Finding The Right Space (A BFA Focusing Skills Course, offered through U3A in London)
29th September 2026 - 16th March 2027 Online, Zoom
Workshop/Event
A gentle, unhurried grounding in Focusing and listening, over two terms.
This course offers a gentle yet thorough introduction to Focusing, the body-based listening practice developed by philosopher and psychotherapist Eugene Gendlin. Together we learn to turn towards our own experience with warmth and curiosity, to notice the felt sense, that unclear but bodily-known edge of something, and to give it the time and company it needs to open.
The emphasis throughout is experiential. Each session includes some input and demonstration, but most of our time is spent in guided practice and in Focusing–Listening exchanges, so that the skills settle into the body rather than remaining as ideas. You will learn to companion another person with a spacious, non-directive presence, and to receive that quality of attention yourself. Alongside this we explore Gendlin’s practice of Clearing a Space, the Focusing attitude that underpins everything else, and how to stay in relationship with what comes, including the parts that arrive as criticism, doubt or hesitation.
Meeting weekly across two terms allows the learning to unfold slowly, with room for questions, for practice between sessions, and for whatever arises to be met without hurry.
The group runs as a closed group: once we begin, no further participants join. This allows trust and continuity to build, so that we can travel somewhere together over the two terms. Before joining, you are warmly invited to a short one-to-one taster session, so that we can both sense whether this is the right fit for you.
No previous experience of Focusing is needed, only a willingness to be curious about your inner world.