Focusing Pathways

Laura Bavalics  is an early childhood educator, specialist in the science of play, and a drama teacher. She is a Certified Focusing Professional, Coordinator and a Focusing-oriented educator, who has been working with young children, parents, and professionals for over twenty-five years. She is a professional director of the Pendula inclusive kindergarten program at the Világszép  Foundation for C...

About Rob by Rob: When I was three years old, a lodger from Egypt came to stay with my family for a year. He was warm, kind and playful. I was left with a strong feeling of friendliness for people from other backgrounds and cultures. By the time I was four I had come to find reading stories a big improvement on life. Music came a little later. I studied 'cello and piano playing, singing, cond...

Dr Tony Bates is a Clinical Psychologist, Psychotherapist and Adjunct Professor of Psychology at University College Dublin. He was the Head of the Department of Psychology at St James’s Hospital, Dublin, for 30 years. Following psychotherapy training at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Oxford, he established and directed the MSc in Cognitive Psychotherapy at TCD. In 2006, he es...

Carmel Heaney was born in Dublin on the 21st July, 1924, the eldest child of Rosanna and Timothy O'Leary. She was educated at the Holy Faith convent, Glasnevin and at University College Dublin from which she graduated with an M.A. in History. After some years as a junior Civil Servant and in radio programming, she entered the Department of External Affairs (later the Department of Foreign Aff...

Myriam el Kettani worked in the corporate world for over twenty years before training in humanistic psychotherapy and Focusing. She is a Focusing Oriented Therapist, and a person-centred practitioner. Myriam facilitates humanistic encounter groups for adults and/or adolescents. She also facilitates leadership support and collective intelligence development groups. Myriam lives in Morocco. Focusing...

Báirbre Meehan is a Focusing-Oriented Coach and Coach Supervisor.  Her practice is informed by 25 years in people management in roles such as CEO, organisational/leadership development and finance director.  Her coaching journey began 12 years ago, at a time when her personal-development journey led her to focusing and from there the integration of these powerful ways of working naturally emerged....

Naty Calvino lives in Argentina and is a Certifying Coordinator with TIFI (The International Focusing Institute), a Focusing Oriented Therapist, Supervisor and a  Yogatherapist. She is also an FSPM Facilitator (Jan Winhall’s Felt Sense Polyvagal Model).  Naty teaches the entire Focusing Certification Program and Focusing-Oriented Therapy (FOT), and especially enjoys training and supervising therap...

Gordon Adam lives in Bristol, UK. He is passionate about Focusing and the supportive and transformative power of Focusing community. He has facilitated an open monthly ’changes’ type Focusing group for the last 15 years, and is co-creator of the BFA Focusing Community Camp.   Gordon runs 5-day Focusing retreats on Dartmoor and in the Southwest, combining Focusing with periods of silence, immersion...

Harriët Teeuw is a Focusing oriented therapist and an art therapist as well as a Focusing Coordinator with The International Focusing Institute (TIFI).  When she first learned Focusing in her native Netherlands in 2000, it inspired her to live a more authentic life. She began to integrate Focusing into her work with children, parents and adults.  She brings this rich experience into teaching Child...

Beth Mahler is an internationally recognized Certifying Coordinator for The International Focusing Institute & a practicing Licensed Clinical Social Worker based in New Jersey, U.S.A.  Beth integrates her 30 years of training & development in the Psychology field to provide high quality teaching, training, & therapeutic services. She is best known for her compassionate care while provi...

Rafael Villeta is a Focusing trainer and Focusing-oriented therapist, these two disciplines define his current professional dedication. He previously worked in graphic design and painting and was also a tennis coach for twenty-eight years, especially in the Madrid Tennis Federation. Creator of the Organic Tennis method where he integrates Focusing and somatic dance with the teaching of academic te...

Pat Duffy is a Passionist priest. He trained as a marriage counsellor with Accord and later was awarded a Diploma in Counselling and Psychotherapy by Middlesex University with the Personal Counselling Institute, Dublin. He is accredited with I.A.C.P. He is also a Certified Focusing Coordinator with the Focusing Institute, New York, qualified to teach focusing and to train others to teach it. He wo...

Mary Jennings is a Coordinator and Focusing Trainer with The International Focusing Institute and has been involved with Focusing in Ireland for almost thirty years. She is a facilitator of the Institute's Roundtable series aimed at encouraging conversation and connection. In this episode Mary shares the many paths of her Focusing journey with Therese . You can find out more about the monthly...

John first discovered Focusing while recovering from a chronic illness that left him hospitalised for six months. Focusing had such an impact on his life that he changed career from working in the Health Insurance Industry, to studying the philosophy and practice of the Focusing Process.  John took a BA in Philosophy in the Jesuit University, Milltown Park in Dublin and obtained his certification...

In June 2023 Elaine met Josine van Noord from Holland at the Focusing Weeklong in Dublin. They recorded this impromptu interview in which Josine describes how she learned Focusing from Marta Stapert who is renowned for her work on Focusing with children.  Josine's story of her very early years in a prisoner-of-war camp in Indonesia and the healing Focusing brought to her adult life is both to...

Beatrice Blake became a Certified Focusing Trainer in 2000. She went on to study Thinking at the Edge with its founder, Eugene Gendlin, PhD, and with Kye Nelson, Nada Lou and Evelyn Fendler Lee. In 2011 she became a certifying Coordinator with The International Focusing Institute  She has been teaching Thinking at the Edge since 2013. Beatrice shares Gendlin’s vision that felt-sensing is an innate...

In this episode Therese speaks to Tom Larkin. Tom is a Focusing teacher from Dublin. He is also a Certifying Coordinator with the International Focusing Institute and a Focusing Oriented Therapist. Tom has also trained as a Forest Therapy guide and offers guided forest bathing walks to individuals and groups in-person and online. Find us on Instagram