TIFI Membership Committee
by Tom Larkin
The Membership Committee was established eleven years ago by the board of The International Focusing Institute (TIFI) with the primary purpose of exploring and creating opportunities for members to connect and communicate with each other and to enhance the benefits of being a member of TIFI. The committee meets monthly and currently has eight members; Mariana Pisula (Argentina) Georgeta Nicalescu (Roumania) Susan Lennox (U.S.) Caroline Copestake (Spain), Monika Lindner (Germany), Tom Larkin (Ireland) with Elizabeth Cantor from the office of TIFI and TIFI’s director, Catherine Torpey.
Over that time, the committee has devised a wide range of online events and activities that made connection and interaction among members possible.
- Roundtables: These are online group reflections on and conversations about various Focusing-related topics of interest to members. These gatherings have enabled Focusers from all over the world to share their experiences and to explore a topic of mutual interest in a relaxed peer-to-peer environment. In addition, there have been specific roundtables series for Focusing Oriented Therapists and Children Focusing practitioners. Roundtables in Italian, German, French and Japanese have been organised. From the beginning, there has been a very wide geographical and cultural diversity among the attendees. To date there have been 125 events, supported by TIFI and put on by volunteer presenters, backed by a team of volunteer tech hosts. However, in recent times there have been much fewer of these due to the lack of volunteer support people. (More about roundtables here: https://focusing.org/more/roundtables)
- Redondas Mesas: These are Spanish language Roundtables. (More about Redondas Mesas and Cafecitos here: https://focusing.org/event/cafecitos-19-como-crear-tu-marca-desde-la-sensacion-sentida-how-create-your-brand-felt-sense).
- Cafecitos: Offered in Spanish, these are as the name suggests, a way of inviting people to "Come have a cup of coffee with us!” and consisting of interviews, talks and conversations around topics of interest to members.
- New Member Meetings: These are meetings where individual members of the committee arrange to meet any TIFI member who has a query or question about some aspect of TIFI.
- Trainer Talks: These were recorded Zoom interviews aimed at providing tips, information and inspiration to support TIFI's professional members. Only three were ever made and alas, the links to them are dead.
- Membership Survey: The committee undertook a survey of members’ knowledge about and experiences of the Focusing Partnership Network. The Network provides an accessible search engine by which participants can find others within the TIFI global community who are interested in Focusing exchanges and partnering.
- Pop-Up Focusing Partnership online sessions: Arising from the survey results, the Committee worked to clarify and enhance the Focusing Partnership Network through organising and hosting a series of online sessions The purpose of these meetings is to give members a chance to meet and briefly get to know other members of the Partnership Network.
- Hello, Hello: The “Hello, Hello” online events are organised to make contact with people in a particular geographical region, who are new to Focusing and also people there who are practicing Focusing alone. These meetings provide information about TIFI and offer an invitation to become more involved in our international community.
- Membership Lounge: This is the most recent initiative of the committee. These online meetings are organised to provide opportunities for connection and communication among specific groups of TIFI members. The first one took place in Spring 2026 for trainee members who are on their journey to accreditation in Focusing.
All these events are open to members of TIFI and are free. They require nothing more than to register and turn up. For information about future events organised by the committee and about other member benefits, keep an eye on the events listing on the TIFI website, https://focusing.org/events and on your mail boxes.
As the committee is at the beginning of its second decade there will be new needs and challenges ahead. The committee will always explore initiatives to meet these. The creativity and strength to devise and implement them can only come from a vibrant and committed membership. This committee is open to hearing your experiences of Focusing and suggestions for further possibilities.
