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WHAT IS FOCUSING AND
FOCUSING-ORIENTED PSYCHOTHERAPY?
Focusing is an innovative technique
developed by Eugene Gendlin in the 1960’s. The
earliest origins of Focusing are found in Gendlin’s
collaborative relationship in the 1950’s with Carl
Rogers, the Founder of Client-Centered Psychotherapy.
By 1970 Gendlin was recognized by the American
Psychological Association as the Distinguished
Professional Psychologist of the Year for his contribution
to experiential psychotherapy.
Early on, Gendlin and his colleagues
studied why some clients succeeded in therapy and many
others did not. They found that improvement in
therapy had very little to do with a therapist’s
therapeutic orientation, specific techniques, or with the
type of problem being addressed. Instead, the
important element of positive change had to do with
"how" clients processed their experiences
internally.
With further study, Gendlin eventually
identified the specific internal activities that
facilitate successful problem resolution and positive
change. Gendlin also discovered that these internal
processing skills were teachable. Over many years,
Gendlin refined the specific instructions needed to teach
people to perform the crucial components of this natural,
effective method of internal processing. Because
this process allows one to bring an unclear, vague, inner
sense of a problem or situation into clearer focus,
Gendlin named it Focusing.
Focusing allows access to deeper levels of
awareness, wisdom, and self-guidance that reside inside
each of us. Through an easily learned, step-by step
process, Focusing teaches how to turn our attention inside
our bodies where we carry all our personal experiences,
memories, sensations, emotions and feelings. This place of
refined mind-body awareness contains an unlimited source
of knowledge that provides us with the capacity to solve
problems and achieve personal fulfillment. Simply
stated, Focusing allows us conscious access to that
which often remains unconscious or subconscious, due to
the fact that most people do not know how to access it.
Focusing principles and strategies have
been successfully incorporated into the counseling and
psychotherapy fields. Focusing-Oriented
Psychotherapy assists one in removing the judgments,
doubts, and fears that block one’s access to their
innate wisdom and self-understanding.
Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy comes out of the
client-centered tradition. Thus, Focusing therapists
can be expected to create a safe, supportive environment;
and to listen in a patient, nonjudgmental, refined manner
with deep respect for the competence and full potential of
each individual. The Focusing therapist’s expertise at
contacting their own inner senses and processes will
assist them in helping others find their own creative ways
of taping into deeper levels of awareness and wisdom, and
achieving greater happiness.
Jim Strohl 12/13/04
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"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye."
- Antoine del Saint Exupery
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