Active Pause

We talk about metaphors that Salvador Moreno-López uses to understand and orient interaction in psychotherapy and daily life, such as the music of the speech and a jazz duo.

Dr. Salvador Moreno-López, Ph.D., Universidad Iberoamericana, in México City.

Certified Focusing Instructor and Certifying Coordinador for Mexico of the International Focusing Institute.

Has been a professor at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, and at the ITESO in Guadalajara, in postgraduate studies in Psychotherapy and Human Development. Has led workshops at Universidad de Fortaleza, Brasil.

His most recent book: Descubriendo mi Sabiduría Corporal, Focusing. Articles include: Tendencia actualizante, sabiduría organísmica y comprensión del mundo; Focusing with the Stresses of Everyday Life; and Vivir saludablemente y Enfoque Corporal.

Director of Focusing México, psychotherapist, group leader and lecturer. His focus is understanding the interaction between physical and emotional health, with an emphasis on the experiential dimension, and in identifying implications in terms of promoting health.

Published December 2021.

In this 9-minute video, Serge Prengel describes an embodied perspective on how we experience a sense of being (part of) something larger.

Published November 2021.

This conversation starts with a guided, experiential exploration. Then we talk about early developmental experiences, with a perspective informed by trauma therapy and mindfulness.

Cherionna Menzam-Sills, Ph.D., began teaching Embodied Embryology through somatic movement in 1997 as part of her doctoral studies in Pre- & Perinatal Psychology, which led to her teaching at Naropa University and the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute. She has taught and facilitated Pre- and Perinatal Psychology/Therapy, Continuum, a mindful movement practice, and Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy globally, often with her husband, Biodynamics pioneer Franklyn Sills. Her background includes extensive study with Pre- and Perinatal Psychology pioneers William Emerson and Ray Castellino, and Continuum founder, Emilie Conrad, who authorized her to teach Continuum in 2007. Cherionna has authored two books, The Breath of Life: An Introduction Craniosacral Biodynamics and, recently, Spirit into Form: Exploring Embryological Potential and Prenatal Psychology. Cherionna is committed in her work & life to embodied presence. See website.

Published November 2021.

Elliot Jurist and I had planned to have a recorded conversation about his perspectives on the human mind. Ten days before our conversation, his father passed away. So we talked about the process of mourning and how it relates to the human condition.

Elliot Jurist, Ph.D., Ph.D. is Professor of Psychology at The City College of New York, CUNY.  From 2004-2013, he served as the Director of the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program at CUNY. From 2008-2018, he was the Editor of Psychoanalytic Psychology, the journal of Division 39 of the APA. He is the editor of a book series, Psychoanalysis and Psychological Science, from Guilford, and author of a book in the series, Minding Emotions: Cultivating Mentalization in Psychotherapy, which was named best theoretical book in 2019 by the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis. He is the author of Beyond Hegel and Nietzsche: Philosophy, Culture and Agency  (MIT Press, 2000) and co-author of Affect Regulation, Mentalization and the Development of the Self (Other Press, 2002), and co-editor of Mind to Mind: Infant Research, Neuroscience, and Psychoanalysis (Other Press, 2008).  In 2014, he received the Scholarship Award from Division 39 of the APA.

Published October 2021.

In this far-ranging conversation, we talk about the limitations of “McMindfulness” and discuss what it feels like to explore a new sense of self in the context of interaction.

Ronald Purser, Ph.D. is the Lam-Larsen Distinguished Research Professor of Management at San Francisco State University. His latest book, McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality, was published by Repeater Books/Penguin Random House. Dr. Purser is host of the Mindful Cranks podcast. See his website.

Published August 2021.

So, just human… Just human… So, for me, that is in contrast to those times when we talk about something transcendent, something like religious ideas, ideologies, and something out there that gives meaning… Whereas — just human — we are at the center of meaning [as something essentially subjective].

So, just human… Just human… As we focus on the experience, this experience is also going to be something that’s going to affect our sensations, our felt sense, moment by moment. We slow down, we pause. We’re not just carried away by big things. We pause, we check inside. As we pause and check inside, we also notice the other person, or the other people, as people. And so again, from the place of “just human,” we communicate with each other as human beings, as opposed to obstacles in the way of something transcendent. When we are in that mode — paying attention to our experience — even when we are exploring big ideas or transcendent experiences…

When we pay attention to our own experience, we are away from the realm of the black and white, the simplistic, the “this is right” and “this is wrong”. We are in a much murkier zone, a grayer zone, where words don’t necessarily have simple meanings. This is the “hmm”, the pausing, paying attention to it…

And so we’re very much in a Focusing mode. And Focusing is the attitude, the tool, the language that enables us to explore that area of “just human”… of human experience… In which we can touch upon the trivial, but also the sublime, in such a way that we can feel the richness and complexity of it. And we can build bridges to communicate, develop the richness and complexity of it with other people who do not necessarily come from the same point of view.

That’s the beauty of being just human.

Published July 2021

In this conversation, we explore faith as a human experience. That is, it need not be attached to any religious narrative. We talk about finding faith organically in the midst of darkness and doubt — far from the contrived positivity of “have faith!”

Monica Gomez Galaz is a Focusing Coordinator in Mexico City. She is a personal coach and focusing trainer. As a curious dreamer and a never-ending student of life, she is interested in how personal evolution connects us with something bigger. Through Biodecoding and Focusing, she has a better understanding of her own Body History. In her practice, she has evolved a new way of bringing awareness to biological function creating a natural trust in the process.

Özlem Maviş is currently working as a care aide for people with developmental disabilities in Victoria, Canada, and studying spiritually integrated psychotherapy. Focusing, since she discovered it in 2017, has guided her consistently within her inner landscape. She is particularly interested in combining Focusing with creative expression and sensing a subtle language of the soul. She makes watercolor illustrations that are inspired by the sacred presence she senses when her heart is still, or when it is dancing and glimmering with life.

Published July 2021.

Annie Bloch has been practicing meditation and Focusing. She talks about Focusing as a direct connection with our inner wisdom.

Annie Bloch is a hunter- gatherer-gardener in the fields of systems thinking, cognitive sciences, and psychotherapy. French and half American, on a dual path: Buddhist and Jewish.

Published June 2021.

Suzanne Noel talks about what sustains her: swimming, riding a motorbike, and connecting with others.

Suzanne Noel is a Certifying Coordinator for the International Focusing Institute.in New York. She developed Recovery Focusing (the crossing of the 12 Steps for addictive process with Felt Sensing), out of which she developed her H.O.W. We Heal model for groups. She enjoys dabbling in poetry and different kinds of art. Her passion is riding her motorcycle in beautiful Costa Rica.

Published May 2021.

Bruce Gibbs talks about what his practices of meditation and Focusing have in common, what is different about them, and how they can enhance each other.

Bruce Gibbs, Ph.D., has explored consciousness, both academically and experientially, for many decades. He has practiced Yoga, Vipassana, and Zen meditation. He teaches Focusing and meditation, has developed a form of Felt Sense meditation, and is dedicated to experimenting with the crossing of the two.

Published April 2021.