In this ten-week Focusing course, we learn to use self-regulation and co-regulation to affect the interactions in our relationships. You can explore any relationships, including those that include power (leaders and employees, teachers and students, parents and children). The goal is to use emotional regulation to create safe and connected relationships that allow for creativity and action to flow.
Psychological safe spaces are the most creative and innovative
An embodied leader is self-aware, informed by their body’s wisdom, and able to show up in ways that reflect their values and commitments, even under pressure. They also create spaces that foster creativity and action that is in flow. They do this by having high levels of emotional intelligence; being able to:
be self-aware and self-regulate
be aware of others and co-regulate
In this course, we spend ten weeks developing our embodied leadership skills, primarily using Focusing, with some emotional intelligence and learnings from psychological safety to structure our process.
We do so by taking two five-week PUPA process journeys: pause, understand, permutation, prepare, action. The PUPA process includes concepts from Otto Scharmer’s Theory U (from MIT) and Arawana Hayashi’s Social Presencing Theatre, positive psychology, the 8Cs of Self-Leadership (from Internal Family Systems) and doable action steps. Finally, our learning includes Timothy Clark’s 4 stages of psychological safety.
In our first 5 week journey, we become self-aware and unpack where we create a lack of safety in our relationships: where we armour up by becoming defensive. And then we envision how we’d like to be as an embodied leader who can self-regulate in a calm, grounded and courageous manner, and spend a few weeks embodying that person.
In our second journey, we dig into what our relationships needs from us to have psychological safety and learn to better co-regulate others (students, family members, friends, colleagues, team members, children, etc.) by showing up as embodied leaders and changing our interactions.
We learn to build psychological safety as embodied leaders by learning to create:
inclusion safety (noticing where we experience privilege and power or create oppression)
learner safety (destigmatizing failure)
contributor safety (inviting meaningful participation and inquiry by asking good questions and learning to deeply listen to what is emerging now, even when in a group)
challenger safety (finding the courage to create the world we want)
Format:
This group meets weekly, and our classes have four parts:
centering exercise (e.g. breathwork, clearing a space)
brief presentation of some material to guide our session
either a guided Focusing experience that moves us forward on that week’s leg of our journey, or a demonstration of the prompt questions, that are used in breakout rooms
breakout room practice (sometimes in groups of two, but most often in groups of three that are your Focusing partnership parters, for more intimacy for the deep work we do in this course, and occasionally in groups of four for empathy circles and embodied Masterminding, or larger groups for a generative Focusing conversation)
To further your learning and practice, it is encouraged to also form a Focusing partnership with two other participants. These groups of three involves meeting between classes to practice, in an exchange of Focusing and listening, with the third person keeping time, and providing a stronger container for deep work.
Timing and other details
Course Dates and Times:
Thursdays, February 12 to April 23, 2026 (break week March 19)
10 am to 12 pm Eastern (see your local time)Registration deadline is February 9th
TBD - email Annette at annette@pupa.ca if these dates and times don’t work for you, to let me know your availability and to find out about future offerings of this course.
Course size: each group has between 8-24 participants.
Who is this course for? The course is designed for all levels of Focusers. However, some previous Focusing training is required as you need to be able to access your Felt Sense and hold space (have practice in Focusing partnerships). This beginner training can be learned in Annette’s 4-week or 8-week beginner courses.
This course if for individuals who would like to use Focusing to improve their leadership skills in an embodied way. It is also for people who would like to improve their relationships, by looking at themselves as a catalyst for change, by improving the co-regulation of their relationships. Whether you’re in a position of power (leader), or a participant (e.g. a team member), you can learn to lead in an embodied way. And this will unleash creative action flow in your relationships.
Course location: Zoom
Sliding scale pricing: This course has sliding scale pricing, offering multiple price points to make the course more accessible and reduce financial barriers for people with different levels of income. Please view the sliding scale fees page for details and codes.
Full fee: US$600
25% off: US$450
50% off: US$300
70% off: US$180
80% off: US$120
90% off: US$60