'Oughts' and 'Shoulds' - Online course
Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th May
Do you suffer (and I mean suffer) from what someone described as a 'hardening of the oughteries'? Do you spend your time doing – or not doing – the things you ought be doing and letting the things you want to be doing fall by the wayside? Do you feel there are certain ways that, as a person, a worker in a certain field or even as a Focuser, you should or shouldn't be? In these difficult times, do you think you should be taking some particular course of action or feeling a particular way about what is happening? Many of us are familiar with the dynamics of our inner critics, but often the 'sensible' critics - the ones that are constantly telling us to do this, that or the other for our own good or the good of the world – convince us to identify with them. They may have a lot of right on their side, but if they are trying to make other parts of us do what they want we will remain in conflict.
This online workshop will help you find ways to explore the inner dynamics of those 'oughts' and 'shoulds', making it easier to do both what you want to do and what you need to do from a place of freedom and co-operation rather than coercion or rebellion. Underneath these dynamics there is often a feeling that 'I'm not OK unless I...' or 'I'm not OK because I haven't...' The more we listen to these not-OK places, the more they feel accepted, the less need there is for the 'oughts' and 'shoulds' to take control.
The workshop is open to anyone who has some experience of Focusing and being a Focusing companion. It will run from 10.00-1.00 on Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th May. The cost is £75, concessionary rate £50. If you would like to attend but are unable to pay the concessionary rate, please contact me. Please also contact me if you would like an individual refresher session before the workshop.
Focusing with what's happening in the world – Online course
Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th June
As sensitive human beings, what is our response what’s happening in the world right now – wars, destruction, poverty, human suffering, species extinctions, above all the worsening climate crisis? Do we find ourselves falling into fear or despair, do we carry on as though it isn’t happening, or are we driven by anger? However we feel about it – or perhaps choose not to feel – and however contradictory our feelings may seem, Focusing can help us relate to what we feel with acceptance and kindness, allowing all of it to be there.
In this online workshop we will spend time caring for all the different parts of ourselves that are affected by the world situation and perhaps also looking at the kind of world we would hope and wish for. Whether that means spending time with those places in us that are sad or angry or afraid, or whether it means listening to the places that simply want to turn away from it all, the workshop will be a safe space for us as Focusers to be with our own and each other’s concerns.
The workshop is open to anyone who has some experience of Focusing and being a Focusing companion. It will run from 10.00-1.00 on Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th June. The cost is £75, concessionary rate £50. If you would like to attend but are unable to pay the concessionary rate, please contact me. Please also contact me if you would like an individual refresher session before the workshop.
Focusing Skills Certificate course online
Module 3 – Going deeper
In this online workshop, the third of the five modules of the Focusing Skills Certificate course, we shall look more deeply into the processes of Focusing and being a companion, refining and building on the skills you have learnt in the first two modules. We will also begin to look at the times when the companion may take a slightly more active role, led by the Focuser's process, and make suggestions that can help the process forward. However, the companion's primary role is still to listen and reflect, and you will have plenty of time to practise this.
The workshop will be held over four mornings from 10.00 am -1.00 pm, dates to be confirmed.
Focusing Skills Certificate course online
Module 4 – Parts and 'somethings': befriending our critics
In this online workshop, the fourth module of five for the Focusing Skills Certificate, we will look more closely at the different 'parts', or 'partial-selves' that we often meet when we are Focusing, especially the dynamic of what's often called the 'inner critic' and its relationship to other parts of us. You will discover how to meet these dynamics with more space and kindness, both when you are Focusing yourself and when you are companion to another Focuser, and you will see how they are often not quite what we take them to be. In doing this you will continue to build on the skills you have already learnt as a Focuser and as a companion.
The course willl run over four mornings from 10.00 am - 1.00 pm, dates to be confirmed.
Focusing Skills Certificate course online –
Module 5 – Going forward with Focusing
In this fifth and last module of the Focusing Skills Certificate course we will look further at untangling difficult inner dynamics and also look at ways of bringing Focusing into our lives. There will be time for questions and discussion about the course as a whole and for sensing ways of taking the learning forward.
The workshop will take place over four mornings from 10.00 am -1.00 pm, dates to be confirmed.
Ashburton
Devon