Forgot to post this in late June or early July re: the first person I took through:

Just a little update, we each took action related to our projects in the outside world, then had an open focusing session. Again, I noticed that my partner was naturally crossing her instances and didn’t need to be guided to do this in a step-by-step kind of…

Read more

Hi Rosy, apologies. I understand now – it was more about him feeling unsure, yes? I’ll check with Bea about how we can correct that, as unfortunately I can’t make the change myself. Thanks so much for pointing it out.

Dear Marta, you say: ” Rosella talked about the importance of caring and being supportive, especially when a participant feels like a failure“.

The sentence sounds like the participant was judging himself a failure.

That was never the case with my companions, so I would really appreciate if in this post you could erase the words “especially…

Read more

Marta’s Experience Across Tempos, Languages, and the Body

• Marta W shared her experience of working with two participants moving at very different tempos – one fast and independent, the other slow – and how this contrast brings her back to the present moment.
• Beatrice and Marta W discussed the importance of meeting in the “alive place” and the…

Read more

Hi there, I’m posting here about Bea’s asking about the whole idea of carrying forward as in the whatsApp chat on 2025 September 1st.

. C.F as an order of steps that can give rise to a progression, progression not according a slotted sense of logic yet logic according to an intimate sense of logic, logic in itself and changing as…

Read more

Dear Bea and All,

I thought it was useful to use this space to answer the prompt Bea gave us on WhatsApp group last Monday September 1st.

My companion A and me we are in class 3. I had 8 meetings with each companion meeting once a week. I’m noticing that my own process in the companioning happens to be slower than in Beta-testing group, as if…

Read more

Dear LFL Companions,

Our July 4 gathering offered a rich tapestry of experiences around the elusive yet foundational “Step Zero” in Thinking at the Edge. Many shared that this early phase – before any official TAE steps begin – is where profound clarity and connection often emerge.

The Emergence of Step Zero

Maria opens a central question:

“How can…

Read more

I just re-watched the videos for Class 7. Bea’s intro & demo with Vivian are clear to me, in terms of what we’re doing. Gendlin’s was a bit confusing as at the end he says he has done Step 10, but all he has done is find his terms. He hasn’t equated them yet. Maybe a note about this in your description of that video would be helpful, Bea. I…

Read more

I’m about to book my 2nd person in for their TAE journey as my first partner and I only have a couple of meetings left. Based on my experience in this first case, I’m going to book 13 weekly 2-hour spots, including a preliminary Core Gift Interview.

Also starting to wonder about creating a set of slides I can share for each step that recaps…

Read more

Here’s a little Substack post I have just published about the emergence of ‘be-member’ during TAE ‘Working with Words’, in my current project.

https://nicolajanelebreton.substack.com/p/be-member-remember-and-be

Thanks to Nicky for her beautiful artwork and encouraging me to share the story of this word more widely.

I decided, today, to split Class 7 (Step 10) into 2 parts. For 7(a), we each had a half-hour focusing sessions, with about 10 minutes to focus into each of the 3 aspects of the felt-sense.

Prior to the session we’d both collected our terms, but had not yet settled on a temporary term for each category. It was very helpful to do this in a…

Read more

Draft drawing class 5. I do this to help me summarise the class task and as a memory aid. Please use if it helps. Alas both my partners called in sick this week, so nothing to share yet about the process x Nicky

Be-member! Absolutely delicious!

Thanks for telling us about this, Nicola! I’m glad Donna’s class was inspiring and that she started with a guided process to help you settle into the felt sense of the paradox. I have always had trouble with that step. It will be interesting to see if you feel that starting with Steps 2, 3, 4, and 5 would be better than jumping to Steps 6 and 7.…

Read more

Thanks, Nicky!

Hi Nicola,

This is an important learning–it feels right that you could have a free Focusing session after the logicalness of working with words. I used to include something that I learned from Evelyn, which was taking a pause in mid-TAE and drawing. So instead of saying whether it should be Focusing or drawing, it feels life-giving to pause…

Read more

Thanks, Nicky. These are gorgeous! Are you happy for us to share these drawings with future partners while training with Bea?

Goes well with Michaël’s summary of the overall journey!

I confess that I don’t think we did Class 6 quite the way it is laid out or intended in the course instructions.

We both felt we’d kind of ‘had-it’ with working with words after Classes 4 & 5, and that we’d done a version of Step 9 as part of our Class 5 Prac.

What we both felt like today was an open focusing session… which was honestly…

Read more

Well, I’m glad to say my partner and I made it through this class and have just finished Class 6 (more about that later).

I have felt confused by this class both times through and fell down a worm hole of pulling out words, looking them up in the dictionary, replacing them with other words, looking those words up in the dictionary (incl…

Read more

Hello everyone. Nicola summarised the arc of the classes and Marta Woo reposted in to the forum for all members. I thought to leave this drawing here of the process arc. Have a beautiful week with your LfL partners.

Hello,

Yesterday, while waiting in a car salesman’s office (ugh), in the midst of negotiating the purchase of a new-to-me car (my car unexpectedly died), I received 3 emails from Possibility Space summarizing this current online class.

