Cameroon – Focusing in Action
Our weekly follow up zoom sessions with front line community workers in Cameroon have been going on for three years now, ever since they completed a custom-designed Community Wellness Focusing training with Pat Omidian. Because the original participants have trained their colleagues and invited them […]
More...Learning in cold, dark classrooms
Unfortunately, Pakistan is grappling with a severe energy crisis exacerbated by economic challenges, making electricity unavailable for the school facility. Currently the children sit in dark classrooms, where they have to open the doors and windows to let in enough sunlight to read. This means […]
More...Muhammad Ali: The life of a child breadwinner in Pakistan
No one calls Muhammad Ali by just one of his names. He is never just “Muhammad” or just “Ali”, but always both names together “Muhammad Ali” like the American boxer. His father named him after the famous American because that great man struggled from poverty […]
More...How We Work: Community Wellness Focusing in Response to the Earthquake in Turkey
Someone calls us and asks for help with a local community project. Usually this person has worked with us previously or has taken our webinars or participated in one of our psychosocial support classes. The project may be already existing or it may be no […]
More...Listening Works
In two posts on our new Psychosocial Support website, Wajid describes two important events that impacted him, as a social worker in Pakistan. In “12 Years Later, PSS Training Continues to Support Change” he describes the time in 2010 when residents of the region were […]
More...Lessons from a Group Facilitator
An Interview with Anna Willman, in conversation with Dana Hercbergs I met Anna in 2021 through the Focusing community and occasionally attended her weekly Saturday Listening Space, an online peer support group. Her facilitation style melds her own grounded attention with her wonderful sense of […]
More...Afghan women refugees find their voice
Our “Circle of Care” is assisting two Afghan families (two men, two women, and three children under the age of three) in Western Massachusetts. The women are home with the children all the time while the husbands are working. Over the last year, we had […]
More...Creating Space for Community
Each of us lives in community. Our family is our first one. In Focusing, we learn to create a space of radical acceptance for our inner community. FII is now offering a series of bi-monthly gatherings “Creating Space for Community”, to explore concepts around inner/outer community […]
More...My Fear is My Friend
We have learned a lot about fear these past few years. It’s a very powerful reaction that comes from many different directions and in many forms. The pandemic, storms, droughts, climate change, political unrest, wars… Of course we are justified in being afraid. Fear is […]
More...Our Psychosocial Support Courses are now Self-paced and Online
Finally, we did it! We converted our in-person and online webinar coursesfor Psychosocial Support and Community Wellness (PSSCW) and Psychological First Aid into self-paced (work at your own speed) courses that you can access from any device. These courses bring together many of my favorite […]
More...Focusing and Art Club Changed My Life
Focusing showed me how to process my emotions and my experience in the world in a way that I had not done before. I wanted to share Focusing with my friends so that we could grow alongside each other and support each other. At the […]
More...Imagine combining your professional work with your personal life
Last August, when the United States withdrew from Afghanistan, tens of thousands of refugees started to arrive in the US, and many came to western Massachusetts. … which is where Melinda Darer now lives. Melinda has had a lifelong interest – personal and professional – […]
More...Helping girls put to work in Pakistan
COVID-19 is the last nail in the economy of Peshawar, Pakistan. It has forced hundreds and thousands of children into labor as a cheap and manageable resource. Driven by financial need, boys work in shops and workshops, while girls work as domestic helpers doing housekeeping […]
More...Introducing a new project: Better World for Kids
Nine-year-old Joseph has been living on his own since he was seven, when his parents were killed by soldiers in an attack on his village. He recently came to live in a refugee camp in Uganda, where he is fed and educated by community workers, […]
More...Why would a family put a child to work?
