Category: General

  • When Things Fall Apart: Reflecting on 2020

    So many things were ready to go from trips, to conferences, a new website featuring in-person Focusing training (remember being with people?) and then things fell apart. I just remember saving all my energy for clients and students and then wine-ing at the end of the night with my wife. I’m sure I am not alone.

    When things begin to fall apart there is that natural tendency to hold on tight and keep it together. Yet, at some point I was able to step back and see that a natural process of change had begun before COVID hit, and was accelerated by it. At first I was disoriented and wanted my “normal” life back. Over time it felt a lot better to just let go and trust that from the edge of uncertainty would emerge fresh steps of growth. How did that happen?

    I leaned into my daily and weekly practices of Focusing (and Focusing partnerships), meditation, stretching-yoga-walking, and Trauma Releasing exercises (TRE). Connecting with my wife at the end of the day who began teaching second-graders online helped too.

    What I have learned is when things fall apart it is helpful to step back and rest into the present moment and larger space of conscience awareness and view circumstances as a natural process of change. Then it becomes less something to fight and more of an uncomfortable and vague sense of something missing or not right … yet.

    My practices help me to be with that unknown and uncomfortable edge of my experience. Showing up for myself, listening to my suffering and being with the unknown and unclear has led to surprising changes.

    After 20 years of practicing psychotherapy in West Seattle, I closed my practice. I now practice full time on Vashon out of my beautiful home based studio. I invested in an outdoor seating area and let the breeze blow through my office for the occasional in-person visitor. Telehealth has transformed my practice and ability to work from home. As a body centered therapist the virtual format is not ideal. Screen time tires me and my body senses the absence of a real presence. At the same time I am so grateful for the opportunity to continue working with lovely souls – without the commute.

    — Coming in January 2021 —

    This will be my last Morrison Therapy Newsletter! In the new year you receive a newsletter from my new business the Seattle Focusing Institute. It is a dream come true developed with many little steps and missteps over the last couple of years. It will be a hub for my teaching and a growing Focusing community in the area. I look forward to developing my capacity as a teacher and mentor for those wanting to bring Focusing into their practices and lives.

    Lastly, I want to express a deep gratitude to all who I work with and who have supported me with their kind words of thanks during a really difficult year.

    May we all share in the shelter of each other and flourish through mutual kindness in the new year. ♥

     

     

  • A Clinician’s Guide to Dream Therapy: Implementing Simple and Effective Dreamwork by Dr. Leslie Ellis

    A Clinician’s Guide to Dream Therapy: Implementing Simple and Effective Dreamwork by Dr. Leslie Ellis

    Dr. Ellis is a Focusing-Oriented Therapist and Trainer local to the Pacific Northwest. Her book presents an integrated approach to dreamwork grounded in the experiential principles of Focusing. Leslie worked with Dr. Eugene Gendlin while completing her dissertation on the subject of dreams. Dreamwork was a particular passion for Gendlin who continued to enjoy working with people on this topic into the last year of his life. One thing that makes Leslie’s approach unique from other forms of dreamwork is its emphasis on allowing the dreamer’s bodily felt sense to guide the interpretation and next steps. Her book is written in an accessible format that will be useful both to clinicians and anyone who is curious to explore more about their dreams.

    Dr. Ellis’s current projects are focused on the treatment of nightmares. “Nightmares are quite easily treatable” she says. She believes it’s critical for those in the helping and healing professions to have an adequate understanding of nightmares and their treatment because they have been found to be significantly linked with suicide. You can find her e-course on the topic here or check out her 20 minute talk here.

    To order her book, or sign up for her newsletter visit her website.

  • Focusing connects our inner and outer experiencing

    Focusing connects our inner and outer experiencing

    Focusing connects our inner and outer experiencing

    In the midst of our daily busyness how do we find ourselves and touch what is in need of our attention? Where do we find life’s teachings reflected back to us that help us sense our own rhythms, stuck places and flowing joy? Is there a practice that allows inner and outer experience to form one whole?

    Outer: Let’s start in the garden 

    The spring shoots of new life were followed by summer’s growth, bearing fruit, and now fall’s harvest and decay. Next will come winter’s rest and compositing. Many clients have said this is their favorite time of year, and who can argue with the run of sunshine we’ve had! For me, it is a time of turning inwards, contemplation, resting and enjoying dark mornings in silent meditation. Sometimes it seems I can even sense the food scraps composting in the garden and preparing to become new soil. Nature mirrors my inner environment.

    Inner: Developing my Inner Relationship

    I appreciate the seasons, the tides, loved ones and daily practices like walking, meditation and, of course, Focusing. Focusing is about directly connecting to my inner world and seeing what’s up. It is first a way of being with my experience like meditation, and then takes a big leap forward with the development of the Inner Relationship. It is a practice of compassion, deep empathy and amazing, fresh experiencing that leads to small steps of transformation and renewal.

    Would you like to explore Focusing? 

    In the coming year, there will be many opportunities to see if Focusing is something you would like to learn. Change your life and the way you work with clients in 2020! I will begin a new business and website dedicated to education and training. These ventures will support the teaching of Focusing, Focusing-Oriented Therapy, and other practices for change. They will feature my training program, support a growing Focusing community and develop trainers to teach Focusing in their own unique ways. I hope to see you at one of our events and share the gifts of being connected to yourself and experiencing the essence of change that is Focusing.

