Marg is a somatic coach and practitioner with many years of professional work in the fields of physical therapy, moving and dancing and healing.
Early years spent with a wild horse resulting injuries and body pain led to a lifelong passion for understanding the body, emotions, the nervous system and healing.
She began her career as a Chiropractor completing a 5 year health science university degree and teaching within the Chiropractic and Osteopathic university programs in Melbourne.
A passion for healing and understanding the body led to studies and practice in the fields of Rehabilitation medicine, Feldenkrais, Movement therapy, the Alexander Technique, Craniosacral Therapy, Breath-work, energy healing, Somatic Coaching, Qoya teaching and now most recently Focusing.
Marg is the founder of Lifewise Coaching and Bodywise Mind-Body Health. She offers coaching and mentoring online as well as embodied healing sessions from her home base in far north Queensland.
I believe a great source of wisdom and way of knowing the world comes from our deepening connection and capacity to sense within and know ourselves.
“What lies behind us and before us are tiny matters compared with what lies within us” Emerson
Learn Focusing with Marg
In this eight-week course, we slowly get to know each of the 6 steps of Eugene Gendlin’s Focusing practice.
Each week, we learn about one or two steps and/or a new way of listening in Focusing partnerships. Here is the course overview by week:
Clearing a space and the Focusing attitude (receiving) + Holding space
Finding a felt sense + Saying back (mirroring)
Finding a felt sense about an issue + Felt Sense Polyvagal Model (continue mirroring)
Getting a handle and resonating + Reflecting with our own words (active listening)
Felt shifts + continue active listening
Asking + Helping your Focuser with general prompt questions (experiential peer listening)
Asking + Helping your Focuser deepen their experience with specific questions (experiential peer listening continued)
Noticing patterns + Helping your Focuser deepen their experience with specific questions (experiential peer listening continued)
As we go, we gradually grow our Focusing and listening skills, by building each week some of these skills.
You’ll learn to know where the Focuser is in the process, and when to ask questions which help the process move along, such as:
“Where do you carry that in your body?”
“Can you get a handle for that?”
“What’s the worst about that?”
“What would it feel like if it was all better?”
Each class begins with a centering/grounding practice and a check-in. We then have a a teaching piece of a Focusing step or two and/or some listening skills and a small embodied guided exercise (experiential). We’ll then have a short break and come back for a demonstration followed by breakout room practice (groups of two or three). We end back together in the main room for some Q&A, sharing and a brief closing.
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. You can also opt to be assessed for the Proficiency in Focusing Partnership Award provided through TIFI in the final few weeks of the course.
Timing and other details
Next Groups—Dates, Times and Course Teachers (see more on teachers below):
Tuesdays, September 1-October 20 , 10 am to 12 pm Eastern (see your local time) with PUPA Focusing Founder and Coordinator Annette Dubreuil and co-taught by PUPA Focusing Trainee Jane Cecilia
Registration deadline: August 28—there are two regular spots left
Mondays, October 19-December 7, 6-8 pm Pacific (9-11 pm Eastern)/Tuesdays, October 20-December 8, 11 am - 1 pm AEST (see your local time) with PUPA Focusing Trainer Marg Peck
Registration deadline: October 16
Note: the time will change part way through the course for some time zones (e.g. after Nov 1 for Australia/New Zealand. See times for November 2/3 class.)
Upcoming classes - dates to be determined. Please email me at annette@pupa.ca if you cannot make the above course to let me know when you would be available for this training. If you have previous listening experience or are someone who is an intermediate or experienced Focuser, you could also look at the 4-week version of this course.
Group size: each group has between 12-24 participants.
Who is this course for? The course is designed for beginners (both beginners in Focusing and listening). (There is also an intensive 4-week version of this course which may be better suited to you if you are an experienced listener but a beginner Focuser).
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$320
25% off: US$240
50% off: US$160
70% off: US$96
80% off: US$64
90% off: US$32
Notes:
This course is to learn Focusing in partnership. Breakout room practice and practice in between classes help build that muscle. 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.
The journey can be extended to the PUPA Focusing Certification Program, which includes additional requirements to become a Trainer/Certified Focusing Professional with The International Focusing Institute.
This eight-week course is an opportunity to strengthen your listening skills and deepen your Focusing experiences. In improving your listening skills with empathy and compassion, you create an even stronger container for the felt sense and Focusing process, the motor of change.
