Date : 11 August 2026 (Tue)
Time : 3-4:30pm
Format : Face-to-face
Venue : Room 533, 5/F, The Jockey Club Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU
Registration : https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?guest=Y&ueid=108613

Abstract:
This seminar offers a rigorous academic examination of Focusing as a foundational psychological theory and practice, pioneered by Eugene Gendlin. Frequently mischaracterized as a simple method, Gendlin’s original formulation articulated a profound mode of experiential awareness and preconceptual processing where transformative change occurs. This pioneering work is critical to understanding how implicitly felt meanings (the “felt sense”) guide rational thought and facilitate therapeutic growth.

We are privileged to feature Prof. Akira Ikemi, Professor Emeritus of Kansai University, a distinguished scholar and clinical psychologist who personally studied under Gendlin. Prof. Ikemi will articulate his unique cross-cultural and synergistic crossing of Gendlin’s theory with the rich Asian philosophical and psychological construct of ‘Cocoro’ (心). Prof. Ikemi will demonstrate how a felt sense approach can facilitate listening to the implicit “whispers” for profound personal, cross-cultural, and psychotherapeutic insights.

About the speaker:
Prof. Akira Ikemi was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1957. Growing up bilingual (in English and Japanese) in the port city of Kobe, he became fascinated by how language affects feelings, thoughts, and even the body. He majored in psychology and minored in philosophy at Boston College, where he completed his undergraduate studies. At Boston College, one of his professors encouraged him to contact Prof. Eugene Gendlin at the University of Chicago to potentially pursue graduate studies. Prof. Gendlin invited Akira to a Focusing workshop in Chicago, where Akira was captivated by the gentle yet powerful listening that Prof. Gendlin demonstrated. Akira then went to the University of Chicago for his master’s degree, studying under Prof. Gendlin, with whom he developed a warm relationship.

Returning to Japan after his master’s degree, Akira worked in the psychosomatic unit of a municipal hospital and in a psychiatric outpatient clinic. He pursued his doctorate at the University of Occupational and Environmental Health in physiology where he studied the psychophysiology of states of consciousness. Akira’s research theme returned to the study of Focusing, particularly in the context of psychotherapy. His later writing centered primarily on the theory of ‘experiencing’, how humans have experience. He has taught full time at Okayama University, Kobe College, and Kansai University where he taught at the Faculty of Letters, the Graduate School of Clinical and Professional Psychology and the Faculty of Health and Well-Being. He retired from Kansai University in 2025 and is currently Professor Emeritus Kansai University.About the Moderator:

About the moderator:
Dr. Amos Cheung is a Certified Focusing Coordinator and Focusing Trainer with the International Focusing Institute, with expertise in Focusing training and Focusing Oriented Therapy. Dr. Amos Cheung is an Adjunct Assistant Professor, SWSA, HKU.  He is also an experienced Clinical Psychologist and the President of The Hong Kong Psychological Society.

Please contact Mr. Sam Lee at snslee@hku.hk for any enquiries