It is a technique which was first formulated by Philosopher and Psychologist Eugene Gendlin in the late 1950’s. As a Professor at Chicago University, he was researching why some people do better in therapy than others. He was working together with Carl Rogers who is known as the father of Person Centred Therapy. They discovered that those people who instinctively took the time to feel or sense into their body to find the description that fitted in that moment had longer lasting effects from Counselling & Psychotherapy. He chose the name ‘Focusing’ (with a capital F) – which sometimes complicates our explanation of it - as a metaphor to describe how things are brought into focus as we stay with them. The process can be described as: pausing and turning towards all that is arising. This can be on physical, mental and/or emotional level. We try to stay present with an attitude of curiosity and non judgement, at first this can feel counter intuitive as we might be more used to turning away from difficult feelings. As we practice this form of ‘just being’ we can cultivate a deeper, inner relationship with ourself. Focusing is not a stand-alone Psychotherapy modality, Gendlin said practice it anytime, use it in your own life and integrate it into any kind of therapy.

“Focusing deepens everything that we do, unless we don't do it” (Gendlin).

I practice focusing as an individual, with a partner & also during Counselling sessions with clients. You may notice that the key elements of Focusing are found in other modalities such as: Internal Family Systems, Somatic Experiencing, Emotional Freedom Technique EFT and many other body-oriented therapies.

How did I get into Focusing?

I came across Focusing kind of by accident about 25 years ago. I was having personal therapy and I found that the most effective sessions, which brought me inner peace and moved me forward on my healing journey were those where the therapist invited me to drop in to ‘how the body feels about all of that.’ Ten years later I realized how established Focusing was in the world, discovered a whole body of work begun by Gendlin and continued by Weiser Cornell. I unearthed an enormous international network of practitioners. I followed my basic skills training in the Netherlands, then completed my Professional training; Practitioner and Focusing Teacher Training in the UK.

How could Focusing benefit me?

“You’re doing that thing again Paula” say some of my clients when I invite them to “see how all of that feels in their body or to notice if there is a bodily response to that? My clients realise that although this invitation may bring up emotions, it re-veals something more than just the story.I would consider these to be Focusing moments within a Counselling session. Some clients specifically choose to have Counselling sessions with me because they really appreciate how Focusing works or have done some training.

What does the process entail?

I invite you to pause,

To drop into your feeling and notice any bodily sensations ..this might feel like a tightness in the throat or a churning belly…

Just stay with it, notice what else comes.

After a while; several minutes, I’d invite a rounding up and a closing process.

We don’t need to interpret, analyse or fix, as the process takes care of itself.

All of this can be learnt in the first level of my training.

You can make a start by downloading 4 Easy Steps to handling an emotion

How might I learn Focusing?

There are some great books to make a start with: The Way of Curiosity (Peter Gill) The Power of Focusing (Ann Weiser Cornell). After reading these, questions will come up, that’s a great time to sign up for a course. Focusing is an experiential process so a group setting works very well. We will start from the beginning and build understanding and inner listening skills. We’ll learn to recognize the felt sense and to welcome all that arises. We learn to Fo-cus with a partner and encourage people to continue exchanging sessions with a partner afterwards as there is power in this method of being witnessed.

Next Steps

• Book an Introductory call with Paula

• Join an Introductory session

• Sign up for the Level 1 training