Focusing Basics 1

Focusing – Listening to the wisdom of the body

Welcome to this course to learn Focusing, a method for listening to what your body has to tell you. In this course, you will learn how to listen inwardly and be present with your inner world in a way that allows something new to emerge.

Focusing is a way of listening inside which is natural for us, but often forgotten. Focusing was developed – or one could say discovered – by Eugene T. Gendlin (1926-2017), an Austrian philosopher and psychotherapist. In Focusing you learn to follow what leads toward vitality, authenticity, and fresh new breezes. It can open up a deeper connection within us and a way of listening to our inner directions and the wisdom of our body. It also opens up space for creativity and gives support for therapeutic processing.

Our body experiences situations with us, and it can tell us a lot if we pause to listen. When we pause to be with a felt sense that is at first vague, it can gradually take shape and something more can open up to be seen. This can be a bit like adjusting the focus of a camera. Through the body we can get in touch with, for example, what exactly is nagging at us in a certain situation in our life. Or why we seem unable to accomplish something, even though we think we want to do it.

In Focusing we are present with our inner world, meeting with attention and acceptance that in us which longs to be met. We give space for something from within to come to be seen, take a clearer form, and express itself – at its own pace and in its own terms. Feeling into bodily felt senses allows things to open up afresh, in a way that is not easily accessible through thinking and emotions alone. Being present with our inner world with curiosity and openness, without trying to change anything, opens up a possibility for things to shift in their own way.

Focusing Basics course

Learning Focusing can bring body awareness and accepting presence into your life overall. On the course you can also learn Focusing as a method you might wish to use regularly. Many people find Focusing especially fruitful when undertaken with the support of another person’s presence. This could be reciprocally with another who also knows Focusing. Focusing Basics courses 1 and 2 together provide the skills for Focusing alone and with a partner, as well as the skills for being a listener when the other Focuses.

Basics course 1 consists of five sessions. In the course, participants gradually find their own path into the world of Focusing through various small exercises, pair Focusing, and discussions. Between sessions, the homework is to practice Focusing with rotating partners once a week. The course includes a handout as written material. You can choose either the English or the Finnish version of the handout (the Finnish one has some quotations in English).

It is recommended to have a guided Focusing session with the course facilitator before the course. This way, you get a bit of a feel for Focusing under someone else’s guidance, which provides a good foundation for learning to guide yourself in Focusing during the course. However, you are also welcome to attend the course without prior experience in guided Focusing. Guided Focusing sessions are scheduled directly with the facilitator (https://www.kosketuksissa.fi/en/focusing/#guided-sessions).

Focusing is a gentle and private self-help method; the course does not replace therapeutic support. Each participant must assess their own psychological situation and ability to attend the course.

NOTE! If you have previously studied Focusing at the Kriittinen Korkeakoulu, this course has a slightly different approach to Focusing—we do not use Gendlin’s six steps directly and emphasize more presence with your inner world. Focusing evolves and develops, and it is taught in somewhat different forms. The Kriittinen Korkeakoulu courses previously taught Birte Robins’ variation. The approach in this course is largely from Ruth Hirsch and Ann Weiser Cornell. If you wish, you can take the first course again, as the approach is new. Of course, you are also welcome to join the second course directly.

Schedule

Conditions: Cancel free of charge until 21st October. Cancellation fee after that 50% of the price of the course. If the registration remains uncancelled when the course has started, we charge full price.

Teacher: Anna Backholm, M.Phil., M.Soc.Sc., certified Focusing trainer, Core Process therapist https://www.kosketuksissa.fi/en/about-me/