The body holds infinite wisdom and it is the compass that leads you to your own healing.
So, how in the heck do you access that within you? What if I have too much pain in the way? These classes help you hone your inner-listening skills, the deep, uninterrupted and non judgemental presence that allows for your body to be heard clearly and directly. Don’t worry, this simple practice has profound consequences. We establish resilience, grounding, and honor the pace at which your true self is wanting to go. Here’s a little known fact: pain is part of the conversation and must be included, rather than redirected. I’ll show you how, so you can not only find your own inner compass, you will be able to hold space for others to do the same.
How would I benefit from these classes?
The classes are designed to give you two things. First, you will be able to know yourself and what might be going on for you in any situation. Why might you be feeling the way you do? What do you do with it? Or not do with it? Is it even relevant? The answer to that is yes and we make these feeling interactions conscious so that your feelings are included, yet not directing your responses. This happens by staying friendly to this new awareness rather than beating yourself up by being ‘too sensitive’, ‘too harsh’, or whatever opinion has grabbed ahold of you about the interaction. Then, in the space of non-reacting, curious and loving presence, new insight and information becomes known to you.
The second benefit is that, through practice, you learn to trust your own body knowing and begin to rely on it to help you with all kinds of life situations, be it job related, family of origin issues, relationships, the state of the world, traumatic events and you will uncover your personal calling or purpose in the world.
Spring benefitting from the still of winter
If something resonates in what you have been reading so far, I invite you to come take the first class from the course. Read on for descriptions of each of the four levels of classes, each building on the previous skills learned:
Level One:
Encountering the Inner Relationship
This first class focuses on you, learning how to make contact with an inner awareness through bodily felt sensing, connecting to what comes from this inner awareness through learning Presence and listening, and then carrying forward what you find from this inside place.
Entering in to the Inner Relationship
Stage One: Presence
Cultivating presence sets the stage for us to turn inward. Learn how to do this in many ways, using hands-on skills for the in person classes
Stage Two: Sensing and Describing
Making contact with what you notice in a bodily felt way
Stage Three: Felt Sense and the Rest of the Conversation Coming
Shifting back and forth with sensing and receiving…and noticing what comes
Stage Four: The Rhythm of Listening
Tips for the complementary nature of using Focusing with a partner/client
Stage Five: What the Focuser Wants from the Companion
When changes are requested or when requesting something different in the Focusing session
(After this first Level One workshop, you will already have the tools to use this wonderful practice for yourself and with your clients or companions/partnerships! )
Level Two:
Accompanying the Inner Relationship
Cultivating Listening in Presence
Taking the skills you learned from your first level, you begin fine tuning, noticing how your inner relating is supported further by learning facilitative language. You learn further skills for your own process, and begin using new ways to support someone else in coming in to this inner awareness.
Stage One: Presence and Acknowledging
Learning to settle in, slowing down in order to find the conversation within your inner awareness
Stage Two: The Edge
How to be with what is coming in you, when you find something that is ‘more than words’
Stage Three: Leading In
Guidelines to bringing someone in to the inner relationship
Stage Four: Advanced Listening
Using Presence language to accompany your client/Focusing partner
Stage Five: Six Recommendations
Guidelines to bring you back to your body for your own Focusing
(Prerequisite: Taking a Level One class from any certified Focusing teacher)
Level Three:
Supporting the Inner Relationship
Two men listening compassionately
You have the experiential knowledge of Presence, Presence language and leading someone in to a Focusing session. Level three introduces the five stages of a Focusing process and how to facilitate someone specifically from those stages. You also learn ways to guide people from the inner process to the end of the session in a comfortable, non-jarring way.
