Our new IFN committee has been exploring ways of growing and developing our community including providing a welcoming space for those who are new to Focusing as well as those who feel rusty in their practice.
One of our first initiatives was to invite Gordon Adam from the British Focusing Institute to an online evening with our community. Le Chéile: Growing Focusing in Ireland took place on May 21st. Gordon described his decades-long Focusing journey and shared his rich experience of developing Focusing in the community including the Changes group of which he has been part of for seventeen years. Gordon invited us to drop in the words “Focusing Community” and to Focus in break out rooms, bringing a curiosity about what these words meant to us as individuals as well as members of the Focusing community. Gordon connects deeply with poetry and his reading of the Rumi poem “Be with those who help your being” was a warm and beautiful conclusion to the evening.
We are planning other initiatives for the Autumn including a monthly listening skills programme. If you have some ideas about how we might grow and develop our Focusing community, please contact any member of the committee. We’d love to hear from you.
If you’d like to hear Gordon speak about Focusing, you can listen to the latest episode of Focusing Pathways.
The IFN Spring Gathering took place in Gort, Co Galway in April. Much gratitude goes to Marta Fabregat for hosting this event. This was the network’s first time to get together beyond the pale and it was a wonderful success — so much so that we’d like to explore the possibility of holding a weekend Focusing retreat next year. If you know of any suitable venue down the country please get in touch with one of our committee members.
In the meantime we’re preparing for our Autumn Gathering in the Dominican Retreat Centre in Tallaght on September 28th.. A beautiful day of workshops, connection and of course Focusing is planned. We’d love to see you there. More details and to register click here.
Our weekly online Focusing sessions on zoom will take a pause during the summer and will return in September. We’re grateful to our zoom hosts who generously give their time to hold this space.
We on the committee wish you all a wonderful summer wherever you may be.
Focusing Refresh Evenings Coming in September
The themes of building community and supporting our Focusing practice emerged during our AGM back in January. Since then the IFN committee has been exploring ways in which we might encourage more of you to join our weekly Focusing sessions on Zoom and support members who wish to deepen their Focusing experience.
Some members of the Network have expressed interest in joining the online sessions, but are a little nervous about doing so. Others may feel a little rusty in their Focusing practice. With this in mind, we're delighted to let you know about an opportunity to learn and develop together.
From September the last Zoom meeting of each month will be a "Focusing Refresh" evening designed to help members develop and practice Focusing partnership skills. These sessions will be led by some of the network's Focusing Professionals and Trainers. We hope that reminding ourselves of the essential aspects of Focusing will help build confidence in your ability to listen deeply to others. Every member of the network is welcome to attend, watch out for our reminder emails in the Autumn.