Three types of empathy will be explored: cognitive empathy, emotional empathy and compassionate empathy. These will allow you to better understand what might be happening for the Focuser and gradually learn to use your own felt sense while you listen (empathy). The result is more attuned listening reflections and prompt suggestions (compassion).
You will also learn to better sense your own needs while Focusing, in listening to the nuances from your felt sense (self-empathy) and then meet those needs, either by giving that to yourself or asking your listener for what it needs (self-compassion and Storyteller-as-Teacher).
To build these empathic listening skills, we’ll use specific exercises that occur after Focusing, including the double empathic moment and interactive response from Interactive Focusing by Janet Klein and Mary McGuire, and broader empathic responses, like those used in our Empathy Circles (see notes below).
Our learning of empathic listening for Focusing, uses inspiration from a number of people, including: Eugene Gendlin, Carl Rogers, Interactive Focusing (Janet Klein, Mary McGuire, and Masumi Maeda), Tomeu Barceló, Glen Fleisch, Allan Rohlfs, as well as a host of empathy researchers.
We will also explore ways to use your empathy relationally during a Focusing session, and when to share that with the Focuser. Sharing in a relating way and empathic reflections are especially helpful for building self-compassion through common humanity. Finally, we’ll cover what to do if we relate too much and go into empathic distress.
The group will use the following format:
each week we will begin with a centering and check-in
next, we will learn about that week’s particular kind of empathy and its listening implications (there are eight in total, which can be mapped to the three types)
we will then have a 15-20 minute demonstration each week. During the few weeks that we do Empathy Circle responses, the other students will be able to offer their empathic reflections.
we will then have at least an hour for breakout room practice. There will be multiple options each week, including groups of two for traditional exchanges, groups of three or four for round-robin practice or Empathy Circles (see notes below), or even the option for a second demonstration.
We will also have some PUPA Focusing Trainees co-teaching the course. When not leading an empathy circle or second demonstration, you’ll have the option to have us come to your breakout room to provide co-listening (coaching on your listening).
finally, we will have a closing and final sharing
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. You can also opt to be assessed for the Proficiency in Focusing Partnership Award provided through TIFI.
Timing and other details
Next Groups:
Tuesdays, November 10-January 12, 10 am-12 pm Eastern (break weeks December 22 and 29) (see your local time here) with PUPA Focusing Founder and Coordinator Annette Dubreuil and PUPA Trainee Iren Merdinyan
Registration deadline is November 6
Mondays, January 18-March 8, 6-8 pm Pacific (9-11 pm Eastern)/Tuesdays, January 19-March 9, 12-2 pm AEST (see your local time) with PUPA Focusing Trainer Marg Peck
Registration deadline: January 15
TBD - please email me at annette@pupa.ca if you are interested in this course and cannot make the above times/dates
Group size: each group is capped at 24 people.
Who is this course for? The course is designed for Focusers of all levels. However, some previous Focusing training is required (the steps will not be taught and some listening experience is required). This experience can be gained through the 8-week beginner course or the 4-week intensive beginner course.
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$320
25% off: US$240
50% off: US$160
70% off: US$96
80% off: US$64
90% off: US$32
In this two-hour workshop, you’ll learn the basic 6 Steps of Eugene Gendlin’s Focusing practice.
The six steps are:
Clearing a Space (getting ready to Focus)
Getting a Felt Sense (physical sensations, emotions, thoughts and memories)
Finding a Handle (a word, phrase or image that gets to the crux of our felt sense)
Resonating (ensuring the handle and felt sense match just right)
Asking (asking the body a few questions and noticing how it answers)
Receiving (welcoming what comes and thanking the body)
This is a group workshop delivered on zoom. There will be a Focusing demo. And you will have the opportunity to experience Focusing for a 20-minute turn, as well as a listening turn in breakout groups. We will delve into the 6 steps of Focusing, different options for listening, and get your Focusing questions answered.
You will receive a handout of the 6 steps of Focusing and body cards to record your experience.
Number of participants: Each workshops has between 6-16 participants
Upcoming Workshops:
Monday, September 28, 7-9 pm PT (10 pm to 12 am ET) // Tuesday, September 29, 12-2 pm AEST (see your local time) with Marg Peck
Wednesday, October 21, 10 am to 12 pm ET (see your local time) with Annette Dubreuil
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 details and codes.
Full fee: US$39
25% off: US$29.25
50% off: US$19.50
70% off: US$11.70
80% off: US$7.80
90% off: US$3.90
Focusing 101 Workshops are held a few times per month. See date and time options in the dropdown.