I am passionate about Focusing.

I feel strongly that we live in an historical time of crisis that affects us all from the most intimate to the most global levels. Many of us are feeling overwhelmed or apathetic, or we are falling sick, or have fallen into poverty or addiction. At times like this we need to re-invent our ways of being as family members, neighbors, workers, and citizens.

Focusing helps us in this process, gently offering us ways to mend and heal even what we at first may have not recognized as needing healing, bringing attention to the yet unspoken experiences that inform our most intimate ways of being.

I have found Focusing to be a practice of hope, liberation, and friendship.  Yet it is a humble practice, not grandiose but realistic, working its way with kindness and a bearable natural pace. This is why since 2004 I have committed to Focusing not only as a profession but also as a way of building communities and new ways of living.

I am a certified Focusing Trainer, having studied intensively with Ann Weiser Cornell, as well as with Barbara McGavin in their Treasure Maps to the Soul.

I bring to Focusing an anthropological understanding of socio-cultural patterns and how they impact the way we interpret and confront life challenges. I also bring to the practice my extensive research in the relationship between language and embodied experience, valuing both as essential aspects for communicating, understanding, and growth.

Years of engagement with structured improvisation as a dancer of Contact Improvisation, Motivity (aerial dancing with low flying trapezes and bungies) and West African dance forms have also informed the way I teach and practice Focusing.

Introductory session (75 minutes): $45.
Private sessions (from 40 to 75 minutes): $70 per hour if booked singly; $60 per hour for a commitment of 3 consecutive sessions.
 
If you are working two jobs to make ends meet or have no access to money and are highly motivated to learn, I am also available to negotiate something workable for both of us.

I offer the following as either workshops or tutorials. Please contact me about scheduling and fees.

Inner Relationship Focusing: A series of 4 workshops (Level 1 through 4) designed to teach you basic and advanced Focusing skills. For a full description of these courses visit:
http://focusingpathways.net/training.html

See Workshops by Date or Location for some of my currently scheduled workshops.

Movement and Focusing: We begin with gentle movement warm-ups and explorations to create a flexible body-self that deepens our capacity for felt-sensing and safe receptivity. Further along the Focusing process we use inner-directed movement to both accompany our inner sensing as well as symbolize our experience, exploring the implicit rhythms and directions of our being and our coming to language. 

Corporgraphy (writing from, for, and with the body). Especially designed for body-workers, dancers, movement therapists, martial artists, and other body-centered practitioners who want to write about their practices. We use Focusing and writing as ways of connecting and identifying the core principles of your practice, to better communicate your work to clients and colleagues, or to question the creative and professional habits inscribed in your body-process for further research and development. Prerequisite: Focusing Level 1

Writer’s block: for new and seasoned writers alike. We address the powerful inner critics and emotional holding patterns that keep us from writing, as well as learn a Focusing approach to writing that is sure to re-awaken your creative and analytical thinking, poetic expression, and motivation. I especially welcome dissertation writers in the humanities and social sciences. Prerequisite: Focusing Level 1

Work projects: using the Focusing process and principles from the Philosophy of the Implicit (Eugene Gendlin), we will explore your creativity, intuition, sense of purpose, commitment and vision to develop your work projects in manageable and sustainable bits. Prerequisite: Focusing Level 1

Focusing Pathways,
P.O. Box 5614
Berkeley, CA 94705