12th Nov 2025
How Do Expressive-Creative Arts in Focusing Promote Experiencing Ubuntu and Relational Empathy? A Review of the Tübingen FOUR Project
This paper reviews how Expressive-Creative Arts in Focusing (ECAF) promote mutual support within a Community Wellness Focusing group, enabling participants to experience the Pan-African concept of Ubuntu and the Western paradigm of Relational Empathy first-hand. Based on the Tübingen FOUR Project (Focusing-Oriented Ubuntu Repair) and years of experience of working with the Ubuntu concept in Focusing contexts, the paper examines how ECAF can encourage self-exploration and a sense of connectedness within a group.
FOUR workshops were first presented at the 2013 International TIFI Focusing Conference in Switzerland and at the 2014 Focusing Fair organised by the European Focusing Association in Germany. A poster session was also presented at the 2016 International TIFI Focusing Conference in the UK.
The paper is accessible on the TIFI Community-Wellness-Peace-Justice Discussion List (https://lists.focusinglists.org/listinfo.cgi/community-wellness-peace-justice-focusinglists.org), and is therefore written in US English
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