You know how important it is to take care of yourself while taking care of others.  You have heard the flight attendant say: “put on your own oxygen mask before helping others.” Those of us committed to making the world a more connected, peaceful place […]

Pat Omidian spent about 20 minutes with one woman, showing her the Guesthouse poem (translated into Urdu) and having her say As-salamu’alaikum (saying hello–literally offering the wish for peace) to her inner guests. The woman came away amazed and told everyone in the household about […]

The opening paragraph from the seventh chapter of Dr. Janet Klein’s first volume, on “The Process”. What is experiential teaching? Experiential teaching a) uses experiential methods, b) teaches from an experience held in the body in the moment, c) is about the student’s own just experienced […]

I am troubled by the news each day. And at the same time I cannot wait to read the next horrible thing. It’s like I have a toothache and my tongue just has to rub it to make sure it still hurts. It’s not a […]

The opening paragraph from the fifth chapter of Dr. Janet Klein’s first volume, on “The Process”. The empathic moment, a brief history– After some basic ground work was done on the Interactive Focusing model, I recognized a big piece was still needed. This interactive model was […]

As the program supervisor and an instructor for FII’s AFOT initiative, DaRa Williams was recently invited to speak about AFOT in a radio interview on  New York’s WBAI “Positive Mind”. Her approach to AFOT arises from her work with clients on issues of trauma, oppression […]

In this brief discussion, Karen and Katrijn describe their up-coming workshop in Belgium on March 31 – April 2, 2017. Here’s how to register.

The opening paragraph from the third chapter of Dr. Janet Klein’s first volume, on “The Process”. The Essentials of Teaching Focusing: The Four Building Blocks In the beginning–I have developed a method of teaching the essentials of Focusing, Interactive Focusing and Compassionate, Empathic Listening which I […]

We often think about and talk about the first two of these: ‘fight’ or ‘flight’. And those of us in the business of working with populations in trauma talk also about ‘freeze’ and its role in stress and fear. But something came to a friend […]

Why an experiential lexicon? When exploring an experiential terrain, we need to define things from the inner experiencing of the journey. We need a new kind of dictionary, what I call an experiential lexicon. We need a way of knowing from the experience that forms […]

Focusing Initiatives International has learned that when people are frightened, when passions run high, listening – deep listening so that people really feel heard – creates a kind of space for healing. We understand that when people do not feel heard, they cannot listen.

An exciting, upcoming training with Miki Kashtan will involve Convergent Facilitation, a new and powerful method of particular benefit to Focusers. 1. Convergent Facilitation is an approach you can use within your own family. Focusing practice can be a great way to develop our listening […]

PHASE 1: For Focuser: 1)    Finding larger Self in wholebody grounded presence which includes You. Really sensing into the embodied Self, the Environment, and You There. First, there is Me Here, separately from You. (5 min) 2)    Listener shares how their body and being is impacted […]