Bio

© Gabriel Holom, press photo

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 course and work as a 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 Sculpture 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 of 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 completed a seven-year post-graduate program, and underwent two certification processes at the Person-Centered Institute AGB Berlin (depth-oriented, 1998) and the Person-Centered Institute IGB Stuttgart (behavioral-oriented, 2004). The program was conducted by 18 clinical teachers including Prof. Reinhard Tausch, the founder of the German Person-centered Psychotherapy approach

From 1994 to 2002 she was trained in Focusing by 14 German and Swiss Focusing pioneers and practitioners. Her Focusing training was supported by two previous basic trainings in body psychotherapy (Biosynthesis with David Boadella, Biodynamic with Gerda Boyesen), as well as by continuous practice of Sensual Awareness (Gindler-Goralewski)

 

After years of working in public health institutions (1989 to 1996), Freda brought her professional expertise into teaching (1994) and private practice (1996). In 2016 she founded 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)  

From 2022 to 2024 Freda was a guest lecturer for Focusing and the Expressive Arts at the Department of Clinical Curative Education of the Catholic University of Freiburg. Her current research is in experiential museum-art based art therapy for existential health (Master's thesis, Catholic University of Freiburg)

Expertise In Focusing

Freda began her Focusing career in 1994. She was certified as a Focusing Teacher with the German-Swiss Focusing Network FN in 2004, and has been a member of the FN leadership team since 2001. Freda is a Senior FN teacher, having served the network for more than two decades (untill 2023). Since 2019 she has been teaching with the German Focusing Association DFG

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

To complete her FN training, Freda took 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 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 teaching to new levels

Expertise In Therapeutic Arts

Freda earned a post-graduate Diploma of Advanced Studies (DAS) as an Art Therapist from the Catholic University of Freiburg in 2022 with registration with the German Association for Art Theray DFKGT. Her thesis 'The Experiential Third: Focusing Concepts for Art Therapy' was a pioneering academic work.

Freda has attended numerous international training programs, courses and conferences that guarantee the excellence of her professional skills as an art therapist and Creative Arts Psychotherapist/Counselor

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

Topics that Freda has immersed herself in since 2020:

  • 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 the Arts
  • 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 Care Pedagogy and Public Art Therapy
  • Museum-art based Practices for Well-Being
  • Arts and Mindfulness
  • The Virtual Art Therapy Studio
  • Eco-Art Therapy
  • Eco-Expressive Arts
  • The Expressive Therapies Continuum ETC
  • The Art Therapy Assessment ArTA
  • The Formal Element Art Therapy Scale
  • The Expressive Therapist Self-Inquiry (ETSI) for Self-Care
  • Arts-based Research in Expressive Arts

Standing On Many Shoulders

An expert in her field, Freda stands on many shoulders

Prof. Dr. Monika Wigger (GER), who encouraged Freda to take her art therapy thesis (The Experiential Third, 2022) to a next level of research and to enroll in a program for a MA in art therapy (2025)

Ani de La Prida (UK), Freda's teacher in Person-Centred Creative Arts, who modeled the therapeutic use of the arts in the most creative ways

Laury Rappaport PhD (US), Freda's teacher and supervisor in Focusing Oriented Expressive Arts FOAT® who introduced her to the Expressive Arts and supported Freda in developing her approach of Expressive Arts Focusing ExAF

René Veugelers (NL) who introduced Freda to Dynamic Expressive Focusing and modeled how authentic placfulness makes all the difference

Astrid Schilllings (GER), Freda's teacher of Focusing with the Whole Body who modeled how to open up opportunities to experience the body as the safest place

Prof.em. Mia Leijssen (BEL) who's program of Existenial Wellbeing Counseling shifted Freda's psychotherapeutic framework towards the existential approach 

Christiane Geiser (CH), Co-Founder of the Institut GFK (Person-centered Psychotherapy, Body Therapy, Focusing) and Freda's teacher, supervisor and mentor for Focusing Plus who taught Freda to be super precise in theory and practice and modeled how to work with stoppages and structure-boundness

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

Gabriele Hasler (GER), artist and art therapist, who pushed Freda to enroll in an academic art therapy program that changed her life

William Winkfield (US), artist and photographer based in Mexico, who encouraged Freda to return to art after decades of clinical work

FIND YOUR ARTIST VOICE. MAKE ART YOUR WAY