Compassion is the radicalism of our time.
Dalai Lama

 

Focusing Training:
taking the art of listening to a new level

I teach courses in Focusing to those who want to learn it as a personal practice.

Whilst Focusing and all Focusing-Oriented work involves a mindful way of being that we can use to increase the effectiveness of therapy, it is also a skill that can be learnt and taken out of therapy to be used in everyday life as a personal practice and as a tool for personal development.

The Focusing approach embodies a truly non-violent way of being and of bringing ourselves to our own experiencing and to others. As we strengthen our capacity to engage with ourselves and with our own experiencing through the regular practice of Focusing, it can become an anchor, helping us to come back to our selves in the midst of everyday life. It also can function as a rudder, helping to enrich our capacity for a responsiveness that is grounded in our own authenticity, because the felt sense itself is a great teacher.

This capacity to sense ourselves and the world around us through the felt sense is a highly individual experience, one that is deeply personal and unique to each of us. This explains something of why many people find the practice of learning to Focus so revealing and so strengthening.

The benefits of engaging in a Focusing training

You get to develop a practice that you can take home with you and use to deepen your capacity to stand in the centre of your own experience.  Life starts to feel very different when we learn to take time to listen in this special way. Most of us have had the experience of having our attention pulled outside of ourselves from very young. Teachers demand our attention. Other people want us to listen to them. Our young senses are assaulted by many stimuli. Often, along the way, we lose our capacity to hear ourselves. The practice of Focusing can redress this imbalance. Starting to dissolve the patterns that interfere with our capacity to feel and to respond clearly to ourselves – it can help to reconnect us with our own essence, enabling a more meaningful connection from our own centre to the people and places around us.

Training: Focusing partnerships

One of the main ways that people are using Focusing across the globe, is through the creation of and commitment to Focusing partnerships in which two people meet regularly to hold a Focusing space for each other by turns, either in person or over the phone. Should you have a partner, a friend or a colleague that you would like to practice with, once you have both successfully completed the course of basic Focusing you can support each other in your own time within a continued commitment to a shared practice.

Many people experience a clearer mind, enhanced creativity, and greater physical and emotional wellbeing.