Saturday morning workshops: 9:15 10:45 am Getting The Deeper Point - - PDF document

Presentation Descriptions: The Northeast Regional Focusing‐Oriented Therapy Gathering

Saturday morning workshops: 9:15‐10:45 am

Getting The Deeper Point of The Relationship: Charlotte Howorth, LCSW As Gene has said, “We are interaction.” As FOT therapists skilled at listening to the implicit felt sense of the client, we can use this same powerful process to explore the implicit felt sense of the therapy relationship itself – the deeper point that “we,” therapist and client, are living together as one

• interaction. We can listen not only for what the client needs, but what is needed in the therapeutic
• relationship. Through a clinical story I will show the way in which an exploration of relatedness between

therapist and client can be used to facilitate life‐forward movement in clients alienated from their own self‐process. Charlotte has a private practice in NYC. She teaches two year certification FOT trainings for TFI as well as being on faculty of Focusing Oriented Relational Psychotherapy where she supervises and

• teaches. Charlotte is also the clinical consultant to CHDFS, a social services agency that works clinically

with families. KEEPER OF THE FLAME: Healing Inter‐Generational Trauma Using Focusing‐Oriented Therapy Beilah Ross

Inter‐generational traumatization can be defined as the experience of having disturbing and/or debilitating cognitions and emotions closely resembling the traumatic symptoms of a close relative or friend, living or deceased. In this workshop I will share how FOT helped free me of the emotional burdens I had unwittingly taken on as the “keeper” of my grandmother’s Holocaust story. Then, through guided Focusing exercises, participants will have the

• pportunity to explore whether they are “holding” traumas experienced by family members

from previous generations, and to begin to liberate themselves from any they may be carrying. Beilah Ross is a Clinical Social Worker in private practice in Boston. She earned a certificate in Traumatic Stress Studies from The Trauma Center in 2001, earned certification as a Focusing‐ Oriented Therapist in 2009, and has been actively involved in the Focusing community since 2006. This is Your Brain on…Focusing! Carol Ivan Do you ever wonder why Focusing works so well? This workshop will explain, in simple language, what is going on in the brain/body/mind system when we focus. Using current research from neuroscience and cognitive science, we will unravel the mystery of the Focusing

• process. You will walk away with new ways of conceptualizing FOT and Whole‐Body FOT, as

well as with specific interventions to use with clients. Carol Ivan has worked for 20 years as a psychotherapist in the Boston area. She has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, is certified in FOT, and in Whole‐Body Focusing. Carol brings much enthusiasm to her teaching, motivated by both her love of WBF and her never‐ending quest to make therapy easier and more effective for all involved.

Listening Murals: A Creative Focusing Oriented Family Therapy Exercise Beth Mahler, LCSW, FOT Eugene Gendlin once said, “The essence of working with another person is to be present as a living being.” Distressed families get stuck in old, non‐fluid patterns of sensing and interacting. As a living being and therapist, I have turned to nature and its nurturing qualities to explore felt sensing growth. Through this integrative journey, I developed a creative approach to teach felt sensing, pausing, focusing, and listening skills to families in family therapy. The workshop will be 20 % didactic, 80%

• experiential. It will include a review of Attachment Theory and its relevance to this exercise. The

experiential component to this workshop will demonstrate how nature, nurture, the family, and a focusing oriented therapist can resonate within the system in the therapy session. Each participant will have an opportunity to create what I call “listening murals”. We will explore how this exercise can be adapted for individual and couples work. Beth Mahler is in private practice in Wayne, NJ. Certified by TFI in 2011, Beth currently facilitates individual and group workshops and retreats to teach Focusing as a self‐care practice. Beth also teaches a 2 year CFT/FOT certification course. Beth teaches undergraduates as an adjunct professor in the Sociology Department at William Paterson University.

Saturday morning workshops Session 2: 11‐12:30: Stepping into the Sacred in Psychotherapy Joan Klagsbrun, PhD. Many aspects of the Focusing/deep listening process can move clients (and therapists) in the direction of awe--and towards what we might call sacred experience. Through experiential exercises, case examples, reflection and discussion, we will explore how Focusing-informed psychotherapy can open us to this dimenstion; how resources for healing can grow; and how these experiences, which we might call ‘spiritual,’ can profoundly affect both client and therapist. Joan Klagsbrun, Ph.D. a long time Focusing coordinator and trainer of FOTs, is a psychologist in private practice and has taught graduate students in counseling psychology for 35

• years. Joan's cutting edge is exploring how Focusing and positive psychology enhance spirtual

development and lead to a sense of the sacred.

