Focusing - Unfolding the Emerging Wisdom of Your Whole Self

Focusing is an approach to self-awareness originally developed by Eugene Gendlin, a philosophy professor at the University of Chicago, and developed further by his student, Dr. Ann Weiser Cornell. Focusing opens up your inner world of intuition and subtle feelings, by trusting the body’s “felt sense” of things. Focusing shows you how to listen more empathically to parts of yourself which were previously inaccessible.

What’s Focusing?

Focusing is simply listening into the centre of your body, and discovering your own guidance in the process. You find a positive Inner Relationship with all that you experience. If you listen with respect to those aspects of yourself which are the hardest to change – parts which are sometimes even difficult to perceive – then they can change naturally.

“It may not seem likely that there would be wisdom hiding in this fuzzy, vague, hard-to-describe something that you feel in your body, but there is. That's exactly where the wisdom is: not in what is already clear and known -- that's old information -- but in what is emerging in you, the knowing that is coming into awareness right now. Learning Focusing is learning to value and even cherish the slow, subtle, and vague.” - Dr. Ann Weiser Cornell

This weekend is being facilitated by Christopher McLean, BA, Grad Dip Ed, Grad Dip Psych. Chris is a qualified psychotherapist in private practice and a certified focusing trainer. Chris runs workshops on the practical application of focusing skills and is a teacher of Buddhist mediation in the Insight meditation Tradition (Vipassana)

Somatic Integrity - Touching the Body, Reaching the Soul

‘It seems that one can truly understand oneself only when one understands with the body’

Touch is a biological; touch given in a respectful manner, relaxes us, leading to insight and expanded consciousness; touch brings us into contact with ourselves and allows an inner journey beyond the known towards a discovery of our essential nature.

Respectful touch allows changes to begin on the inside and move outwards at a pace that matches an individuals own rhythm. The result is an unfolding rather than attempting to fix someone or make them different, this is a process of gently showing people to themselves – reflecting their true being, recognising their integrity and aliveness.

In this workshop we will work towards greater embodied presence, mindful awareness, cultivating a quiet state of mind and being. This will serve as ground for the art and practice of respectful, skilful therapeutic touch.

• How to create a sacred space that supports the journey towards the soul integration
• Ways to move from the psychological dimension to the inner source of our being and innate intelligence
• How to prepare yourself for conscious touch
• The importance of intention, clarity and purpose
• Boundaries regarding touch
• Skills and techniques for appropriate therapeutic touch

This workshop will be both personally relevant and clinically applicable. It will be suitable for individual healing, personal growth, professional development and the benefit of the community.

This weekend is being facilitated by Vivian Revitt, Dip Somatics, Dip Rem Mass, Grad cert Ad Ed, Certified Hakomi Therapist, Mem ASIA, ATMS. Vivian has been in private practice since 1986. She entered the field of Somatic Psychotherapy through an extensive background in bodywork modalities.