Stage One: The Principles of Reminding
Learning how to guide someone further in to their own Focusing process
Stage Two: Supporting Presence with Reminding
Four guiding suggestions to use during a session to support presence for your client/Focusing partner
Stage Three: The Bottle and Making Contact
The five stages of a Focusing session and how to know how to accompany your client/Focusing partner specifically for each of these stages
Stage Four: Deepening Contact
Honing our skills in the last two stages of the Focusing process
Stage Five: Endings and Positives
Learning how to lead a client/Focusing partner out of the session
Prerequisite: Taking a Level Two class from any certified Focusing teacher
Level Four:
Facilitating the Inner Relationship
Using Focusing during a bodywork session: The Dialogue of Touch
This fourth level teaches you advanced skills on how to facilitate someone else’s inner process when more complex dynamics arise. You learn about the feeling about the feeling and how to skillfully accompany someone who has something blocking the inner process. This includes learning about the ‘bad guy,’ critic, and other parts that come. We also begin to hone our skills as a touch based space holder for Presence. We will use massage tables or set up chairs to offer a reclined position.
Stage One: The Feeling about the Feeling
Learning how to accompany the Focusing process when there is more than one feeling that comes about the situation
Stage Two: The Bad Guy
How to facilitate contact with something that feels like it’s blocking the process
Stage Three: Feeling ”Nothing”
When you feel ‘nothing’
Stage Four: Other Blocks
Being with parts that come who are shy, hiding, not wanting, etc.
Stage Five: The Critic
Learning how to identify and find what is offered in the critic that comes
Prerequisite: Taking a Level Three class from any certified Focusing teacher
Come to connect with yourself and others through the wisdom of the body
To Register:
Join us in this experiential workshop and explore a wonderful way to communicate with your own body, and help your clients/Focusing partners do the same. Join other healing professionals who are moved to discover and skillfully integrate fresh approaches to the body as a living process.
Cost: Weekend workshop: $300 with a $40 discount per person when bringing someone with you. The intention is that you have a companion to practice this outside of classes and I offer this discount in support of this!
Cost: Five week tele-class: $225
Cost includes a one-on-one Focusing session by phone or in person prior to the first class. You will find out if Focusing is right for you by getting a session for yourself! A one-on-one Focusing session is a pre-requisite for taking the Level One Focusing, but you can take it from any certified Focusing professional, or trainer-in-training. Ask me for more details if you would like to know more.
Cancellation policy: Refund given when canceling no less than one week before the first scheduled class, minus $100 for the first time Focusing session, if you have received one from me prior to class. This includes the $30 administration fee. If there was no Focusing session, a full refund is given, minus the $30 administration fee. This applies to all the other Focusing Level classes, Dialogue of Touch workshops and intensives.
Discount available if you bring a friend with you to take the class. Focusing is a practice, therefore the effectiveness of your sessions relies on the time you put in to it. Having a friend along to become a partner in learning is a great way to guarantee your success and this is one way I can support you in that success! This discount applies to in-person workshops.
Time: Each level is a five week phone course conveniently offered in the evenings for two hours each class. Weekend workshops are over two days, usually from 9am until 4pm. Do call for details!
When: Do call or email me for more information.
Register: By phone or email: 206-200-9762 or touchingmindbodyspirit@gmail.com
Is it time for you to turn inward and check in about how life is going for you?
This course of workshops supports and encourages your already integrated knowledge about the mind/body relationship, whether it be knowledge learned from your personal self care practice or through your experiential knowledge. Your knowing is honored and respected.
Eugene Gendlin, the philosopher, therapist and developer of Focusinglearned from your clinical experience. This course is a synthesis of bodywork and something called Focusing, developed by psychologist and philosopher, Eugene Gendlin. Focusing is a body oriented, introspective process using one’s self awareness and body sensing. It is already integrated into other fields such as psychotherapy, non-violent communication and work with children, to name a few. To learn more about Gene Gendlin and his pioneering work called Focusing, please go to: www.focusing.org.
For Bodyworkers and other touch based practitioners: Including touch in the Focusing practice offers something quite profound. When your client/Focusing partner attends to his or her inner awareness, taught in this class, you, the therapist, can feel a physical change in the body as the client/partner comes into this inner awareness. This exciting connection allows you to attend to them in inner process and feel when change is occurring.
Still don’t know if this class is right for your particular profession? Please do call or email me so that I can answer whatever questions you may have. I am here to help!
Anastasia Brencick MA, LMP 