What is Focusing / for me
Dear participants
of the 1st European Focusing Conference in Loutraki, Greece, 10-14 May 2018:
of the 1st European Focusing Conference in Loutraki, Greece, 10-14 May 2018:
What is Focusing for you? and what is it not?
Please answer these questions in English, if you like the idea, or describe the quality which Focusing ‘carries’ for you, in your own words, without necessarily following the usual expression patterns. Which is the facet of Focusing that somehow ‘speaks’ to you or ‘faces’ you most profoundly? Something you cannot avoid seeing?
Could you translate these answers, these descriptions into a language other than English? Could you translate them, for example, into your native language?
These descriptions, these sentences, will be put on the conference website, on the EFA facebook page as well as throughout the conference, with your name and Country. It will be very interesting to know why you and I love Focusing, or what Focusing means for us.
Can you select just three, or the most important, words or terms that Focusing carries for you, for your life and your being- what is of greatest significance to you?
Could you translate these answers, these descriptions into a language other than English? Could you translate them, for example, into your native language?
These descriptions, these sentences, will be put on the conference website, on the EFA facebook page as well as throughout the conference, with your name and Country. It will be very interesting to know why you and I love Focusing, or what Focusing means for us.
Can you select just three, or the most important, words or terms that Focusing carries for you, for your life and your being- what is of greatest significance to you?
Facets of Focusing
Faces of Focusing
Faces of Focusing
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Fabienne Tejpar
Belgium
For me, Focusing is the greatest gift you can give a child. |
Sari Pekki
Finland
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- Focusing is to land in a gentle and safe place inside of me, grounding my whole being
- It's an adventure or expedition to a secret woods, which is at the same time familiar and unknown - It's authentic connection, respecting, not-knowing, trusting and sharing So hard to put it in few words :) |
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Mariann Steinegger
Switzerland
Slowing down, pausing.
Having it always with me. Song of a blackbird. |
Jennie St Clair
Australia
The words that are most valuable when I describe Focusing are: PAUSE, TURN TOWARD, BE WITH and WELCOME ALL.
The Focusing way to SELF has become my guardian angel. It feels like 'I don't need anything else.' I am on the 'main road' (the Super Highway), not just another path. It ticks ALL the boxes. I just have to do it. And 'to do it' is becoming more my second nature.
My parts express they have been waiting for me to show up. They can do nothing else. By bringing my awareness and compassion towards them they can be released to live their full potential.
The Focusing way to SELF has become my guardian angel. It feels like 'I don't need anything else.' I am on the 'main road' (the Super Highway), not just another path. It ticks ALL the boxes. I just have to do it. And 'to do it' is becoming more my second nature.
My parts express they have been waiting for me to show up. They can do nothing else. By bringing my awareness and compassion towards them they can be released to live their full potential.
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Sarah Bean
UK
This is what focusing is for me:
'A gentle way of listening, with kindness and curiosity, to ourselves and others. Getting to know each other and ourselves from the inside out.' |
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Sonya Steller
UK-Greece
For me Focusing provides a mix of coming home and carrying forward, always with images. There is no thrill greater than the 'felt shift’ on the occasions when it floods my whole body with the light of ‘rightness’.
3 words might be: wholeness, revelation, lightning |
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Almog Gold
Israel
Focusing is my quality time with myself. The ability to meet my true self. As Is. As a nutritionist (N.D), focusing enables me to obtain the most reliable information in my clinic. Sometimes even more than blood tests. It is the information that the patient's body conveys to me. Often without even the patient being aware of this important information. The information that may lead to a cure. Focusing is not what we need to do or think. It's not what we are expected to say or feel. It is our most precise inner compass. |
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Dimitra Ntente
Greece
For me, at this moment, focusing can be defined as a switch of a light-bulb hanging from the ceiling in a dark attic. You enter the attic touching the walls to find the switch. What is in the attic is completely unknown. You might imagine, assume, fantasize, or consider cognitively what the attic looks like. When you finally turn on the light you see the objects in the room. The objects weren’t there before; they are generated / emerged in relation to the colour of the bulb, the brightness, the distance of the objects from the light, the place where you stand, the physiology of your eye as an organ. You turned on the light in order to see, however, you see because you turned on the light. Focusing is the way or the means, to put a halt, come to rest or pause my busy-running-spinning-thinking mind for a while, and light my inner bulb to look around and finally become aware of what is there - at that specific moment. |
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Lucy Van Praag
UK-Italy
In a nutshell, Focusing, for me, is a way of ‘coming home’ to myself, when my spirit has wandered off seeking elsewhere what it is best placed to find within myself. There is a spatial dimension in this home-coming for me in the discovery and re-discovery, always surprising, of the vast space that can open up inside that both contains and is informed by an issue or situation that I am Focusing with, but which is also so much more! In my role as a Focusing guide or F.O.T., I experience the relief and the strength and the inspiration that clients gain from being invited to pause, taking time to touch base with who they are and how they are experiencing an issue or situation from these deeper levels of experiencing. |
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Nada Lou
Canada
Focusing for me is coming home to me. What does that mean? It means that I chose the courage to be honest, brave, accepting, responsible and willing to spend time with how I honestly perceive my present situation in life. It is not always easy, but I trust that by doing that I make my present state available to receive new information, new insights, new language … just that what is needed for the next right step in life forward direction.
