The congress begins with the representatives you have chosen

MASTERCLASSES
Thursday, October 1, 2026, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

After that, our joint congress process begins.

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Akira Ikemi is a stalwart of the PZA and Focusing community. Both a psychologist and a philosopher and a long‑time companion of Gendlin, he played a key role in the widespread adoption of the humanistic approach in Japan. Among his countless creative developments, one is highlighted here and will be addressed in his masterclass: the distinction between Focusing‑alpha and Focusing‑beta. The former refers to the central inner experiential step in every psychotherapy on which personality change is based; the latter designates Focusing as a method. Gendlin himself already answered Barbara Brodley in 1990 — Brodley being one of those who, with her article “Client‑centered and experiential: Two different therapies,” contributed significantly to the unfortunate divide between Gendlin and Rogers followers — with this distinction: “Now the trouble that you are having is not about that process. It is about me teaching that process.” In this respect Akira Ikemi fits wonderfully into this congress, in which we aim to finally leave behind those tiresome “Gendlin vs. Rogers” debates and instead further unfold the huge potential of their connection.

Jan Winhall is a psychotherapist still far too little known in German‑speaking countries, specialized in trauma and addiction, who has made an international name for herself primarily with the “Felt Sense Polyvagal Model” she developed. Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory is scientifically debated, but it has experienced an incredible hype in the psychotherapeutic field in recent years (for example through proponents such as therapist Deb Dana). The “poly” in the name roughly points to the discovery of a third nervous‑system state alongside the well‑known sympathetic and parasympathetic systems: the ventral vagal branch, described as the state of “social engagement,” in which people are open and available for inner and outer relationships — exactly what we aim for at the congress. Jan Winhall will present the necessary conditions for this and how Focusing can take a central role in that work.

Leslie Ellis represents another focal area of E. T. Gendlin’s work: engagement with dreams, which she has further developed in her more than 25 years of clinical practice. Particularly interesting will be the introduction to the collective dream‑group process she created, called “Dreamweaving.”

Heinke Deloch has co‑founded a great network in the German‑speaking world with the so‑called Experience‑Oriented Concept‑Coaching (ECC) and thereby covers another central legacy of Eugene Gendlin: the method “Thinking at the Edge” (TAE). With this access to implicit bodily meaning experience, a central perspective of the congress will be illuminated: the “outwards,” that is the look beyond the psychotherapeutic sphere to the crises and disruptions of our time with which we are societally confronted.

With Lynn Preston we have secured a central figure of the international Focusing scene for the congress, who has always placed at the center of her work the theme that will also form the core of these four days: she calls it “two interwoven miracles,” meaning embodied introspection (contact with one’s own experience) and therapeutic connectedness (contact with others). And timely — it could not fit our event better — she is currently engaged with how Focusing in groups can support all our lives in societal contexts and has developed a program called FORCE: Focusing‑Oriented Relational Community Empowerment.

As if all these outstanding personalities were not enough, there are a number of other prominent speakers who have already confirmed or at least been invited: foremost among them the Austrian “grand dame” of Focusing, Lore Korbei, who is not only playing a leading role in organizing the congress but will also share her immense reservoir of knowledge under the title “Brush up your Focusing,” paraphrasing Karl Valentin: “Today I’ll visit myself, I hope I’m at home.”

References
1 Brodley, B. T. (1990). Client‑centered and experiential: Two different therapies. In G. Lietaer, J. Rombauts, & R. Van Balen (Eds.), Client‑centered and experiential psychotherapy in the nineties (pp. 87–107). Leuven University Press.
2 Gendlin, E. T. (1990). The small steps of the therapy process: How they come and how to help them come. In G. Lietaer, J. Rombauts & R. Van Balen (Eds.), Client‑centered and experiential psychotherapy in the nineties, pp. 205–224. Leuven: Leuven University Press. From https://www.focusing.org/gendlin/docs/gol_2110.html
3 Porges, S. W. (2026). Die Polyvagal‑Theorie und die Suche nach Sicherheit: Traumabehandlung, soziales Engagement und Bindung. Probst‑Verlag.
4 Dana, D. (2022). Der Vagus‑Nerv als innerer Anker. Angst und Panik überwinden, Ruhe und Stärke finden. Kösel‑Verlag.