When Wajid Syed and Pat Omidian of Focusing Initiatives International began working with community leaders from the war-torn Western region of Pakistan, they found that these leaders were often as traumatized as the people they were being trained to help. Their first task, then, has […]

Person centered and focusing oriented approaches to the therapeutic alliance emphasize therapist empathy and unconditional positive regard as crucial to the client’s healing process. However, therapists’ nervous systems may become burdened by empathy fatigue and “burnout” from listening to clients in this way (Stebnicki, 2007). Wholebody Focusing Oriented Therapy (WBFOT) offers an effective antidote to “- empathy fatigue -”.

[This abridged article was written by Dr. Klein in 2001. References to on-going work are preserved as part of the original article. At the Center for Interactive Focusing, we hope one day, with the help of members of the Interactive Focusing Community, to carry on […]

It was a challenge to create a structure that would allow for interaction while preserving each person’s material and boundaries. An interaction would be a perfect vehicle for relationship processing.

In this Relational Wholebody Focusing video Karen and Katrijn introduce the practice as they talk about their workshop in Belgium.

Babies and children grow and develop into healthy whole human beings through safe and healthy attachment experiences with primary care-takers such as parents, family members, and later on, community members. All of us learn to feel safe and thrive inside our early home environments because […]