Elfie Hinterkopf

Elfie Hinterkopf was born in Chicago on 10 January 1944 and lived until 21 January 2026, when she died in Austin, Texas.

She was the daughter of German immigrants, Heinrich Hinterkopf and Maria Siegel Hinterkopf. She spoke German and English as a child in Illinois and Wisconsin. Elfie spent her high school junior year in a Swiss boarding school. Elfie was a strong and competitive athlete as a skier, hiker and swimmer. She skied the slalom competitively, hiked across Nepal, the Appalachian Trail and in the canyons of Central Texas. She swam frequently in Barton Springs and Lake Travis. When she met her fiancé, later husband, they walked around Austin's Town Lake every Saturday for many years.

Elfie lived life fully with a great love for her family and friends. She is survived by husband of 25 years Stephen P. Biles, his daughter Sarah B. Hansen, their grandson Erik R. Hansen; brother J. Peter Hinterkopf and his wife Marilyn S. Hinterkopf; sister-in-law Nita B. Rhodes; brother-in-law David L. Biles and his wife Dianne F. Biles; many nieces and nephews; and cousins in the United States and Austria, France, Germany, and Switzerland. Elfie maintained lifelong friendships with several high school and university classmates, Peace Corps volunteers, therapist colleagues and fellow Austinites.

Elfie had a lifelong passion for learning with a deep curiosity about various topics and disciplines. She loved many genres of music including monastic chants, Bach, Mozart, Wagner, Shankar, Hancock and Coltrane. She played the piano, flute, sitar and tabla. Elfie studied German and French at Colby College in Maine. In her junior year at the University of Vienna she studied with Viktor Frankl. After graduation Elfie lived briefly in a kibbutz and served two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Indore, India where she taught reproductive health care in Hindi to women in the surrounding villages. Upon return to the United States, Elfie earned an M.A. at Indiana University in anthropology after studying with the Havasupai, Hopi, and San Carlos Apache in Arizona. She continued to "search for meaning," as Frankl had said, when she met Eugene Gendlin at the University of Chicago and studied Focusing, an approach to counseling psychology. Elfie completed a doctorate in counseling psychology at Union Institute and University. Part of Elfie's studies included research in mental health. She directed National Institute of Mental Health research grants. She then taught as an assistant professor at Governors State University in Illinois.

Elfie was a founding member of Changes in Chicago which evolved to become the International Focusing Institute, now based in New York. In the early 1980s Elfie moved to Austin, Texas and began private psychotherapy practice and continued researching and writing academic articles. In 1998, the American Counseling Association published her most comprehensive work, Integrating Spirituality in Counseling, A Manual for Using the Experiential Focusing Method. The book was translated into several languages and is still in print.

Elfie taught Focusing in English and German as a lecturer and workshop director to counselors, therapists, Christian clergy and Buddhist nuns in the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Japan and Taiwan.

Throughout her experience, Elfie saw God's presence demonstrated in many ways among a great variety of people. She was a Christian who saw God in many people. Elfie was a member of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas. She grew spiritually from attending Holy Eucharist at noon on Wednesdays.

A memorial service will be held Monday, 9 February 2026 at 2:30 p.m. at St. Matthews Episcopal Church at 8134 Mesa Drive in Austin, Texas.