In this 8-week group, you will use Focusing to transform a significant issue in your life, in part by deepening your access to Self through the 8Cs of Self-Leadership (a concept from Internal Family Systems by Richard Schwartz). This can be working towards a personal or professional goal (could be your special project developed in the Thinking At the Edge course). However, the course is designed in such a way that you can also bring a different topic each week to your Focusing, and concentrate on building your 8Cs which help you live as your Self more often.
Transform yourself to transform your life and the world
"Few of us can actually change the world. We can only change ourselves. But if enough people took that to heart, the world would change.” ― Tammara Webber, Good For You
Curriculum
In this course, you will get to know your 8 Cs of self-leadership, that will catalyze your transformation. We do this through the PUPA process, which combines Focusing with Theory U—going through each of the Cs in a resourcing order. In so doing we naturally shift over the course of our eight weeks from a caterpillar to a butterfly. We build a safe space to transform (called a pupa, this space is a chrysalis in a butterfly and a cocoon in a moth), using parts of ourself and our Focusing partner as resources.
By crossing a C resource into our Focusing each week, we use embodied positive psychology to help ourselves grow. The group will cycle through the PUPA process as follows:
Pause:
calmness (getting grounded, clearing a space, and choosing a project for the course)
connectedness (developing the Focusing attitude, and seeing the project/issue through fresh eyes)
Understand
curiosity (getting to know the crux of our topic, as it unfolds. Learning what most needs attention)
clarity (getting to know the threads or parts involved)
Permutation: physical felt shift + paradigm shift
creativity (the desired future Self (or way) begins to emerge)
Prepare
compassion (dealing with the critic, the part that says you can’t do this)
confidence (seeing ourselves taking the action, visualizing)
Act
courage (being our transformed selves, with grit)
“If you want to change the world, start with yourself.”—Mahatma Gandhi
How the Group Works
Each class consists of four parts: centering, teaching, experiencing and group practice. The centering piece grounds us by connecting to a memory of our “C” of Self-Leadership that week. The teaching piece covers some content for our C of the week, and is aided with PPT slides. The experiential piece is a guided Focusing experience, where we get a felt sense of where we are with our issue, and then bring in our 8C or 8Cs into our Focusing of the issue as it is now.
The teaching crosses in many complementary tools, including the latest neurobiology research, grounding in the body, Jan Winhall's Felt Sense/Polyvagal Model, getting to know the "parts" of ourselves, emotional intelligence, drawing/art, and journaling/free-flow writing.
The group practice at the end of each class is where participants practice Focusing with each other. We do this either as a large group, or in small groups in breakout rooms (groups of two (dyads) or triads). Some weeks we practice empathic listening, which brings a special deep knowing and sharing to our fellow participants.
To further your practice, it is encouraged to also form a Focusing partnership with another participant. This involves meeting between classes to practice, in an exchange of Focusing and listening.
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”― Rumi
Timing and other details
The Group Meets:
Thursdays, 1:30-3:30 pm Eastern, February 13-April 10, 2025 (break week March 13)
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.
Group size: this group is capped at 16 people
Who is this course for? The course is for Focusers who are wanting to transform a significant issue in their life. It 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. The course emphasizes getting to know and name in an embodied way your 8Cs of Self-Leadership, and crossing these resources into the Focusing of your issue, as it is carried forward week by week.
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$480
25% off: US$360
50% off: US$240
70% off: US$144
80% off: US$96
90% off: US$48
Notes:
This course is to deepen your Focusing and listening. Breakout room practice and practice in between classes help build those muscles. As such, live attendance is essential. That said, we recognize that sometimes an absence is inevitable. Therefore the classes are recorded and shared with you. This includes the guided exercises, slide teachings, demonstrations and group sharing. Breakout room practice is not recorded.
You can take this class as a stand alone experience, continue on with the whole PUPA journey, or whatever course or courses resonate with you.
Consisting of five courses, the journey covers learning Focusing, learning about who you are, discovering who you want to be and what you want to bring into the world with Thinking At the Edge (TAE, Gendlin’s second practice), transforming a large block using the 8Cs of self-leadership (this course), and finally a course on taking action with embodied leadership.
The journey can be extended to the PUPA Focusing Certification Program, which includes additional requirements to become a Certified Focusing Professional with The International Focusing Institute.
What People Are Saying
“The 8cs course was a revealing enlightening experience Each week focusing on one theme in the course, I was able to experience the essence of the theme for that week...even as a fairly new person to Focusing, Annette gently creates and opens the space for each participant to immerse into the theme for each week. Annette has a teaching quality that enables each participant to create and build their awareness and experience of each of the 8Cs. A truly gifted teacher, who puts everyone at ease, holding a space for magic to happen in each persons experience. Thank you Annette. Kindly, suzy”
“Keeping with one issue and continuing to revisit it each week is a whole new experience for me. A much needed step in my processing. Getting to know my 8Cs has been such a resource for me. For example, I reviewed my 8Cs body cards yesterday when my energy was wonky and it was SO helpful to have the visuals!!!!! I was so happy to see how easily my state was able to shift. I just feel my time with Annette has aided me in coming out of a deep stuck funk I had been in. I'm aware of so much energy, awareness and insights now (and what autonomic nervous system state I'm in at any given time—appreciate learning to track that!). My system REALLY needed to be listened to....and this course was just so perfect for me!!!! Getting information directly from the body via Focusing has been far superior to other modalities I've done in the past. I felt the work was much deeper. Annette is a great facilitator and I appreciate all the research she's put into blending modalities and coming up with a cohesive program with the PUPA process.”
— SHARON, US
“I met Annette when I signed up for her 6-week course 8C’s of Self-Leadership (for more detail see Courses above). This turned out to be a unique and memorable experiential course in self-growth. As someone who uses Focusing in my work and in daily life, this course opened up for me new avenues. It was refreshing and invigorating because this course teaches you to allow your uniquely represented C’s to come out and play. Annette developed body cards to map out and symbolize our experience of the different C’s. This was quite a revelation because one can use these body cards as steps of our living process that is in constant flow. The body cards can be a reminder of where we started and allow us to see where we got to by bringing a Focusing attitude of receptivity, openness and non-judgement whilst exploring these themes. Totally recommend this course and feel this would be incredibly beneficial add-on to a variety of training environments.”
— VERONICA TOESCU, Focuser practitioner and Focusing-Oriented Therapist, Birmingham, UK