"Cultivating Resilience"
Mindfulness & Focusing Training
Heartwood Center 1818 Dempster, Evanston, IL
To schedule an appointment go to the contact page or call 847/323-1717.
Have you ever felt the sense of relief in your body when you've arrived at a good decision or felt the tension when you're uncomfortable about something you're about to do? We are always being guided by our inner felt sense and experiencing feelings guiding us in a direction. When we are in touch with that inner felt sense, it's a sense that guides, that can lead to actions that are authentic and satisfying.
So how can we become attuned to our felt sense and allow this inner compass to aid us to make better decisions and live more effectively? The first step is to listen. So often we judge or doubt our own experience or let our usual analyses get in the way. Listening, openness, acceptance, the ability to "pause", and focus attention on our present experience--these attitudes enable you to focus on your experience in a way that leads to solutions that you hadn't come up with before. Whether its deciding which job to choose, what direction to take when you are lost or how to handle a conflict in your family, by checking in with a felt sense, a person's experiencing can come up with the next step or action that's needed to move forward.
Marsha Smith, Heartwood Center
Marsha Smith, LCSW 636 Church Street Suite 406
Psychotherapist with Adults, Adolescents and Couples Evanston, IL 847/323-1717
To contact me, please call or email. Psychotherapy and coaching sessions are virtual and or in person!
Psychotherapy will help you find solutions and make changes to feel
better, deal well with life challenges and be more effective in life.
847/323-1717
Heartwood Center
1818 Dempster Street
Evanston, Illinois, 60202
Workshops: 1.5 hour. Workshops can be designed to fit the needs of individual groups and organizations. In workshops, participants are introduced to Focusing and Mindfulness/body-mind practices to help you access your inner experience and natural ability for emotional healing, stress relief and positive change. Workshops demonstrate tools to:
Tap into fresh ideas and renew energy, which is helpful especially in areas of your life that seem stuck.
Manage frustration, stress and anxiety with greater calm.
To arrange for a workshop for you organization or group, contact Marsha
Workshops 2014, 2015, 2016
Evanston Township High School
PEER Services
Rotary International
Unity of Chicago
Mental Health America
Heartwood Center
Zero Balancing Wellness Center
Heaven Meets Earth Yoga Center
Five Phase Wellness Center
Your Mind, Body and Spirit
Sessions and training for the community and for health care professionals.
Focusing & Mindfulness Sessions
Imagine developing your inner strengths to deal better with stress, frustration and fear.
You have the power in your own experiencing to make changes and find solutions to improve
how you feel and your effectiveness in life. Through Focusing and Mindfulness you can develop
this ability into an invaluable resource which helps you live your life much more fully.
Previous trainings:
4-week Mindfulness & Focusing Class. Saturdays 9:30 to 11.
Learn skills that will help you lower your stress in work, life and relationships.
Oct 5, 12, 19, 26. 4 weeks: $100. single sessions, $30. Contact Marsha to register.
For Individuals & Pairs
Individual mindfulness and focusing Session for One Person: $125.
Individual mindfulness and focusing Session for Two People: $135.
Most insurance types are accepted.
For more information on Focusing, visit .
More Previous Trainings:
Focusing Therapy Training Program for Healing Professionals.
A client-centered, experiential, body-centered process of self-awareness and emotional
healing for self care and working with clients. 6 CEU’s for social workers and counselors.
Recent Workshops
The Body’s Guide to Healing
Saturday Nov 11, 1-4 pm
Marsha Smith, LCSW
$45, CEUs: 3
Contact Marsha Smith
Reactions to stress often happen without pausing to let a “bodily felt” sense of the situation form. The discovery of this bodily awareness,
named a “felt sense” by Psychologist Eugene Gendlin, is at the foundation of a whole body-mind therapy revolution. The Focusing process
offers a mindful way to experience a felt sense before ‘reacting’ with the limited set of usual options. Focusing is unique because it is more
body-oriented. It is about tuning into the felt sense you have of a situation, so feelings are clearer to help guide your next steps.
In this workshop you’ll learn ways to be present with your felt sense of what you really feel and want;
a way of trusting your experiencing and realizing you know more than you think; and ways to be alert and calm
in the midst of stress, frustration and more.
A past workshop participant stated, “I learned to check in with my body and the sensations it is experiencing,
which led me to new options when I was stuck or at an impasse within myself."
Held at the C.G. Jung Center, 817 Dempster St.
Evanston, IL 60201.
Felt Meaning and Transforming Fear
Friday, April 21, 9:30 to 4:30.
Heartwood Center, 1818 Dempster, Evanston, IL
An experiential training for therapists, healing and health practitioners, teachers, and all those interested
to learn a powerful process for personal, spiritual and therapeutic growth.
Participants will experience new ways to constructively work with fear and anxiety:
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Learning how to contact a bodily felt sense and allow the body to express new
feelings
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Recognizing phases that unfold naturally in therapy that
allow clients to make steps of change
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Learning ways to help others “be with” the experience of fear that leads to emotional transformation