From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Focusing is a psychotherapeutic process or technique developed by psychotherapist and philosopher Eugene Gendlin after 15 years of research, beginning in 1953 at the University of Chicago, analyzing what made psychotherapy either successful or unsuccessful. The conclusion was that it is not the therapist's technique that determines the success of psychotherapy, but rather the way the patient behaves, and what the patient does inside during the therapy sessions.

Gendlin found that, without exception, successful patients intuitively focuses inside themselves on a very subtle and vague internal bodily awareness — or "felt sense" — which contains information that, if attended to or focused on, holds the key to the resolution of the problems the patient is experiencing.

"Focusing" as a process and learnable skill developed when Gendlin determined to observe this successful-patient behavior more closely, and then teach it to other patients — that is, when he determined to be able to teach it to anyone. The simple, learnable technique/process is detailed in Focusing, a small book, written in conversational terms and meant for the layperson, which describes the six steps of focusing and how to do them.

One can learn the focusing technique from the Focusing book or from a focusing trainer or practitioner. Focusing is easiest to sense and do in the presence of a "listener" — either a focusing trainer, a therapist, or a layperson trained in Focusing.

Focusing is now practiced all over the world by thousands of people (who need have no professional training in psychology or psychotherapy) — both in professional settings with focusing trainers, and informally between laypeople. As a stand-alone process, a focusing session can last from approximately 30 minutes to an hour, on average — with the "focuser" being listened to, and his verbalized thoughts and feelings being reflected back, by the "listener." Generally speaking, the focuser has their eyes closed, in order to more accurately focus inwardly on their "felt sense."

There is also now a developing school of Focusing-oriented psychotherapy. The Focusing-oriented psychotherapist, among other things, attributes a central importance to, for instance, the client's capacity to be aware of their "felt sense," and the meaning behind their words or images. The client's ability to sense into feelings and meanings which are not yet formed is also important. Other elements of Focusing are also incorporated into the therapy practice, so that focusing remains the basis of the process — allowing for inner resonance and verification of ideas and feelings, and allowing new and fresh insights to come from within the client.

• E. T. Gendlin. Focusing. Second edition, Bantam Books, 1982. ISBN 0-553-27833-9.
• John J. Shea. Religious Experiencing: William James and Eugene Gendlin. Rowman and Littlefield, 1987. ISBN 0-8191-6136-5.
• E. T. Gendlin. Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy: A Manual of the Experiential Method. Guilford Publications, 1996. ISBN 0-89862-479-7.
• E. T. Gendlin. What happens when Wittgenstein asks “What happens when...?”. The Philosophical Forum Volume XXVIII. No. 3, 1997.
• E. T. Gendlin. A Process model. Unpublished manuscript, 1997.
• Ann Weiser Cornell. The Power of Focusing New Harbinger Publications, 1996.
• Helene Brenner: I know I'm in there somewhere. Gotham Books; Reprint edition (May 2004)ISBN 1-59240-060-4

• The Focusing Institute
• Directory of Focusing Trainers using Inner Relationship Focusing