The Creation of an Experiential Environment Joan Lavender, Psy.D. An experiential environment is a state of being in which both therapist and client are deeply in tune with the process aspects of human being. When the therapist engages her own bodily felt sensing to resonate with her patient’s words, stories, she is cultivating a shared experiential environment. When this move‐from talking about to speaking from becomes an infinite source of meaning, beauty and vitality, it is an affirmation of the experiential environment. Joan learned Focusing in the 1970s and was immediately touched by what happens when we articulate

• ur "below the surface" experiencing. I have learned other perspectives since then, yet I still see

experiencing as the heart of our work. It engages what is unique, creative, complex and beautiful in us. Focusing Oriented Coaching & The Maori Drawing Exercise*: A Way In Presented by Judy Garfinkel, Board Certified Life & Career Coach, Certified Focusing Professional Craving for personal growth has fueled the astonishing expansion of life coaching practices across the world today. This workshop offers an introduction to the coaching framework and provides practice with The Maori Drawing Exercise, a focusing‐friendly tool that helps clients, especially those without any prior Focusing experience, access inner knowing about where they are in important areas of their lives. Judy Garfinkel (MA ACC) is dedicated to supporting people toward personal transformation through her life, learning and career coaching practice, Move Into Change. Judy’s abiding fascination with the body led her first to professional ballet and then to a 25+ year career in progressive education, where, working with children, parents and teaching colleagues, she championed the body’s wisdom as essential to all learning. Disorganized, Overwhelmed, Anxious, Depressed: Using a Relational, Focusing‐Oriented Approach to Treat “Hidden” Adult ADHD Larry Letich, LCSW‐C Adult Attention‐Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD, is misunderstood and frequently missed by clinicians, yet it is at the heart of many chronic cases of dysthymia or generalized anxiety. What's more, recent research suggests that ADHD causes predictable emotional symptoms that are every bit as debilitating as the cognitive symptoms, if not more so. These include extreme sensitivity to rejection, a "devastating" reaction to even slight criticism or disapproval, and a constant feeling/belief that one is "failing." This workshop will address how to recognize "hidden" adult ADHD and use a pragmatic yet also relational and focusing‐oriented approach to treat the emotional and cognitive dysregulation it causes. Larry Letich, LCSW‐C is an individual and marital therapist in Frederick and Rockville, Md. providing Focusing‐oriented therapy and Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT). In addition to his general individual and couples work, he specializes in the comprehensive and Focusing‐oriented treatment of gifted adults with ADHD.

Saturday Afternoon workshops: 2:30‐4 pm:

Forming Fresh Meanings as We Focus on Aging... Kelley Bothe, LICSW and Hadley Fisk, LICSW Moving into aging rarely begins with a chosen or graceful moment. Our own aging and the aging

• f those close to us confronts us with inevitable losses and changes, challenging our need for

continuity and predictability. In this experiential workshop we will share our experiences and

• ur family stories. Through Focusing we hope to move beyond our present fears and concerns

to find richer meaning in all aspects of our aging experience.

Kelley Bothe LICSW, Certified Focusing Trainer. I have been a psychotherapist in greater Boston for 25 years working with individuals and running divorce groups with a particular interest in women’s issues. I also enjoy teaching Focusing classes outside my professional community. Hadley Fisk LICSW, Certified Focusing Trainer. As a psychotherapist of 35 years, I have worked with individuals, couples and also led groups around divorce, mid‐life and Domestic Violence

• issues. Currently I'm very interested in combining Focusing with issues around aging.

Sunflower Mind (R): Attending to Implicit Movement as a Way to Create an Integrative Experience Serge Prengel, LMFT What is going on in the mind of the sunflower as it moves with the sun? Not much, if we think of mind in the conventional way. And yet, it moves and responds. In this experiential workshop, we’ll explore our Sunflower Mind. We will explore how the felt sense can be experienced not only as sensations, words or images but as implicit movement, how the body itself wants to move to respond to the environment. As we make these implicit movements explicit, patterns, meaning and life‐forward movement begin to

• emerge. Application of this work to therapy with clients will be discussed.

Serge Prengel is a therapist in private practice in New York City. He is trained in Focusing, Core Energetics and Somatic Experiencing. He is the editor of the podcast series “Somatic Perspectives on Psychotherapy” and of the Focusing conversations. He has developed creative approaches to foster mindfulness and proactive mindset. From "Knowing" and "Not‐Knowing" to "Unknowing": Letting Go of the Need to Know Susan Rudnick, LCSW Every therapist has experienced this: clients come implicitly expecting us to be the “expert” who knows how to fix his or her "problem," and despite ourselves, we feel drawn to the sense that we don’t know, but should. In this workshop we will work in a Focusing way, bringing to awareness the messages, both from our training and personal histories, that lead us to feel impelled to “know,” “solve” and “fix.” From here we’ll explore the possibility of going beyond the polarities of “knowing” and “not‐knowing” to the spaciousness and openness of “unknowing,” trusting that a truer kind of knowing will emerge. Susan Rudnick LCSW, a Focusing Oriented Therapist in private practice for over 40 years, is a Zen practitioner, deeply involved in understanding the interface of her spiritual practice and work as a

• psychotherapist. Her recent passion is facilitating a drop in Focusing oriented, peer supervision group.

