Active Pause

Focusing is a mindful process of inner exploration. In this conversation, Jeffrey Morrison shares what it is like to be Focusing based on a recent Focusing session. This is of interest to Focusers, but also to non-Focusers who are curious about the process of Focusing. As Jeffrey is experienced in both mindfulness meditation and Focusing, we touch upon the similarities and differences between these two practices during the conversation.

A Focusing-Oriented psychotherapist and Focusing Coordinator, Jeffrey Morrison practices in Seattle and Vashon Island, Washington, USA. He specializes in working with complex trauma and teaching Focusing to therapists and other healing professionals. He has developed a FOT training program, which blends Focusing, mindfulness and other embodied practices for unwinding trauma and restoring wellbeing. He lives on Vashon Island with his wife, who is a teacher. They enjoy time with their son and daughter when they are home from college, gardening, walking, and spending vacations near water. See website.

Published December 2018.

Alice’s creativity and vitality have always been amazing. As a pioneering therapist, researcher and feminist, she put the G Spot on the map of public consciousness. At 97, she maintains a private practice as a psychologist in New Mexico. I reconnected with her in early November at the USABP conference in sunny Santa Barbara. This conversation takes place a few weeks later, on a snowy New York day, where she is visiting family for Thanksgiving. So, what sustains her?

At some point in the interview, Alice talks about the benefits of living in a small community. Reviewing the video, she adds: “The other side of that, if you live in a small community, is that the beliefs of that community can impose very strict limits on what you can believe or do.”.

At the end of this conversation, Alice Ladas asks people to support the Cloudbuster project led by Dr James DeMeo. Here is where you can donate if you wish to do so.

Alice K. Ladas, Ed. D., is a pioneer for body psychotherapy, educated childbirth, breastfeeding, and sexuality education.  The research she and her husband did (Women and Bioenergetic Analysis)  led to meeting her co-authors on the NY Times bestseller The G Spot and Other Discoveries About Human Sexuality. Alice was chair of the research committee of the US Association for Body Psychotherapy (USABP) for many years. In 2008, the USABP honored Alice by naming its research award The Alice Kahn Ladas Research Award to honor her for her tireless efforts to further research in Somatic Psychotherapy. She is a licensed psychologist in New Mexico.

See other conversation on this site with Alice Ladas and conversation with her  about therapy.

Published November 2018

Alice’s creativity and vitality have always been amazing. As a pioneering therapist, researcher and feminist, she put the G Spot on the map of public consciousness. At 97, she maintains a private practice as a psychologist in New Mexico. I reconnected with her in early November at the USABP conference in sunny Santa Barbara. This conversation takes place a few weeks later, on a snowy New York day, where she is visiting family for Thanksgiving. So, what sustains her?

Audio only:

At some point in the interview, Alice talks about the benefits of living in small community. Reviewing the video, she adds: “The other side of that, if you live in a small community, is that the beliefs of that community can impose very strict limits on what you can believe or do.”.

At the end of this conversation, Alice Ladas asks people to support the Cloudbuster project led by Dr James DeMeo. Here is where you can donate if you wish to do so.

Alice K. Ladas, Ed. D., is a pioneer for body psychotherapy, educated childbirth, breastfeeding, and sexuality education.  The research she and her husband did (Women and Bioenergetic Analysis)  led to meeting her co-authors on the NY Times best seller The G Spot and Other Discoveries About Human Sexuality. Alice was chair of the research committee of the US Association for Body Psychotherapy (USABP) for many years. In 2008, the USABP honored Alice by naming its research award The Alice Kahn Ladas Research Award to honor her for her tireless efforts to further research in Somatic Psychotherapy. She is a licensed psychologist in New Mexico.

Published November 2018 – See other conversation on this site with Alice Ladas and conversation with her  about therapy.

In this conversation, we uncover some of the many layers of listening, inspired on Rob’s new book. In addition to the video below, there is also a printable PDF transcript.

What about listening? Here are three ways to think about it.

First:

How any religion has a boundary. There is an ‘us’and a ‘them’. And listening is a bigger thing than religion. Listening has no boundary. Whoever we meet shows us a new world.

Second:

How listening makes it possible not to be missionary. I don’t have to say, ‘Here I am. You can learn from me.’ I feel squeamish when I say that. I feel fine when I say, ‘Here you are. I can learn from you.’

Finally:

How I want two things. I want to follow the natural line, the line of your thoughts and feelings. I say:

We have to approach the natural line with respect always, even with reverence.

And I want to be meditative, to approach the hidden, the place where silence falls; to come close to the gates of dawn, where new light may break over the horizon.

So there’s a conflict inherent in the practice of listening. Wanting the speaker to wait upon the unknown has a tendency to corrupt being faithful to the natural line. It’s a happy thing when the two come together:

When you feel heard a silence falls.

In that silence more may come.

Often it is something deeper: you can feel it

Just now forming at the edge of being.

Who is Rob Foxcroft? “I’ve been a classical musician all my life and have been teaching piano-playing for many years. Almost from the beginning I found that listening to other people did more for my life than anything else could do. In March 1988 I went to Chicago to learn focusing-and-listening from Gene Gendlin. Later I studied the person-centered approach with Brian Thorne. I write poems and essays. I used to build drystone walls and have loved creating a garden. I like to be in the hills, by the sea or quietly at home with my family. I recently brought out a book about empathy, self-empathy and the act of listening. It is called: Feeling Heard, Hearing Others.” See website/book.

