Understanding Who You Are: Mapping Your Nervous System, Parts and Timeline (8 Weeks)

This eight-week online Focusing course helps you get to know your hurt and protective parts while strengthening access to your grounded Self. Led by Focusing teacher Annette Dubreuil of PUPA Focusing in Toronto, it meets live on Zoom and connects each part to your nervous system, so that you can eventually tell your own story through a timeline or another kind of visual map. It suits people who already have some Focusing experience and want to go deeper into embodied emotional regulation and self-understanding.

What to Expect

The course draws on Focusing, Jan Winhall's Felt Sense Polyvagal Model™ and Internal Family Systems. Together these give a way to recognize three kinds of experience in the nervous system:

- Grounded: flock, fun, flow.
- Hurt: a wounding interaction that moves us away from flock, fun and flow.
- Protective: fight, flight, fold, fixate, freeze and fawn responses.

Each class, you get to know a few parts of yourself through Focusing. You notice when a part emerged, how old you were, what happened to bring it to life, how it helped, and whether it hurts now. Over time this builds a new account of your life so far.

The first three weeks are spent connecting with your grounded Self and building a "safe nest." That steadiness supports the deeper work with wounded and protector parts in weeks four to seven. Along the way you map your experiences with felt sense body cards, learning about both your nervous system and your history.

The final stretch is about retelling your story. Many students make a timeline and see what new insights arise from being with it. Others map something else, such as their autonomic nervous system, or make an art project or write a poem.

Classes run on Tuesdays from 10 am to 12 pm Eastern, for eight weeks. Groups have between 8 and 24 people. Breakout room practice is part of the format, and participants are encouraged to form a Focusing partnership with another student and meet between classes to exchange Focusing and listening.

Live attendance matters, since the course builds Focusing and listening skills through practice. Classes are recorded, including guided exercises, slide teachings, demonstrations and group sharing, so an unavoidable absence can be made up. Breakout room practice is not recorded.

About Annette Dubreuil

Annette Dubreuil is a Focusing teacher, facilitator and environmentalist, and the founder of PUPA Focusing, which she started in 2020. Based in Toronto, 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 shores of Lake Superior, and has cared about the environment since childhood. She studied environmental science, completed an MBA in sustainability and strategy at Schulich, and then worked for over a decade in communications supporting research projects. In 2012 she found Focusing, which helped her greatly, and she felt she had to teach it. She came to see that being grounded in the body connects us to the Earth and opens the heart.

Before You Go

The course is designed for all levels of Focusers, but some previous Focusing training is required. You need to be able to access your felt sense and hold space, ideally with practice in Focusing partnerships. Annette's 4-week and 8-week beginner courses teach this foundation.

Pricing is on a sliding scale, with several price points to reduce financial barriers for people with different incomes. You can take the course as a stand-alone experience, continue through the wider PUPA journey, or choose whichever courses resonate. It can also lead into the PUPA Focusing Certification Program, which has additional requirements for becoming a Trainer and Certified Focusing Professional with The International Focusing Institute.