Andrew Fieleke: Certified Focusing Professional

Contact Info: Lexington, MA 02420 USA Phone: 781-354-0267 Email: andrewfieleke@gmail.com Website: Focusing New England URL: http://focusingnewengland.com/	Andrew Fieleke, M.A. Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapist Focusing Trainer
Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapist (FOT) Information:
Clinical Training: M.A. Counseling Psychology Licensed By: Massachusetts (LMHC) FOT Specialty Areas: Trauma, Eating disorders, Adults, Body Psychotherapy, Severe and persistent mental illness, Substance abuse Other Specialty Areas: Dreams, Jung/Jungian, 'Parts work,' Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
Focusing Trainer Information:
I offer Focusing training in individual sessions. I offer Focusing training in individual phone sessions. I offer Focusing workshops. I am available for public presentations. I am available to travel to teach workshops.
Focusing Trainer Specialty Areas: Spirituality/Meditation, 12 Step Program, College students and/or their teachers, Creative process
My Publications: Are We Really Alone? Enlightenment is intimacy with all things. - Dogen Zenji (1200 - 1253) Fortunately it is not necessary to understand Gendlin’s challenging “philosophy of the implicit” in order to learn Focusing. Nevertheless, reflecting on the philosophy can be a contemplative exercise and change how we experience ourselves. In my case meditating on some of Gendlin’s ideas has shifted my sense of being alone in the world. First let me distinguish humble feelings of loneliness from the belief and feeling of being fundamentally isolated and alone. Simple feelings of loneliness can be helpful insofar as they motivate us to create and sustain healthy relationships. However, viewing ourselves as ultimately alone can lead to more painful feelings of isolation and anxiety. Gendlin offers a different perspective. He describes the self as a process rather than a “thing” and discusses how focusing can help us experience ourselves, not as isolated entities, but as moment to moment living interactions with the world. In Gendlin’s thinking, life is living forward through us in every moment. And if we step back at any given time and bring awareness to our bodily felt life process our sense of self begins to change. We can experience ourselves as energetic processes, or as Gendlin has written: “an environmental interaction that continuously regenerates itself.” From this point of view we are not separate or alone and everything we experience is part of a larger texture. Our feet imply the earth, our lungs imply air, and our loneliness implies other people. More grandly, in Gendlin’s words, “vast reaches of the universe are involved in our process.” We are intricately connected to and supported by our environments and in this sense our condition is not alienation; rather it is one of profound belonging. “An environmental interaction that continuously regenerates itself.” I invite you to pause with me in a focusing way and notice how that feels… If you are interested in learning more about Gendlin’s philosophy, you can find his articles on line in the Gendlin online library at focusing.org. See http://www.focusing.org/gendlin/gol_intro_phil.asp
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Andrew Fieleke, M.A.