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November Archives “Is this violence? Naming violence as a form of political advocacy?” (November Archives “Is this violence? Naming violence as advocacy”) at the Third Conference on the Felt Sense (Third Felt Sense Conference), organized by the International Focusing Institute online this year 2021 with the focus on “An embodied release: the felt sense and Social Justice” (English “Embodied Liberation: the Felt Sense & Social Justice”). In my workshop I plan to make a cross between the Child Protection work that I develop from my consultancy, Spiral Consulting Children, and the inner dimension of Focusing. At the same time, I hope to offer elements of inner awareness that will be useful to anyone committed to Social Justice, not only with Child Protection.

Date: viernes, 3 December 2021, of 11:00 a 13:00 new york time (17:00-19:00 Madrid time, see other time slots here).

Place: online.

Language: English.

More information and registration: página web de Third Felt Sense Conference (2021).

[Original entry 24 November 2021, actualizada a 3 December 2021, date of the event].

Focusing has always had at its core the improvement of society, not just of individuals. Gendlin wrote extensively about the social and political dimension of Focusing, as the felt sense provides a better understanding of our inner life –and of external circumstances. Starting from deep personal work, Focusing invites us to step into interpersonal relationships and social structures with strength, flexibility and awareness and to start the changes we want to see in the world.

I am therefore very honoured to present my workshop “Is this violence? Naming violence as advocacy” at the Third Felt Sense Conference, organised by The International Focusing Institute online this year 2021 with the focus in “Embodied Liberation: the Felt Sense & Social Justice”. In my workshop I am planning to cross the work in Child Protection that I develop from my consultancy firm, Spiral Consulting Children, with the inner dimension of Focusing. However, I hope to offer inner awareness for every person that is committed with Social Justice, not just in Child Protection.

Date: Friday, December 3rd 2021, 11:00-13:00 New York time (17:00-19:00 Madrid time, check your time here).

Place: online.

Language: English.

More information and registration: website of the Third Felt Sense Conference (2021).

[Original post of November 24th 2021, updated December 3rd 2021, day of the event].

Part of my work as a psychologist and companion in personal and organizational processes consists of finding ways to communicate complex messages through metaphors and analogies.. In the initiative “Renewing from within”, that I already presented in this other post, we set out several challenges and proposals to improve the child protection system, girls and adolescents in Spain (And in the rest of the world).

This month I have collaborated with the article “We accompany with the person that we are”, that uses analogies between the measures we are taking in the face of the pandemic and the aspects we need to take care of when accompanying children, girls and adolescents who have suffered a lot. It is a way of bringing awareness to our way of being and doing, both personally and professionally.

And you will see that, as usual, I insist on the importance of training in trauma and remember the value of Focusing, I find it a very useful tool on a day-to-day basis..

I would love to know what you think and how you live it.

F. Javier Romeo

[Read this post in English]

It is a joy for me to be able to facilitate a workshop on “Finding the felt sense with objects: a way to interact with the inner parts” in the International Online Conference on Focusing Guided Therapy (International Focusing-Oriented Therapy Conference) that is planned to take place between the 21 and 25 October 2020 (between 22 and 26 in Asia and Oceania).

It will be an experiential workshop on Focusing Guided Psychotherapy (Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy/Therapy, FOT / FOP), one of the lines of work that I follow when I accompany in psychotherapy both in person and by videoconference.

“Working with the inner parts in therapy can be challenging in many ways. We can facilitate a better understanding of the interior parts by using objects (figures, pencils, clay). The process of choosing one or more objects can help generate the felt sense without the need to explain excessively. In this way, we can help each client (from childhood to adulthood) listen to every part inside, so that you can see the movement of life forward in them and to establish a better relationship with them. This is going to be a practical workshop, so it is advisable to bring a few small objects that can be used in the consultation (a dozen colored pencils will do).

Key contents:

1) Five key ideas for working with interior parts with children, girls, adolescents and adults.

2) An example of a process of seeking felt sense with objects.

3) A little experience of working with objects so that everyone can develop their personal style.”

Date: viernes 23 October 2020, 09:00-11:00 on New York time (15:00-17:00 in Madrid time) (find the schedule here).

Place: online.

Language: the workshop will be in English with simultaneous translation into Spanish.

More information and registration: website of the International Conference on Focusing Guided Therapy (the International Focusing-Oriented Therapy Conference).

[Original entry 7 October 2020, actualizada a 20 October 2020, date of the event].

[Read this entry in Spanish].

I am very happy about being able to facilitate a workshop about “Felt-sensing with objects: a way to interacting with inner parts” at the online International Focusing-Oriented Therapy Conference that will take place online from October 21st. till the 25th. 2020 (October 22nd.-26th. in Asia and Australasia).

It will be an experiential workshop about Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy.

“Working with inner parts in therapy can be challenging in many ways. Using objects (figurines, pencils, Plasticine) can allow for a better understanding of inner parts. The process of choosing one or more objects can foster felt-sensing without explaining in excess. In this way, we can help clients –children but also adults– to listen to each part, to see the life-forward drive in them and to establish a better relationship with them. This will be a practical workshop, so please bring some small objects that you can use in your therapy room (a dozen of colored pencils will be enough).

Takeaways:

1) Five key ideas for working with inner parts in therapy with children, adolescents and adults.

2) An example of a process of felt-sensing with objects.

3) A short experience of working with objects, to develop your personalized style.”

Date: Friday October 23rd 2020, 09:00-11:00 New York time (15:00-17:00 Madrid time) (your time here).

Place: online.

Language: the workshop will be in English with simultaneous translation into Spanish.