(Croatian) Fokusiranje za mene je kao dolazak mojoj kući. Što to znači? To znači da ja izaberem hrabrost da budem iskrena, smiona, prihvatljiva, odgovorana i voljna da provedem vrijeme s time, kako iskreno spoznajem svoju sadašnju situaciju u životu. To nije uvijek lako, ali imam povjerenje da na taj način mogu učiniti sadašnje stanje pristupačno novim informacijama, novim uvidima, novom jeziku ... upravo onim što je potrebno za sljedeći pravilan korak u životu. |
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Alan Tidmarsh
Norwich Focusing
UK
Here are three from me:
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Martina Sturzenegger
Germany
Focusing to me is coming in touch with my inner experience. With my interaction to it a process begins, which takes me and my experience further on. (German) Focusing ist für mich in Kontakt kommen mit meinem inneren Erleben. Durch Interagieren mit meinen Empfindungen lasse ich mich auf einen Prozess ein, der mich und mein Erleben weiterträgt. Meaning of focusing for me and my life: To communicate with my inner world is similar to cleaning up and redesigning my home at the same time. An interesting daily task. My contact with my inner experiencing leads me in counseling sessions as well as in silent moments, brings me closer to the present moment and steers me to the next significant thresholds. (German) Bedeutung von Focusing für mich: Mit meinem Inneren Kommunizieren zu können, ist wie Aufräumen und Neugestalten im eigenen Haus - täglich eine spannende Aufgabe. Der Kontakt zu meinem inneren Erleben leitet mich in Therapiegesprächen und in ruhigen Momenten, bringt mich dem gegenwärtigen Geschehen näher und lotst mich an eine nächste wesentliche Bedeutungs-Schwelle. |
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Gred Parquin
Belgium
Focusing is standing still, keeping my attention on my body, sensing the imperceptible and discovering that I can trust in my inner wisdom. Focusing is stilstaan, mijn aandacht op mijn lichaam richten, het onmerkbare bespeuren en ontdekken dat ik op mijn innerlijke wijsheid kan vertrouwen. |
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Eirini Davleri
Greece
Τhrough Focusing I’m staying with interested curiosity, I’m meeting my wholeness: I am more than my recognized and unrecognized aspects of me (creation of my meaning). (Greek) Μέσα από τη διαδικασία του Focusing, μπορώ να με συναντάω σε μία κατάσταση, σε έναν χώρο εσωτερικής παρουσίας. Εκεί επανα-νοηματοδοτώ, αλληλεπιδρώ εσωτερικά σε μια βαθιά πνευματική μου διάσταση. Key words: |
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Irit Tessel
Israel
Focusing is a way of life, constantly connecting me to the authentic self and to the vast knowledge of the universe. It teaches me to be with the unknown, allowing “the process” to occur. It generates a tremendous value in every aspect of my life. |
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Martina Flavin
Ireland
Which is the facet of Focusing that somehow ‘speaks’ to you or ‘faces’ you most profoundly? Something you cannot avoid seeing? Immediacy. Here and Now. Can you select just three, or the most important, words or terms that Focusing carries for you, for your life and your being- what is of greatest significance to you?
