Focusing: The Royal Road to the Self

The Royal Road to the Self

Focusing is a gentle but very powerful technique developed by Dr. Eugene Gendlin at the University of Chicago, based on research into how people change during psychotherapy. Focusing uses the body’s ‘felt sense’ of a situation or problem as a doorway to self-awareness, healing and creative problem solving. People become aware of their feelings and needs very directly, and often receive unexpected insights as they explore their bodily-felt awareness. Focusing can be used to reduce stress, make decisions, enhance creativity, and deepen intimacy with oneself and others. It leads to new understanding as well as greater ease and comfort in the body. It helps resolve conflicts and divisions inside oneself. In short, Focusing helps you connect with your real Self.

Benefits of Focusing:

Increased self-awareness and self-acceptance – a more intimate relationship with yourself and others.

Improved decision-making.

Stress relief through clear insight into the source of your stress.

Clearer understanding of the blocks that keep you from accomplishing goals.

Internal peace making – resolution of inner conflicts.

Self-empowerment through access to your inner wisdom.

What Happens During a Focusing Session?

You can do Focusing by yourself or with the help of somebody guiding you. Either way, you begin by paying attention inside your body … sensing a physical response, called a felt sense, about an issue or situation that concerns you. You learn to listen sensitively to this felt sense and to receive information and guidance from it. The felt sense is usually unclear at first, but several things happen as you continue Focusing: you get new information and insight, you make peace with troublesome issues and feelings, and your body feels better. You feel more comfortable and you begin to breathe more deeply. Colors and shapes may seem clearer and more vivid. People often feel they’ve been in a deeply meditative state when they finish a Focusing session. Focusing is definitely a whole-person, body-and-mind experience.

Much has been written about Focusing, but much reading won’t help you understand it if you haven’t experienced it for yourself. Focusing is something you get to know only by actually doing it, by tasting it in your own body. After you’ve experienced it, what you read will make much more sense. In fact, one of the main benefits of Focusing is that it moves you away from detached intellectual understanding into a deeper and more direct way of knowing things about your life.

Having said that, let me share with you some words written by Marilyn Ferguson in her introduction to Dr. Gendlin's book:

"Focusing is at once richly complex and surprisingly simple. It is mental and kinesthetic, mysterious in its capacity to summon buried wisdom, holistic in its respect for the felt sense of a problem. An effective method in itself, it is also valuable in conjunction with a variety of psychotherapies, with biofeedback, with meditation, to unblock the creative process and define problems."

Creating Intimacy

The word intimacy comes from a Latin root meaning "most within" or "inmost." Focusing teaches you to listen to what is "most within" yourself and others, sensitively and respectfully. This creates the conditions that lead to intimacy. Dr. Gendlin writes, "Most people live without expressing their inner richness. We find that if listening and if focusing are shared, people can come to know each other more deeply in a few hours than most do in years."

The experience of intimacy can be written about and described in words but, again, you ultimately need to experience it directly, inside yourself. Focusing teaches the specific skills we need to create truly intimate relationships.

Learning Focusing

Focusing is best learned from an experienced teacher. This learning can take place in a group or through individual sessions. For most people, telephone sessions are just as effective as face-to-face meetings.

The following organizations offer classes and educational materials to help you learn Focusing:

The Focusing Institute: The organization founded by Dr. Gendlin to continue Focusing research and provide Focusing training around the world. The Institute’s web site is rich in information about the history and philosophy of Focusing, and offers extensive resources for learning and practicing Focusing. www.focusing.org

Focusing Resources: This is the organization created by Ann Weiser Cornell, who has dedicated herself to teaching Focusing around the world and has developed a comprehensive set of books, tapes and workshops for learning Focusing. www.focusingresources.com

The Institute for Research in Biospirituality: Founded by Edwin McMahon Ph.D. and Peter Campbell Ph.D., two Catholic priests who teach Focusing as a spiritual practice – a way of opening ourselves to Grace. They offer workshops and a variety of inspiring books, pamphlets and tapes. www.focusing.org/biospirit

Here are the main books on Focusing:

Focusing, by Eugene Gendlin. (Bantam, 1982)

Bio-Spirituality: Focusing as a Way to Grow, by Peter Campbell and Edwin McMahon. (Loyola University Press, 1985)

The Power of Focusing, by Ann Weiser Cornell. (New Harbinger Publications, 1996)

The Focusing Institute’s web site at www.focusing.org lists many other books and articles about the applications of Focusing. Focusing has been applied in the areas of medicine, creativity, spirituality and education, among others.

Focusing By Yourself

Some people are natural Focusers, but most of us need some instruction in the beginning. We need to learn to find the places where our bodies are speaking to us, and learn to listen to their messages with sensitivity and respect. Books or articles usually aren’t enough; most people need an experienced teacher to guide them. The web sites listed above can help you find a teacher or a class, and Focusing can also be learned effectively by telephone (see below).

