ABOUT FREDA

© Freda Blob

About

Freda is an art therapist and adult educator who specializes in art-based programs. She has over 30 years of experience as a clinician and teacher. Freda is a European-certified person-centered and experiential creative arts psychotherapist and counselor working in private practice. She also teaches at community and national training centers, as well as internationally

Freda is also a Certifying Coordinator with The International Focusing Institute TIFI, a Focusing Oriented Therapist with Specialization in FOAT-TIFI, and a TIFI Focusing Trainer. Her approach to Arts in Focusing involves Felt-Sense based studio art, which allows for experiencing the world through all the senses from the understanding of the Creative and Expressive Arts. Building on her practice and long-term teaching with the German-Swiss Focusing Network FN (1995 - 2023), she developed the approach of Expressive Arts Focusing EXAF (2019)

Freda has a background in design techniques and holds two university degrees  (pre-Bologna MA equivalents) in Adult Education (2010) and Clinical Psychology (1992)

Credentials

Art Therapist AT (Grad Dip) | Adv Cert Person-Centred Creative Arts Practitioner | Cert Guided Drawing® Practitioner | Cert Focusing Oriented Expressive Arts FOAT® Practitioner

TIFI Certifying Coordinator | TIFI Focusing Oriented Therapist FOT with Specialization in FOAT® | TIFI Focusing Trainer FOAT® | TIFI Focusing Trainer

Person-centred and Experiential Psychotherapist/Counselor PCT with diploma in Existential Well-Being Counseling 

Clinical Psychologist CP (pre-Bologna equivalent BA, MA) | Registered non-medical Practitioner for Psychotherapy

Adult Educator Ed (pre-Bologna equivalent MA) with undergraduate degree in Design Techniques

Background In Design

Freda's academic training began with a preliminary internship in design crafts in order to enroll in Design Techniques, a pilot program for vocational teachers at the University of Duisburg-Essen GER

Her main coursework and work as a student assistant (1981 - 1984, research area sensual design) was with sculptor and Folkwang teacher Prof. Franz Rudolf Knubel

Freda was a participating artist at the International Stone Sculpture Symposium Kaiserslautern (1982) 

Expertise In Therapeutic Arts

Freda earned a Postgraduate Diploma of Advanced Studies (Grad Dip) in Art Therapy from the Catholic University of Freiburg, Germany, in 2022. She is a registered art therapist in her country and currently working on her third MA in art therapy 

In addition to her 2020 certification as a Focusing Oriented Therapist with Specialization in Expressive Arts FOAT®, Freda qualified as a FOAT® Practitioner (2019), Guided Drawing® Practitioner (2019) and as a Person-Centred Creative Arts Practitioner (2024) 

Freda has attended numerous international training programs, courses and conferences which have guaranteed the excellence of her professional skills as an art therapist and Creative Arts Psychotherapist/Counselor. Since 2020, Freda has immersed herself in the following topics:

 

  • The Creative Connection Approach of the Person-Centered Expressive Arts
  • Arts in Times of Crisis, Conflict and Displacement
  • Trauma and Creative Arts in Therapy
  • Trauma Informed Practices in Expressive Arts
  • Sensory-Based Communication for Adressing Traumatic Stress
  • Restorative Practices Grounded in Modern Neuroscience
  • Depth-Oriented Arts for Psychotherapists
  • Creativity as a Therapeutic Technique for Working with Rejection and Shame
  • Interactive Strategies for Engaging with Museum Arts
  • Museum-art based Practices for Well-Being
  • Expressive Arts for Social Action and Activism
  • Body, Culture, and Art as Sources of Resistance and Resilience
  • Community Art Therapy, Theory and Practice
  • Public Practice in the Creative Arts Therapies
  • The Open Studio: Community Art in Action
  • Fiber Arts in Public Art Therapy
  • Arts and Mindfulness
  • Working With Clients in the Virtual Art Therapy Studio
  • Eco-Art Therapy
  • Eco-Expressive Arts