Published September 2018.

In this conversation, we explore a creative thinking process known as Thinking At the Edge (TAE). However, there is no need to actually know this process, or to know Focusing, in order to follow the conversation. This is because this conversation is a reflection on the nature of intuitive thinking and how the creative process can be helped by having somebody accompany the process.

This conversation is available as a video, as well as audio only.

Dr. Evelyn Fendler-Lee is an organizational psychologist, certified as a person-centered counselor as well as a Focusing trainer. She brings 20 years of experience in teamwork, leadership and project management while working as material scientist in well-respected research institutes and in the automotive and chemical industry.

Evelyn works as a self-employed trainer and coach, facilitating innovation, professional and personal development. As team facilitator she enables trust, respectful interactions, productive conflicts, co-creation and consequently extraordinary results and solutions. She is in charge of TAE training at the German Training Institute for Focusing (DAF) and she presents international TAE workshops and TAE online sessions.

Evelyn is convinced that responsible thinking and acting begins with the ability to lift our experience and to bring it into fruitful communication. Her vision is to transform teamwork into a win-win interplay with taking hunches seriously. See website.

Published July 2018.

In this conversation, Pat Ogden talks about how we can use our own movement and body to enhance our psychological health. This conversation is available as a video, as well as audio only.

Pat Ogden, PhD, is a pioneer in somatic psychology and the Founder of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute (SPI), an internationally recognized school specializing in somatic–cognitive approaches for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder and attachment disturbances.   SPI trainers conduct Sensorimotor Psychotherapy trainings of over 400 hours for mental health professionals throughout the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia. She is co-founder of the Hakomi Institute, past faculty of Naropa University (1985-2005), a clinician, consultant, and sought after international lecturer. Dr. Ogden is the first author of two groundbreaking books: Trauma and the Body: A Sensorimotor Approach to Psychotherapy and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Trauma and Attachment (2015) both published in the Interpersonal Neurobiology Series of W. W. Norton. Her current interests include writing and developing trainings in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy for: children adolescents and families, Embedded Relational Mindfulness, culture and diversity, couple therapy, challenging clients and the relational nature of shame.

For therapists: See conversation with Pat Ogden about therapy.

Published May 2018 

We all agree that meditation is very important, but what exactly is meditation? Abhijit Naskar invites us to think in terms of functionality as opposed to tradition. Not that there is anything wrong with traditional meditation practices… but we may be unnecessarily limiting our options.  In this conversation, we talk about finding ways to develop our ability to be in a mindful state of flow.

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

Abhijit Naskar is the author of several books that explore how a basic awareness of the brain can completely redefine our perception of life. He advocates meeting face to face with our inner selves, beyond our preconceived notions, to make our daily life much more cheerful and meaningful. Abhijit was born in Calcutta, India. He quit his computer engineering studies and embarked on an expedition of scientific research. A self-educated neuroscientist, he has been speaking about the mind and brain in the corporate, education and healthcare sectors. He also speaks on issues of mental wellness and global harmony. See his Linked In profile.

Published March 2018.

In this brief conversation with Monica Gomez Galaz, we touch upon what it’s like to be human, in a down-to-earth way, moment by moment, as we are in touch with our vulnerabilities.

Monica is a Focusing coordinator in Mexico City. She says: I have been Focusing for the last eight years and became a Certified Coordinartor on 2012. I did a big shift in My life in 2008 after working in the financial arena for 15 years and opened my own Coaching firm that gave me the opportunity to help people during important transitions in their lives. A writer, a passionate and curious person, that brought me to be interested on de biology of the body and family systems. I integrated Whole Body Focusing with Biodecoding, so we can be more gentle to our symptoms. I am thrilled and exited to welcome all you to the 28th Focusing International Conference in Mexico in Merida, Yucatan. In memory of Eugene Gendlin and his desire to return to the principle of being human to understand life, the theme of the conference will be: “Just Human”

Published January 2018

In this brief conversation with Monica Gomez Galaz, we touch upon what it’s like to be human, in a down-to-earth way, moment by moment, as we are in touch with our vulnerabilities.

Audio only:

Monica is a Focusing coordinator in Mexico City. She says: I have been Focusing for the last eight years and became a Certified Coordinartor on 2012. I did a big shift in My life in 2008 after working in the financial arena for 15 years and opened my own Coaching firm that gave me the opportunity to help people during important transitions in their lives. A writer, a passionate and curious person, that brought me to be interested on de biology of the body and family systems. I integrated Whole Body Focusing with Biodecoding, so we can be more gentle to our symptoms. I am thrilled and exited to welcome all you to the 28th Focusing International Conference in Mexico in Merida, Yucatan. In memory of Eugene Gendlin and his desire to return to the principle of being human to understand life, the theme of the conference will be: “Just Human”

This conversation is available as a video, as well as audio only (below video).

Stephen Batchelor” width=”150″ height=”150″ />Stephen Batchelor is a writer, translator, teacher and artist. Born in 1953, he was ordained as a Buddhist monk at the age of twenty and spent ten years training in the Tibetan Geluk and Korean Sŏn orders. In 2015 he co-founded Bodhi College, a European educational project dedicated to the understanding and application of early Buddhism. He is the author of the bestselling Buddhism without Beliefs (Riverhead). His most recent publications are After Buddhism and Secular Buddhism (Yale University Press). He travels worldwide to lecture and lead retreats and lives in south-west France with his wife Martine. See website.

Published November 2017