PUPA Focusing Certification Program.

 

2-year program to become a Certified Focusing Professional (Trainer)

The base of the PUPA Focusing Certification Program consisting of five courses, designed to not only learn and teach Focusing, but to also get to know and transform yourself, while creating change in the world. The initial courses cover learning Focusing, learning about who you are, learning who you want to be and what you want to bring into the world using Thinking At the Edge (TAE, Gendlin’s second practice), transforming a large block using the 8Cs of self-leadership, and finally a course on taking action with embodied leadership (see below for links to course descriptions).

While the core of the five courses is Focusing practice, the training also combines other frameworks and ideas, such as Jan Winhall’s Felt Sense Polyvagal Model™ (which builds on Stephen Porges polyvagal theory about the autonomic nervous system), the 8Cs of Self-leadership and Internal Family Systems by Richard Schwartz, psychological safety, embodied leadership, creativity, as well as Gendlin’s practice of Thinking At the Edge.

PUPA Focusing places a large emphasis on asking the body for action steps, as the body knows different ways forward. The PUPA Focusing program also uses the PUPA process in its final two courses. This is a way of crossing Focusing with the change framework Theory U (by Otto Scharmer from MIT and the Presencing Institute), so as to process bigger and more complex issues and to catalyze action to resolve them and create change.

The journey of the five courses also follows the PUP2A process at a high level:

  1. Pause: Focusing basics, learning to be in the body
  2. Understand: Who are you, your story/timeline
  3. Permutation: Your felt sense shifts, showing you who you want to be, and what you want to create in the world (TAE)
  4. Preparation: Unpacking a major block needed to transform into who you want to be (with 8Cs of Self-Leadership)
  5. Action: Your project in action with embodied leadership: co-regulating your creative team with psychological safety.

Trainer Requirements

In addition to taking the five core courses, the PUPA Focusing Certification Program includes the following additional requirements*:

  • having an ongoing Focusing partnership(s)

  • attending one of the two monthly Focusing trainee meetings (there are two times to accommodate different time zones). Our monthly meetings include additional teaching and four times per year we have guest speakers (e.g. we’ve had Coordinators Peter Gill and Lynn Preston)

    • Meetings are held on the 2nd Monday of the month, 6:30-8:30 pm Eastern or the 4th Monday of the month, 10 am to 12 pm Eastern time

  • re-taking the 8-week beginner course (or the 4-week intensive version) to learn how beginners learn**

  • a final project. The final project has two streams options, teaching or guiding (you can also do a mix***):

    • The teaching option includes:

      • co-teaching a session of the 4-week or 8-week beginner course; and

      • co-teaching one of the 8- or 10-week courses in the program, co-teaching another course Annette offers, or to create or co-create your own workshop or course by crossing your existing expertise with Focusing. If you opt to create your own workshop or course, you can take the action course concurrently to support you in this part of your journey. 

      • (optional) co-teaching workshops and/or hosting the Changes Group. This is highly advised if you opt to create your own workshop or host a Changes Group, to have experience holding space for groups that meet only once or are ongoing and have different attendees each time.

    • The guiding option is to see clients one-to-one (for a total of 30 hours of sessions) and includes a review of recorded sessions. See the PUPA Trainee Sessions for more information about how this process works.

When you enrol in this program you must also become a Trainee member of The International Focusing Institute (TIFI), which includes an annual membership fee. And then when all requirements are met, including paying a certification fee to TIFI, you become a Certified Focusing Professional (also known as a Focusing Trainer) with the Institute. Optional in this process is to take additional training from other Focusing teachers, including by attending the Advanced and Certification Weeklong (since the pandemic, these are now hybrid events. 2024 details can be viewed here. The 2025 Weeklong will take place in October in Buenos Aires, Argentina; dates to come).

Notes:
*there is some flexibility in the requirements. For example, you might opt to take other courses offered by Annette (e.g. the Focusing Process Group, or the Climate change course) rather than the core journey courses, or do some of your studies with another Focusing teacher to better suit your learning needs. Or, if you have significant previous training, then the number of courses you need might be reduced. This can be discussed with Annette.

**if you already have some basic Focusing experience, you can begin the program with the 4-week intensive course if that timing works better for you, and then take the 8-week course at this stage.

