Active Pause

Richard Schwartz describes how we can understand ourselves better if we think of our inner conflicts as arguments between parts of ourselves. He outlines the kind of mindful interaction through which we can assume effective leadership of these conflicting parts: We learn to compassionately listen to their deep needs underneath the bluster. There is a short demo of the process. This conversation is available as a printable PDF transcript.

Richard Schwartz co-authored, with Michael Nichols, Family Therapy: Concepts and Methods, the most widely used family therapy text in the U.S. Dr. Schwartz was Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Institute for Juvenile Research and later at The Family Institute at Northwestern University. He developed Internal Family SystemsSM in response to clients’ descriptions of various parts within themselves. IFS is a nonpathologizing, hopeful framework within which to practice psychotherapy. In 2000, Dr. Schwartz founded the Center for Self Leadership in Oak Park, Illinois. CSL offers three levels of training in IFS, workshops for professionals and for the general public, an annual national conference, publications, and DVDs of Dr. Schwartz’s work through its web site at www.selfleadership.org.   IFS trainings and workshops are also being held in several European countries. Dr. Schwartz has published five books and over fifty articles.

See also conversation with Richard Schwartz about Internal Family Systems.

Published January 2017

This conversation with Peter Levine is about different types of memory. We talk about trauma, but also about the fluid notion of self that goes together with this understanding of memory. This conversation is available as a video, as well as audio only, and as a printable PDF transcript.

Peter A Levine, PhD – is a forerunner in body-oriented approaches to trauma. He is the developer of Somatic Experiencing® a naturalistic, approach to healing trauma which he has developed during the past 45 years. He has received the Lifetime Achievement award from the US Association for Body Psychotherapy, and an honorary award as the Reiss-Davis Chair for his lifetime contribution to infant and child psychiatry. Dr. Levine served as a Stress consultant for NASA in the early space shuttle development and has served on the APA task force for responding to large scale disasters and ethno-political warfare. He is currently a Senior Fellow and consultant at The Meadows Addiction and Trauma Treatment Center in Wickenburg, Arizona. He is the author of several best-selling books on trauma, including Waking the Tiger, Healing Trauma, published in 26 languages, and Trauma and Memory; Brain and Body in a Search for the Living Past.

See also: Conversation with Peter Levine about Somatic Experiencing therapy.

Published December 2016

In this 6-minute video, Russell Delman shares his perspective on how we can find gratitude within ourselves, even under difficult circumstances.

Russell Delman’s dedication to the study of awareness and human potential began in 1969 as a college undergraduate. The main influences on his teaching are over 40 years of Zen meditation, his close relationship and training with Moshe Feldenkrais (he has helped to train over 2500 Feldenkrais teachers worldwide), a deep study of somatic psychology including Focusing, and his rich family life. Over the last seven years, his friendship with Gene Gendlin has illuminated his understanding of life and had a strong influence on his teaching. See his website.

See other conversation with Russell Delman 

Published November 2016

Karen Liebenguth talks about how she practices mindfulness in nature. This conversation is available as a video, as well as audio only, and as a printable PDF transcript.

Karen is a qualified coach, a Focusing practitioner and an accredited mindfulness teacher. She works with individuals and organisations to foster personal development and specialises in working with clients outdoors in London’s parks and green space where she believes insight, change and creativity can happen most naturally. Karen regularly runs mindfulness courses, workshops and walks. Her joys in life are being in nature, Buddhist practice, living simply and communally and friendships. Karen is German and has lived in London for 15 years. If you have a question or would like to talk more with Karen about her approach, feel free to contact her: www.greenspacecoaching.com

Published November 2016

We think of mindfulness as a solitary or inner pursuit. What about what happens in interaction? In this conversation we are talking about how to approach human interaction as a form of mindfulness where we are noticing our innate reactivity and gaining access to a more evolved part of ourselves, and how in doing so we are transforming our sense of self and our relationships with others.

This conversation is available as a video, as well as audio only, and as a printable PDF transcript.

Barbara Dickinson finished a long career at the US Federal Reserve in 2010, and now consults on strategic organizational improvement. She has earned, among other credentials, certification as a Strengths Performance Coach from the Gallup Organization. In 2006, she learned the practice called Focusing, completing her certification as a Focusing Professional in 2009, and is now an enthusiastic learner and teacher of the many facets of focusing and the related practice, “Thinking at the Edge.” After volunteering her services to The Focusing Institute as a management consultant in 2011 and 2012, Barbara decided to share her expertise more widely as a strengths-oriented consultant interested in helping especially non-profit organizations innovate, think and work at their “edge,” improve emotional intelligence and build better teams. Barbara lives in New Jersey with Holly, her Jack Russell Terrier.

See also other conversations and articles about Focusing

Published October 2016

In this conversation, we explore a paradigm shift and its implications.  “The whole history of the study of mental and psychological processes has been so focused on the individual’s responses, yet the individual’s responses are being framed and interacting through a connectedness with others.” The Polyvagal theory developed by Stephen Porges “forces an attention away from the individual to the individual within context.” In this context, mindful self-regulation may be better described as co-regulation. This far-ranging conversation also touches on the importance of listening to others and to our own bodily feelings, how we deal with threat and find safety. In addition to the audio, there is also a printable PDF transcript.

