Thinking at the Edge

“This well-organised and supported course provided a sense of security that had tangible and completely positive outcomes for me. The class materials were thorough and helpful.

“We did not follow the TAE steps in order but went straight to our own experience. This was key to the positive outcome.

“Our online group from diverse backgrounds melded together seamlessly. Their contributions in this context enhanced my own learning.

“Beatrice is a quiet presence, encouraging sharing by her responses. She knows when to gently intervene in the group learning and does so with consideration to the benefit of all.

“This class brought a whole new dimension to Focusing as well as TAE. I feel I really ‘got’ it. I am inspired to study the process as it stands and contemplate ways in which it could best be disseminated to a wider, possibly non-Focuser audience.”                                          —Judy Allen, UK

Focusing 1 and 2

“Beatrice is a unique teacher. She has the magic of creating a secure, friendly, and open soft space where it is easy and safe to take the first steps into your body.
“I feel like I have made a new friend. A friend that is always there for me. This new friend is my own body. I have often been very harsh on myself but through Focusing, I have learned to live with more empathy towards myself and others.
“It felt in the beginning like I was jumping from a cliff not knowing where it would take me but with her confident yet humble, warm, and nice attitude Beatrice made it easy.
“I have now finished the 1st and 2nd level of Focusing and can’t wait to continue to do more.”
 –Helga Arnalds
Visual artist and a theatre instructor at 10 FINGUR theatre Iceland

Individual coaching sessions with Focusing and TAE

“I went to a meeting last night. In previous meetings I felt insecure. I couldn’t speak even though I had so much going on inside me. But in last night’s meeting I no longer felt that way. I felt relaxed and curious! 

“You are kind and gentle and self assured.  This isn’t therapy, but it helps me  make sense of myself. It helps me take stock of my life experiences, and that brings clarity and resolution.”
—Denise Hingle, Family Child Care Provider, California

“I have utilized Focusing for the past 10 years. These sessions in Thinking at the Edge have brought clarity and depth to the Focusing process for me. Bea’s unique ability to listen, reflect back and orient me to my felt sense was all done with warmth, understanding and wisdom. She exudes such simplicity and ease with the format as well as genuine delight in the process. Beatrice Blake truly brings TAE into an art form.”
—Donna Nisha Cohen, spiritual counselor and yoga instructor

“I loved working with Beatrice and experiencing “Giving Language to Stress”. She offered a very open, gentle, non-pressured space where I could begin exploring various instances of stress in my life, in a supportive Focusing way. By getting to know these instances, I could begin seeing the patterns, and found myself both surprised and delighted at what I began to discover.

“Delighted? About stress?? Well, as I began experiencing my new “inside-out” realizations about how I’ve been contributing to the shape and texture of my experiences, Beatrice also guided me toward discovering new embodied ways of moving forward… ways that create more ease and space and room for me to breathe, in my own life…

“I found this application of the TAE process to be very powerful. In the end, I came up with something that in some ways was familiar… yet was also new and different, as I now I knew it from the inside. The “crux sentence” evolved as I worked with my three terms, each of which opened into a rich, deep territory…

Like Focusing, this is an ongoing journey. I am very grateful to have had Beatrice as a guide, and look forward to continuing!”
—Rosa Zubizarreta Diapraxis: Facilitating Creative Collaboration

Thinking at the Edge classes

“Working with Beatrice Blake, utilizing the process of Thinking at the Edge, has been both illuminating in magical ways and very helpful in practical ways. The step by step progression assisted me in crafting phrases that expressed my deeply felt sense of what was “right”. Bea began by having me hone in on the theme or topic that I wanted to explore. Over the course of 7 sessions, several very clear and meaningful images and phrases emerged. By the last session, Bea assisted me in weaving together these images and phrases in a way that has helped me vision what the next step forward might be. New possibilities have opened up for me.
—Marlys Mayfield, author and teacher, California

