Laura Bavalics is an early childhood educator, specialist in the science of play, and a drama teacher. She is a Certified Focusing Professional, Coordinator and a Focusing-oriented educator, who has been working with young children, parents, and professionals for over twenty-five years. She is a professional director of the Pendula inclusive kindergarten program at the Világszép Foundation for Children in State Care in Hungary. She is also teaching at ELTE University, Hungary, at the College of Education. Laura was a member of the International Leadership Council at TIFI and currently is a member of the Board of Directors and the Children's Focusing Advisory Group at The International Focusing Institute.

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About Rob by Rob:

When I was three years old, a lodger from Egypt came to stay with my family for a year. He was warm, kind and playful. I was left with a strong feeling of friendliness for people from other backgrounds and cultures.

By the time I was four I had come to find reading stories a big improvement on life. Music came a little later. I studied 'cello and piano playing, singing, conducting and composing music. Eventually I had a degree in music from the University of Cambridge. Since then I have taught music for fifty years, mostly by giving piano lessons.

I read 'Dibs in Search of Self' in 1972 and met the Person Centred Approach in 1975. In 1981, during a lesson in the Alexander Technique with Patrick Macdonald, suddenly all my trouble and sadness fell utterly away. I found myself for a few hours just simply happy.

I began to explore meditation when I was in Australia in 1983, met focusing in 1987, had one to one focusing sessions with Gene Gendlin in 1988, had personal guidance in meditation from Akong Rinpoche in 1993, and completed a training in spiritual accompaniment with Brian Thorne in 2012. I have been a Focusing Coordinator for many years and have trained many people.

In 2018 I published a book about empathic listening: 'Feeling Heard, Hearing Others'. Now I'm writing a little book about meditation.

I hope to go on teaching for another twenty years. Maybe longer. My teenagers tell their friends: 'He's really old. But he has a very strong inner child.'

You can buy my book by writing directly to me:

https://www.meditativelistening.com/

or by going to my publishing house (now doesn't that sound GRAND!!!):

ANTONINE BOOKS – Rob Foxcroft

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Dr Tony Bates is a Clinical Psychologist, Psychotherapist and Adjunct Professor of Psychology at University College Dublin. He was the Head of the Department of Psychology at St James’s Hospital, Dublin, for 30 years. Following psychotherapy training at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Oxford, he established and directed the MSc in Cognitive Psychotherapy at TCD. In 2006, he established Jigsaw (The National Centre for Youth Mental Health) to address the mental health needs of young people. He is patron of the Mindfulness Teachers Association of Ireland (MTAI) and currently works with Focus Ireland to provide trauma-informed care in homeless settings.

Tony is the author of Breaking the Heart Open: Shaping the Life of a Psychologist, and

Coming through Depression: A Mindful Path to Recovery