I read the summaries right there. My nervous system calmed down and my creative side woke up. It was a…

Read more

Thank you, Rosie, for sharing this. Yes, I feel we’re all weaving this pattern together, each bringing our unique experience. In that, something larger comes alive. I’m grateful to be part of this unfolding with you and everyone. Looking forward to what deepens in the next Tertulia.

Great work Marta, you were able to epitomize beautifully our last tertulia. The Practice Pointers to Carry Forward seem to be like “pattern”” of the whole happening and make a lot of sense.

I’ll start with sharing an aspect where I’d like to be more skilled: how to use a paradox in practical terms (some hint on how using paradox v. Kye Nelson, “Thinking fundamentally”, par 2.

Me and my partners are in class 1 still. After meeting with my two partners all along class 1 x 3 times, my project slowly revealed itself and I got now a…

Read more

Purpose of First Session

Sense into what wants to be explored (your “project” or “edge”)

Begin to describe what feels important, curious, unresolved, or calling

No pressure to form a crux sentence yet! That will come during/after Class 1

Understanding the TAE Process

TAE = Thinking at the Edge — a way of sensing and speaking what hasn’t yet been…

Read more

Natural Human Order and Inner Process

Gendlin presents an alternative to theories like Freud’s and Heidegger’s. Freud posits that the body has no intrinsic behavioral order—only chaotic drives organized by imposed structures. Heidegger believes there’s nothing beneath culture—no personal or bodily core.

Gendlin disagrees: he proposes a…

Read more

Bea opens the session by reading a key quote from Gendlin’s article:

“The essence of working with another person is to be present as a living being.”

She reflects, “How lucky this is—because it means we don’t need to be smart, good, or wise—just human.” She invites everyone to breathe into this idea and sense what it means to simply be a human…

Read more

Dear Rosy,

Thanks for taking the time to check out some of the authors I’m reading now. It’s good that you could acknowledge the initial feeling of “going to school without having the homework done.” There will be many moments like that, because we can’t do homework for situations that we’ve never encountered before. Once you acknowledged…

Read more

Dear Bea, I went googling Naropa University, then Vanessa Machado de Oliveira and then Bill Plotkin: a vast space of topics that I don’t know at all or I’m not aware either emerged and I also encountered names and persons I didn’t heard before. In googling Vanessa Machado I found a very very interesting conversation between herself and AI…

Read more

Hello friends,

My life has taken a unexpected but exciting turn that I want to share with you. I’ve been accepted to a Masters program in Ecopsycholgy at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. I just knew, after my first conversation with one of the main professors, that this would be a place where Focusing, TAE and Gendlin’s philosophy would…

Read more

I’ve been in Between, but I can’t say anything definite about it.

I received this « destination » teaser with a Feldenkrais email and Newsletter.

I thought it could be a playful opportunity to share it with you. Enjoy !

Working with people who are not experienced with Focusing partnership is a unique challenge of being in LfL.

In my small group classes, I do not accept Focusers who have no experience in partnership because there the partnership practices are outside the class.

So you are offering a unique experience that is difficult to find in the TAE world.…

Read more

Dear Rosy and all,

So glad that you see this forum as a place wher you can communicate with us when you are feeling vulnerable. That’s what it’s for, and it’s a wonderful way to learn from our own experience.

It seems totally understandable that you would feel tired when doing the LFL meeting or the Tertulia PLUS two partnership sessions the…

Read more

Marta Fab–Glad to know that it’s feeling good to both of you, and that you are sensing in to the quality of your partnership as well as the program. That’s a whole new aspect that we can develop with time. Feels important.

Dear Nicola Jane,

Somehow I missed your post from June 6 about the TAE Process. I think it would make a great discussion topic in the general Forum and am working with Marta W to make that happen.

Dear Michaël,

Yes, these issues can come up in your partnerships.

At those moments I’m grateful that we have this private forum. You could say, “I’m not sure how to answer that, I’ll check”, and then you can write to us here and we’ll work it out.

Nicky’s TAE partner was not exactly asking a question, but saying she was “frustrated that my…

Read more

Two weeks ago I had my first class 0 with a partner and last week with another partner. As I have both them concentrating on Friday, when there were also the practicum and the Tertulia , the day became quite tiring. I didn’t expect the LFL course as a partner would require so much energies. Of course, I’m telling myself that when you are…

Read more

This is great. Thanks, Michaël – a handy little quick reference guide I’ve already used to foreshadow what’s coming next at the end of a session.

During our recent second LFL group meeting, Beatrice suggested that I could share, here, in the Forum, an example of the Calendar I have made for myself and for my companions. It makes it easier for all participants to follow (and remember when) the classes happen and which step is explored. It also includes partnerships and Tertulia meetings.…

Read more

Hi everyone, I realize that there are a lot of changes that have been made to the original document I sent you back in February. So here is an update to the basic information about our program.

LISTENING FOR LIFE TAE FACILITATOR TRAINING PROGRAM

Once people learn to listen to the bodily felt sense of situations, they can partner with each other…

Read more

Have fun with your new partners!

Thank you for this Beatrice. I will soon watch the video as I am about to start LFL tomorrow (Tuesday July 1st, with 2 distinct one-on-one companions).

Here is the new corrected version of the LFL Classes & Steps.