Dr. Glenn Fleisch
Focusing Institute Certifying Coordinator
Certified Focusing-Oriented Therapist
Certified Focusing Trainer
Personal Statement
My work has gone through many evolutions over the past 35 years as a practicing psychotherapist. My training and personal experiences are very diverse: humanistic/ existential psychology and philosophy; East-West integration; psychoanalytic therapy; somatic therapy; and drama therapy- in addition to my training and work with various leaders in Focusing and FOT (see below). My principle interest as a therapist is in helping clients heal, grow and transform- thus, compelling me to develop myself as a person and thus as an embodied resource for clients to engage and interact with in the therapy space. Each client and each situation is a challenge, calling me to be present and engaged moment to moment, using the whole body as an ‘instrument’ of somatic sensitivity and resonant attunement with whatever needs attention.
For me, Focusing is the practice of embodied awareness and organismic sensitivity to the emergence not only of felt senses, but of felt selves. The felt self is a highly organized and repetitive somatic (sensory-motor) patterning of energy, often formed as a consequence of early life traumas. The shift to working with the whole body has opened new vistas for transformation in therapy- including awareness and focusing with movement, gesture, posture, energy and tonality. This has evolved into the creation of “soma-dramas” in FOT- using creative imagination, embodiment, playing, enacting and expressing- to invite and allow a felt self to show more of itself, to fill in a missing or needed interaction, and to help develop new bodily capacities of the self. These dramas can emerge spontaneously through the living body, can be co-created in the moment and can be set up to re-work a traumatic scene.
This work has awakened my spirit, enlivened my life-energy and freed up creative expression and interaction. I see this as soul-work, using creative imagination and sensitive awareness to embody scenarios that heal the wounded or broken spirit. For me, it is a natural extension and evolution of Focusing and FOT- i..e. opening the therapy space to allow for more life-energy, and opportunities to play out new interactions in a safe and supportive container. Just as with FOT in general, I see this work as gudied by the soma, the spirit of the living body to show us the way forward, often by bringing to awareness the felt self and its world (scenes) where its spirit and energy have been stuck.
Location(s):
Office 1: 922 Centro Way Mill Valley, California 94941
Office 2: 526 Tennessee Street Vallejo, California 94590
Public Contact Details:
telephone: 415- 384-0144/ 707- 644-5421
website: https://glennfleisch.com/
email: glennfleisch@aol.com
Languages: English
Professional Details:
Professional memberships with licensing or registering bodies:
Board of Behavioral Sciences- Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (MFT) # MFC 12608
California Association of Marriage & Family Therapists (CAMFT)
Academic and training qualifications:
Ph.D. (2000) Clinical Psychology, Center for Psychological Studies, Albany, California
M.Ed. (1973) Counselor Education Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Existential philosophy & therapy- Peter Koestenbaum
Seminars on Merleau-Ponty & Heidegger- David Michael Levin
Psychoanalytic therapy for personality disorders- Masterson Institute
Focusing training: Interactive Focusing- Janet Klein; Inner Relationship Focusing- Ann Weiser Cornell;
Focusing and Body-Centered Work- Neil Freidman; Wholebody Focusing- Kevin McEvenue;
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Therapeutic services:
o Individual psychotherapy/counselling
o Individual Focusing sessions (guided Focusing, not ongoing therapy)
o Couple/Relationship therapy
o Online/Skype sessions
o Telephone sessions
Areas of special interest or advanced training:
Complex trauma
Chronic depression
Addictions
Personality disorders
Training:
o I offer training groups to learn Focusing (open to the public)
o I offer individual sessions for people to learn Focusing (open to the public)
o I offer training in Focusing-oriented Therapy (for professionals)
o Consultation and Supervision for psychotherapists, psychologists, counsellors
Details of these and any other services:
My primary focus is on offering FOT training for licensed psychotherapists. This training program has four modules: 1. Foundations of FOT; 2. Wholebody Focusing in FOT; 3. Use of soma-drama in FOT; and 4. FOt with challenging clients.
I also offer individual WBF sessions for people interested in learning the process and for personal growth/ healing. In addition, there are group workshops and retreats for people wanting to pariticipate in soma-dramas and living theater events.
Finally, I do supervision and consultation for psychotherapists interested in integrating Focusing into their practice- and help with facilitating movement when stuck with clients who manifest very entrenched and repetitive patterns (structure-bound process).
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Recent Publications (5 years or less):
“Right in their hands: how gestures imply the body’s next steps in Focusing-oriented therapy” (2009) Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies, Volume 8, Number 3, p. 173-188.
” Wholebody Focusing-oriented therapy: four avenues of wholebody felt sensing for transforming symptoms of complex trauma” (2010) (paper for USABP conference).
“Co-Presencing in Wholebody Focusing-oriented therapy: carrying forward blocked process and structure-bound states through interactive engagement” (2011) The Focusing Connection XXVIII (1), p. 1-4.
“Quantum consciousness: an explanatory model for life-forward movement in Wholebody Focusing, parts 1 & 2″ (2012), co-authored with Karen Whalen. Folio: Journal of Focusing-oriented and experiential psychotherapy, 23, No. 1.
” A transformational focusing experience: The Power of Engaging from One’s Embodied Presence: A Tribute to Neil Friedman” (2013). Folio: Journal of Focusing and experiential therapy, 24, No.1.
“Transformational Focusing: theatre of the living body as vehicle for personal/communal healing,” (2014), co-authored with Doralee Grindler Katonah. In Greg Madison (ed.) Emerging practice in Focusing-oriented therapy innovative theories and applications. (Vol.2). London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
“The body’s recovery of spirit: transforming life-stances and releasing bound energy: threshold events in Wholebody Focusing-oriented therapy” (2015). The Folio, 26, #1.
“Scenes that transform the self: the experiential practice of soma-dramas in Focusing- oriented therapy” (2015). Paul Wilkins (ed) Person-Centred and Experiential Therapies Now: Contemporary Approaches and Issues in Practice (in press).