Focusing
What is “Focusing”?
I have devoted this page to Focusing because no matter what approach I’m using in my work I am always using Focusing in some way. Focusing is a mind-body practice of bringing a welcoming, allowing attitude towards one’s felt sense of an experience or situation. In 2005, I stumbled upon a continuing education class titled, Getting Unstuck. It introduced me to Focusing, Inner Relationship Focusing to be specific. From that point on I took several courses and also became a Certified Focusing Teacher. I taught several friends and therapists locally for a couple of years and then concentrated my teaching efforts with Focusing Resources in California (through online platforms).
Origins of Focusing
In the late 1950s, Eugene Gendlin, PhD, A philosopher who taught at the University of Chicago wanted to know what made some people more successful in psychotherapy than others. He studied thousands of recorded sessions. Gendlin found he could predict within the first two sessions who would be more successful in therapy: people who slowed down when they talked, people who actually became less articulate and began groping for words to describe something they were feeling. He found it was a very natural process and some thing he wanted to teach everybody. Gendlin developed steps people could learn on their own or in partnerships. I learned from one of his first students, Ann Weiser Cornell. His work inspired Peter Levine somatic experiencing, and Ron Kurtz, Hakomi Therapy, which led to sensorimotor psychotherapy. In 2016 Eugene Gendlin was awarded the lifetime achievement award from the United States Association for body psychotherapy.
Some Benefits of Focusing:
Coping with emotional and mental overwhelm
Reducing fatigue, getting unstuck
Having a good relationship with yourself and others
Making decisions
Changing old ineffective patterns or habits
Transforming negative self talk
Tapping into inner wisdom and creativity
“Because of the effects of my own IRF practice, my clients are now sitting with a therapist who has a more integrated brain; one whose emotional, mental and physiological regulating systems are working better and better all the time. Professionally, I listen better, conceptualize a client’s needs faster and respond to transference and counter transference issues with faster recognition, more ease, and clarity.”