“In your TAE tele seminar, Giving Language to Stress, I learnt a huge amount about how I carry stress. I have been a lifelong stress suppressor, so wasn’t very aware of my bodily manifestations of stress.  Most helpful to me was the notion that we all carry stress in ways that are unique to each of us, and, of course, that what we stress about, is also unique to each person.
“I learned that, for me, stress was activated by being caught by surprise, or shocked, in some interpersonal interaction. Being caught off-guard would prevent my ‘internal editor’ from checking or inhibiting my real, authentic response (in case it might cause me to experience disapproval, anger, or worse from the other person/s). This was intricately intertwined with a severe lack of assertiveness. I was doing Conflict Management in my Counselling course, and observed how hard it was for me to be assertive. This puzzled me, as I am very articulate and can argue my case well in many situations. But not, as the TAE & Stress course showed me, in situations where I was caught unawares, or was uncertain of potential responses.  This was all happening at a very unconscious level. My ‘internal editor’ was protecting or guarding me, so non-Focusing approaches didn’t make much headway.
“This was also one of the other benefits of TAE. The structured nature of the steps gave me what was necessary then: a way of looking at my stress that was less identified with the ‘blocking’ part, which felt ‘safer’.
“Using the step of taking a situation that triggered stress, and stepping back to look at the patterns in this and another similar situation, really brought my ‘internal editor’ into clear view.  I have since learnt that this response-suppression pattern consumes an enormous amount of energy, and is stress-inducing in and of itself! The cost of not being authentic is huge.
“Before your class, I started going to a great chiropractor, who tested my adrenal function. This involved placing a heart rate monitor on my chest, and then simply having me stand up from lying down. This sophisticated software, used by cardiologists, reads the body’s response to this effort. Around 1000 was normal – my graph was basically flat-lining! The chiropractor asked me whether I had been under huge stress, and back then, my answer was no, because I just didn’t recognise it!!
“So, a couple of years later, post your TAE course, and some good supplements (Adrenotone by Metagenics), as well as a couple of Focusing partnering session a week, my levels are up round 600+. In addition, a recent blood test showed my usually very high cholesterol levels – 7-8+ (family pattern) had dropped 2 points , as had my blood sugar levels.
“I attribute this to Focusing, and I have been very grateful to your TAE and Stress course for being the precursor to these great bodily improvements, and really opening up this whole area of stress, and my personal manifestation of that, in a way that has allowed me to release a lot of those blockages to living and feeling, authentically.”
                                                                                        –Sue Burrell, Sydney, Australia

  “I had a number of stressful situations that were alive in me at the beginning of the course and was feeling tired with very low energy due to the drain.  I ended up in a very positive, energized, and open place.  Stress is no longer even a bad word.  I am able to embrace the expansive opportunities it brings my life.

“The depth of understanding of my own process in imaging and naming my stress transformed as I moved through the process.  I wouldn’t have believed the depth of that transformation.  As each week passed, I was sure I had reached the bottom of the well of understanding only to find an even more spacious and life-giving position.”
—Georgia Kosciuscko, grant writer, Maine

“Thinking at the Edge has offered me a new way to start to explore and bring together my felt experience with the “dry” intellectualism of modern medicine and rehabilitation.”
—Cathy Walters, UK, therapist specializing in chronic pain and stress

“I was delighted to learn something completely new about stress, a subject I thought I knew all about.”
—Claire Arnesen, psychotherapist, California

“This has been an excellent introduction to Thinking at the Edge, but to be able to use it in an applied setting has been especially helpful.”
—Nigel Gibbons, Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapist and Integrative Counselor, UK

TAE for grad students

“Between my work with Beatrice and weekly Focusing phone sessions with a partner, I have developed the ability to check in with my felt-sense of an issue or a topic whenever I take the time to do so. In a low-key way, it’s like having a superpower: an ability to relate to and take steps within one’s relationships, career, and thinking that isn’t even acknowledged, much less supported, within the broader currents of the culture.”
—Matt Zepelin, grad student in History, Colorado

Sign up for a free consultation to see if Thinking at the Edge or Focusing can be a catalyst for change in your life using the contact form here.