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By Kathy McGuire, September 1, 2008 12:31 pm

OFFERED BY CREATIVE EDGE ASSOCIATE AND INNER RELATIONSHIP TEACHER RUTH HIRSCH: 

One must not search outside nature,
but within oneself,
where the keys to harmony and happiness lie.
Marc Chagall

Following is information on a new Level One Inner Relationship Focusing Telephone course that will be starting in the coming month. Please feel free to pass this information on to others who you think might benefit from it.

The classes are largely experiential, with plenty of time for questions and practice. The trainings have been described as clear, comprehensive, enjoyable, and significantly growth enhancing at the same time.

All this from the comfort and safety of your own home or office!

Focusing offers a way to enhance all aspects of your personal and professional life, including quality of relationships, increased effectiveness in your work, and even improved quality of life.

Here are a few quotes from former Focusing students:

“From this work I’ve been able to know what really brings me joy. The process feels sacred.
It’s like listening to that quiet inner voice that knows.”

“The work … was a watershed experience for me. It allowed me to connect with my emotions.
All the talking from years of therapy didn’t let me reach my feelings the way this work did.”

“This process has made a huge difference in how I treat myself. No longer is my harsh inner critic in control!”

Here’s the flyer for the course:

FROM THE BODY COMES OUR NEXT MOVES
A quote from Eugene Gendlin, Discoverer/Creator of Focusing

The body is not just a pipeline for incoming sensory data.
It’s not a safe deposit box where you put something in
and expect to get the same thing out.
There’s something more.  The body can imply something new-a right next step.
It’s more like you put a worm into a cocoon and get a butterfly back.

Level 1: Focusing Basics: Self Guiding, and Empathic Listening
  4 Thursdays: 9.11, 18, 25, & 10.2  10 am – 12:30 pm EDT Eastern Time

This is a great opportunity to learn the basics of Focusing: How to Focus alone & with a partner, as well as how to facilitate focusing for another focuser-  And to reap the benefits of enhanced relationships with yourself and others, stress reduction, ease of decision making, and much more!  All this from the comfort and safety of your own home or office.

For more information regarding how Focusing might benefit you and your life, feel free to write or call Ruth (see below for contact info.)

Level One is the prerequisite for all advanced Focusing courses.

The only pre-requisite for this course is to have a Focusing session facilitated by a Certified Focusing Trainer. I am offering individual sessions by phone, toll-free for residents of the US, Canada, Ireland, UK, Italy, Spain, and France.

About the Trainer: Ruth is a Certified Focusing trainer and Certifying Coordinator for The Focusing Institute. For the past 18 years she has maintained a private practice in which she works with people individually, and in groups. Ruth began Focusing 16 years ago, and is now in her 14th year of training others in using this wonderful process for themselves and with others.

In her individual work, she specializes in balancing and bringing peace, comfort, and insight to body, mind, heart and spirit.  In her teaching, she delights in sharing Focusing with others as an individual life-enhancing practice, and as an adjunct to enhance the work of other healing professions.

General Info: This course is limited to a maximum of 6 participants. The training is largely experiential, and is taught in a clear, compassionate, enjoyable manner. Registration fees include the course, unlimited questions between sessions (to be answered via email or at the next class session), and a manual specific to each level.

The fee for each level is $250, payable by credit card, or US check. There is a 10% Discount for pre-payment of all 4 levels. Also, space permitting, those who have already taken a Level One course with any certified Inner Relationship Focusing trainer and would like to review the level may do so for half price. The class size is limited to a maximum of 6 participants.

The course will be taught via a Conference line to a US telephone number.

VERY IMPORTANT: To register, or for any questions, comments, or to just say hello, please contact Ruth directly at rhirsch@netvision.net.il (i.e. not by pressing return to this email if you’ve received it from the Focusing Discussion List), and/or by calling 510.868.0885.

If these dates and/or times don’t work for you, please let me know what would work so that your needs might be considered in future scheduling.
—
RUTH HIRSCH  MSW, MPH, CMT
Focusing Trainer  & Certifying Coordinator

Israel  02. 563.0999
U.S.   510-868-0885

What lies behind us and what lies before us
are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

http://www.innerrelationship.com/teachers/hirsch.html

From Creative Edge Focusing (TM): Find links to free articles, personality tests, multi-media Self-Help training, Classes and workshops

Dr. Kathy McGuire, Director

Creative Edge Focusing (TM)

www.cefocusing.com

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By Kathy McGuire, August 13, 2008 9:39 am

CEF NEWS AND GOODS E-NEWSLETTER
 
Starting today, I am offering a second kind of e-newsletter, Creative Edge Focusing (TM) News and Goods. At least once a month, and more frequently when news requires immediacy, I will send out a compilation of the most interesting activities and applications of Listening/Focusing in the world, as well as relevant wide-world news and activities relevant to the spread of Listening/Focusing.
 
