Who am I?
What a challenging question.
I am a poet, budding
artist, Certified Focusing Trainer and Guide, Certifying Focusing Coordinator, Recovery Focusing Facilitator, and the creator
of the H.O.W. We Heal model for facilitating support groups.
I
have an undergraduate degree in Sociology/Anthropology with Highest Honors.
I worked part time at Costa Rica Recovery Center for six years (2008-2014), offering lectures
and classes on the 12 Steps of Recovery and on various subjects related to recovery, ran Relapse Prevention groups, and, most
importantly, facilitated Recovery Focusing groups in both English and Spanish.
I now mostly teach H.O.W. To Facilitate Recovery Focusing groups through Teleconference, as well as "Making
Sense of Living" courses in Felt Relating, and Advanced courses for Certification as a Focusing Professional or Trainer.
I have developed Recovery Focusing, the practice of integrating Felt Sensing
into the Twelve-Step Program of Recovery from any addictive process. This has now evolved into "Stepping Stones to Healing"
which applies the principles of Recovery Focusing to non-Twelve Step groups.
Based on this work, I developed the H.O.W. We Heal model for facilitating support groups and project groups.
I was a Facilitator at the Advanced and Certification Focusing Weekong for 2012, 2013, 2014, and
2015.
I primarily teach Focusing Partnership, either through eight-session one-on-one
personalized training; five-week Level I workshops; and my 10-month Teleconference course,
"Making Sense of Living: A Course in Felt
Relating".
I have coached over 40 psychologists in Domain Focusing Partnership towards
their Certification in Focusing Oriented Therapy for Dr. Robert Lee’s students
since 2004, and also with Catherine Johnson in her Focusing Oriented Therapy training in
South Africa.
Several of my articles
have been published in The Focusing Connection newsletter (See www.focusingrecources.com) as well as The Focusing Institute's
FOLIO journal.
I have assisted Dr. Robert Lee with several of his Changing the Unchangeable Macroshifting
workshops.
I am a member of the Community Wellness Focusing
Lab.
I offer Felt Listening to Advanced Focusers.
Here is how some people feel about working with me:
"Suzanne provides a wonderful, non-judgmental holding space in which one has freedom to explore one's internal world
and at the same time learn an enormous amount about the technique of Focusing. Her coaching is clear and concise and infused
with warmth and humor. I have so appreciated her wealth of knowledge relating to focusing, but above all, I have loved her
warmth, openness and honesty."
(Brenda Cowley, Educational Psychologist,Med. Psychology University of Cape Town,
South Africa.)
And from someone who recently received my one-on-one, eight-week Domain Focusing phone course:
"I'm very grateful for your guidance into my own worlds - your laughter and your empathy - It has made me
feel welcome and brave as I got in to new territory. I don't think I have found something very special - I know I have. Focusing
is the bridge - your listening is the light that hits the road and gently lets me know I's safe - I'm OK and there is another
shore - even though I can't see it clearly - I meet myself on the other side - what a wonderful friend to meet." (Chris
Nunan,Chief Consultant, MA Language and Psychology, Denmark)
My specialty is Recovery Focusing, a powerful crossing
of Focusing with any addictive process.
I
am able to hold a safe, caring space for those who need to speak their truth.
I love to write and walk in natural, wild settings.
Being a "lay" person rather than a psychologist makes me easy to relax with for your Focusing training,
as Andrew Carlyle, Clinical Psychologist, states below:
"Perhaps at a deeper level, working with Suzanne
evoked quite a surprising desire for greater contact with myself. I have become more and more aware of how much further focusing
could take me. In contrast with psychotherapy, focusing seems to have met a curiosity about other, deeper levels of my experience.
It was particularly valuable to work with Suzanne because she is not a psychotherapist. There has definitely been more freedom
in the parameters she has brought, yet interestingly, I have never felt unsafe. The moving beyond an analytic mode and a preoccupation
with feelings into this thing - a Felt Sense - has been refreshing and full of potential."
Focusing has led
me to a place of self love and personal creative power that cannot be adequately described.
It continues to be a fascinating journey into unknown edges of my being; always intriguing, illuminating,
and liberating.
I can listen and guide in a Focusing Way anyone who is willing to transform their lives
into a forward healing experience.
If you are ready and willing to change your life, I am ready and willing to
accompany you in experiencing the Art of Focusing Partnership.
Deep healing
and insight await you in this dynamic, egalitarian relationship of Focusing Partnership.
Glad to have you here,
visiting my site.
Keep Falling Into Your Heart.
Suzanne