More information and registration: website of the International Focusing-Oriented Therapy Conference.

[Original post from October 7th 2020, updated on October 23rd 2020, day of the event].

[Click here to read this post in English.]

The document Beyond survival. How to improve intervention with unaccompanied and separated migrant children who are left outside the protection system, what Pepa Horno, my partner in Childhood Consulting Spirals, and I have written for UNICEF Spain and UNICEF France, just posted, and is available in two versions:

• Download the original English version of Beyond Survival. Improving intervention in Europe with Unaccompanied and Separated Migrant Children who fall through the protection system.
• Download the Spanish translation, Beyond survival. How to improve intervention with unaccompanied and separated migrant children who are left outside the protection system.

This is a technical publication that has to do with Child Protection, social intervention and human rights. In fact, We have the ideas and conscience of about a hundred professionals in the International Workshop in December 2019 en Madrid, that I helped facilitate (we explain more in our CI Spirals blog post). However, it is also a very personal document for me.

On the one hand, children, Unaccompanied and separated migrant girls and adolescents have a very special place in my heart. I worked in Morocco for several years with children, girls and adolescents living on the streets and I know the difficulties they have there, and what makes them risk their lives for the possibility of having a better future. I have also worked for several years in Madrid with adolescents at social risk, and many of them were migrant boys and girls with no family references, so I have accompanied their steps in the difficulties they encountered to build a good future in Spain. And to this day I still enjoy being able to speak with them in Moroccan Arabic, a language that I really like. I hope that this document helps professionals and also the general public to have a compassionate look towards these children., and adolescents, and to worry about their welfare. (You can read more about my career path on my LinkedIn profile).

On the other hand, currently this is a very sensitive issue, due to multiple factors. As lead editor, I have repeatedly used do Focusing as a process for structuring ideas and finding the right formulations. The keys to more protective narratives need to come from a consciousness firmly rooted in the body. Hope this brings clarity and also a deeper perspective to this whole topic, especially if the more intricate parts manage to be a little more explicit.

In conclusion, it has not only been a professional challenge, but also a very personal process. I hope you enjoy it.

F. Javier Romeo

[Read this entry in Spanish].

The document Beyond Survival. Improving intervention in Europe with Unaccompanied and Separated Migrant Children who fall through the protection system, that Pepa Horno, my colleague at Espirales Consultoría de Infancia, and me have written for UNICEF Spain and UNICEF France, has just been published, and it is available in two versions:

• Download the original version in English of Beyond Survival. Improving intervention in Europe with Unaccompanied and Separated Migrant Children who fall through the protection system.
• Download the translation into Spanish, Beyond survival. How to improve intervention with unaccompanied and separated migrant children who are left outside the protection system.

This is a technical publication that has to do with Child Protection, social intervention and human rights. In fact, we counted with the ideas and awareness of nearly a hundred professionals at an International Workshop in December 2019 in Madrid, that I co-facilitated (we explain more about it in our blog post in Espirales CI). However, it is also a very personal document for me.

On the one hand, Unaccompanied and Separated Migrant Children are very dear to me. I worked in Morocco for several years with children in street situation and I know of the difficulties there, what makes them risk their lives for the possibility of a better future. I also worked for several years in Madrid with at-risk youth, and many of them were unaccompanied migrant children, so I accompanied their steps in the difficulties of building a good future for themselves in Spain. And I still enjoy being able to speak with them in Moroccan Arabic, a language that I like very much. I hope that this document will help other professionals and the general public to have a compassionate regard to these children, and to care for their wellbeing. (More about my career path in my LinkedIn Profile).

On the other hand, this is currently a very sensitive issue, due to several factors. As main writer, I have used extensively Focusing with myself as a process to structure the ideas, and to find the adequate wording. The clues for more protective narratives need to come from an embodied awareness. I hope that this will bring clarity and also a deeper perspective to all this subject, with some of its intricacies made a bit more explicit.

In conclusion, it has been not only a professional challenge, but also a very personal process. I hope that you will enjoy it.

F. Javier Romeo

Since the beginning of the pandemic, many children's organizations have struggled to create resources. From Spirales Consultoría de Infancia we have prepared several different materials.

In this blog post I want to share some videos that are also relevant to what I am sharing here, for many reasons.

1. They put forward messages that are clear and broad enough to discuss with children, girls and adolescents on the COVID-19 pandemic, so that they have clues about what is happening to them.
2. They propose a work on body awareness: from the model of the three intelligences to coming into contact with the breath, with the tension or with the different sensations. It is not Focusing, but aim for that sensitivity.
3. They are in Spanish, but also in French and Moroccan Arabic. I was excited to use in these videos these two languages ​​that have served me so much to communicate when I lived in Morocco and with migrant adolescents in Spain.

I leave you the videos below:

• Video “The three intelligences and rage”.

• Video “The three intelligences and fear”.

• Video “The three intelligences and asking for help”.

• Video “The three intelligences and sadness”.

I hope you find them interesting.

F. Javier Romeo

Information about the Roundtable on Crossing Focusing and Nonviolent Communication (NVC) organized by The International Focusing Institute through its Membership Committee. As it is a past event the information is no longer available on TIFI’s website and has been edited accordingly.

presentation “The body and the four cardinal points: self-care for caregivers” in the Journeys 2019 of Madrid Association of Palliative Care “The challenge is to integrate: open to other views”.

Date: Thursday, 14 March 2019 a las 12:00.

Place: Aula Magna, Teaching pavilion, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón
C/ Ibiza, 43
Madrid

More information and registration on the website of the Journeys 2019 Madrid Association of Palliative Care.

[Entry updated 14 March 2019, date of the event].