In a few weeks,I will offer a separate subscription opportunity to this free News and Goods e-newsletter. But, for now, here is an immediate “News and Goods” below.
 
NEWS FLASH! INEXPENSIVE LEVEL ONE PHONE CLASS
 
Notice, this will be by international phone call, so you don’t have to leave home, and sounds like the financial cost will be low. Great opportunity to experience Listening/Focusing training in a phone class, especially for newcomers to Focusing/Listening, and even for oldtimers who want to experience the style of new teachers!
 
Level One typically includes an introduction to Focusing, with the helpful company of a Focused, or Empathic, Listener, and to being a Listener.People typically take turns in each role, as Focuser and as Listener. Contact Catherine directly at the email address she gives.Here is the announcement:
“On Mon, Aug 11, 2008 at 2:21 PM, Catherine Rogers <cathrog@localnet.com> wrote:
Hi –
I’m a trainer in training and along with Steve Grainger of Australia, we’re
putting together a Level 1 phone class.  We’re excited about offering the
wisdom of our many teachers, with fresh contributions of our own as well.
We put out a first notice and didn’t get quite the response we’d hoped.  So
we’ve got a date range (5 meetings from late August to early October)  but
haven’t yet set the exact days and times, in hopes of being able to meet the
needs of a few more people.  If you happen to know of anyone who’d like to take a Level 1 by phone, we’d love to hear from them.  Along with being a good opportunity in general, this class is also a way to take Level 1 if in
the midst of income challenges.
Thanks,
Catherine Rogers
619-456-7470
fcfacil@gmail.com  ” That’s fcfacil@gmail.com  
 
JOIN FOCUSING INSTITUTE DISCUSSION GROUPS ON MANY TOPICS!
 
I found this announcement on the Focusing Discussion list. You can subscribe to this discussion list at http://www.focusing.org/subscribe-list.html   . You will also find other Discussion Lists of the international Focusing Institute, website of Eugene Gendlin, creator of Focusing, and an international network of members and teachers of Focusing,  at this address.
 
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
  
Fall Complete E-Course Starts
 
In the Fall, our free e-course, three practice opportunities by email per week, will restart. It is a walk through the Instant “Ahah!” Mini-Manual and The Complete Focusing Instruction free downloads, and an interweaving of the Creative Edge Focusing (TM) website materials with the work of others within the Focusing community and also in the larger world. You are already subscribed to this e-course if you are receiving this e-newsletter.
 
Also, please forward this e-newsletter to any friends, trainees, acquaintences, colleagues who might benefit from either the e-course or CEF News and Goods e-newsletter
 
For four weeks, we practice an actual exercise in three different categories: An Instant “Ahah!” to integrate into your every day life at work and at home, a Felt Sensing exercise to practice this step of Focusing or an Interpersonal Focusing exercise, and a Complete Focusing Session. Actually doing the exercise which  arrives in each e-newsletter insures that you can call upon these new skills when needed!
 
For oldtimers, going through the e-course again will give you repeated opportunities to practice and absorb all the exercises.
 
For those who’ve joined mid-year, you can complete your cycle of learning as we continue through the year.
 
For new subscribers, you will have a rare opportunity to integrate Focusing and Listening into your life through careful and continuous practice, as you would with yoga, or meditation, or learning an instrument.

INVITE OTHERS TO JOIN US!!!
 
Please forward this e-newsletter to any friends, family, trainees, colleagues who might benefit from either the e-course or CEF News and Goods e-newsletter. This Fall is a great time for newcomers to join. They can subscribe at  http://cefocusing.com/subscribe.php   and immediately download our Instant “Ahah!”s Mini-Manual. Just hit “Forward” down near your “Send” option, then choose anyone you want from your email address book! Take this small step to help bring Listening/Focusing into the world!

FREE RESOURCES

You can get online support and answers to your questions as you try to proceed in the Creative Edge Practice e-group at http://yahoogroups.com/group/creativeedgepractice .

Tell me what you think at cefocusing@gmail.com or comment on this blog below !

Click here to subscribe to our Instant “Ahah!” e-newsletter and get the latest exercises first!!!

