Shakio Institute
Focusing. Art. Prayer
Opening the Focusing consciousness
New Terms – New Possibilities – New Steps
What is a living body such that it has the intricacy of our situations?
How is Focusing even possible?
If one has only the usual understanding of ‘the body‘, Focusing has to be some kind of delusion.
What does it mean to open the Focusing consciousness?
“The Focusing Revolution”
In the Focusing community, we are living in the period that follows the “first great revolution” Gendlin brought into the world. Following him, people began to take their next steps in life by listening to the process of the living body.
Now the time has come for a “second revolution.” This revolution calls us to listen to “Gendlin’s project” – to follow what Gendlin explored and developed throughout his life, and to inquire into what is implicit at the heart of his life’s work. For many years after publishing Focusing (1978), he continued to explore human possibilities until the end of his life in 2017. He regarded this project as being of profound importance for the human condition in our time and for addressing the challenges humanity faces today.
During this period, he developed new concepts, new practices, and new understandings through which the Focusing process can carry life forward beyond what we could previously imagine.
Why is it important for our Institute to continue deepening the path and vision of Gendlin?
Because within his writings lie hidden treasures for Humanity.
Because a path that does not continue to deepen itself will, by its nature, gradually narrow and become depleted.
Because even though Focusing may appear to be a very simple process, it is much more intricate.
Many people experience a gap between what they sense as possible and what actually occurs in practice.
Why does this happen? Because if one is not familiar with the subtle distinctions and understandings that underlie the practice, people may continue to speak the “language of Focusing,” but the process itself may collapse into other body-mind practices that do not bring the unique fruit that Focusing can offer.
If you seek to refine your capacity, to deepen, to renew…If from your own life experience you sense that there is more… much more in Focusing, you are invited to join a group in which we will learn new layers of depth within Focusing.
Toward where do we turn in Focusing? How do we connect with what “does not yet exist”?
What does the mystic know about the “self,” and what can the focuser know?
What does “Body” mean, and what is “body-consciousness”?
On the wondrous relationship between body and language.
What are the sharp differences between body-mind practices and Focusing?
How can we be “saved” from constraining inner structures?
On the importance of the birth of a new understanding within the Focusing process.
In each unit we will deepen into one of these themes through reading texts by Gendlin and practicing Focusing movements that gain new meaning through the learning.
Recommended for experienced students who wish to deepen their Focusing practice.
Recognized as a philosophy course within the certification program of the Shakio Institute.
Meet the Teachers
Shakio is a space for collaborative exploration founded by Dana Ganihar, an experienced Focusing instructor and a teacher of the philosophy of Eugene Gendlin, and Baruch Brenner a multidisciplinary artist, rabbi and certified Focusing instructor who investigates and teaches performance art and Jewish mysticism.
A pioneer of the Focusing movement in Israel. She studied directly with the father of Focusing, Eugene Gendlin, along with other leading teachers in the field around the world. Dana served on the global board of the International Focusing Institute and is dedicated to advancing Gendlin’s teachings. Dana has initiated cooperative research exploring the potential impact of Focusing practices on diverse fields such as biology, architecture, creative writing, and religion. She is a co-author of ‘The Art of Prayer’ (2025).
An interdisciplinary artist and an ordained Orthodox Rabbi. Baruch has been a leading innovator in integrating Jewish and spiritual practices with experiential work in Art. Over the course of thirty years, he has dedicated himself to researching the world of the body as a vehicle, the realm of consciousness, the language of imagination, and transformational practices through working with ancient songs. Brenner is the author of ‘A Diary of a Worshiper’ (Idra Publishing, 2022) – a book based on a personal initiation journey into the world of Kabbalah and the mystery of prayer. He is also a co-author of ‘The Art of Prayer’ (2025).
Course Syllabus
Session 1:
The Source Beyond Concepts (No-Thingness)
What does it mean to open to the source beyond concepts: What is the living process that precedes perception? Exploring the essential difference between what is perceived and the living process that is continuously forming. Understanding how a focusing process becomes possible only from a depth whose origin is no-thingness, prior to conceptual formation.
Session 2:
Gendlin’s Five-Dot Concept (“…..”) and How to Work With It
Introducing Gendlin’s five-dot concept and its meaning as an opening toward what is not yet formed. Learning how to work with the unfinished, the implicit, and the “not-yet-said” in experience. Practicing how the five dots function as an invitation to the emergence of new meaning.
Session 3:
Two Modes of Awareness: Attention vs. Consciousness
Exploring the difference between awareness as attention, and consciousness sequence as changing reality, as a carrying forward. Understanding what is meant by the era of CF, in contrast to the era of diagnosis and problem-solving from the observer position.
Session 4:
The “Creation-ing Model”
Introducing the Creation Model: What are processes of creation? How is new meaning formed? Understanding the process that generates New Direct Reference Formation, enabling movement beyond limiting assumptions and allowing life to be created forward.
Session 5:
The Body in Gendlin’s Philosophy
What is the body according to Gendlin? The body as a “perfect feedback object” of the larger living body. Exploring the process body, not merely experiences without ego, but a sequence of living steps that generates new meaning through the felt sense. How consciousness opens from a subtle, pre-conceptual sensing and becomes language.
Session 6:
Felt Sense - Felt Meaning - New Direct Referent Formation
Relearning the sensitivity required to recognize felt meaning and felt sense. How do felt senses arise? How do we listen to them? What do they actually generate in the unfolding of meaning and life?
Session 7:
The Evolution of the “Self” Through Focusing Processes
How does the focusing process transform the sense of self? How does the practice generate the evolution of the self? Exploring the emergence of a self without fixed content, a self that lives freshly and carries life forward. New invitations to focusing and how they support this unique process.
Session 8:
Cultural Stoppage and the Emergency of Humanity
What is the historical emergency of our time? What is the cultural stoppage we are facing? Why is focusing a cultural catalyst for the renewal of life?
Session 9:
On What Cannot Be Spoken
Exploring what cannot be spoken about directly. Working with selected quotations from dialogues with Dave on the relationship between the individual and the larger system. Understanding how what cannot be spoken can nevertheless be experienced.
Session 10:
Focusing Practice as a Witness to Human Nature
What is focusing as witnessing? Integrating the course themes into a lived understanding of focusing as an act of creation and testimony of humanity.
Course Starts On Sunday October 11th
10 sessions on Sundays
Dates: Oct 11, Oct 18, Oct 25, Nov 1, Nov 8, Nov 15, Nov 22, Nov 29, Dec 6, Dec 13
time: 12:30-14:30 (New York, USA), 18:30-20:30 (CET), 19:30-21:30 (Israel)
Recordings of the sessions will be available for viewing only, for up to three months from the end of the course
Prices
Early bird (August 15): 650 USD
Regular: 720 USD
Supporter: 850 USD
Please write to us if in need of financial assistance to info@shakio.org.
The Opening the Focusing Consciousness course is part of a complete certification program by the Shakio Institute in collaboration with The International Focusing Institute.
To learn more about the Shakio Institute, workshops and theachers: shakio-in.com
- For more information:
- info@shakio.org
“We think more than we can say. We feel more than we can think. We live more than we can feel. And there is so much more still."
This is what they say about us
For further questions, you are welcome to write to us at shakio.org@gmail.com