***doing a mix of the teaching and guiding stream includes the complete teaching stream and 15 hours of client sessions.

Next Cohort, Open House & Application Form

The next cohort will begin winter 2025. There was an Open House held December 19th 2024, from 10-11 am Eastern, to have your questions answered.

 
 

February 2025 Cohort, approximate course dates

The next cohort of the PUPA Focusing Trainees program will begin in February 2025. The cohort will be on Thursdays, from 10 am - 12 pm Eastern.

Interested in the PUPA Focusing Certification Program, or have more questions?

If you’ve read everything on this page, including the Frequently Asked Questions below, and have watched the Open House recording, you can feel free to email Annette with any other questions. The final step is to communicate your interest. This is usually done by booking a time in Annette’s calendar (via the button below) so we can discuss if the program will be a good fit for you. Meetings can also be used to learn more about the Certification program. An application form will then be shared.

Not interested in being a Focusing Trainer, but interested in the coursework?

Anyone can take some or all of these courses. The only pre-requisite is the beginner 8-week course, 4-week course for advanced listeners, or some equivalent beginner training you already have. While the courses follow a progression and are great when taken in the PUPA order, they stand on their own. So you can mix the order, or only take the course or courses that resonate with your journey.

Dates for ongoing cohorts

The PUPA Focusing Certification program is created and led by Coordinator Annette Dubreuil.

Become certified by The International Focusing Institute.

Option to attend the Advanced and Certification Weeklong at the end of your program.

“I highly recommend the courses offered by Annette. Her manner is clear and professional with a great depth of understanding and compassion. I took the entire journey through to the certification process with her and it has been an enlightening and expanding experience.”
— Marg P

5 core courses of the PUPA Focusing Certification Program

 

FAQs

  • No, there are no previous educational requirements. However, classes are taught in English, and so a good grasp of this language is essential.

  • First, review all the information on this page, including the Open House video.

    Next, please email me your questions at annette@pupa.ca

    Then, it is best to set up a time to have a discussion together prior to signing up. This is an opportunity to make sure the program is a good fit for your journey and plan your studies.

    Following our call, I will provide you with an application form. Applications forms are due January 6h. Selected trainees will be contacted with registration steps by January 13th. 

    Once you are selected, there are three remaining steps to officially sign up and begin training with me:

    1. Register as a Trainee by paying the annual Trainee membership fee with The International Focusing Institute (see focusing.org/course/membership).

    2. Register for the PUPA Training Membership fee (this link will be provided to you when you are selected).

    3. Register for the Focusing for Beginners course. It is also possible to being with the 4-week version.

  • We have a cohort model. Cohorts begin approximately every nine months. See above for the exact dates.

    All courses for a cohort will be on the same day and time. For example, the one which began Tuesday, September 12 always has courses on Tuesdays, from 12:30-2:30 pm Eastern.

    If you have missed a cohort, you can take the next 8-week or 4-week beginner course to start learning. (The beginner course is required at least two times in the program, so you will retake it once your cohort begins.)

  • I mostly teach and use Gendlin’s classic six steps Focusing. I also teach a mix of other styles, including empathic reflections/double empathic moments (Janet Klein’s Interactive Focusing), and when working with difficult parts we use some Presence Language (Ann Weiser Cornell and Barbara McGavin’s Inner Relationship Focusing). Finally, I teach asking the felt sense for action steps. Some of this is inspired by David Rome’s book Your Body Knows the Answer, Bala Jaison, Robert Lee’s Domain Focusing, but also from Otto Scharmer’s Theory U. See blogs about action steps and Focusing. Gendlin also used the term “just right next step” in his major work A Process Model, though he didn’t emphasize action as much in his work as others.

  • Yes, Focusing is a beautiful tool which can help process many issues, including trauma. The training includes how to create safety as a listener, both within yourself (via the Focusing attitude) and with others with empathic and compassionate listening, that welcomes what wants to come forward to be felt/known and processed.

    I am a trauma-informed Focusing professional, having trained with Jan Winhall and her Felt Sense Polyvagal Model™ I use this in all course teaching to some degree, with a bigger emphasis on the model in the Understanding who you are course (2nd course).

    The training includes when to recommend that someone work with a therapist in addition to a Focusing professional.

