The workshop is for counsellors, trainee counsellors and others in the helping professions. If you are not a counsellor or trainee it would be helpful if you have had some experience of receiving counselling or attended some training on counselling/listening skills as this workshop involves some degree of self facilitation and exercises requiring listening skills.

If you are not a counsellor or trainee it would be helpful if you have had some experience of receiving counselling or attended some training on counselling/listening skills as this workshop involves some degree of self facilitation and exercises requiring listening skills.

This is a 1 day introduction to Focusing-Oriented therapy. Focusing is a gentle but powerful non-touch body awareness skill, that helps us, and our clients to heal those hurting feelings. Focusing was originally discovered when Kirtner and Cartwright, two colleagues of Carl Rogers, asked a question that most therapists, don’t like to ask, why do some clients recover in therapy, and others don’t? Kirtner and Cartwright discovered that successful clients could be spotted during the first two therapy sessions, and that these clients had a special way of working with their issues. They had higher experiencing levels, and knew what to do from the start. This research was then duplicated and confirmed by Dr Eugene Gendlin. He went on to develop ways of helping potentially unsuccessful therapy clients to learn the skills that the successful clients knew about already.

1. How successful and unsuccessful clients use therapy
2. How to spot and facilitate successful clients - and not get in their way
3. How to offer all clients the opportunity of deepening their experiencing levels, and improve their chances of recovery through offering reflective listening and deepening propositions (also called focusing invitations )
4. We will also briefly explore Guided Focusing, which is an intervention that is specific to Focusing-Oriented therapy.

During this course, all participants will have an opportunity to develop their skills and experience of focusing-oriented therapy for themselves through:

1. Group work – exploring how clients use therapy – spotting successful and unsuccessful clients
2. Teaching on the basic principles of FOT
3. Triad work - practising the principles of FOT
4. Group discussion on integration of FOT
5. A look at how to access further focusing resources and training.

£ 105.00

£50 for existing LC&CTA students.

The aim of this course is to provide you with some basic FOT skills, that can enhance your own wellbeing, and that of your clients. It can also provide you with the foundation of exploring FOT further, (there is lots to learn) through additional training and reading. You can also progress onto day two of the training.

John Threadgold is a Focusing-Oriented Person Centred and integrative therapist. As well as holding Level 6 Diploma’s in Humanistic Counselling and Psychotherapy, and Therapeutic Supervision, he also holds an MA in Focusing and Experiential Psychotherapy. He is BACP Accredited for Counselling and Psychotherapy and recognised by the Focusing-Institute as a Focusing-Oriented Therapist and Focusing Teacher. He is a member of the British Focusing Teachers Association. He runs a private practise called New Focus Therapy, offering therapy, Supervision, and focusing training for therapists and the public.