Stephen W. Porges, PhD, is Distinguished University Scientist at Indiana University, where he directs the Trauma Research Center within the Kinsey Institute. He holds the position of Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina and Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Maryland. He served as president of both the Society for Psychophysiological Research and the Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences and is a former recipient of a National Institute of Mental Health Research Scientist Development Award. He has published more than 250 peer‐reviewed scientific papers across several disciplines including anesthesiology, critical care medicine, ergonomics, exercise physiology, gerontology, neurology, obstetrics, pediatrics, psychiatry, psychology, space medicine, and substance abuse. In 1994 he proposed the Polyvagal Theory, a theory that links the evolution of the mammalian autonomic nervous system to social behavior and emphasizes the importance of physiological state in the expression of behavioral problems and psychiatric disorders.

See printable PDF transcript. See also conversation with Stephen Porges about the Polyvagal theory.

Published September 2016

In this video, we spend a mindful moment with Caterina Carta as she reflects on flowing with life and dealing with life’s challenges, her illness and chemo, what we mean by meaning, and what it’s like to feel a sense of connection to something larger.

Caterina Carta works as High School teacher and Focusing-oriented counselor and trainer in Sardinia, Italy. After different occupations in sustainable tourism as trainer and consultant, she decided to come back to her first job as school teacher. She builds relationships with her students in a deep and authentic way supporting them to discover and follow their own dreams. “Teaching in a playful way” is her motto. Since 1996, she has been committed to personal growth, conflict resolution and meditation. As she met Focusing, she recognized something precious which changed her relationship with herself. She especially appreciated it during some challenges in her life where Focusing accompanied her in a gentle way, helping her to see new perspectives. She is grateful to Eugene Gendlin and to those who are spreading Focusing to the world. She likes travelling, hiking, practicing Tai Chi and being in nature.

Published August 2016. 

In this video, we spend a mindful moment with Caterina Carta as she reflects on flowing with life and dealing with life’s challenges, her illness and chemo, what we mean by meaning, and what it’s like to feel a sense of connection to something larger.

Audio only:

Caterina Carta works as High School teacher and Focusing-oriented counselor and trainer in Sardinia, Italy. After different occupations in sustainable tourism as trainer and consultant, she decided to come back to her first job as school teacher. She builds relationships with her students in a deep and authentic way supporting them to discover and follow their own dreams. “Teaching in a playful way” is her motto. Since 1996, she has been committed to personal growth, conflict resolution and meditation. As she met Focusing, she recognized something precious which changed her relationship with herself. She especially appreciated it during some challenges in her life where Focusing accompanied her in a gentle way, helping her to see new perspectives. She is grateful to Eugene Gendlin and to those who are spreading Focusing to the world. She likes travelling, hiking, practicing Tai Chi and being in nature.

Published August 2016. 

In this conversation, we explore the notion of well-being and explore dimensions of well-being that have been neglected by mainstream psychology. In particular we consider the role of embodiment and spiritual surrender in well-being and try to link this to mindfulness, stress physiology, social inequalities in health. See also printable PDF transcript.

Dr. John Christopher is a psychotherapist, consultant, coach, and scholar who is an internationally recognized expert in well-being. John is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and former President of the Society of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology (Division 24 of the APA). He has received numerous awards including a Fulbright Scholar Award and the Sigmund Koch Early Career Award by the APA. John is also a Fellow of the Mind and Life Institute. Before going into private practice full-time, John was a Professor for 23 years at Dartmouth, the University of Washington, Montana State University, and the University of Guam. For over twenty years he has assisted health care professionals and the general public in cultivating self-care and preventing burnout and has pioneered the application of mindfulness training to graduate education of counselors and psychotherapists.

Published July 2016

In this conversation, we explore constructivism, modern physics, and the conceptualization and process of psychotherapy. Psychotherapy can be viewed as a “destabilizing dance” between a therapy and patient who are part of an unstable interactional system. It seems to operate within a constructed world of “meaning making” and focuses on “stories” or “attributes” of “things” rather than “things” from a Newtonian or medical model perspective. Constructivism, as a meta-theory, as well as 20th century physics, have significant implications for how to define problems, conceptualize psychotherapy, and intervene with clients who experience the limitations of their own models of reality.

Kjell Erik Rudestam is a teacher, researcher, consultant, and practicing clinical psychologist. After graduating from the University of Oregon with a Ph.D. in psychology he served as an Associate Professor at Miami of Ohio and a Professor of Psychology at York University in Toronto. Currently he is on the faculty of Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, where he has also served as Associate Dean and Director of Clinical Training. Kjell is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Division 12) and a Diplomate of the American Board of Examiners in Psychology (Clinical) and holds an Honorary Doctorate of Science. He is the author of nine academic texts and numerous journal articles on psychotherapy and the process of change, group and family therapy, crisis and suicide, and research methodology. Most recent publications are Your Statistical Consultant (2014, 2nd ed.) and Surviving Your Dissertation (2015, 4th ed.), co-authored by Rae Newton.

Published May 2016