Clinical Training and Career

From 1994 to 2002 Freda was trained in Focusing by 14 German and Swiss pioneers and practitioners of the method. She received additional basic training in body psychotherapy, including Biosynthesis with David Boadella and Biodynamic therapy with Gerda Boyesen. She also took classes in Sensual Awareness (Gindler-Goralewski)

Freda also completed a seven-year postgraduate program in person-centered psychotherapy and underwent two certification processes: One at the Person-Centered Institute AGB Berlin (depth-oriented, 1998) and one at the Person-Centered Institute IGB Stuttgart (behavioral-oriented, 2004). Eighteen clinical teachers conducted the program, including Prof. Reinhard Tausch, founder of the German person-centered psychotherapy approach

After working in public health institutions from 1989 to 1996, Freda transitioned to teaching in 1994 and to private practice in 1996. In 2016, she founded the Tübingen FOCUSZ Center for Focusing and Therapeutic Arts. Starting in 2022, it has been known as: FOCUSZART: The Focusing Studio for English-speaking users and the SKF School for Arts in Focusing for German-speaking users 

From 2022 to 2024, Freda was a guest lecturer for Focusing and the Expressive Arts at the Department of Clinical Curative Education at the Catholic University of Freiburg GER

Expertise In Focusing

Freda began her Focusing career in 1994 with the German-Swiss Focusing Network (FN). She is a senior FN teacher and has served the network for more than two decades, until 2023. Since 2019, she is teaching with the German Focusing Association (DFG)

In 2013, Freda certified as a Certifying Coordinator for The International Focusing Institute TIFI and in 2020 she certified as a TIFI Focusing Oriented Therapist

To complete her FN training, Freda took the following international courses: Integrative Focusing with René Maas (1997), Wholebody Heartfelt Conversation (Kevin McEvenue) with Katrijn van Look and Lara Peumans (2015), Dynamic Expressive Focusing/Being Seriously Playful with René Veugelers (2019) and Focusing-Oriented Relational Psychotherapy with Lynn Preston (2023)

Freda's Focusing teaching improved with these additional training programs: Existential Wellbeing Counseling with Prof.em Mia Leijssen (2016), Focusing with the Whole Body with Astrid Schillings (2016-2017), and Focusing Oriented Expressive Arts FOAT® with Dr. Laury Rappaport (2017-2020)

Standing On Many Shoulders

Freda is a true expert in her field, drawing upon the knowledge and experience of many others:

Prof. Dr. Monika Wigger (GER) was Freda's supervisor for her art therapy thesis, 'The Experiential Third' (2022). She encouraged her to the next level of research and enroll in an MA program in art therapy (2025)

Ani de La Prida (UK) was Freda's teacher of Person-Centered Creative Arts. She modeled the therapeutic use of the arts in the most creative ways

Laury Rappaport PhD (US) was Freda's teacher and supervisor in Focusing Oriented Expressive Arts FOAT®. She introduced Freda to the Expressive Arts and supported her in developing her own approach of Expressive Arts Focusing EXAF

René Veugelers (NL) introduced Freda to Dynamic Expressive Focusing and showed her how authentic playfulness makes all the difference

Astrid Schilllings (GER) was Freda's teacher of Focusing with the Whole Body. She demonstrated how to create opportunities to experience the body as the safest place

Prof.em. Mia Leijssen (BEL) is the founder of the program of Existenial Wellbeing Counseling. Her teaching shifted Freda's psychotherapeutic framework toward a more existential approach 

Christiane Geiser (CH) is the co-founder of the Institut GFK (Person-centered Psychotherapy, Body Therapy, Focusing). She was Freda's teacher, supervisor and mentor for Focusing Plus and taught her to be extremely precise in theory and practice. She modeled how to work with stoppages and structure-boundness from a person-centered and Focusing oriented way

Uli Schlünder (GER), Jules Zwimpfer (CH), René Maas (NL) and Lore Korbei (AT) modeled the diversity of intermodal Focusing in work and life

Gabriele Hasler (GER), an artist and art therapist, encouraged Freda to enroll in an academic art therapy program, which changed her career and life

William Winkfield (US), an artist and photographer based in Mexico, encouraged Freda to return to art after decades of clinical work. He has been a supportive artist friend ever since

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