Focusing in Your Personal and Professional Life
Parenting, ReParenting & Relational Presence
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Children do not need perfect parents.
They need emotionally available adults
who can remain in relationship.
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Children have an extraordinary way of highlighting the parts of ourselves that still need understanding. When a child’s behaviour feels overwhelming, it is often more than the present moment we are responding to. Their distress, defiance or withdrawal can awaken younger parts of ourselves that once adapted in order to belong, survive or be loved. Sometimes it can feel as though our child has found the very age at which we needed someone to truly understand us.
Focusing offers a lifelong ethos to listen deeply beyond words and behaviours.
Rather than trying to change our child first, we begin by pausing and turning towards ourselves. We notice the overwhelm, the fear or the judgement arising within us and gently ask:
“Where in me knows this feeling?”
As we listen to our felt experience, we discover that we can accompany both ourselves and our child at the same time.
This is the heart of felt-experience reParenting.
We become less reactive and more present. We repair when we lose our way and return with the simple message:
“I am here now.”
Children do not need perfect parents. They need emotionally available adults who can remain in relationship.
Focusing also gives children a lifelong gift. They learn that their feelings matter, that their body is a trustworthy guide and that every feeling has something important to communicate. In doing so, they develop emotional resilience, confidence and a strong sense of self.
When we change the way we relate to ourselves, we naturally change the way we relate to our children.
This is relationality.
This is intentional living.
Focusing in Therapeutic Work
A Focusing-oriented therapist provides a safe and supportive space where clients can gently acknowledge all parts of themselves—whether it’s anxiety, joy, or unresolved emotions—without fear of judgment or pressure to change.
Instead of trying to replace what might have been missing in a client’s early life, like a lack of emotional support, the therapist offers a consistent, compassionate presence. This helps clients explore their own feelings and experiences at their own pace.
By taking time to pause and listen to the body’s subtle signals—such as a knot in the stomach or a sense of heaviness in the chest—clients often discover new insights, images, or meanings that weren’t clear before.
The therapist doesn’t analyse or try to “fix” these experiences. Instead, they walk alongside the client, helping them move from a place of stress or survival toward calm, integration, and a deeper connection with their true self.
I’ve started focusing with Deirdre in January. It’s has changed the way I respond to my body and my emotions . It’s about holding all my parts . When I am focusing “part of me is…..“ it’s not the whole of me.
Its very gentle way to spend time following my body with out get consumed by my emotions. Also the schools where my children go have commented on how much more regulated they are. I don’t need any more proof focusing is changing my family life for better.
- Annemarie
Focusing Learning Programmes
Introductory Workshops
A gentle entry point into Focusing — no prior experience required. Learn how attention, presence, and the felt sense support regulation and clarity.
Focusing Skills Training
Professional & CPD Training
