focusing, Focusing-Oriented Therapy, or Felt Sensing is required.
   
• The sessions are based on a process and build on each other. Recordings will be made available to all registrants as soon as possible after each session for viewing prior to the next session. Breakout rooms are not recorded. All recordings will be available for registrants until July 28, 2026.
   

We hope you can register by the first session but if you miss it, we have registration open until March 25 -- you'll just need to catch up on the recordings.

OVERVIEW

Dennis Windego blends Anishinaabe teachings and philosophies of natural healing methods which are aligned with the change of seasons steeped in traditional knowledge of the Anishinaabe peoples of Turtle Island. Anishinaabe ceremonies such as fasting and the vision quest are combined with Land-Based Focusing-Oriented Therapy (LBFOT), and the felt sense. Combining LBFOT methods and Anishinaabe traditional teachings facilitates a powerful natural healing and recovery process for all nations of the world, and any therapeutic context.

• Session 1: Winter is storytelling and a time to transmit knowledge, wisdom and to build connection.
   
• Session 2: Spring is the period of birth/rebirth and development, with interest, curiosity, and attending to unresolved issues of trauma.
   
• Session 3: Summer is a time to experience land-based healing activities to address trauma and addictions caused by colonialism, including residential school trauma, the 60’s scoop, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Girls and Women (MMIGW), and the reserve system.
   
• Session 4: Fall is about transformation, building capacity, self-care, and continuing to heal though our medicines and teachings learned.

Land-Based Focusing-Oriented Therapy (LBFOT) is a culturally grounded, body-centered approach that merges Focusing-Oriented Therapy with Indigenous wisdom to heal complex trauma, intergenerational trauma, and colonization impacts by connecting individuals to the land, nature, and a

new reality based on universal truths and making a new agreement with reality through a paradigm shift and seeing oneself as a spiritual being with unlimited potential. It helps people release burdens from past generations, find balance, and restore well-being through activities and teachings tied to specific territories, offering a decolonized, strength-based pathway to healing and “Bimateezewin”, the Good Life.

Dennis works with and trains therapists who work with Indigenous populations, however, he invites anyone seeking to experience these teachings to register. No experience with Focusing, Focusing-Oriented Therapy, or Felt Sensing is required. 

Participants do not have to be a professional to experience this powerful way of being. As our Elders have communicated since time immemorial, “We are all healers. The healing medicine is inside all of us”. 

FORMAT

The four sessions are based on a process and will build upon each other; therefore, if any session is missed it is important to view the recording before the next session. Recordings and other material presented during the workshop will be made available to all registrants after each session (within one day after the sessions conclude, except in the case of technical difficulty). Breakout rooms are not recorded.

We use Zoom videoconferencing for our online classes. You will need to have a computer/mobile device. Calling in by phone is also possible but not preferred. This series will be held in Zoom meeting format where participants can see the facilitator and other participants. Breakout rooms will be utilized. 

Important - Check your start times carefully because of clock changes during this series:

March 10th 5:30pm New York time your time here

March 24th 5:30pm New York time your time here

April 7th 5:30pm New York time your time here

April 28th 5:30pm New York time your time here

ABOUT YOUR FACILITATOR

Dennis Windego, MSW, FOT, is from the traditional lands of the Anishinabeg community of Nigigoonsiminikaaning First Nation in northwestern Ontario.  His Anishinabeg name is Zoongwebines, and he is a member of the Lynx clan.  Dennis follows the teachings of his late father which guides his decolonizing approach to mental health, addictions, grief, and healing trauma.

Dennis develops and facilitates community-centered, land-based, culturally relevant FOT programs.  He is a Focusing Coordinator with The International Focusing Institute in New York, and a Focusing-Oriented Therapist (FOT). As a child, he was forcefully removed from his ancestral lands and sent to St. Margaret’s Indian Residential School in Fort Francis, Ontario. Through his personal healing journey, he lives the natural “felt sense” wisdom of his late mother’s words, “don’t forget who you are and where you come from”. 

Registration Policies

Pricing: Regular price $295  Modified price $195  Lowest price $120

Three tier pricing. 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. Thank you! 

Note: 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 in the subject line.

Refunds A full refund minus a $25 administrative fee for cancellations 14 days before the start date. Cancellations less than 14 days before the start date are nonrefundable. The International Focusing Institute (TIFI) reserves the right to alter the program, cancel or re-schedule for insufficient enrollment or for other unanticipated reasons. In such cases you will be given a choice of applying your tuition to future programs, or having the full enrollment fee returned to you.

The opinions offered by presenters and participants are their own and do not necessarily represent the opinions of TIFI. 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.

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. We ask that participants not take screen shots to share on social media. TIFI may opt to take an official screenshot where participants will be given the option to be included or not.

For more information:

Contact Elizabeth at [email protected] or (845) 480-5111.