On the next screen, you’ll have a chance to choose which e-zines you’ll receive.
And when you do, you’ll receive our free article: Ten Ways to Use Focusing in Daily Life.

"I loved the course... I think this work you have developed is extraordinary. Truly non-violent. I've started to notice how many ‘self-help’ things talk about ’banishing negative emotions’, or ’overcoming wrong thinking’ etc. Thanks so much as well for your kind, thoughtful and clear teaching. One of the best things I've done!”
– Ruth Emsley, Oxford, UK

“It's like I don't deserve to be successful.”
“I don't really like myself.”
“If I would just not be so lazy...”
“How could I have been such an idiot?”

Do you ever sound like this? No matter what kind of inner work we do, at some point it seems we encounter a painful experience that can be called the Inner Critic.

It Isn't Helping You!

The criticizing part of you probably feels like YOU need IT in order to keep your life on track (as much as it is!)

But actually, in those places where your life feels stuck, it’s an inner criticizing part that is part of what’s keeping it stuck. If you’re procrastinating on doing something that would really help your life feel better... the voice that nags you to do it is actually NOT helping!

So changing your relationship with an inner critic can mean opening the door to a life that genuinely feels better: more productive, more creative, more true to who you really are.

What Can Be Done with This Inner Critical Part of Us?

First, look at what doesn’t work:
     • trying to get rid of it
     • telling it to shut up and go away
     • reasoning with it
     • giving in to it

You're tried all these, right? If they were going to work, they already would have!

There's a reason why these methods for pushing back on the Inner Critic don't work – they don't deal with the underlying issue, the reason why it’s there in the first place.

Radical Gentleness – The Treasure in the Critic

In this workshop, we'll be learning to use the power of “radical gentleness” to transform our experience of any criticizing or controlling part of us.

We will learn the one key truth that allows us to melt with compassion toward this part that seemed so implacable.

We’ll learn the three typical ways that parts of us react to being criticized (collapsing, rebelling, and escaping) and we’ll discover how to step away from being reactive and not feel criticized at all, no matter what that inner voice says (or anyone else!).

In a series of guided exercises, supported by a printed workbook, you’ll follow a process that allows the inner criticizing voices to relax and reveal their true treasure – not just for this weekend, but as a practice you can follow any day of your life.

“And consider this: whenever you find something in your inner process, in your own Focusing or someone else’s, and that part doesn’t want to talk, doesn’t want to come out, doesn’t want to reveal itself, chances are, 99 times out of 100, it doesn’t feel safe, and it doesn’t feel safe because there is another part of the Focuser lurking, ready to criticize it.”
– from “Radical Gentleness: The Inner Critic Transforms,” in Ann Weiser Cornell’s new book, The Radical Acceptance of Everything.

Prerequisite:

You must have had at least one individual session with any Focusing teacher prior to attending this workshop.

Radical Gentleness is taught as a two-day workshop and also as a five-week telecourse. For the next dates and further information on registration click here.

For an article on Radical Gentleness, click here (PDF, 92KB)

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