Our approach is integrative. The quality of integration manifests at several levels.
Healing as the client’s ability to integrate experience:
Much of the work we do in therapy has to do with dealing with the effects of experiences that are beyond our clients’ capacity to integrate. With this approach, the integration of experience is not just the desired end-result. It is the very essence of what we do moment by moment, as we pay attention to the felt-sense experience.
Mindfulness as integration:
Therapists are often looking for ways to bring clients into the present moment. Often, this is something that therapists do by asking: “How does it feel?” This is a useful intervention but it can feel jarring to clients. It may accentuate the sense that there is a dichotomy between the way they generally function (talking) and paying attention to their bodily experience. By making felt sensing central to the way we work, we train our clients to integrate felt sensing with the process of living and reflecting on life.
Integration with your current approach:
Working with the felt sense does not preclude using the therapeutic approaches you already like to work with. In fact, felt sensing will add a dimension of embodied experiencing into what you are already doing. It will bring the clients into their bodies and into the moment. It will deepen their experience of your way of working.
Integrating different modalities of therapy:
While this program is a training in Focusing-Oriented Therapy, we are not dogmatic about it being the one and only way to do psychotherapy. In fact, each one of us is trained in other approaches as well. We treasure the broader perspectives that this gives us. The training program that we have created will expose you to our different points of view. This will stimulate your creative engagement with what we teach. It will help you shape a personal approach that reflects your own unique blend of education and experiences. And it will give you a solid framework within which you can integrate future experiences and trainings.