Oceania Focusing Roundtable - Innovating In Focusing Practice: How & Why
In 'Focusing Oriented Psychotherapy,' Gendlin tells a story of a client discovering a Focusing move that she draws into the texture of her everyday life. In this Roundtable, we will explore the informal micropractices that you rely on, for a little while or over quite long periods.
Presented by The International Focusing Institute - Greg Walkerden & Jane Quayle
Thursday, March 31, 2022 - 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Location: Online via Zoom
Cost: This program is available to members of TIFI at no charge.
Registration info:
Contact The International Focusing Institute with any questions: Phone: (845) 480-5111 Email: elizabeth@focusing.org
More Info
In 'Focusing Oriented Psychotherapy' (p271-2), Gendlin tells a story of a client discovering a Focusing move that she draws into the texture of her everyday life:
"When I understood her I responded [...]:
T: Don't decide. Just ask for what would be right, and leave it open what that would be.
C: I don't want to integrate; I just want whatever is right.
It brought relief. At certain times now, when she feels inwardly caught, she says, 'I just want whatever is right', and it frees her."
She has a new practice, a micropractice that is helpful whenever she feels "inwardly caught". This kind of innovation is a natural, informal extension of Focusing practice. If you look at how learning Focusing has influenced how you live, you may well find informal micropractices like this that you rely on, for a little while or over quite long periods.
Other ways to innovate include crossing practices and practice traditions with each other, e.g. Wholebody Focusing is both deeply Focusing and deeply the Alexander Technique; and letting Gendlin's Philosophy of the Implicit suggest new experiments. We have experimented in a wide variety of ways, in Greg's case as a practice researcher, inventing practices to help environmental managers, and exploring crossings of traditions of spiritual practice, and in Jane's case as a Focusing oriented psychotherapist and Focusing teacher.
We will begin by telling some stories from our explorations, and then open out the conversation to explore everyone's experiences and questions. During the Roundtable, we will be encouraging each of us to keep returning to felt sensing as we take in what others are saying, and as we let our own contributions take shape.
Facilitators:
Greg Walkerden PhD is a researcher who designs practices in environmental management and planning, and felt-sense centred reflective practice. His academic roots are in philosophy and psychology. He has been a Focusing practitioner for over 35 years, is a Certified Focusing Professional and Teacher, and taught felt sense based decision making at Macquarie University in Sydney for about 15 years. Gendlin invited him to teach A Process Model at his 'Thinking at the Edge' retreats in New York in 2000, 2001 and 2002.
Jane Quayle is a Certifying coordinator and former member of the TIFI board of Trustees. She is a Focusing Oriented Psychotherapist, and has taught focusing in her private practice for 20 years. She has also taught in a variety of tertiary institutions including Western Sydney University, Macquarie University and developed a Focusing Oriented Therapy elective for the Jansen Newman Institute. Her teaching experience includes counselling skills, supervision of student therapists and Focusing Oriented Psychotherapy.
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