There seem to be three main options for learning Focusing:
- Free DIY version
- Recommended books
- If you are serious about learning this skill
Free DIY version
There are lots of resources available on the internet now for learning about Focusing. If you would like to learn more about this but aren’t in a position to purchase a book or do some training, you can learn a lot from the following links. And if you want to learn more about Focusing to see whether it would be worth investing in a book or some training, these links will also help you.
Ann Weiser Cornell is one of the leading Focusing teachers and she teaches throughout the world. Her website is rich with information, including chapters from her second book available to download free of charge. In addition to reading through Ann’s articles, you can listen to hour long teleclasses that she has done that give great ideas on how you can use Focusing in your life.
Eugene Gendlin now has the bulk of what he’s written since 1950 available to read free online. You can read the preface to his book Focusing and many more articles from his online library.
The Biospiritual Focusing website is also rich with resources freely available to learn more about this skill. Fr. Edwin McMahon and Rev. Peter Campbell have made it their mission to get information available which helps people to understand how important this skill is. While they write from a Christian perspective, their information is equally useful to those from all, and no, spiritual backgrounds.
The Focusing Institute Focusing Institute has various versions of the Focusing process available to download without charge, and a wealth of other resources to help you to learn more about Focusing.
Recommended Books
If you would prefer to learn offline, there are several very good books available to assist you to learn Focusing. If you only want to buy one book, Ann Weiser Cornell’s The Power of Focusing gives you all you need to get up and running. Eugene Gendlin’s Focusing is well worth a read, particularly as it contains lots of examples of how peoples’ lives have been transformed by using this skill. McMahon and Campbells’ BioSpirituality: Focusing as a Way to Grow is another excellent resource for learning this skill. While they write from the Christian perspective, their work has been inspiring Christians and non Christians alike throughout the years.
If you are serious about learning this skill
The focus of the Self Healing Portal is no cost and low cost solutions for doing our own healing. Usually I don’t recommend sessions with a practitioner or training, simply because the cost is too high for many people. However with Focusing, I’ve discovered a woman who is very passionate about Focusing and who has made the decision to keep her session and training rates very low, so that as many people as possible are able to learn this skill. While you can learn this skill on your own, like with most skills, there is nothing quite like having exposure to someone experienced with it, who can introduce you to all the tricks that you can use to get the most out of the skill.
Suzanne Noel does Focusing sessions and training for anyone in the world via Skype, and for the equivalent of the cost of only 2 or 3 treatments with an EFT or TAT practitioner, you can do an eight week course with Suzanne to learn all you need to know to really get up and running with Focusing. In addition to teaching you a skill that will be with you for a lifetime, once you have completed the course with Suzanne, you are also eligible to find a Focusing Partner through the Focusing Institute’s fabulous partnership scheme, which enables you to have someone to listen as you Focus, and thereby enable you to significantly deepen your Focusing experience.
Suzanne teaches a style of Focusing called Domain Focusing, which emphasises the different angles that we can come to an issue from – the thinking/issue domain, the body felt sense or the self empathy domain. I have personally found this style very effective, and prefer it to the more structured, guided process that other Focusing schools use. I find that the different approaches that Suzanne has taught me have greatly enhanced my ability to Focus on my own, and while I intend to form a Focusing Partnership, Focusing on my own will always be very important to me, as I want to be able to use this skill as things arise, rather than having to wait for an appointed time in the week to Focus with someone else. If however you are someone who prefers to have a lot of structure, and to be guided more in your process, you may prefer to look into training with someone like Ann Weiser Cornell.