FOCUSING
PROGRAMS
FOR TRAINING OR SELF-GROWTH
The
six core courses are 10 sessions of 1 1/2 hrs.
duration or the equivalent of 15 hrs., either weekly
or through Intensive Weekends.
Completing the requirements of 6 core subjects (in any
order) plus the additional requirements listed at the
end of this package as course 7, will make you
eligible for certification as a teacher/trainer of
focusing, i.e. if you choose to complete them and if
your instructor has indicated that you qualify.
Otherwise, you can sign up for courses as you choose,
for personal gain and self-growth. The classes are
kept small and there are, day, evening, and weekend
intensives from which to choose. All of the courses
incorporate the principles of focusing, and give
plenty of opportunities for the individuals to deal
with their respective internal processes. As well,
partnerships are encouraged in order to practice and
maintain the benefits of focusing. Please note that
confidentiality is respected and that the process can
easily be accessed without personal disclosures, if
the individual chooses to remain private.
THE CORE
CURRICULUM COURSE DESCRIPTIONS:
1)FOCUSING
STEPS TOWARDS SELF-AWARENESS AND HEALING
2)TAMING
OUR CRITICS
Let’s gain some release from those parts of ourselves
that stop us in our process of becoming more of who we
have the potential to become. It is about recognizing
these critics as interferences to your development and
well-being, about learning how to be with them, and
about deriving what is of value to us and learning to
transform any negative messages that obsessively
prevail.
3)THE
ALCHEMY OF EMOTIONS
Let’s learn how to be with our emotions so that they
do not overwhelm us with anxiety or scare us into a
numbing kind of apathy. Our emotions can, through our
learning how to be with them in a focusing way, help
us feel more alive, more able to tolerate difficult
situations, and more connected to ourselves and each
other. We are not our emotions; we only experience
them. As a result, once we can learn how to feel them
in their natural state we can choose how we will
respond to them instead of reacting out of habit.
4)BEING
IN RELATIONSHIPS
Learning how to be with our inner child, our inner
guide, and to listen to each other from a deep
empathic resonating place, is the focus of this part
of the curriculum. We will learn how to be in
relationship to others without losing our sense of
self. An interactive focusing approach will be taught
and practiced.
5)THE
DREAMER’S MIND- AND LAND- SCAPE
A
focusing way of working on our dreams keeps us very
much in touch with our unconscious as it presents
itself in images. Our dreams open us to new ways of
experiencing ourselves and our world and can bring
fresh energy to us. Using Gendlin’s approach with
dreams you will not intellectually interpret the
meaning of the dream but will, in fact, experience its
meaning directly in your body.
6)
FOCUSING AND OUR
SACRED CONTRACT
Explore other dimensions that lead to new
possibilities. See where they lead. Get a sense of
yourself as more than what you already know about
yourself. Also, one’s relationship to a wider context
and higher realm will also be explored through
focusing. Refer to Caroline Myss’s recent book, Sacred
Contract.
7)DEVELOPING
AN INNER CAREGIVER AND ADVISOR
Focusing works especially well when we know how to
develop and access an inner caregiver and advisor who
can bring us more and more in line with what is right
for us. There is an inner sense of knowing what is
right when we can re-member that. There are so many
ways to self-care, self-empathy, and self-compassion
and we will implement them in the process of focusing.
N.B. In addition to the above core courses, those who
are working towards certification, will, after
successfully completing any 6 of the above core
courses, be required to take the final course which
includes the following:
FINAL COURSE
REQUIREMENTS:
-
to facilitate six
practica hours outside of session in order to practice
and demonstrate teaching of the focusing steps. These
will be written up and taped for supervision
feedback.
-
everyone, both
psychotherapists and those who are not
psychotherapists will learn and practice how to train
others (individuals and groups) to do focusing
-
those who are
psychotherapists will be prepared to read course
material that teaches the client-centred approach and
how to incorporate focusing into psychotherapy and
will demonstrate their knowledge through writing and
discussion.
-
Each person will also
develop and follow-through on a mini focusing project
as an outreach program to be proposed and discussed
with the instructor.
-
Focusing Partnerships
with each other will be expected and discussed in
session, the partnerships rotating from one member to
the next, in order to practice focusing, on your own
time. Also, upon certification, you must do an
agreed upon number of supervision sessions with your
instructor. It is also encouraged that you participate
in focusing groups either with your instructor or with
other facilitators in the community, and engage in
focusing partnerships as follow-up.
Note that this last
course will be customized for each person, depending
on their experience, knowledge, and skills.
Focusing get-togethers are offered occasionally for
personal growth for those who have completed enough
training to be able to derive meaningful individual
focusing experiences in a group format.
Fees:
Each core subject plus final training course: is
$350. Private sessions either for training or
personal psychotherapy are $95 per hour.
Whole program for certification comes to $2450.
Please note that in addition to the above fee, $375
American must be paid to the Focusing Institute of New
York upon certification as well as annual membership
fees, also in American funds of $55 to the Focusing
Institute of New York per year (this will entitle you
to their mailings and journals and maintain your
status as a member of their International community).
THE INSTRUCTOR:
Barbara Merkur, M.A., is the director of the Centre
for Creating Meaning. She is a faculty member of The
Focusing Institute of New York, and as such is a
certifying co-ordinator of focusing. Aside from
focusing she is a professional art therapist,
teaching and supervising for over ten years at the
Toronto Art Therapy Institute. She is registered with
the Ontario Association of Consultants, Counsellors,
Psychometrists, and Psychotherapists. Her background
training is in focusing, art therapy, the expressive
arts therapies, family systems theory, and EMDR. She
offers focusing with groups at Sheena’s Place for
people with eating disorders and has introduced
focusing to women with breast cancer at the Marvelle
Koffler Breast Centre at Mt. Sinai Hospital. She has
a private psychotherapy practice in which she
incorporates focusing with the expressive therapies.
Focusing:
Focusing is a method derived and developed from Eugene
Gendlin’s research on what promotes therapeutic
change. It has been found that those people who either
naturally or through learning focusing include an
experiential/ body feeling component to their
cognitive awareness of their experiencing, are more
likely to bring their lives and desires more in
harmony with each other. One can do focusing by
oneself, with a partner, use it with their therapist
in session, or in a group setting. Focusing can even
be facilitated over the phone. It offers a gentle,
safe, respectful, and mindful approach to living one’s
life, fully present. Focusing is part of a much
larger international community that supports this
living philosophy. Check out the internet for The
Focusing Institute, and my websites: www.//bodymindfocusing.com
and www//arttherapyinsight.com. Focusing will promote
your creativity, your authenticity, your individuation
process, and most importantly, your physical, mental,
and spiritual well-being.
Dr. Eugene Gendlin
is the founder of focusing and was professor of
psychology and philosophy at the University of
Chicago. He was chosen by the Psychotherapy Division
of the American Psychological Association for their
first “Distinguished Professional Psychologist” award
for his development of Experiential Psychology. His
book
FOCUSING
has sold over 450,000 copies and
has been translated into ten languages. Some of his
other books include
LET YOUR BODY INTERPRET
YOUR DREAMS and
FOCUSING-ORIENTED
PSYCHOTHERAPY.
