Our Mission
"We are a network of certified Focusing Trainers and Focusing-Oriented Therapists dedicated to teaching, training and carrying forward the mind-body-spirit practice of Focusing for the good of the public."
About
Focusing
In the 1960s Eugene Gendlin, PhD, led a University of Chicago study whose intent was to figure out why some people change at the end of a course of therapy, and others don't. The resulting insights led Eugene Gendlin to develop Focusing, a practice that would allow anyone to learn how to create true change in their lives through connecting with their own bodily-felt wisdom.
Focusing shows how to pause within the on-going situation and open up space for new possibilities. It shows how to apply open attention to something which is directly experienced but is not yet in words - we call this the bodily felt sense of the situation.
Your body knows more about your situations than you are explicitly aware of, and the body is the source of this felt sense. For example, when you first meet someone, you may have a sense of that person that later proves to have been accurate even though you have no conscious reason for it. With a little training, you can get a body-feel - a felt sense - for the 'more' that is happening in any situation.
This felt sense "for the 'more' that is happening" is the key to fresh new possibilities for forward movement in our lives.
For more information about Focusing, please visit The International Focusing Institute.
Focusing Resources
Books
Focusing by Eugene Gendlin, Ph.D.
The Power Of Focusing: A Practical Guide to Emotional Self Healing by Ann Weiser Cornell, PhD
Listening To Your Angel: The Science of Focusing on Your Intuitive Intelligence by Kevin Flanagan
Rediscoverinng the Lost Body-Connection within Christian Spirituality by Edwin M. Mc Mahon, Phd. and Peter Campbell, Phd.
Ariticles
Doorways to the Embodied Self -Eugene Gendlin and the Felt Sense by Marian Sandmaier
Audio
Intro to What is Focusing and the 6 Steps of Focusing by Anette Debreuil
in a podcast
Guided Focusing #4- A lead-in before Focusing with Barbara Dickinson
Guided Focusing #6- Awaking to the body's spirit with Glenn Fleisch
Guided Focuing #8- Releasing a block to action with Ann Weiser Cornell
Guided Focusing #9- Dealing with Overwhelm by Clearing A Space with Barbara Dickinson
Videos
About
North Jersey Focusing Trainers (NJFT)
NJFT was founded by Eleanor Buscher. This is her account of how we began:
I started training in 2000 with my friend Joanne Stickles. I took my two-year Focusing training with the co-founder of The Focusing Institute, Mary Hendricks Gendlin and was certified in 2003. I then continued my Focusing Trainer's journey with an international Focusing trainer, Robert Lee. Joanne and I started teaching Focusing in 2003.
Since I used Focusing a lot with clients in my private practice, it was easy to get people interested in learning more and coming to the Focusing workshops that Joanne and I designed. As our group grew we designed Focusing retreats that we held at her lake house up in Montague, NJ.
My motivation for starting a Focusing Trainers' group was the need for a local New Jersey group. I encouraged people to get further training, and over the years the Certified Focusing Trainers community grew. Whenever I heard of a newly minted trainer in the area, I reached out to them. Eventually, we had enough certified trainers to start North Jersey Focusing Professionals Association (which eventually became the easier-to-say North Jersey Focusing Trainers).