Focusing Institute Certifying Coordinator
Certified Focusing-Oriented Therapist
Certified Focusing Trainer
Certified Focusing Professional with Specialization in Focusing Oriented Expressive Arts FOAT®
Personal Statement
I was introduced to Focusing by Swiss Focusing Pioneers at a venue where Gene Gendlin did teach from 1992 to 1997 (Achberg/Lindau, Lake of Constance GER). It was the year of 1994, and my Focusing journey is rooted in this place and its historical context till today. My early teachers (co-founders of the German-Swiss Focusing Netzwork FN) were teaching Focusing Plus, a special development of Focusing and the typical FN Focusing style. It was intermodal Focusing and we used Gene’s avenues of expression to symbolize the Felt Sense in various forms, and implemented body work in nature.
In 2001 I became member of the FN leading team and started teaching Focusing myself. I am still enthusiastic on the multitude of options we FN Focusers experimented with, and I keep them up to cultivate a culture of experiential diversity and Focusing joy.
Years of additional trainings with various international Focusing teachers followed. I am now teaching Focusing for more than 20 years nationally and internationally with a background of 30 years of experience as a person-centered and experiential clinician, educator and art therapist. I am specialized in trauma-informed Focusing with the arts and created a new way for the therapeutic use of experiential arts in Focusing Oriented Therapy. Please scroll down for details of this approach of Expressive Arts Focusing ExAF.
Location(s):
Office 1: FOCUSZART The Focusing Studio, Tübingen, Germany
Office 2: Zoom
Public Contact Details:
telephone:+49 7071 8597035
website: https://artsfocusing.com
email: focuszart@email.de
Languages: German, English
PROFESSIONAL DETAILS
Professional memberships with registering bodies
Professional Member of the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association IEATA®
Practitioner Member of the Association of Person Centered Creative Arts APCCA
Professional Member of the German Art Therapy Association DFKGT
Member of The International Focusing Institute TIFI
Member of the International Association of Focusing Oriented Therapists IAFOTs
Member of the European Network for Person-Centred and Experiential Psychotherapy and Counselling PCE
Member of the European Focusing Association EFA
Member of the British Focusing Association BFA
Member of the German Focusing Association DFG
Certified Member of the German Associaton for Person-Centred Psychotherapy and Counseling GwG
Senior Member of the German-Swiss Focusing Network FN
Academic and training qualifications:
Art Therapist AT (DASc) (2022)
Person-Centred Creative Arts Practitioner APCCA (2023) | Guided Drawing® Practitioner GDP (2019) | Focusing Oriented Expressive Arts Practitioner FOAT® (2019)
TIFI Focusing Professional FOAT® (2022) | TIFI Focusing Oriented Therapist FOT (2020) | TIFI Certifying Coordinator (2013) | TIFI Focusing Trainer (2005)
Person-centered Teaching Consultant with specialization in Existential Wellbeing Counseling (2013/2017) | Person-centered Therapist PCT (2006)
Clinical Psychologist CP GRAD (BA, MA) (1992) | Registered non-medical Practitioner for Psychotherapy (1996)
Adult Educator Ed GRAD (BA, MA) (2011) | Undergraduate Degree in Design Techniques for vocational college teachers (1984)
Therapeutic services:
Individual psychotherapy/counselling, individual art therapy, individual Focusing Oriented Expressive Arts Therapy (FOAT®)
Individual Focusing sessions (guided Focusing, not ongoing therapy), individual FOAT® sessions, individual session in Expressive Arts Focusing ExAF
Online/Zoom sessions
Areas of special interest or advanced training:
- Existential Wellbeing, Mindfulness, Creativity, Community Wellness Focusing, Community Art, Creative Compassion for global peace
Training: - I offer individual sessions for people to learn Focusing (open to the public)
- I offer training in Focusing-oriented Therapy (for professionals)
- I offer training in Focusing Oriented Expressive Arts FOAT® (open to the public, for professionals)
- I offer supervision for Focusers and Focusers-in-training (with and without background in the helping professions)
Details of these and any other services:
Expressive Arts Focusing (ExAF for short) is a body-focused approach embedded in the culture of European Focusing, along with Art and Design. It is an integratve approach crossing Focusing with multiple therapeutic understandings of the Creative and the Expressive Arts. It also is a trauma-informed approach using the traumatology of the Expressive Arts Therapies to promote self-regulation, resilience and existential wellbeing.
Working with ExAF in 1:1 settings or trainings, we follow the paradime of the pluralistic humanistic approach putting your experience and needs first in co-creative set up settings. We use Gendlin’s concept of crossing to bring out the very unique kind of More of all methods (both experiential and artistic) that are used and put into action during session. What is needed as a next step comes from therapeutic co-creation completion and induces a coherent forwarding of the therapeutic situation as a whole.
___________________________________________________________
Recent Publications (5 years or less):
Blob, F. (2024), Exploring Space In Presence with Creative Arts. In: The Art of Insight. Journal for the Association of Person-Centred Creative Arts, Volume 1, Issue 1, Jan. 2024, pp 34-39.
Blob, F. (2022), Das Experienzielle Dritte: Focusing Konzepte für die Kunsttherapie. Abschlussarbeit Wissenschaftliche Weiterbildung Kunsttherapie (Diploma of Advanced Studies), Katholische Universität Freiburg, 2022.
Blob, F. (2021), Saying no in presence: Setting limits through body sense. In: Kypriotakis and Moore (Eds), Senses of Focusing vol. II, pp. 469-483, Eurasia Publications.
Permission:
*I give permission for my information to be listed, and for people to contact me using this information