Focusing with Children – The art of communication in therapy and facilitation
by Elaine Goggin
The newly released practice book ‘Focusing with Children – The art of communication in therapy and facilitation’ by Harriët Teeuw and René Veugelers is a wonderful addition to the growing resources in the world of Children and Focusing. Written from their combined experience of being with children in their own unique way as Focusing Trainers and Art Therapists, this book is more of how to ‘be’ with children than how to ‘fix’ things when challenges arise.
From the beginning, this book invites the reader to look after their own process during interactions with the children in their lives. This, the authors say, facilitates the child’s own natural process to unfold in a way that makes space for a child to move forward and discover ways of living that allow them to thrive.
The book begins by gently introducing us to Focusing and how it can be a supportive way of tapping into the child’s natural ability to hold and process their own knowing. It shows us how we can be with the child, using helpful suggestions, creating the right environment and atmosphere for the child’s natural process to engage and how to support this process to its natural completion.
For me the first part of the book is the most important: creating the type of environment for the child is a wonderful gift you can give them. There is a particularly helpful chapter called ‘First aid for process disrupters’ which gives guidance and suggestions on supporting the child through a Focusing process despite distractions or disengagement. Harriët and René’s experience is evident throughout the book and you can sense their calm and open presence as they describe different interactions with children, and how they continued to be with the child throughout the whole session.
The second part of the book has over 35 different exercises that you can use to introduce the child to the Focusing process or engage in Focusing as a facilitator. It is divided into 4 groups,
- Creating Space
- Making contact
- Deepening contact
- Completion
These are excellent exercises that are clearly well established and explained very well. They are also very valuable for dipping into your own inner child work, which is also encouraged throughout the book.
In my opinion this is an exceptional book that is crucial in the world right now, a world where children are constantly being challenged and influenced from outside sources. It’s great to have a resource like this for the adults in their lives. It helps us create a healthy environment in which children are encouraged to listen to their own innate knowing. Children and young adults today don’t have space or time to day-dream or be bored nowadays, so they may not have a way of turning towards inner listening. This book helps to create that space and demonstrates ways to encourage this type of listening and process unfolding. Hopefully, this will empower young people to develop and trust their own inner knowing, becoming less reliant on outside sources and influences.
Thank you René and Harriët, for creating this wonderful resource for the Focusing community and beyond. I am so happy to see the joy and enthusiasm that you have shared in a book format. It means that everyone can access whenever they need your wise and supportive ways of being with children. Keep up the amazing work in spreading your love for Focusing with Children.
If you are in Ireland this book can be purchased from Mary Jennings by emailing her at
Harriët Teeuw, Elaine Goggin and René Veugelers