She believes whether seasoned or beginner we all need to share the interconnection of our work and lives. Transformational Therapeutic Moments: From Pain to an Expanded and Enlivened Sense of Self Helene Brenner, PhD The times when clients are most deeply in pain or despair are the times when we as therapists may be most likely to distance ourselves, even subtly, from their experience. Yet if we as the therapist, suspend

• urselves, and allow ourselves to be totally present and immersed in the client's body field, we may be

able to set the stage for a deeply transformative experience, where the client emerges with a new,

expanded sense of self. Case studies of these transformative and expanded core self experiences will be presented, with suggestions for increasing their occurrence and drawing them forth. Format: Didactic/Experiential Helene Brenner, Ph.D. is a psychologist in private practice in Maryland, as well as a Focusing coordinator for the Washington, D.C. area and co‐director of the Greater Washington Center for Focusing and Focusing‐Oriented Therapy. which offers two‐year certification programs in FOT. She also teaches telecourses on Focusing and Focusing‐Oriented Therapy through Focusing Resources.

Saturday 4:15‐5:45: Welcoming the Body’s Wisdom with Drumming and Movement Led by Lillian Sober‐Ain With assistance from Beth Mahler and Beilah Ross In this interactive workshop, we will experience how drumming, resonant sound, and movement can deepen our connection to our body, help us access the felt sense, and facilitate the carrying forward process. The workshop is designed for people with or without musical knowledge. Lillian’s Sober‐Ain Certified as a Focusing‐Oriented Therapist in 2008, Lillian Sober‐Ain, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist with advanced training in collaborative hypnotherapy, EMDR, meditation, hand drumming, and the therapeutic uses of music and rhythm. Sunday morning session: 9:30‐11 am:

When the Going Gets Tough: Using Focusing to Bring Help to the Therapists’ Own Helpless Moments Lynn Preston, MA, MS, LP Our profession is a tremendous gift to us; it provides endless opportunities to grow and to engage intimately with people we might never otherwise meet, becoming part of their development and sharing in some of their most meaningful moments. Yet it can also sometimes feel like a curse, bringing us face‐to‐face with our limitations and worst fears about ourselves and the world. Bringing our clients to their edge often brings us to our own, which can be profoundly challenging when we are responsible for creating a safe space. This workshop will explore how focusing can be used to bring help to us as helpers in our most helpless moments. Lynn Preston is the founding director of the Experiential Psychotherapy Project in New York City. She is a faculty member of the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy (ICP), New York City. She has written and presented internationally on the integration of Gendlin's Focusing and Relational Self psychology. Her special interest is in experiential teaching and in the exploration of the relationship between philosophy, theory and practice.

Aging: Harvesting the Wisdom of Our Lives and Planting the Seeds for Our Growth Ruth Rosenblum, LCSW There is a “new aging” happening. As the sociologist, Anne Karpf writes: ...”the emerging age‐ acceptance movement neither decries nor denies the aging process. It recognizes that one can remain vital and present, engaged and curious, indeed continue to grow, until one’s dying breath.” This "new aging" might be described as a cultural shift from a “Paradigm of Decline” to a “Paradigm of Possibility”. The practice of Focusing is wonderfully suited to help us successfully navigate the developmental tasks of these later life stages and to support the many possibilities that this time of life

• ffers us. Using texts, experiential exercises, and discussion, we will invite ourselves “to be with” our
• aging. Together, we can open the "guest house" door to the further experiencing of our own aging ‐ no

matter what age we are ‐ and to the experience of "elderhood", be it our own, our clients or that of our friends and family members. Ruth Rosenblum, LCSW is a certified Focusing Coordinator, a Focusing‐Oriented Relational psychotherapist, and a mindfulness meditation instructor who practices in Westchester County, NY. For years, she has explored and conducted workshops in the crossing of Focusing and Spirituality. She is on staff at Westchester Jewish Community Services’ Department of Jewish Programming, where she conducts "WISE AGING" programs and leads weekly Mindfulness Meditation groups. On the Other Hand: A Focusing Oriented Method for Helping Clients Work Through Inner Conflict Eleanor Buscher, MS LPC As Focusing‐Oriented therapists we are not limited to our clients' words. Gestures and movements are rich and powerful sources of information which direct us toward and reveal conflict that is held within the body. Hands, especially, can “talk” and say things the mind cannot yet articulate. By increasing our client’s awareness of physically holding two sides of the conflict, we can help them move toward resolution and life‐forward movement. I will show how to observe, track, and reflect gestures and subtle movements to lead clients into and through a deeply felt process of inner conflict resolution. This workshop will be a demonstration with time for questions and discussion. Eleanor Buscher MS, LPC, a Licensed Professional Counselor and certified Focusing Oriented Therapist is in private practice in New Jersey. She is a founding member of NJFPA (North Jersey Focusing Professionals Assoc.) More Beauty! Robin Kappy, LCSW Humans require access to the resources and beauty of the natural world to thrive. Artists, psychotherapists and clients are engaged in the creation of beautiful or significant relationships and

• things. I will facilitate a discussion and process to explore the topic of beauty and my concept that our

primary role as psychotherapists is to assure that a myriad of beautiful, pleasurable, natural qualities and resources are available as primary experiential filters. Robin Kappy, LCSW: My specialties include the treatment of trauma, issues of creativity, depression, anxiety, relationships, sleep‐related problems and EMDR. I am a faculty member and supervisor for the

Focusing Oriented Relational Psychotherapy Program in NYC. My essays about the integration of psychotherapy and creativity have been published in journals.