FOCUSING IN COMMUNITY, Cammi Finds Their Fire
Through Focusing, I rediscovered and reignited my fire.
– Cammi Broadbent
Q: How did you first discover Focusing and Focusing Initiatives International (FII)?
A: My Focusing journey began during the pandemic with Sprout Space, a weekly webinar on FII’s website led by my friend Huntress. Sprout Space was really awesome. We’d begin with a guided Focusing meditation and then go into groups and talk about what came up for us. I connected with a lot of other young people there, and I also met Pat Omidian and Nina Joy Lawrence and other older Community Wellness Focusers.
I remember I was not able to pause my very first time. In fact I have to admit that I was highly disruptive, and after the class I realized that, oh my gosh, I really kind of dominated that space.
So the next time I came to Sprout Space, I really took my time and listened more. And that was the first “aha” moment in Focusing for me. After that I began to practice pausing, going into my body and finding a felt sense and listening to it.
In the spring of 2022, Huntress started Art Club, which was an evolution of Sprout Space, but held in person, as well as online. We were applying Focusing to all kinds of art – painting and drawing, but also writing, poetry, music, and clay.
It worked like this: we’d start by being guided into our bodies, and into finding a felt sense around something. It could be a word or a concept. Then we’d all sense into how we held that in our bodies. It’d take us ten to fifteen minutes to get there. Then we’d go off individually to do our art from the body sense of the word or concept.
And over time, I developed my own Focusing practice primarily using journaling, and a lot of it was really informed by the work we did in Art Club. I had never used a diary or journaled before, and now my journal has become my main Focusing companion. I’ve just started my third journal, and I’m really proud of how far I have come, finding a felt sense in my body, listening to the guests that show up, acknowledging them and writing from that deep place. It has been highly therapeutic,
Q: Tell me about your involvement with the Community Wellness Focusing classes.
Through all of this, I became good friends with Pat and Nina, and when I learned they were going to start a year-long certification course in Community Wellness Focusing in 2024, I wanted to take it. They agreed to let me take the course without charge in exchange for helping with technology for the online class and organizing set up and materials for the in person classes.
It was a wonderful experience, with lots of Focusing opportunities and the chance to meet people from all over the world. We have become a kind of community of people who do Focusing and have had their lives changed, and who have changed others’ lives through Focusing.
Discussing the class afterwards, Pat and Nina realized that they had spent a lot of time with basic Focusing training, because many of the participants had had very little experience with Focusing before. So a team of us together designed a new two-year training, beginning with a year-long series of courses in Focusing to be taken in a specific sequence to prepare people for the second year, which provides “hands on” practicum activities.
2025 was the first cohort of the two year training program, with the year of course work completed in December. Now, in 2026, this cohort is moving on to its second year.
And one result of volunteering at FII has, for me, been employment. I am now a paid member of the FII staff as Communications Coordinator.
Q: Can you tell me what you like best about working at FII?
A: What I like most about working at FII is that I am part of the team. My ideas and contributions feel valued and I get to work towards projects I am passionate about. I get to work in circles of people who are also excited to work towards the same things I am. And an added benefit is that I get to do work that relates to my degree!
The structure of FII is based on teamwork in what is now being called sociocracy. We work together, decide together and everyone is heard.
Another thing I value about this job is the variety of experiences and people that I get to work with. I get to wear so many different hats and work with people who have all different kinds of skill sets. This expands my own abilities and pushes me to take on projects that I wouldn’t normally be able to do. And I get to contribute to making this organization do all the great things that it does in the world.
Q: I think that your story is unique in some ways, in that you have learned Focusing always in the context of a community.
Sprout Space was a community of young people who were learning Focusing together and exploring what it meant. And then you went into the Art Club, which was using Focusing to bind artists in different media together and enrich their art. Deepening their art at the same time that they were getting to know each other in the deeper way that Focusing allows to happen.
And then you worked with Pat, and each class became a kind of community, an international community of people who are working to improve conditions and to build resilience in damaged communities.
So, you have not really explored Focusing, per se, as a psychological tool so much as a community-building tool, which involves both psychology and social connection – in other words as psychosocial wellness and healing.
In that way, the story you are telling me is unique from a lot of other Focusing stories that I have heard.
A: Yes. I wouldn’t have found Focusing had I not been friends with Huntress. So I didn’t know it as anything other than a community tool, and an introspective process held with other people in a community.
Q: You say Focusing has changed your life. Can you describe an instance when you felt this life-changing impact?
A: I was taking FII’s first Community Wellness Focusing Certification Course, acting as both class participant and class assistant. While taking this course, I was in a difficult period of my life. I was experiencing burnout, anxiety, and overwhelm.
Pat sat down with me for a Focusing session. I shared the story of what I was dealing with and the emotions I was feeling, but I struggled to go any deeper. After patiently sitting and listening to me as I stumbled to explain myself, Pat asked a simple question: “Where do you feel it in your body?”
I paused and scanned through my body to find the answer. Suddenly, a clear image emerged: a small, smoldering campfire at my core. This image had been with me before, but somewhere along the way, I had lost it. I had lost sight of what brings light and warmth to my life, and my fire had nearly gone out.
This moment changed me forever. Through Focusing, I rediscovered and reignited my fire. I learned how to tend to my fire, and reinvigorated my spirit for life. Now, my fire is central to my Focusing practice. It is the hearth of my guest house and it is where my guests gather to sing stories and dance dialogues with me. When I turn inward, I sit under the stars by the warm campfire and welcome all who wish to join me.
I thank all who have taught me Focusing, and I thank Pat for asking one simple question that changed my life forever.
Taking Care of Your Community Through Focusing
Dear Focusing Community,
We are pleased to invite you to participate in our Taking Care of Your Community Through Focusing webinars. This is a valuable opportunity to explore how the practice of Focusing can become a tool for well-being that is not only as an individual, but as a collective.
In addition to exploring Focusing through a lens of Community Wellness, you will get the chance to meet Pat Omidian, PhD. and other facilitators and students who have experienced firsthand the value and depth of this approach.
We invite you to join to learn about the Community Wellness model, even if you are not interested in enrolling in FII’s Community Wellness Focusing courses. This is an approach that Pat Omidian and Nina Joy Lawrence developed in challenging contexts around the world, based on the idea that community resilience grows from deep listening and the ability to create safe spaces using Focusing tools.
Important Notes:
- The meetings will be held exclusively in English.
- For any information, you can write to us at: info@focusinginternational.org
Schedule
The meetings will take place on Zoom on the following Thursdays from 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM PST:
- February 12, 2026
- February 19, 2026
We look forward to sharing this space of discovery with you.
On March 5, a new, 2026 cohort of the Community Wellness Focusing training program will begin its year of courses, starting with Psychological First Aid. After that is Psychosocial Support, and Focusing in Community. And included in all of this are topics such as Listening, The Companion Role, How to Keep Your Program Values Alive, and What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do.
Warm regards,
The Focusing Initiatives International Team