NEW YORK METRO FOCUSING
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Friday, June 10, 2016
 
 
NY Metro Focusing meetings offer an opportunity to engage in a felt sensing, interactive exploration of topics of interest.  We value diversity and welcome everyone’s voice. Our conversational process encourages slowing down, listening from a felt sensing place, and letting what we hear resonate within to bring something new and fresh, both within ourselves and within the group.
 
MEETING PROGRAM
 
6:30 pm            Registration and networking with light refreshments
 
7:00 pm            Welcome:  Susan Deisroth
 
7:05 pm            Introductions of the Evening’s Theme and its Facilitator:  Diana Kirigin
 
7:10 pm            Program: Unlocking the Unspoken
 
Program: Unlocking the Unspoken
 
You know that feeling of something you can’t put your finger on? Focusing is all about allowing the felt sense to emerge and make itself known; in coming to be known, it also changes.
When we are looking for just the right way to express the feeling, there is searching and experimentation, trial and no… not quite. When we hit on it there is an Ah! Yes!
In our culture there is a strong tendency to use words for expression. Gendlin reminds us that while putting words to the felt sense is tremendously powerful, there are other ways. We can use our whole body, gestures, or sounds like hmmmm or ugh! Other ways may also be needed first, for the right words to come later.
 
Tonight we will expand our range of expression to include using objects outside ourselves to make sounds that express what is inside us. Almost any object can be used to make a sound. Some might have been invented for that purpose – “official” musical instruments. Many more might be everyday things – every set of keys jangles in its particular way. The act of making a sound with an object entails a gesture (shaking, thumping, dropping, plucking…) and that gesture can be an act of expression too.
 
Finding just the right sound for a felt sense may be even more powerful than finding the right word, reaching below and beyond the part of our brain that knows about words. Then, too, after the felt sense is touched upon in this nonverbal way, words may be released that bring even more Ah!
 
This evening’s facilitator:
Marcella Calabi, a certified Focusing teacher, has had a consulting practice called Clarityworks since 1998, helping people get unstuck with decision-making, communication and relationship strategy, and conflict resolution. She is also a professional classical singer and has been teaching voice and self-actualization through voice for 30 years.  She brings a focusing attitude to both her strategic and vocal consulting practices, which also have in common the goal of helping people access their fullest voice in the world.  More information and links can be found at www.MarcellaCalabi.info
(over please)
8:45 pm Refreshments & Networking
9:00 pm              Departure
 
SAVE the dates for future meetings: 
 
2016
Friday, September 30   6:30 – 9:00 pm
Sunday, December 4     4:30 – 7:00 pm
 
2017
Sunday, January 22
Friday, March 31
Friday, June 9
Sunday, September 17
Sunday, December 3
 
For other focusing oriented events in the months ahead, please visit our website:      http://www.nymetrofocusing.org/calendar and the website of The Focusing Institute, http://www.focusing.org.
 
Planning Group:
Marcella Calabi, Cynthia Callsen, Susan Deisroth, Naomi Glicken, Larry Hurst, Sharron Kaplan and Diana Kirigin.
 
Friends of the Planning Group:  Christine Bubbico, Judith Cobb, Viktor Raykin, Anne Shollar,
 
This is a grassroots, member-run organization.  We welcome your involvement.  The planning group meetings are open to anyone interested in attending.
 
New York Metro Focusing Mission Statement
 
The mission of New York Metro Focusing is to embody and carry forward the practice of Focusing and the philosophy that supports it as developed in the work of Eugene Gendlin and others.  By holding regularly scheduled meetings, NY Metro Focusing will offer members of this local geographic community ongoing opportunities to connect, share and grow in their appreciation and practice of Focusing.  The group will welcome newcomers by offering them an opportunity to learn about the life-enhancing practice of Focusing.  In this way, NY Metro Focusing will help to engender a thriving and visible presence for the practice of Focusing in the New York Metropolitan area.
 
NOTES