The EFA teachers’ group grew out of the meeting at Abano Terme in Italy, on 30 September 2017.
The participants were Freda (Friedgard) Blob, Fiona Parr, Eirini Davleri, Ria van Hage, Cornelius Gehrig, Lucy van Praag, Caterina Carta and Evi Kladouhou. This is what we came up with at that meeting.
Needs and wishes
- Umbrella – being part of a bigger platform, and gaining credibility.
- Support, connecting, exchange, peer intervision/supervision, networking.
- Having the possibility for collaboration.
- Assisting on each other’s programmes.
- Inviting teachers from other EU countries to one’s place.
- Motivation and empowerment for one’s own work.
Ideas for practical steps
- Post a teachers’ list on EFA web site, with the different approaches and offers.
- Energize the EFA Facebook page.
- Having a Zoom within about 6 weeks. (Fiona to be the first host). Open to anyone who is interested. The aim is to have regular Zoom meetings.
- We start work as a teachers’ group, with an option to develop as a teaching team.
- Putting the action steps out on the EFA newsletter and the EU Coordinators’ list.
Open points for further discussion
- Certificates.
- Money, and/or giving Focusing away.
- Do we need to create an EFA programme.
- What tools of current models might work for the EFA teachers’ group…
Models – ways of working already
- We shared what is currently happening in each of our countries.
Online meetings
We have been meeting regularly since Abano, with everyone in the group continuing to be committed to it. Sari Pekki joined us after meeting us at the Loutraki Conference. We start the short meeting with a check in and sharing, to build our group and our connections with each other.
Our current project
We have been sharing our teaching programmes, by sending a summary to the whole group, and now we are taking a turn each to share at the meeting, and to answer questions from the group. This may evolve into guidelines for teachers, or creating standards for EFA. There is nothing definite yet about this.
What makes this group work
We share this special way of working with Focusing; teaching Focusing to groups. We have a common view, even though we work in very different ways. It’s not FOT. It’s about empowering individuals, groups and communities to find Focusing and to practice it in their own lives. We are working with professionals to enable them to integrate Focusing in their work. We teach Focusing partnership, and Focusing as a method for professionals with applications in multiple ways.
Fiona Parr, December 2018.