Asad’s father is a daily wage laborer without any skills. Every morning he goes to the city center after dropping his seven-year old son off at the machine shop where Asad works. The city center is the spot from where people hire unskilled and semi-skilled […]
More...The Story Behind Brighter Tomorrow
Syed Wajid has a round face and a trim white beard and a smile that lights up his eyes and warms the hearts of his companions. Child labor is a huge problem in Pakistan, he tells us. Some provincial governments have passed laws forbidding the […]
More...New Initiative Launched: Soul Force Education
“We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love. We must meet physical force with soul force.” Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Soul Force Education helps leaders and their organizations understand and incorporate diversity, equity and inclusion. Through transformative learning experiences […]
More...Embodied Presence and Social Justice
I am a white, middle-aged, middle-class woman living in the Pacific Northwest of the USA. I grew up in urban Detroit which is very diverse, and I have been aware to some extent of race and racism from a young age. I have an adopted […]
More...The Sky’s the Limit: The Creation of CoronaPlaza.LIFE
Many struggles in history have centered around a crown (corona), often resulting in revolutions, such as the French Revolution in 1789. Today we are struggling with a different sort of crown (the coronavirus), hopefully leading not to Revolution this time (which is circular) but to […]
More...Welcome to CoronaPlaza.Life
Yesterday was the first day of April. April’s Fool. And the launch of CoronaPlaza.Life. The Fool is a very ancient Archetype (“archetype” comes from ancient Greek “arché” that means “principle”, “basic entity” and “typos” that means “a model”, “a form/shape”) and from this Archetype comes […]
More...Coronavirus: Being with your Felt Sense of Fear
My fear kept me safe from Ebola. I worked in Liberia when Ebola was on the rise, then again when it was almost gone. As I sit here today thinking about these experiences and about the current warnings about a global pandemic from the coronavirus, […]
More...Gratitude
One activity we have found in all our work at Focusing Initiatives is the importance of centering into the body and remembering something one can be grateful for. In ancient philosophies and religions, gratitude is a common theme. Modern psychologists consider it an essential tool […]
More...Being with Fear
There’s a Coronavirus outbreak, and many people are scared of going to public places, meeting others, and shaking hands. There are times when we are afraid, but fear has a purpose. It’s important that we recognize fear and listen to it, but do not let […]
More...Taking Focusing With You on a Bus
I am working with Pat Omidian to train refugee workers and administrators in Uganda to improve their psychosocial work and incorporate aspects of Focusing into daily life. We are teaching this course online. One session was about reflecting on what we are experiencing in a […]
More...Practical Listening
Communication can be a problem at the best of times, with us all living in different time zones and some of us traveling for long periods of time and checking in from ever more distant and shifting time zone addresses in a multitude of countries.
More...Short Sessions Make a Difference
This is one of nine articles from our recent Journal: Resilience Initiatives. A donation of any amount will give you the complete e-Journal. Please click here. I have volunteered to work with Afghan refugees for three years now. One of my clients came to me, […]
More...The Web of Social Justice
This is one of nine articles from our recent Journal: Resilience Initiatives. A donation of any amount will give you the complete e-Journal. Please click here. I was attending a school committee meeting on racism led by the Superintendent and attended mostly by school personnel. […]
More...Why a Wholebody Focusing Retreat?
In this video, Elizabeth Morana and Lynn Rosen are in Heartfelt Conversation to explore why they want to go to the First International Wholebody Focusing Retreat in Barrie, ON Canada from August 16 to August 20, 2018. Please join us. Register at www.tinyurl.com/WBF-Retreat-Announcement.
More...Kevin McEvenue Share New Wholebody Focusing Training Methods – Part I Me Here
Kevin McEvenue and Addie van der Kooy reminisce about writing “Focusing with Your Whole Body.” Their conversation evolves into a sharing about new directions for training Wholebody Focusers. This is Part I of a three part series. This video emphasizes the need to strengthen the […]
More...Tanya Williams and Diane Goodman Discuss Racial Equity and Liberation
Systems of racism and white supremacy must be transformed to allow for the liberation of all people. It is important to look at how we are impacted by racism, as people of color, indigenous people and white people, including ways we are advantaged and […]
More...Balance of Blessings
Pat Omidian discusses ‘Balance of Blessings”, from Reaching Resilience. We need to recognize that, even in the worst situations, there are good things in our lives. Please click here to help us bring this work to more communities.
More...Carrying Relationships Forward
Join Lynn and Charlotte on November 15, 2016. In this video they explain their upcoming workshop and how they will explore how we can sense into our relationships as well as ourselves, and the other. We will show how giving voice to all three dimensions (the […]
More...Listening To Orphans in Pakistan: Pat Omidian brings CWF to teachers and staff
Just outside of the city of Peshawar in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan is an orphanage, actually a residential boarding school with 180 boys, ages 5-12, who had lost their fathers and were street beggars. The facility, called Zamung Kor, Pukhtu for ‘Our […]
More...Monica and Diana: How can what moves you create a shift in someone else?
Diana Scalera and Monica Gomez Galaz met for the first time in Heartfelt Conversation to discuss Wholebody Focusing. What happened was that they immediately found something that deeply touched both of their lives. They were able to connect to what was similar and different about […]
More...Fusako Nakamura Shares How WBF Supports her Spiritual Practice
Fusako Nakamura, a Wholebody Focusing trainer in Japan, shares how her Wholebody Focusing Practice has deepened her connection to her spirituality and her ancestors. Just before filming the video, a local monk came to Fusako’s door to chant to her. The soundtrack is of a […]
More...I use the Calm Place all the time
Being aware of our internal signals is the core of Focusing. It’s also the key to handling our difficult emotions or just feeling better. Usually, to sense our felt wisdom inside requires a slower pace than we can find in our hectic lives. Using the […]
More...My Experience with Community Wellness
Nasser ben Hassen discusses who Focusing Initiatives International helped him learn focusing and how he has shared those skills with his community. He talks about how the teaching and learning of focusing is organic and not linear. #Community Wellness #
More...YoungWei Xu Speaks about WBF in China
YongWei Xu discusses the impact of Wholebody Focusing and Heartfelt Conversation in her life and the lives of her focusing partners. She also describes her work with focusers in a small village outside of Shanghai.