However ... if you’re eager to try Focusing and want to get started NOW, here is a basic outline you can use by yourself to help you learn this very simple yet powerful process:

I. Getting the ‘Felt Sense’

As you think about the situation, problem, question, or issue you’re dealing with, ask yourself:

"What do I sense in my body when I think about this?" OR...

"What do I feel in my body about this problem, situation, or question?

"What do I sense inside right now about this whole thing?

"Where do I feel this in my body?

Take enough time to find a word, phrase, or image that matches how it feels inside (tight, warm, heavy, jumpy, rough, expanded, like a knot, etc.) Check to see that this matches the felt sense as you actually feel it in your body. Make sure you take enough time to find the right word or image, and make sure it matches what you're feeling in your body.

II. Being Friendly with It

Now pay attention to this felt sense in an open-minded, non-judgmental, accepting way. Don’t criticize it, and don’t try to change it or ‘fix’ it. Be with it just as it is. Creating an attitude of acceptance toward the felt sense, letting it be, meeting it with ‘interested curiosity’ is a very important part of the Focusing process. Often this step of becoming friendly or accepting with something uncomfortable inside turns out to be the most important part of the process.

If you have trouble feeling acceptance toward your felt sense, try to feel your unwillingness, discomfort or resistance toward being friendly with the original felt sense ... then direct your Focusing to that. That is, focus on the felt sense of the resistance or unwillingness to accept what’s there.

III. Letting It Tell You Its Story

Here you start to find out what the felt sense is about, what meaning it contains. One way is by asking questions to the felt sense, then waiting for an answer that brings a shift or change in your body. Here are suggestions for questions ... and it’s OK to make up other ones (see Dr. Gendlin’s Focusing book); use whatever feels right. Focusing works in small steps ... keep asking and checking until the issue feels resolved in your body. That means you keep checking inside until you sense an easing or relief of tension in your body, or you feel that you’ve gone far enough for now.

Here are some questions you can use:

What does this (felt sense) need? What is it trying to tell me?

What is it about (the issue or situation) that gives me this _______ feeling?

What’s this feeling all about? What does it have to say? What does it want to do?

What needs to happen for this ________ feeling to feel OK?

Keep in Mind:

The "felt sense" is felt right now, in the body – it’s not an idea or a memory. A felt sense is not an emotion; it’s less clear and obvious, more subtle than an emotion. It’s felt in the body, but it's more than a physical sensation – it’s meaningful. It has a story to tell.

You’ll know you’re getting the story by the "felt shift" – a change or easing in the body that comes when your answer connects with the felt sense. If an answer sounds logical but doesn't bring any noticeable change in your body, keep asking and waiting for something to come that does bring a change you can feel.

Focusing takes time. It sometimes takes a while to connect with a felt sense, and then more time to get an answer. The felt sense sometimes shifts in small steps, bit by bit ... and you need to ask and check repeatedly until its meaning is fully clear. The mind wants to hurry ... be patient!

Focusing With a Guide:

If you want to make sure you’re doing it right and getting the full benefit of Focusing, or if you ran into problems while trying to do it on your own, you'll benefit from some guidance. An experienced guide can help you find a felt sense and stay with it long enough so that it can tell you its story and you can feel it shift inside. A guide can also help you protect a fragile, delicate inner message from critical or impatient voices in your mind that might drown it out.

Feel free to write to me -- Joseph Tein, M.A. -- if you have any questions or would like additional information about Focusing. My e-mail address is musicmaker@interisland.net

Focusing can be done very successfully and safely by telephone. To schedule a full session or a free demonstration, please call me at 1-360-378-8986 (in the United States) or send an e-mail to the address above.

I have been practicing and teaching Focusing since I attended my first Focusing workshop with Dr. Gendlin in 1983. I later studied and worked as an assistant with Fathers Edwin McMahon and Peter Campbell in their Focusing and Spirituality workshops. I have taught Focusing throughout the West Coast from Los Angeles to Seattle, as well as in Israel and Italy. (I'm currently living on San Juan Island in Washington.) I have a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology, and have worked in the counseling and human potential field for over 25 years. In addition to being a counselor and teacher, and an ongoing student of psychological and spiritual growth, I’m a musician and avid gardener.

Here are some comments from people with whom I have recently worked:

"I really loved doing the focusing." (L.L.)

"Thank you very much for our session today. It was very meaningful for me. I feel a deep calm and peace tonight." (M.P.)

"I feel like I will be using this technique for the rest of my life. I would like to master it and feel that ultimately this will be my most important source of info about what I am going through. Thank you for teaching it." (M.G.)

Coming soon: Focusing en Español

Last updated: April 16, 2004