FOCUSING INITIATIVES INTERNATIONAL - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Certified Focusing Trainer
Anna Willman has been a certified Focusing Trainer since 1982. She has a Master's degree in International Studies from Claremont Graduate School and a Masters in Comparative Politics from Columbia University. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, in 1971 and 1972. She has served as Chair of the Oregon State Commission for Women, President of Oregon Women Work!, Chair of the Douglas County Gender Equity Team, President of the League of Women Voters of Umpqua Valley, and board member for Project Literacy. She retired in 2008 after fourteen years as director of the Confidence Clinic, a Focusing-oriented community wellness program for women. Since retirement she has written extensively about the program's history, its philosophy and practice, and its outcomes. She has also published five novels, one of which is specifically about Focusing-oriented Therapy.
Job Titles:
- Supervisor
- Co - Founder of Love & Kindness Wellness Services
Beatrice Hyacinthe is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and the Co- Founder of Love & Kindness Wellness Services, LLC.
Beatrice is a Supervisor and a psychotherapist with over 15 years of experience in the mental health field and has worked in various settings, providing services to adults, adolescents, couples and families. Some of the presenting concerns include severe and persistent mental illness, HIV/AIDS, complex trauma, immigration and acculturation hardship, grief, life transitions, LGBTQ and racial identities.
We promote social change by supporting people and communities as they move towards wellness, seek inner healing, and discover creative solutions to local problems.
Job Titles:
- Certified Coordinator of Aboriginal Complex Trauma Focusing Oriented Therapy
DaRa Williams is a certified coordinator of Aboriginal Complex Trauma Focusing Oriented Therapy. She is a trainer, meditation teacher and wellness coach and has been a clinician and administrator in the field of Mental Health for over 25 years. DaRa currently maintains a private practice in Manhattan and is the founder of the teaching/training group; LotusWisdom Consultants. She frequently works in partnership with her clients on issues of trauma, oppression and social justice. DaRa has been a meditator for the past 20 years and is a practitioner of both Vipassana and Ascension meditation.
We promote social change by supporting people and communities as they move towards wellness, seek inner healing, and discover creative solutions to local problems.
Masumi Maeda, MA, a certified Clinical Psychologist who works as a school counselor in Japan, graduated from Michigan State University and holds an M.A. in Interpersonal Communication. She first learned Interactive Focusing in 1998 from Teruko Miyakawa, who introduced it to Japan. Masumi's translation of Janet Klein's Interactive Focusing Therapy into Japanese was published in 2005. After training with Janet Klein in Chicago, she was certified as a Master Teacher in 2009. She has been giving workshops for over 10 years in Japan, China, and Belgium. She particularly aims at introducing this life-enriching practice to young people
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Nina Joy Lawrence has an MS in Counseling from Oregon State University. She has taught and counseled at many levels, from preschool through post graduate. She discovered Focusing in 1990, and became a Focusing Professional in 2003. In 2001 she began sharing Focusing with Afghan refugees in Pakistan, collaborating with Pat Omidian and Afghan aid workers to create a program that would help them in their work. She loves to support Focusers to reach out to local community groups who are searching for ways to meet their needs.
In 2008 Nina Joy and Patricia Omidian called together Focusers interested in working this way, and the Community Wellness "tribe" was created. This fluid group has grown over the past 6 years, supporting and encouraging each other through a discussion list and monthly phone conferences, which Nina Joy has been instrumental in maintaining.
Nina Joy is happy to be supportive of Focusing International as it blossoms in the growing tree of community wellness work. Nina is a Certifying Coordinator for The Focusing Institute. With Patricia Omidian she is the other co-founder of the worldwide Community Wellness Focusing movement.
Ocen Daniel Osako holds a Bachelors in Development Studies from Gulu University, Uganda (studying Rural Development and Non-Governmental Organizations) and a Certificate in PSS - Early Childhood Development. He has worked for Feed the Children (2014-2016), War Child Holland (2017-2018) and the UNHCR (2018). He currently works for War Child Holland as a psychosocial support/life skills development lead for refugee communities from the South Sudan in Uganda. After his daily activities, he holds Focusing sessions for adult participants.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Shirley Turcotte, RCC, is a Métis knowledge keeper and registered clinical counsellor, working internationally with survivors of childhood abuses, torture, and complex traumas, including Residential School Syndrome, for the last three decades. She is a pioneering activist in the areas of complex trauma therapeutic treatment and program development for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities. She has received many awards, including British Columbia's Woman of Distinction Award in Health and Education. She is the lead instructor and clinical supervisor of two Aboriginal Programs with the Centre for Counselling and Community Safety at the Justice Institute of British Columbia.
Job Titles:
- Certified Clinical Psychologist
Tine Swyngedouw is a female certified clinical psychologist, experiential psychotherapist, focusing trainer and certifying focusing coordinator of The International Focusing Institute from Belgium. She wrote the book ‘Focusing. Leven in verbinding met je innerlijk kompas'. She learned Interactive Focusing from Janet Klein and Mary McGuire in Chicago in 1995. She studied Interactive Focusing with Masumi Maeda since 2015 and got certified as Interactive Focusing teacher by her and Mary McGuire in 2017.
Wajid Syed is a Focusing trainer and has been active in teaching psychosocial wellness and Focusing in refugee camps and with aid agencies in western Pakistan for more than ten years. He adapts what he learns to local cultures and looks for ways to expand programming. He has worked with UNWomen for a number of years as a trainer and social worker.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Wendy Robinson joined the FII Board in October 2023. She graduated from Reed College with a BA and a Master of Arts in Teaching. She taught in high schools in Portland, Oregon for eight years. She left teaching to earn a JD from Lewis & Clark Law School in 2007 and worked at the Oregon Department of Justice for 21 years, providing advice to state agencies (including the Economic Development Department, the state's venture capital fund, various licensing agencies and the Oregon University System).
Beginning in 1998 she went to Guatemala on medical teams to provide care to the poorest and most vulnerable populations, including many Mayans. She has been organizing and running surgical and general medicine teams with Faith In Practice every year since then. Since 2008 she has been a board member of Global Nutrition & Empowerment (GNE) which has developed educational materials for low-literacy populations, particularly in the area of nutrition (maternal, child and general nutrition) and diabetes. She has been the liaison with Faith in Practice which is partnering with GNE to train people to deliver the educational materials. She has also helped newly-arrived refugees navigate the legal system to get asylum and citizenship. In her free time she plays the organ, hikes and travels.