More...Good Listening creates Cooperation in Liberia (or anywhere)
As an anthropologist, I am trained to listen to people and understand their point of view. In Liberia, I and my team of local researchers went into communities and said, “We are from WHO (the World Health Organization) and we need to know what you […]
More...Elizabeth and Donna in Heartfelt Conversation
Elizabeth Morana and Donna Blank in Heartfelt Conversation regarding experiencing waking up in a new way.
More...First International Wholebody Focusing Retreat
Focusing Initiatives International is excited to announce the first International Wholebody Focusing (WBF) Retreat, from August 16-20, 2018. We will be bringing together Wholebody Focusers from around the globe to meet each other in our own “we” space, as well as to honor Kevin McEvenue […]
More...Reaching Resilience – one backstory behind our new book
FII’s newly published Reaching Resilience is rich with fresh, living stories and activities, such as ‘dry stick green stick’, ‘inner guests’, and ‘the story listener’. As people have used these activities, they have adapted them to different cultures and situations around the world. Here is […]
More...“My Love is Like the Melody”
THE POWER OF METAPHORS FOR WRITING, FOR LIFE, FOR COMMUNITY You probably think you learned about metaphors in your freshman literature class, but, really, you’ve been using them from the time you began to talk. If your mother kept a ‘baby book’, you will find […]
More...Living the Process not the Goal
Building a community wellness program reminds me of my recent experience knitting my grandson’s sweater. Here I was happily knitting away and I was almost finished with the body of the sweater when I realized the front was completely wrong.
More...Focusing Around the Dinner Table
A while back, my Wholebody Focusing partner Elizabeth and I decided to spend a weekend together. We live far apart and I needed to fly to where she lives. We called it our Focusing Spa Weekend because we intended to spend our time in Grounded […]
More...The Cost of Racism to White People and Why They Should Care about Racial Justice
“I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else’s freedom, just as surely as I cannot be free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity. Nelson Mandela Long Walk to Freedom, […]
More...Wholebody Focusing: It’s a Kind of Magic!
As a kid I loved watching the TV show Bewitched. The protagonist, Samantha, would wrinkle her nose to make life magically happen the way she wanted. I used to wish I could have access to magic just by doing something as simple as wrinkling my […]
More...Building Resilience: Spiritual and Mind-Body Practices
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 […]
More...Janet Klein on “Experiential Learning”
The opening paragraph from the ninth chapter of Dr. Janet Klein’s first volume, on “The Process”. Experiential Learning As a teacher, by my students I’ve been taught- I was teaching a two-day workshop, the second of four two-day workshops designed to advance people to the level […]
More...Community Wellness Work in Pakistan
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 […]
More...Janet Klein on “Teaching Interactive Focusing…”
The opening paragraph from the eighth chapter of Dr. Janet Klein’s first volume, on “The Process”. Teaching Interactive Focusing In-the-Moment of the Experience Interactive Focusing is intended to allow you to access your truth through the bodysense, and it gives you a way to share it […]
More...Janet Klein on “Experiential Teaching”
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 […]
More...Janet Klein on “Teaching Focusing the Way We Can Best Learn It”
The opening paragraph from the sixth chapter of Dr. Janet Klein’s first volume, on “The Process”. Introduction: First Principles of Learning- Before commenting on the teaching of Focusing, I would like to point to how we learn many things and that we learn through some methods […]
More...How to stay well in difficult times
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 […]
More...Reconnecting to Communities: Mutual Respect and Nurturing Dialogue
Many of us are feeling shock and hopelessness at this time of public polarization following current world events. We find ourselves in a world that is driven by fear, mistrust and divisiveness. How can we deal with these disturbing feelings? Consider attending this webinar: “Introduction […]
More...Janet Klein on “The Full Circle of Empathy”
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 […]
More...DaRa Williams speaks about AFOT: a radio interview
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 […]
More...Janet Klein on “What is Interactive Focusing”
The opening line from the fourth chapter of Dr. Janet Klein’s first volume, on “The Process”. What is Interactive Focusing Interactive Focusing is what I call the third stage in the developmental line of Focusing or body sense-based practices. To read more, click the link below:
More...Janet Klein on “The Essentials of Teaching Focusing”
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 […]
More...Janet Klein on “The Experiencing of Experience”
The opening paragraph from the second chapter of Dr. Janet Klein’s volume on “The Process”. The Experiencing of Experience: Interactive Focusing as a way to health experiencing deficit disorder The experiencing of experience is not to just have the experience, nor is it only to […]
More...Janet Klein on “An Experiential Lexicon”
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 […]
More...The Interactive Focusing Model Short form for Dyads
The Interactive Focusing Model Short form for Dyads By Dr. Janet Klein (This brief outline is useful as a guide for Interactive Focusing work in pairs. Those who have taken a course will find it useful.) Part One: The Focuser’s Story The Focuser tells her […]
More...Wholebody Heartfelt Connection: Process Steps
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 […]
More...Supporting Community Wellness in Pakistan
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 […]
More...A Wholebody Focusing Oriented Approach to Therapeutic Presence
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 -”.
