Focusing is a special way of paying attention to yourself that allows you to bypass intellectual understanding and go directly to a deep body knowing and sense the whole way you are feeling about a situation or issue in your life.  It is different from just having emotions or getting in touch with your feelings.  Focusing shifts the relationship you have to your feelings and emotions so that you can become a good listener for your inner experience.  As a research-based, body centered, mindfulness practice that is easily integrated with other clinical orientations and healing modalities, it is itself a doorway into a grounded sense of self-discovery.

This workshop teaches the basics of Focusing alone, with a partner, and how to begin to introduce experiential listening and Focusing in your professional practice. This first workshop is the foundation of discovering the profound impact Focusing has on communicating with patients. You will gain access to the rich inner wisdom that unfolds as you find Presence in your own life, and then how to facilitate a Focusing approach to healing with others.

Workshop Benefits:

Workshop Benefits:

• Approved for 12 continuing education units
• Receive Focusing manual and supporting materials for learning.
• Learn how to incorporate new Focusing skills in your personal life and your professional practice.
• Help patients be present with difficult experiences and emotions rather than overwhelmed by them. (remove)
• Help patients listen to and communicate from a deeper part of themselves.(remove)
• Learn how to listen to patients in a way that helps them feel heard and accepted.(remove)
• Help patients feel safe and in their bodies while communicating difficult experiences. (remove)
• Learn how to attend to an unclear bodily felt sensation that has meaning and is called the “felt sense.” (remove)
• Learn how to use language to help a patient feel present and grounded.
• Learn the stages of Focusing
• Be introduced to the philosophy of Eugene Gendlin, PhD., who introduced Focusing.
• Receive resources to be able to continue a Focusing practice outside of class.
• Gain confidence in helping patients feel empowered.
• Broaden your awareness of grounded supportive space to facilitate healing.
• Develop openness to engage with the unique felt experience of yourself and patient.
• Gain confidence to trust the inner knowing of yourself and patient.
• Develop greater ability to attract, develop, and retain long term relationships with patients.Deepen your capacity to listen to your patients, to support them in telling you what it is that is going on with them, and what it is they really need.

Course notes:

Please read: The Door Opens; Chapter 1 of The Focusing Student and Companion’s Guide by Ann Weiser Cornell and Barbara McGavin. Additional recommended (not required) Reading: Focusing by Eugene Gendlin, PhD

Please view videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7PEC5Mh5FY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmL4zjVi8Dk

Students are invited to experience a free Focusing session prior to class.  Please visit Focusing Resources athttps://focusingresources.com/one-to-one-focusing-sessions/ for more information.

Please Bring: Personal water bottle (filtered water dispensers available on campus to refill).

Please Wear: Comfortable Clothes

Meals: One hour lunch break – Bring a sack lunch or eat in Bastyr’s dining commons. Dining commons closes 2:00pm Sat & Sun.

Location: Bastyr University Kenmore Campus, room #284. Bastyr University is housed in an older facility with fluctuating interior temperatures; it is advisable to wear layers. Also, Bastyr is a “fragrance-free” campus.

Instructor: Dawn Flynn ND, LAc and David Martin, MD, LAc

Dawn Flynn is a Naturopathic Physician with 20 years experience, licensed acupuncturist, and certified Focusing teacher. Her article, “Finding Wholeness in What has Been Shattered: Integrating Focusing into a Holistic Medical Practice” was published in The Folio, journal of the Focusing Institute in 2015.  For more information visit www.drdawnflynn.com

David Martin, MD has a longstanding interest in human potentials, healing, and human development. He studied systems theory and neurosciences at Dartmouth, M.I.T. and Harvard Medical School, then turned to the development of the consciousness of individuals and groups and its relationship to level of functioning and health. He is grateful to have found living lineages of healing practice that call for the development of the consciousness, the presence and the sensing capacities of the practitioner in the service of the same in the client. His practice, centered on Constitutional Five-Element Acupuncture and Focusing, is based in Seattle since 1996.  DavidRMartinMD.com