Click here for a free Intuitive Focusing Mini-E-course

 See Core Concept: Conflict Resolution to find a complete mini-course on Interpersonal Focusing and Conflict Resolution, including Rosenberg’s Non-Violent Communication, Blanchard’s “One Minute Apology,” Patricia Evan’s books on Verbally Abuse and Controlling Relationships, McMahon’s Beyond The Myth Of Dominance, and much more.

See Core Concept: Intimate Relationship to find a complete mini-course on increasing intimacy and sexuality, including the “Sharing Your Day” exercise, Listening/Focusing Partnerships for The Way of Relationship, untangling and equalizing desire, tantric sexuality, and much more.

Download complete Instant “Ahah!” Mini-Manual, in English and Spanish, from CEF Website

Find links to free articles, personality tests, multi-media Self-Help training, Classes and workshops

Dr. Kathy McGuire, Director

Creative Edge Focusing (TM)

www.cefocusing.com

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By Kathy McGuire, January 19, 2008 1:57 pm

For a listing of Self-help manuals, CDs, and DVDs by a variety of Certified Focusing Professionals helping you learn Focusing, and a listing of links to Focusing Teachers worldwide offering classes and workshops, by phone and locally, including a Level One Introductory Focusing Teleclass beginning tomorrow, Sunday, Jan.20, please click the link here to Creative Edge e-newsletter archive, sent out yesterday.

 You’ll find all kinds of immediate help, as well as another chance to try out the Complete Focusing Session: “How Am I Today?”

Read Dr. McGuire’s article, “Focusing Inner Child Work”.

Learn more about Intuitive Focusing and Focused Listening  at Creative Edge Focusing’s website, filled with free downloads on creativity, spirituality, collaborative thinking, parenting, innovation in business, and many other aspects of application of Focusing and Listening skills at home, at work, in your community, and globally.

Download our Instant “Ahah!”s Mini-Manual (”Ajas” Instantaneos en espanol) for ten exercises bringing Listening and Focusing into your everyday life starting today.

Download our complete Intuitive Focusing Instructions to start practicing Relaxation, Getting a Felt Sense, and Intuitive Focusing today!

See actual demonstrations of Listening/Focusing in our Self-Help package, a manual in English or Spanish, four CDs of Focusing Instructions, and a DVD with four demonstrations of actual listening/focusing sessions — everything you need to start your own Listening/Focusing Partnership or Support Group or to incorporate these basic self-help skills into existing support groups.

In the side bar at Creative Edge Focusing, subscribe to our free e-newsletter for weekly reminders to practice Relaxation and Focusing exercises and join our free yahoo group, Creative Edge Practice, for ongoing demonstrations, practice, and support.

Find classes/workshops/phone coaching in our Listings section or Coaching/Classes/Consulting with Dr. McGuire in the Store.

Dr. Kathy McGuire, Director

Creative Edge Focusing (TM)

www.cefocusing.com

The site of new insights and creative solutions is at the edge of what is already known. This edge, The Creative Edge, holds implicit within it all past and future knowing about the problem, more than could ever be put into words in a linear way 

Comments (3)

By Kathy McGuire, January 13, 2008 11:31 am

With Ruth Hirsch, Creative Edge Associate, Inner Relationship Teacher,  and Certified Focusing Professional and Certifying Coordinator: 

FROM THE BODY COMES OUR NEXT MOVES

A quote from Eugene Gendlin, creator of Focusing:

“The body is not just a pipeline for incoming sensory data.
It’s not a safe deposit box where you put something in
and expect to get the same thing out. There’s something more.  The body can imply something new-a right next step. It’s more like you put a worm into a cocoon and get a butterfly back.”

And another from former UN Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjold:
 

“The more faithfully you listen to the voice within you,
the better you will hear what is happening outside of you.”

After participating in Levels 1-4, a person can enter supervision to become a Certified Focusing Professional (Focusing Trainer or Focusing-Oriented Therapist)

 Level 1: Focusing Basics: Self Guiding, and Empathic Listening

This is a great opportunity to learn the basics of Focusing: How to Focus alone & with a partner, as well as how to facilitate focusing for another focuser-  And to reap the benefits of enhanced relationships with yourself and others, stress reduction, ease of decision making, and much more!  All this from the comfort and safety of your own home or office. 

Contact Ruth ruth@ruthhirsch.com  for dates and time.

Level 2: Advanced Listening & Beginning Guiding /Facilitation
The goals of this course are to enhance the Focuser’s competence in self-guiding, and to learn advanced listening techniques, and a few guiding techniques that can deepen the Focuser’s ability to stay with present awareness. The essence of the course is learning to be an increasingly facilitative companion to the Focusing process for yourself and for others. Prerequisite: Level One with a Certified Focusing Professional.

