Kevin M. Johnson
Kevin M. Johnson is a university professor, co-host of the podcast Encountering Silence, and Inner Wilderness Guide based in Madison, CT in the United States.
He began his career practicing law as a licensed attorney but then returned to the university and the questions of wisdom and knowledge. Having spent years achieving a number of advanced degrees, speaking at academic conferences, and even presenting at prestigious schools like Yale and Harvard, he discovered he needed to walk a bit outside the halls of the Academy to explore deeper. Although he continues to teach at the university level, Kevin jokingly refers to himself as a “recovering academic” who teaches online and in various settings outside the university that often crosses boundaries into spaces that are not currently on our cultural maps. The focus of his research and work is the recovery of Silence, Wilderness, and Embodiment as ways of deeply engaging the world, fostering holistic wellness, and cultivating wisdom.
Kevin is now a Certified Focusing Professional. You can book 1:1 Focusing sessions directly with him.
Learn from Kevin in his final project workshop:
When we look at the world, we often struggle with a constant beneath the surface sense “that it is not supposed to be like this.” Constant Crisis and War. Climate Change and the Sixth Extinction. Political and Economic Unrest. It is as if the world is caught in a trap – a trap of our own making. Something seems to be missing in our cultural calculations that would help free us. A different way of facing that "beneath the surface" unease. This workshop is about how embodiment is that missing thing. We need to recover the intelligence of our body to face these challenges.
The mainstream cultural story is that thinking will save us. Yet, we know we cannot reason our way in or out of many aspects of a human life. For instance, we cannot reason our way into being present, falling in love, or finding fulfillment. The type of attention and understanding that unites us with others is not thinking but an embodied presence. And the types of problems that we see when we turn to the world, are problems of community and relating. To solve problems of community, we need an embodied response. Our culture, however, struggles in this area.
All the past cultures in the world had embodied responses to problems. Our culture does not. Somewhere along the way, we lost it. We need to face that challenge. In this two-hour workshop, Kevin Johnson will offer a response to that challenge.
Kevin Johnson is a university professor and PUPA Focusing Trainee (with Coordinator-in-Training Annette Dubreuil). His work focuses on integrating our ability to reason with embodied presence. To do this, he teaches about a mode of seeing and being that he calls Primal Mind. In this two-hour workshop, you’ll have the opportunity to connect to Primal Mind which is at the very roots of your identity and self-understanding.
In this workshop, we will explore the Primal Mind in a deeper way from a number of perspectives:
Eugene Gendlin’s philosophy of the implicit found in his Focusing Practice and his book A Process Model as the main reconnecting entry to Primal Mind.
The philosopher David Abram’s work on animism, language, and perception.
Indigenous and African wisdom of nature with writers like Robin Wall Kimmerer and Malidoma Patrice Somé.
Neuroscience: insights of contemporary thinkers in this field like Iain McGilchrist, Jill Bolte Taylor, interpersonal neurobiologists Daniel Siegel and Darcia Narvaez’s work on widening our sense of identity and the practices of being fully human.
The workshop will include an initial centering and two Focusing guided exercises to explore your access to Primal Mind:
to experience the place you love and are deeply connected to
of recalling a memory of wandering with wonder in a natural setting and recalling the felt sense of your interaction there
We will end with some take away actions steps on how to focus with nature and with natural places to grow our Primal Minds.
You will receive the felt sense body cards to record your experience during the workshop, and the slides afterwards.
Workshop Details
Date and Time live workshop was held: Monday, December 11, 2023, 1-3 pm Eastern Time
Ways to participate:
Recording only
Who is this workshop for? This workshop is for Focusers of all levels who would like to explore the Primal Mind. It is also for those new to Focusing but who have been working with the polycrisis and are looking for new tools to make their action more effective. Previous Focusing practice in partnership is helpful but not required for the breakout room practice. Instructions will be provided and you will be in groups of three.
Sliding scale pricing:
This workshop has sliding scale pricing, offering multiple price points to make it more accessible and reduce financial barriers for people with different levels of income. Please view the sliding scale fees page for more details and codes.
Full fee: Recording only $19
25% off: US$14.25
50% off: US$9.50
70% off: US$5.70
80% off: US$3.80
90% off: US$1.90