Mo chara (My Friend) Slí (Way) Fírinne (Truth) (words are Irish language (Gaelic)) Focusing is my friend. |
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Marine de Freminville
France - Canada
Focusing for me is the “permission to be”, moment by moment in touch with my true nature. Focusing gives access to authenticity. C’est la permission d’être soi, qui donne accès à notre vraie nature, moment par moment. Le Focusing donne accès à l’authenticité. Focusing opens to more than me, to the «gigantic system» Gendlin (Focusing, ch.7) Focusing ouvre sur plus grand que soi, «le gigantesque système» Gendlin, (Focusing ch.7). Focusing teaches us gentleness, compassion for oneself and the others. Le Focusing nous apprend la bienveillance, la compassion envers soi-même et les autres. Focusing is not a simplistic technique but is a way of being. Focusing n'est pas juste une simple technique mais une façon d'être. |
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Ruth Hirsh
To me the phrase compassionate, spacious and respectful being with conveys the essence of what touches me most profoundly about Focusing.
Helping others - primarily healing professionals such as therapists and coaches - to wake up to the possibility and ability of being with themselves and then with their clients in this way is deeply fulfilling for me. The facet of Focusing of most interest to me is the Art of Teaching Focusing. As a Focusing practitioner and teacher with 25 years of experience, it became clear to me early on that the process needs to be grounded in safety and at the same time be alive and dynamic, with room for movement, expansion, playfulness, and spirit. Ideally, the teaching itself reflects the essence and elements of Focusing. In short, I view Focusing training as an art that at its best reflects a limitless welcoming of possibility and openness to what is not yet known. 3 key words: Compassionate, Spacious, Respectful Being With |
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Michael Callifronas
Greece
Focusing for me is
3 Key words: Relief, Conceptualisation, and Horizon |
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João da Fonseca
Portugal
Focusing bridges and sustains my path towards authentic living and being. It is a lighthouse that brings my awareness home, into the profound beauty and wisdom of life which is carried by and through our living and interaffecting bodies. (Portuguese) O Focusing é a ponte que sustenta o caminho para um modo de ser e de viver inerentemente autênticos. É o farol que me traz de volta a casa, para a profunda beleza e sabedoria da vida que é levada pelos e através dos nossos corpos vivos e interafectivos. |
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Hillie van der Weg
Ryptsjerk, The Netherlands
Focusing Oriented Art Therapist What Focusing is for me… ‘Life wants to live’ --- Gene Gendlin When people are in crisis they might ask themselves questions like: Why does this happen to me? For what purpose was I born? Where am I going to? I consider these questions as the most profound to a human being. Behind them lies the deep longing to live the souls life. Sometimes I use the image of a flower to describe that we all are meant to live and bloom towards the light. ‘All life on earth contributes to the vast universal web. All life, every organism, every cell owns the implicit power to move on. Every unique part of life knows how to develop and grow in the right direction. Look at the flower… So is it for you too!’ Focusing can help to sustain this process. And that is why the quote of Gene Gendlin above has become of great significance for me. I live in the north of The Netherlands, in the province called Friesland, and the Friesian language is my mother language. For my website I translated this quote of Gendlin’s into Friesian: Life wants to live --- Libben triuwt himsels oan ’t ljocht As far as I know, I’m the first one who translated words of Gendlin into the Friesian language. (There are about 350.000 native speakers.) In 2015, I made a poem in Friesian that contains the core of the description above: By skimerjûn noch blommen socht. |
Painting by Hillie van der Weg:
The flower of transformation
The flower of transformation
Words
Focusing Gendlin Eugene The Philosophy of the Implicit A Process Model Experiencing Body Interaction First Thinking At The Edge Leafing Crossing Focusing-Oriented Therapy Aristotle Felt Sense Six Steps Felt Shift Experiencing and the Creation of Meaning Dipping Responsive Order Carrying Forward Let your Body Interpret your Dreams Pause Carl Rogers Changes Groups Focusing Partnerships Humanistic Psychotherapy Children Focusing Clearing A space Felt Sense Handle Resonating Asking Receiving Inner Critic Experiential Phenomenology Implicit Intricacy (…) the more Situation Let your Body Interpret your Dreams First Person Processes Words can say how they work The primacy of the body, not the primacy of perception The Client’s Client The edge of awareness Befindlichkeit Eugene Gendlin Focusing ... ...
