© Gabriel Holom, press photo
Background In Design
Freda's academic training started with a preliminary internship in design crafts to get enrolled in Design Techniques, a pilot program for vocational teachers at the University of Duisburg-Essen GER
Her major coursework and work as student assistant (1981 - 1984) was with sculptor and Folkwang teacher Prof. Franz Rudolf Knubel (research area Sensual Design)
Freda was a participating artist at the International Stone Sculptur Symposium Kaiserslautern (1982)
Clinical Training and Career
Freda holds two Pre-Bologna degress from the Free University of Berlin (Clinical Psychology BA, MA 1992) and the Eberhard Karls University Tübingen (Adult Education MA 2010).
In her second thesis 'The Significance of Corporality for Educational Processes with Special Consideration of Focusing as Method' she pioneered by crossing educational salutogenesis and embodiment with experiential First Person Science
Freda graduated as Art Therapist (Diploma of Advanced Studies) from the Catholic University of Freiburg in 2022. Her thesis 'The Experiential Third: Focusing Concepts for Art Therapy' was again an academic pioneering work
Freda passed a postgraduate seven-year-program in person-centered training, undergoing two certification procedures at the Person-Centered Institute AGB Berlin (depth-oriented, 1998) and the Person-Centered Institute IGB Stuttgart (behavioral-oriented, 2004). The program was performed by 18 clinical teachers including Prof. Reinhard Tausch, founder of the German Person-centered Psychotherapy approach
From 1994 - 2002 she was trained in Focusing by 14 German and Swiss Focusing pioners and practitioners. Her Focusing training was backed up by two prior basic trainings in body-psychotherapy (Biosynthesis with David Boadella, Biodynamic with Gerda Boyesen) along with continous practice of Sensual Awareness (Gindler-Goralewski)
After years of working in publich health care institutions (1989 -1996), Freda took her professional expertise to teaching (1994) and to private practice (1996). In 2016 she established the Tübingen FOCUSZ Center for Focusing and Therapeutic Arts, which from 2022 on is known as: FOCUSZART The Focusing Studio (for English speaking users) and SKF School for Arts in Focusing (for German speaking users). These two sources of information and training are each represented by a website
From 2022 - 2024 Freda was guest lecturer for Focusing and the Expressive Arts at the Department of Clinical Curative Education of the Catholic University Freiburg
Expertise In Focusing
Freda started her career as a Focuser in 1994. In 2004 she certified as a Focusing Teacher with the German-Swiss Focusing Network FN, being co-teacher and member of the FN leading team since 2001. Freda is a senior FN teacher having served the network for more than two decades (till 2023)
Freda certified as a Certifying Coordinator for The International Focusing Institute TIFI in 2013, in 2020 she certified as TIFI Focusing Oriented Therapist
To complete her FN training, Freda took international classes: Integrative Focusing with René Maas (1997), Wholebody Heartfelt Conversation (Kevin McEvenue) with Katrijn van Look and Lara Peumans (2015), Dynamic Expressive Focusing/Being Seriouosly Playful with René Veugelers (2019) and Focusing-Oriented Relational Psychotherapy with Lynn Preston (2023)
Additional training programs in 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) took Freda's Focusing teachings to new levels
Expertise In Therapeutic Arts
Freda certified as Guided Drawing® Practitioner (Certified GDP®) with the Institute for Sensorimotor Art Therapy and School for Initiatic Art Therapy, Apollo Bay/AU in 2019
Since 2020 she attended numerous international conferences and programs in Continuing Education that guarantee excellency of her professional skills as Art Therapist and Creative Arts Psychotherapist/Counselor
Themes Freda dived in since then:
- Arts in Times of Crisis, Conflict and Displacement
- Artful Practices for Well-Being
- Trauma and Creative Arts in Therapy
- Interactive Strategies for Engaging with the Arts
- Arts and Mindfulness
- Arts for Psychotherapists
- Creativity as a Therapeutic Technique for Working with Rejection and Shame
- Trauma Informed Practices in Expressive Arts
- Restorative Practices Grounded in Modern Neuroscience