    It’s my Birthday! A Year in Review

    It is the end of my year and the beginning of a new one. I have been surrounded by so much outward energy with training Healing Professionals, co-teaching a program in Chile and presenting at an international conference in Mexico – all accomplished before spring! Then it was reconstructive surgery on my ankle. Wow, what a teacher pain is! How challenging it is to be patient, live with chronic pain, learn to walk again, and do all the right things for my healing, even when sometimes I just don’t feel like it. Let’s face it, change is not easy, but I have been adapting and trying new things, accepting limitations and relying on others for encouragement and support. It’s all very meaningful experience.

    Currently, I am training an AMAZING group of professionals who are on a two-year journey learning Focusing and working with Complex Trauma. They bring me joy each weekend we spend together. Further, I continue to meet deeply with myself through Focusing Partnership exchanges, trips to the beach and time with those I love. I feel warmly connected to myself, my community, and my environment. May Fall find you inwardly and outwardly connected to your emerging self, seeking the light of day and the joy of being you-with others too!

     

     

     

  • Giving Thanks

    Giving Thanks

    As we prepare to sit around festive tables with abundant food, beverages and seasonal decorations perhaps we can pause and reflect on where it all came from. In most cases a store, but before the store? Most of what we consume begins in the soil, raised by the sun, encouraged by the rain, and cared for by the farmer. When we look at our food, we may become aware of the interconnection to all of life that created it and brought it to our table. We paid for it, yes, but is it not more satisfying to imagine it as a gift which includes the star dust that falls to earth and enters the soil? Perhaps it includes a thunderstorm or two! Our bodies are not separate from the eco-system that supports our existence. Are not groceries turned into a human being by a mother who eats to support two?

    Now that we are aware of our connectedness to all can we bring our attention to the people at the table? Can we look around, see the eyes of others, and be thankful for their presence? Can we share the gift of listening and what Gene Gendlin refers to as interhuman attention? Are we not enacting a creation story, of giving birth and nurturing consciousness, at this very meal? “Perhaps I am a dreamer but I’m not the only one” says John Lennon. I am beginning to think the most precious gifts are the ones that give something of our self through attention to the other. I give thanks for my connection to All and to my relationships with each opening of consciousness we call a human being.

    In truth, I am a bit slow. I took for granted my mother’s gift of life to me, her home-grown vegetables and holiday decorations. I grew up with many things and the expectation there would always be more. As I grow into my elder-hood, I have come to feel blessed by my adult children’s gifts of writings, art or hand-made gifts and the loving touch from my wife, her garden harvest and flowers on the table. I get to listen to their joys and sorrows and dreams and I feel thanks for their attention and listening as the seeds I have sowed come back to me. I have so much to give thanks for!

    It may seem simple, but I do believe we all feel grateful when we experience being connected to the earth and the people that make up our lives through this abundance that is there all the time. We only have to pause and bring our attention to our food and the eyes of those around us.

    Blessings during the holiday season.

  • Personal Reflections of this Year and Looking Ahead

    Personal Reflections of this Year and Looking Ahead

    I had reconstructive surgery on my right ankle at the beginning of April. My mindset was one of ending and beginning. I think Spring is the perfect time for such a journey. In my recovery, I spent two weeks resting on my couch at home watching spring unfold outside my windows. Sometimes we need an event in our lives to facilitate change. Surgery, for me, was an event marked with endings, shedding commitments, and beginnings, making room to break new ground. Ahead is a year of recovery – physical healing infused with spiritual renewal. I am shifting my work more to Vashon, away from commuting, reducing the number of clients I see in order to dedicate more time to my teaching and training. I am reminded of Kierkegaard’s works, as I sense into “fear and trembling,” in tandem with growing opportunities: I notice that it all feels just right!

    My three-plus years of planning and facilitating The Advanced and Certification Weeklong through The International Focusing Institute, came to completion on the coast of Chile in January. It was a remarkable experience of people from around the world coming together with mutual respect and common passion, a cantata of English and Spanish smoothly playing back and forth. The depth of connection people can make in such a short time, when our needs are met and we listen openly to each other, continues to amaze me.

    The 29thInternational Focusing Conference in Mérida, Mexico in March was incredible in its own unique yet similar ways. I presented on “Ten Key Aspects of Working with Trauma.” (Click here to email me and request a copy.) Thirty people from around the globe attended my presentation, which was simultaneously translated into Spanish. During this presentation, I had the opportunity to reconnect with a woman who I’d had the chance to work with for one session at the Weeklong conference in 2017, where we processed a trauma she had experienced as a child. I invited her to come to the front of the room, where she courageously spoke about the session we’d had and how her life had changed since then. It was a gift for both me and the group to hear her story and witness the kind of change a Focusing-Oriented approach can facilitate in working with unwinding stuck patterns and frozen remnants of trauma. Such a vivid first-person account of healing was an inspiration to all present.

    With the International Focusing Conference and three-year Weeklong Planning Committee completed, I have a reprieve from commitments to travel and present for the near future and look forward to dedicating my time to training, teaching, and mentoring. I am blessed to have a wonderful group of first-year students and am looking forward to beginning my second-year program again this fall. Additionally, I have begun work on a new website that is designed to support Focusing training and building a community of Focusing-Oriented therapists, healing professionals, and spiritual seekers. I look forward to walking with you all on the journey (and on two feet again!)

  • Susan Rudnick at Elliot Bay Books, Sunday July 14th at 3pm

    Susan Rudnick at Elliot Bay Books, Sunday July 14th at 3pm

    Susan Rudnick at Elliot Bay Books, Sunday July 14that 3:00pm.

    Please join me and fellow Focusing-Oriented Therapist and Zen practitioner Susan Rudnick LCSW, as she reads from and discusses her debut memoir, Edna’s Gift: How My Broken Sister Taught Me to Be Whole.

    An essay of Susan’s was just published in the NYTimes from the book