Contact Ruth ruth@ruthhirsch.com  for dates and times.

Level 3:  Advanced Guiding: Basics
Beginning to learn how to facilitate a Focusing session for someone new to Focusing.
Supportive suggestions for each stage of the Focusing process will be taught.

Level 4: Advanced Guiding & Troubleshooting
In Level 3 you’ve learned the basics of facilitating (guiding,) a Focusing session for someone new to Focusing.In Level 4, you’ll learn a variety of compassionate, clear approaches to handling various possible challenges and obstacles that may arise in the Focusing process.

Some of the topics to be addressed will include working with the Inner Critic, working with action blocks and addictions; how to assist a Focuser who feels “nothing”- or “too much,” or has one part attacking or victimizing another; and what to do when deriving “meaning” seems to be illusive.

Contact Ruth  ruth@ruthhirsch.com for dates and times.

Level 5: Seminar/Practicum in working with first-time Focusers
This course is an experiential workshop in introducing someone new to Focusing to this wonderful process. we will discuss and role-play how to introduce Focusing, and then each participant will have the opportunity to introduce Focusing and to guide the new Focuser in an introductory session. After the new Focuser is debriefed and leaves, there will be an opportunity to receive constructive feedback from fellow participants in the course and from the instructor.

Contact Ruth ruth@ruthhirsch.com for dates and times.

About the Trainer: Ruth Hirsch is a Certified Focusing trainer, bodyworker, and consultant based in Jerusalem, Israel. For the past 18 years she has maintained a private practice in which she works with people individually, and in groups. She is in her 13th year of teaching Focusing. In her individual work, she specializes in balancing and bringing peace, comfort, and insight to body, mind, heart and spirit.  In her teaching, she delights in sharing Focusing with others as an individual life-enhancing practice, and as an adjunct to enhance the work of other healing professions.

General Info: Courses are limited to a maximum of 6 participants each. The trainings are largely experiential, and are taught in a clear, compassionate, enjoyable manner. Registration fees include the course, unlimited questions between sessions (to be answered via email or at the next class session), and a manual specific to each level.  (Space permitting, those who have already taken the course and would like to review the level may do so for half price.) The course will be taught via a Conference line to a US number which will be provided before the class.

VERY IMPORTANT: To register, or for any questions, comments, or to just say hello, ruth@ruthhirsch.com  .

Ruth Hirsch  MSW, MPH, CMT
Focusing Trainer  & Certifying Coordinator

http://www.ruthhirsch.com

http://www.innerrelationship.com/teachers/hirsch.html

We can never obtain peace in the world if we neglect the inner world and don’t make peace with ourselves. World peace must develop out of inner peace.
  Dalai Lama

Posted for Ruth Hirsch by

Dr. Kathy McGuire

Creative Edge Focusing (TM)

Comments (0)

By Kathy McGuire, December 14, 2007 2:02 pm

Love Relationships

 Perhaps there is no more important place for the use of Empathic Listening and Experiential Focusing skills than in love relationships.

When we “fall in love,” we are drawn to something in the Other that intrigues and fascinates us.  Unfortunately, as time goes by, the stresses of day-to-day living and, perhaps, specific areas of conflict with our partner, wear away that romantic, in-love feeling.  We can even come to “forget” whatever drew us to this other person in the first place, and our sexual feelings for the other can become submerged as well!!

 Exchanging Listening/Focusing Turns with our beloved, significant other can be a way of recovering the feelings of love which initially drew us together.  In Listening/Focusing turns, each person can drop the defensive layers that hide the true, inner Self from the other.  When that inner Self stands exposed, that vulnerable Inner Child becomes visible, we “fall in love” all over again, remembering who it is that really lives inside of your partner. Then, it becomes much more simple to work out the more superficial, behavior-level problems that irritate or cross us in every day life. Read more about Inner Child Empathy.

Friendships As A Way To Grow

Hopefully, we all have some friends whom we can lean on when things get hard, friends who are good listeners, who just let us have our say and don’t judge or criticize us when we are down. In these times, we don’t really want someone to try to fix us or to give us advice or opinions. We just want them to listen and support us. It is just this non-judgmental listening and total, unconditional acceptance that makes the most solid and fulfilling friendships.

It is just such friends who could form the basis of your own Listening/Focusing Community.

Furthermore, if you have stresses or misunderstandings with any of your friends, you can also use the Listening/Focusing skills to work out these conflicts and end up even closer, using the Interpersonal Focusing method. See Focusing Friendships for more on incorporating Creative Edge Focusing into your friendship network.

