Trainings

Experience how Nature and Play deepen Inner Wisdom

Are you ready to help your clients access their own inner wisdom? Are you a therapist/counsellor/coach who would like to learn more about Nature Guided Focusing Oriented Therapy? Would you like to experience how Nature and Play can support you and your clients to access Wonder and Awe?

Hearth Place offers a two year Nature Guided Focusing Training

Your pathway to certification as a Focusing Oriented Therapist or Certified Focusing Professional. A total of 16 Training days, each topic is covered in one day in person sessions at Hearth Place, a rural riverside property in the Cowichan Valley (unceded Quw’utsun Territory) on Vancouver Island. By the end of Year One, Training participants will be eligible to apply for the Proficiency in Focusing Partnership Award. By the end of Year Two, Training participants will be eligible to apply for Certification with The International Focusing Institute.

An illustration of a fern perched on the Hearth Place logo

We will learn, engage and understand from our own embodiment

Focusing enables the deep and safe exploration of internal states, and aids in repairing harms in relationships with self and others. Each training session models and facilitates the (re)establishment of lasting, reciprocal, loving relationships with Self and Place in order to (re)claim kinship with our own Belonging.

Photo of blue sky with silhouettes of tall majestic trees

“Focusing teaches us to sense inside and be open and curious about whatever we find there. It is a way of being present with ourselves in a non-judgmental manner that allows the body to speak, and thus to metabolize all that we take in that needs to keep moving through us. It prompts us to turn toward our own embodied selves and in doing so, to find the right next step forward.” ~ Dr Leslie Ellis

“Focusing was developed by Eugene Gendlin and his then colleague, Carl Rogers, when they were investigating how and why therapy works. What they discovered was that the main factor in the patient’s success in therapy was ... the client’s own relationship with their inner experience. If, in the session, the client paused in their speech, searched within for the right words, fumbled around for an image, for a sense of rightness to what they said or heard... then the therapy was a success. From that research Focusing, as it is known now, was developed and taught.”

~ Peter Gill ~ Living Focusing

“The felt sense is holistic in nature and contains within it much more than we can easily think or emotionally know about our situation. … When we attempt to solve our problems with what we already know, think, and feel, then we may find that we are just going in circles.  But from the felt sense level of awareness [is] where something new can emerge and real change can occur.  The discovery of the felt sense … transcends what is known on the levels of behaviour, emotion, and cognition, and brings meaning from a new level...”

~ focusing.org/felt-sense/focusing-oriented-psychotherapy

Interest List Now Open for Fall 2024

Ready to Experience how Nature and Play deepen Inner Wisdom?

Read what Dr Leslie Ellis has to say about this training in her article Focusing and Nature: Restoring connection within and without

Find out more in the Training Outline

Ready to help your clients access their own inner wisdom? Book now to experience how Nature and Play can support you and your clients to access Wonder and Awe.

Pricing

$300 per person per 6 hour training day

Discounted rates are available by paying in advance for one year (8 training days = 5% discount) or two years (16 training days = 7.5% discount)

“The perceptive insight that Dean brings forth in the context of supervision seems to spring from his deep knowledge of Focusing, and he is able to offer his insights skillfully and in a way that embodies the approach itself: with a strong spirit of curiosity and an invitational stance that is evident in both his words and his demeanour.”

~ Monica Dragosz

“Dean’s eloquence in explaining pith principles, his skill in space and silence, his playful, creative companioning, make him a superb teacher of Focusing.”

~ Gillian Parrish

“One to one mentorship with Dean was a significant support during my two year training in Focusing Oriented Therapy. Dean is responsive, engaged, and brought genuine curiosity, creativity, and care to our mentoring sessions. I felt encouraged in my practice and watched my confidence and understanding grow as a result. Dean upholds professionalism, models integrity, and embodies many of the Focusing principles, which brings them to life in a unique and compelling way. I’m grateful for Dean’s mentorship both in my practice and beyond.”

~ Meghan Rathwell