More...Reflections and the Empathic Moment: What Happens
[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 […]
More...Janet Klein describes how she developed Interactive Focusing
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.
More...Demonstration of Wholebody Focusing
In this Relational Wholebody Focusing video Karen and Katrijn introduce the practice as they talk about their workshop in Belgium.
More...The Healing Potential of the Conscious Living Body of We Here
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 […]
More...Aboriginal Psychotherapy
Shirley Turcotte, RCC, lived with and then worked on trauma for more than half a century, both as a survivor and as a trauma therapist. The daughter of a Métis Aboriginal father and a Russian Mennonite refuge mother, she used her own experiences and cultural strengths to develop ingenious, practical […]
More...Addressing the Psychosocial Needs of Children in the Classroom
This book, co-authored with Nina Papadopoulos, documents the training of teacher trainers in the IRC’s Female Education Program (FEP) in psychosocial wellness models. and the development of teacher training materials for IRC refugee teachers in 2002. A reflective process was used to raise awareness, to […]
More...Introduction to Focusing
Patty, Anna and Nina share what Focusing means to them. They share, from personal experience, what Focusing is, how it is useful in everyday life and in what ways it helps when dealing with everyday challenges.
More...What do we mean by “Community Wellness”?
Community wellness is based on a public health approach with two assumptions. First, most illnesses are preventable, including various types of mental illness. Second, the community itself contains many solutions to its own health needs and already has many techniques to encourage resilience and wellness. […]
More...What is Focusing?
This short video explains how simple Focusing is to learn and to use. It is written by Cynthia Spellman, MD and animated by Ruslan Mityayev.
More...Focusing Oriented Therapy & Relational Consideration of Unresolved Trauma
I have worked or lived in trauma for more than half a century, both as a survivor of trauma and as a trauma therapist. I am the daughter of a Métis Aboriginal father, who survived the generational impacts of genocidal colonization and residential school fallout; […]
More...Relational WholeBody Focusing, An Introduction
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.
More...Wholebody Focusing: A conversation between Katrijn and Karen
Katrijn: “It only becomes fun when there is a real problem” When I practice clowning this sentence feels so right for me. My clown can be so alive when my clowning partner offers me a situation I cannot respond in an obvious way. The search for my own right action brings up creativity, emotion, honesty and so much joy.
In my daily life fun is often hard to find when struggling with the problems life is offering me. I get caught up, lose myself and my connection to others. I am running on a treadmill like a little mouse.
More...Focusing and Helping in the Midst of the Ebola Outbreak in Liberia
As a medical anthropologist, just back from two months in Liberia working on behalf of the World Health Organization (WHO), I was featured as one of five experts in the September 25 issue ofTime Magazine, a prominent American weekly news magazine. Click here to see the […]
More...Coming Back to Life with Nonviolent Communication, Focusing, Mindfulness, Nature Reconnection and Circle Work
The paradigm we’re currently living in makes assumptions that most of us consciously and unconsciously live from. Some of these are beliefs in scarcity and lack, that someone needs to lose for us to win, that we have to use coercion, convincing, manipulation or people […]
More...Children and Community Wellness
When communities are in distress, whether because of war, natural disasters, political upheavals, or economic dislocations, we know that children suffer. Focusing in the context of community wellness can help communities discover culturally meaningful ways of alleviating the suffering of their children. For example, we know […]
More...A Public Health Approach to Wellness
Focusing International fosters social change by supporting community wellness and psychosocial wellness using a public health approach. One of the best description of the public health approach comes from The Public Health Agency of Canada, which describes this approach as follows: “Important values in public […]
More...Community Wellness
Community wellness is based on a public health approach with two assumptions. First, most illnesses are preventable, including various types of mental illness. Second, the community itself contains many solutions to its own health needs and already has many techniques to encourage resilience and wellness. […]
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