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 established Jigsaw (The National Centre for Youth Mental Health) to address the mental health needs of young people. He is patron of the Mindfulness Teachers Association of Ireland (MTAI) and currently works with Focus Ireland to provide trauma-informed care in homeless settings. 

Tony is the author of Breaking the Heart Open: Shaping the Life of a Psychologist, and

Coming through Depression: A Mindful Path to Recovery 

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 Affairs). Her foreign postings were in San Francisco, Geneva and Boston where she was Consul General. She was a delegate to several sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations in the 1970s. 

In 1970 Carmel married Henry Heaney, a Boston architect. She retired in 1989 and lives in Dublin. She leads a weekly philosophical discussion group, The Colloquy, and is an occasional contributor to the Irish Times. 

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 Oriented Therapy by Neil Friedman is available on World of Books and Amazon.

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. 

Báirbre self-funded a research project measuring the impact of a Focusing-Oriented Coaching approach on people with Low Mental Well Being (MWB).  Referrals came from medical doctors, psychotherapists and word of mouth and quantitative measurements showed very significant MWB improvements, maintained over the longer term.

Focusing-Oriented Coaching is Báirbre’s passion and she is devoted to developing and sharing it with others.  Báirbre regularly runs Focusing-Oriented Coaching programs, teaching coaches, therapists and helping professionals how to use Focusing in their work.  You can contact Báirbre at bairbre@pause.ie

To understand more about Focusing-Oriented Coaching in practice, here is a link to an article Báirbre has written 'Life wants to live: Focusing-Oriented Coaching' www.pause.ie/news  This article first appeared in the July 2024 issue of Coaching Today, published by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.

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 therapists, as well as her work with clients both individually and with groups. 

What Focusing means to Naty: "For me it is a way of BEING, and  my goal every day is to be connected with my Higher Self, my essence, my spirit/heart/soul... that place where I feel part of this "vast system": the earth, the sky and all the living beings in their true light, beyond conditioning, adopted patterns and survival behaviors... In love."
Contact Naty at: nataliaquinn@yahoo.com.ar

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 in the natural world and temporary community. During the CV lockdowns he ran a series of very successful online workshops on ‘Focusing with Poetry’ which led to the formation of an ongoing ‘Focusing with Poetry’ group.

Gordon is also a homeopath and supervisor and has been editor of the British Focusing Association newsletter since 2016. 

www.focusing.org.uk/Gordon-Adam   gordonadam@blueyonder.co.uk  

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 Children and Focusing Programs and the Focusing International Online Certification Program for Focusing Practitioners. Harriet is a member of the Children and Focusing Advisory Group with TIFI. 
Find out more about Harriet's work and details of her programs at:  https://www.childrenfocusing.org/ 
https://www.deruimte-info.nl/

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 providing trauma informed resilience practices to effect change. These  changes carry forward toward psychosocial, physical, & mental wellness through mutual attunement & client centered modalities. Beth  would love to hear from you & can be reached at beth.f.mahler@gmail.com.

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 tennis. He has a Bachelor and postgraduate studies in
Fine Arts, allowing him to integrate creativity as a fundamental
engine in his approach to therapy, education, somatics and
movement. During the last ten years he has been more intensely
dedicated to his training in various somatic dance disciplines. He
defines himself as a dyslexic, visually handicapped white male
interested in personal relationships and dance. His website is
https://rafaelvilleta.com

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 works as a therapist with Daneo Human and Spiritual Development Services and Cancer Lifeline in Belfast and has been an advisor to the Board of The International Focusing Institute.

You'll find Pat's article on biospirituality at: 

https://www.daneo.org/focusing---a-way-of-living-the-paschal-mystery-pat-duffy-cp.html 

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 Reading Freshly online event which Mary hosts and which is free for members of the International Focusing Institute at https://focusing.org/event/reading-freshly-0

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 as a Focusing Professional through the Focusing Institute in New York. Inspired by the work of BioSpiritual Focusing, he obtained a master’s degree in Philosophy for his study on the correlations between BioSpiritual Focusing and Narrative. John is the International Director of the BioSpiritual Institute.

You can find out more about Biospiritual Focusing at https://biospiritual.org/

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 touching and inspiring.

Focusing with Children: The art of communicating with children at school and at home by Marta Stapert and Erik Verliefde (PCCS Books, 2008)

Rob Foxcroft 
Feeling Heard, Hearing Others. The poem 'Marta' which Josine refers to is on page 154.

*This interview was recorded in a bedroom at the Dominican Retreat Centre in Tallaght on a laptop so apologies if the sound quality is slightly off and it ended up more like a chat as opposed to an interview.

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 human capacity. It doesn’t have to be wielded by a “healer”. It's a tool for life-long exploration that anyone can practice by slowing down and listening in a friendly way to what is going on inside.

Find out more about Beatrice Blake and Thinking at the Edge on her website.  https://possibility-space.com/learn-focusing-and-tae/

The article Three Assertions about the Body is available from the Gendlin online library at https://focusing.org/

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.