Dr. Gendlin will work with volunteers from the audience to show how to find “Focusing.” The physically felt body sense ofa problem is at first unclear and gradually opens and becomes clear. There will be discussion and demonstrations to show how Focusing is used in the context of psychotherapy.
In this experiential workshop, volunteers will be asked to describe a dream in detail and then to work on it with Dr. Gendlin. It is not necessary to tell everything; private space and silent meditation are essential. The use of Focusing will be demonstrated.
Educational Objectives:
To describe the use of focusing within a therapy hour, within relating and listening, and to describe when and how one would use it.
To describe how a step from focusing is likely to differ recognizably from other therapy events.
Focusing is bodily attention, not to mere sensations but to an at first unclear, implicitly complex bodily sense-of a situation, problem, or aspect of life. Therapy deepens immediately with many clients if asked what physical sense comes in the middle of the body in relation to what is being worked on. With half a minute of repeated direct attention, clients can assign a "quality-word," e.g., "heavy," "fluttery," or "tight." Then small steps come to say the crux of the problem. Each brings a slight (later large) "shift" and release, a direct sense of validity, although further steps may again change the whole problem.
This experiential workshop will begin with a guided silent meditation. Gendlin will work with volunteers from the audience to show how to find "Focusing." The physically felt body sense of a problem is at first unclear and gradually opens and becomes clear. There will be discussion and demonstrations to show how Focusing is used in the context of psychotherapy.
In this experiential workshop, volunteers will be asked to describe a dream in detail and then work on it with Dr. Gendlin. It is not necessary to tell everything; private space and silent meditation are essential. The use of Focusing will be demonstrated.
Eugene Gendlin (2000) demonstrates with two volunteers. The first is guided through feelings of tension in her shoulders and shakiness in her stomach. Gendlin conducts a second demonstration. The next volunteer presents the trauma of a hysterectomy due to cancer. Gendlin concludes with an explanation of his method.