Services/Programs

Services and Programs: Multi-Media, Online, Onsite, International

Creative Edge Focusing Consultant Training Program: For Individuals Worldwide Who Would Like To Join Our Experiential Learning Community While Becoming Certified

Creative Edge (CE) Focusing Consultants will learn the entire Creative Edge Focusing ™ model, with its Pyramid of skills and methods. They will go out into the field to teach these skills and methods to others. They might:

  • consult with organizations or corporations
  • work in schools, prisons, or hospitals
  • work with couples or spiritual centers
  • work with community organizers
  • offer individual coaching or support groups
  • work on international disaster relief or conflict resolution.

Each CE Focusing Consultant will decide his or her own area of interest and expertise.

CE Focusing Consultants will have mastered the skills and methods of Creative Edge Focusing Pyramid by undergoing the equivalent of our forty-hour  Intensive, covering Intuitive Focusing and Focused Listening skills, but also Interpersonal Focusing, Focusing Groups/Teams, Collaborative Edge Focusing Decision Making, building a Focusing Community, and the Creative Edge Organization method of motivating from the bottom up.

They will have continued to refine these skills by participating in the ongoing, online Creative Edge Collaborators’ Decision Making Group and the CE Focusing Consultants’ Training Group.

They will have ten two-hour supervised teleconferences with Dr. McGuire, often as part of a small group of trainees. Alternatively, they might attend at least one Creative Edge Focusing ™ Intensive. They can earn free supervision by offering services and working on projects essential to the mission of Creative Edge Focusing ™

Many of those wanting CE Focusing Consultant training may already have extensive training in Listening/Focusing skills and may be Certified Focusing Professionals of The Focusing Institute already.

Some may already be organizational consultants from other backgrounds who wish to add Creative Edge Focusing Pyramid of skills and methods to their other training.

Others will be starting from the beginning. In either case, Dr. McGuire will work with individuals worldwide on creating a training program which meets their needs while fulfilling our requirements. Often, this can include becoming a Certified Focusing Professional of The Focusing Institute as well as a Creative Edge Focusing Consultant. Dr. McGuire is a Certifying Coordinator for The Focusing Institute and can arrange a joint certification program for you. This often includes attendance at a Certification Weeklong at The Focusing Institute in New York, where you can become connected to our world-wide network of Focusing Trainers and Professionals.

Creative Edge Focusing Consultant Program

For those with Listening/Focusing training or already certified as Focusing Professional through The Focusing Institute:

During three 2-hour Focusing Partnership exchanges (can be by phone), Dr McGuire will assess whether the applicant has mastered the contents of this website and of the Focusing in Community manual, both in terms of content and in terms of Dr. McGuire’s particular methods for Intuitive Focusing and Focused Listening. She and the applicant will see if they are compatible or how their styles differ and make a decision about whether to proceed and if any additional training in her model is needed.

For those just beginning their training in Listening/Focusing skills:

During three two-hour Focusing Partnership exchanges (can be by phone), Dr. McGuire will begin teaching the applicant the Core Intuitive Focusing and Focused Listening skills and the Focusing Partnership method so that each can assess the applicant’s interest in and aptitude for the Creative Edge Focusing ™ skills and methods.

The two will decide how to proceed. They will decide if the trainee wishes to become jointly certified as a Focusing Professional of The Focusing Institute and make sure that these criteria can be met. For instance, they might agree that the applicant will take initial Training classes in their own region or language from a Certified Focusing Professional or will take training by phone and email with Dr. McGuire or other Creative Edge Focusing Consultants or through the Creative Edge Focusing Intensive. They  will explore whether the trainee wants to “barter” for supervision sessions by developing a Project Plan in a specific Interest Area of Creative Edge Focusing ™ or by offering other skills furthering the overall mission of Creative Edge Focusing ™.

Criteria for Joining:

  1. Everyone: This is the information we all have in common in order to work together within the Creative Edge Focusing Consulting model:
  • Read Catherine Kaputo’s U Are A Brand and start thinking about how you could market yourself and/or Creative Edge Focusing ™. It’s fun, around $25 new (look for used on Amazon.com? You might also get one used from someone else in the training program), and will shake you up into thinking from the customer’s perspective, not your own. We need to be able to market ourselves and Creative Edge Focusing ™ successfully (if you believe you already have this marketing knowledge, tell me how) – it is our goal that Consultants meet their personal goals as well as advancing the mission of Creative Edge Focusing ™.
  • Purchase the Self-Help Package and read Dr. McGuire’s manual, Focusing in Community (Focusing en Comunidad en espanol) and become fully conversant in Focusing Partnership (called the Listening/Focusing Exchange), Focusing Alone, Interpersonal Focusing (called Interpersonal Processing), and Collaborative Decision Making (called Consensual Decision Making) methods as first presented there. Dr. McGuire will be writing a book on the new Creating At The Edge model, but the manual is the best introduction to The Creative Edge Focusing ™ model for now. Study the multi-media materials which come in the Self-Help Package. View the DVD with Listening/Focusing Demonstrations and practice the Intuitive Focusing Instructions exercises.
  • Buy Keirsey, D., and Bates, M, Please Understand Me (the first, smaller book, not Please Understand Me II), Prometheus Nemesis Book Co., 1984,  around $15 or used on Amazon. Use it to immerse yourself in this user-friendly version of The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), widely used in business and education for understanding differences and team building. Xerox the test Keirsey Temperament Sorter near the front, take it yourself, give it to your friends and coworkers. Become able to begin guessing at basically E/I, N/S, T/F, P/J , the main variables. I will also give references for exploring The Enneagram and Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences perspectives.
  • Describe your project – an audience to bring the Creative Edge Focusing ™ model to and a way of proceeding – and a business plan with time line and deadlines for accomplishing it.  The timeline can always be renegotiated but provides check points to keep forward movement happening.

In the Consultant Training Program, which will also be the Creative Edge Focusing ™ Collaboration Edge Decision Making Group, trainees will participate in the following kinds of activities:

  • Participate in yahoo Creative Edge Consultant  and Collaborative Edge Focusing Decision Making Groups
  • Email “journaling” about experiences with various Listening/Focusing methods  to Training Group
  • Help in getting our word out by  summarizing books or other websites or other approaches or research or networking with others as needed – will be negotiated
  • Become familiar with the Creative Edge Focusing ™ website
  • Use Dr. McGuire’s manual, Focusing in Community (Focusing en Comunidad en espanol) to start a CE Focusing Community and build to 10-20 members (average at least four per meeting) – include training in Focused Listening, Interpersonal Focusing, and Collaborative Edge Focusing Decision Making per Dr McGuire’s manual  or convince her  you’ve already had this experience. You will need the skills you will build by doing this. CE Focusing Communities (per the manual and the original Changes group in Chicago) are the training laboratories for practicing Interpersonal Focusing and Collaborative Edge Focusing Decision Making. When Dr. McGuire forms Focusing Communities, she consciously looks for opportunities for everyone to learn and practice these community-building skills and sometimes negotiates time away from the exchange of Listening/Focusing turns to devote to these practices.
  • Go through four Interpersonal Focusing processes with people you are in conflict with; another four with you as Facilitator during the first year of training.  Can be done by email. Or prove you have had this experience (e.g., years of couples or family therapy would help). To go into businesses or organizations especially, you are going to have to be comfortable in dealing with Interpersonal Conflict in a Listening/Focusing way.
  • Carry out the process of actually bringing the model into your chosen audience or setting – journal, get feedback and support, do email partnership and conflict resolution. Develop collaboration if possible. Receive brainstorming and collaboration on CE Training and Coordinated Collaboration Groups
  • Visit other focusing websites and otherwise contribute to our collaborative pool of knowledge etc.
  • Develop your own website, if needed, with our support. Network with and get reciprocal links with other Focusing Teachers/Therapists
  • Participate in ten two-hour teleconference sessions with Dr. McGuire. This can be individually, in a pair or triad, or, preferably, in a small group with four other trainers. Cost can be bartered for services to Creative Edge Focusing™.
  • Attend a Creative Edge Focusing™ Intensive if at all possible, perhaps as a co-facilitator.
  • Attend international or regional gatherings of CE Focusing Consultants for ongoing Collaborative Edge Focusing Decision Making, Interpersonal Focusing for conflict resolution , Creative Edge Focusing Partnerships – carry these over after the gathering ends.

Outline of Certifcation Program Stages and Costs, As Well as TFI Costs

If you want to become a CE Focusing Consultant, and you would like to take some basic training in your own language or geographic area or from a particular teacher of The Focusing Institute, please contact Dr. McGuire at kathy@cefocusing.com or arrange a Free Phone Consult so you and she can work together creating your own unique training program, perhaps combining certification as a Focusing Professional of The Focusing Institute along with CE Focusing Consultant training. 

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These materials are offered purely as self-help skills. In providing them, Dr. McGuire is not engaged in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional services. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.