Focusing Process Group (8 Weeks) — Annette Dubreuil

The Focusing Process Group is an eight-week online Focusing group led by Annette Dubreuil, founder of PUPA Focusing in Toronto. It is for people who already have some Focusing training and want to deepen both their Focusing and their listening, with a strong emphasis on self-compassion through common humanity. The group meets on Zoom for two hours each week.

What to Expect

The heart of the group is the empathy circle, practiced in a Focusing way. One participant is the Focuser for the week and has a 15-minute session. The listener may be the teacher or another participant, and everyone else holds space as a witness. Afterward the group pauses to sense what is happening in them now, and anyone who wishes offers an empathic reflection. That might be what they felt in the body (a felt sense), or a word, phrase or image (a handle) that came to mind. The Focuser then shares what more arises from hearing those reflections. It works as a Focusing demonstration that every observer is welcome to experience and help unfold.

Each session follows a steady shape:

- A brief centering and check-in
- The week's empathy circle
- About one hour of breakout room time
- A brief sharing and discussion of questions
- A closing

In the breakout time you choose how to practice. You can work in pairs or threes, which gives more time per person. You can join a round-robin of four or five, taking turns Focusing and listening, which suits times when the empathy circle touched you deeply and you want to stay with it. This format is inspired by the Interactive Response in Interactive Focusing. Or you can stay in the main room for a generative Focusing conversation that grows out of the circle. The teacher and any co-teachers or assistants are available to co-listen, and you can invite them into your breakout room for coaching on your listening.

There is no pre-planned curriculum beyond the empathy circles and empathic reflections. Concepts and teaching aids are shared as they arise naturally from the group. Between sessions, forming a Focusing partnership with two other participants is encouraged: one Focuses, one listens, and one keeps time, which gives a stronger container for deep work. A traditional dyad partnership is also fine.

This regular group runs for eight weeks, with a break week partway through, and meets in the morning, Eastern time.

About Annette Dubreuil

Annette Dubreuil is a Focusing teacher, facilitator and environmentalist. She describes her work as embodied creativity for a better world, helping people return to their bodies, listen to their inner wisdom with compassion, and move from stress toward resilience. She grew up in Wawa, Ontario, on the northeast shore of Lake Superior, and studied environmental science before completing an MBA in sustainability and strategy at Schulich. She then worked for over a decade in communications supporting research projects. She found Focusing in 2012, felt she had to teach it, and came to see that being grounded in the body connects us to the Earth and opens the heart. She started PUPA Focusing in 2020 and coordinates this group.

Before You Go

Groups welcome Focusers of all levels, but some prior training is required. The steps of Focusing are not taught here, and some experience listening in Focusing partnerships is expected. That experience can come from an eight-week beginner course or a four-week intensive beginner course.

The group takes up to 24 participants and meets online through Zoom. Sliding scale pricing is available to reduce financial barriers for people with different incomes. A separate ten-week certification group exists for those enrolled in the Certification Program, but it is open only to accepted, active members of that program.