From Focusing Class To Focusing Support Group

The other main way of finding a Listening/Focusing Partnership or starting a Listening/Focusing Support Group is to participate in a Listening/Focusing Training Class or Workshop in your area. Then, hopefully, you can carry on in a self-help way with other participants you have met at the workshop, or join an existing Changes Group in your geographical area. Again, go to Free Resources to learn about all the available options. Find additional classes and workshops internationally at www.focusing.org .

Read more about Conscious Relationship, including the First Ten Steps to bring Listening/Focusing into your relationships.

Order our Self-Help Package and join our Creative Edge Practice E-Group for hands-on demonstrations and practice of Listening and Focusing self-help skills.

Subscribe to our Instant “Ahah”s E-Newsletter and immediately download our Instant “Ahah!”s Mini-Manual (Ajas Instantaneos en espanol), ten self-help practices to add to your life at home and work.

Explore using Interpersonal Focusing sessions by phone with Dr. McGuire to practice listening/focusing in sorting through relationship difficulties.

Find links to free articles, personality tests, multi-media Self-Help training, Classes and workshopsDr. Kathy McGuire, Director

Comments (1)

By Kathy McGuire, November 24, 2007 3:13 pm

With Ruth Hirsch, Creative Edge Associate and Certified Focusing Professional and Coordinator: 

FROM THE BODY COMES OUR NEXT MOVES
A quote from Eugene Gendlin

“The body is not just a pipeline for incoming sensory data.
It’s not a safe deposit box where you put something in
and expect to get the same thing out. There’s something more.  The body can imply something new-a right next step.
It’s more like you put a worm into a cocoon and get a butterfly back.”

And another from former UN Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjold:
“The more faithfully you listen to the voice within you,
the better you will hear what is happening outside of you.”

Level 2: Advanced Listening & Beginning Guiding (Facilitation)
3 Mondays,  Dec. 10, 17, and January 7, 10 AM – 1 PM EST

Here’s an opportunity to make time for yourself during what can often be a near overwhelming pre-holiday season and to continue your focusing training at the same time!  In this course, participants will enhance their own focusing skills, and will learn advanced empathic listening (reflection) techniques as well as a few important guiding (facilitation) techniques that can be helpful in deepening the Focuser’s ability to stay with what is there for them.

The essence of the course is learning to be an increasingly facilitative companion to the Focusing process for yourself and for others. Level One Focusing training with a Certified Focusing Trainer is a prerequisite for this course.

Level 1: Focusing Basics: Self Guiding, and Empathic Listening
4 Sundays,  January 6, 13, 20, 27, 10 AM -12:30 PM EST

This is a great opportunity to begin to learn how to Focus alone and with a partner, as well as how to facilitate focusing for another focuser through Listening- and to reap the benefits of enhanced relationships, stress reduction, ease of decision making, and much more!  All this from the comfort and safety of your own home or office.

The only pre-requisite for this course is to have a Focusing session facilitated by a Certified Focusing Trainer. I am offering sessions by phone, toll-free for residents of the US, Canada, Ireland, UK, Italy, Spain, and France.

About the Trainer: Ruth Hirsch is a Certified Focusing trainer, bodyworker, and consultant based in Jerusalem, Israel. For the past 18 years she has maintained a private practice in which she works with people individually, and in groups. She is in her 13th year of teaching Focusing. In her individual work, she specializes in balancing and bringing peace, comfort, and insight to body, mind, heart and spirit.  In her teaching, she delights in sharing Focusing with others as an individual life-enhancing practice, and as an adjunct to enhance the work of other healing professions.

General Info: Both courses are limited to a maximum of 6 participants each. The trainings are largely experiential, and are taught in a clear, compassionate, enjoyable manner. Registration fees include the course, unlimited questions between sessions (to be answered via email or at the next class session), and a manual specific to each level. The fee for each level is $250, payable by credit card, or US check. (Space permitting, those who have already taken the course and would like to review the level may do so for half price.) The course will be taught via a Conference line to a US number which will be provided before the class.

VERY IMPORTANT: To register, or for any questions, comments, or to just say hello, please contact Ruth directly .

If these dates and/or times (for either course) do not work for you, please let me know what would work so that your needs might be considered in future scheduling :).

—
Ruth Hirsch  MSW, MPH, CMT
Focusing Trainer  & Certifying Coordinator

We can never obtain peace in the world if we neglect the inner world and don’t make peace with ourselves. World peace must develop out of inner peace.
  Dalai Lama

Posted for Ruth Hirsch by

Dr. Kathy McGuire

Creative Edge Focusing (TM)