  • The main tool I use with Focusing sessions are the felt sense body cards. This is a tool I created to record the felt sense in a non-linear way in addition to using words/phrases to capture a Focusing session. We will also use my PUPA process in the fourth and fifth course, which is a tool for working on an issue that requires multiple Focusing sessions. Finally, I use Power Point as a way to map dialogue or timelines of parts. Other mapping tools can also be used such as whiteboards.

  • My professional lineage is inter-disciplinary, spanning environmental science, business, Focusing and emergence.

    Within the world of Focusing, I owe the most to Eugene Gendlin for creating the practice. I became a Certified Focusing Professional with Coordinator Jan Winhall; I’m currently a Coordinator-in-Training with Mentoring Coordinator Peter Gill and support team members Massimo Zarghetta and Lynn Preston.

    I have also studied Focusing and Thinking at the Edge during guest lecturers, workshops, courses or conferences with (in alphabetical order by last name) Peter Afford, Tomeu Barceló, Beatrice Blake, Lucy Bowers, Naty Calviño, Ann Weiser Cornell, Marine de Freminville, Heinke Deloch, Aaffien de Vries, Leslie Ellis, Yehudit First, Akira Ikemi, Bala Jaison, Sergio Lara, Robert Lee, Mia Leijssen, Susan Lennox, Nada Lou, Beth Mahler, Barbara McGavin, Jeffrey Morrison, Suzanne Nöel, Lynn Preston, Laury Rappaport, Dennis Windego. Apologies to those I have missed here.

    Outside of Focusing, I want to acknowledge those I have learned from about the nervous system, trauma, resilience, compassion and courage, including Stephen Porges, Deb Dana, Bessel van der Kolk, Rick Hansen, Dan Siegel, Kristen Neff, Kelly McGonigal, Christopher Germer, Deborah Lee, Richard Schwartz and Brené Brown.

    And then there are the many embodied coaches that I have studied with and learned from, including Beatrice (Bebe) Hansen, Richard Strozzi-Heckler, Staci Haines, Alta Starr, Amanda Blake, David Treleaven, Wendy Palmer and Ginny Whitelaw.

    For working with emergence, I have learned Open Space Technology from David Barnes, Dynamic Facilitation from Rosa Zubizarreta. Others in this area include Peggy Holman, Brenda Zimmerman, Paul Plsek.

    There are too many to name for business (including psychological safety), creativity and the environment, but a few influential people have been Otto Scharmer, Arawana Hayashi, Natalie Nixon, Steve Schein, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Andy Fisher, Timothy R. Clark, and Amy C. Edmondson.

    View land acknowledgment here.

  • The average time to complete the program is two years.

    It is possible to complete it in slightly less time, say 1.5 years, but only if multiple components are done together. Example: co-teaching a beginner course while working on your final project.

    You can opt to spread it out over a longer time period. This can be the case if you need to take breaks in between courses, or opt to do the courses in a different order to better suit your learning needs (in essence being part of multiple cohorts).

  • As a Coordinator-in-Training with TIFI, I can certify you to be a Focusing Trainer or Certified Focusing Professional. View details here.

    As I am not a psychotherapist, I CANNOT certify you as a Focusing Oriented Therapist. If you’d like to be certified that way, you’ll have to find a Coordinator or Coordinator-in-Training who has the following qualifications: certification in Focusing Oriented Therapy from TIFI; be a psychotherapist who is legally able to practice in their country. View more about becoming an FOT here.

  • There are 12 spots per cohort.

  • Costs depend on what stream you choose: teaching or guiding. The cost for the teaching stream is $USD 5,400 and for the guiding stream $4,600.

    Costs include course costs and a monthly $75 membership fee. Additionally, the teaching (and optional mix of teaching and guiding) streams have extra course costs, as you pay the fees for the courses you co-teach. Course costs are paid as you take them. The monthly fee is paid monthly.

    Optional Private Sessions:

    Trainees can also opt to have private mentoring sessions, either with me or with another Certified Focusing Professional. My fee is $125 USD per hour. Or you can opt to do the bespoke package.

    Sliding Scale

    If you need support, there are a number of limited sliding scale pricing spots available, depend on both your location and life situation. You can review the Sliding Scale Pricing page which outlines country groupings and prompts that can help you determine where to place yourself on the scale in your application form (you’ll get this from Annette when you meet with her).

    You can view this table which estimates the cost (in USD) of the program by stream/situation. Costs vary if you take longer or less time to complete the program, or if you take some courses with other teachers.