COMPLETE FOCUSING SESSION: Instant 'Ahah!' #1

Founder of a popular self-actualization technique called Focusing, Gendlin has had an enthusiastic reception among North American Bud-dhists. Gendlin’s Buddhist students find Focusing to be compatible with meditation and use it to complement traditional contemplative practices. (For instructions on Focusing, see page 51). RULES FOR RESPONSES Felt Meaning Personal problems and difficulties in living are never just cognitive, never only a question of how something is interpreted or understood. There is always an affective, emotional, felt, concrete, experiential difficulty. The individual's thoughts and interpretations flow from, and are. Read PDF Focusing Eugene T Gendlin FOCUSING with Eugene T. Focusing Eugene T. They include Experiencing and the Creation of Meaning, (in paperback) and Language Beyond Post-Modernism: Saying and Thinking In Gendlin's Philosophy (edited by David Levin), both from Northwestern University Press, l997 and A Process Model.

INSTANT 'AHAH!' 1

Focusing: Find Out What Is Bothering You

© Dr. Kathy McGuire, Ph.D., 2007

Creative Edge Focusing

www.cefocusing.com

Focusing On the Creative Edge

Intuitive Focusing is one-half of the two Core Skills basic to Creative Edge Focusing. Intuitive Focusing can be used any time to find out what is bothering you. Intuitive Focusing involves spending time with the vague, wordless 'intuitive sense' that there is something --- something you can't quite put your finger on or put into words --- but something definitely determining your behavior or how you feel or the inkling of an idea or solution ---

Intuitive Focusing can be used not just for personal problem-solving but for sitting with The Creative Edge of anything: a piece of creative art or writing, an exciting professional problem to solve, a good feeling that has a spiritual edge ---

The Crux of Change

In the 1960's research showed that the single most important variable predicting success in psychotherapy was, not what the therapist was doing, but the client's own ability to speak from present, felt experiencing rather than intellectualization. Dr. Eugene Gendlin of the University of Chicago decided we'd better learn how to teach that skill to people. He called it Focusing and broke it down into six steps to teach it in a self-help way. His book, Focusing (Bantam, 1981), has been translated into over 15 languages and is used throughout the world.

Description of Gendlin's Six Step Focusing Process

First, I will describe Gendlin'sprocess, then I will walk you through some actual instructions below. Here are Gendlin's six steps for use of this inner, meditation-like problem-solving process in a self-help way:

(1)Clearing a Space: setting aside the jumble of thoughts, opinions, and analysis we all carry in our minds, and making a clear, quiet space inside where something new can come.

(2)Getting a Felt Sense: asking an open-ended question like 'What is the feel of this whole thing (issue, situation, problem)?' and, instead of answering with one's already-known analysis, waiting silently as long as a minute for the subtle, intuitive, 'bodily feel' of 'the whole thing' to form.

(3)Finding a Handle: carefully looking for some words or an image that begin to capture the 'feel of the whole thing,' the Felt Sense, The Creative Edge: 'It's 'jumpy;' 'It's scared;' 'It's like the dew of a Spring morning;' 'It's like macaroni and cheese - comforting,' 'It's like jet propulsion! Something new that needs to spring forth!'

(4)Resonating and Checking: taking the Handle words or image and holding them against the Felt Sense, asking 'Is this right? Is it 'jumpy'?, etc. Finding new words or images if needed until there is a sense of 'fit': 'Yes, that's it. Jumpy.'

(5)Asking: asking open-ended questions (questions that don't have a 'Yes' or 'No' or otherwise fixedor 'closed' answer) like 'And what is so hard about that?' or 'And why does that have me stuck?' or 'What was so beautiful about that moment?' or 'And how does this apply to everything else?' and, again, instead of answering with already-known analysis, waiting silently for the whole-body-sense, the Felt Sense, to arise.

At each Asking, the Focuser also goes back to steps (2), (3) and (4) as necessary, waiting for the Felt Sense to form,finding Handle words, Resonating and Checking until there is a sense of 'fit': 'Yes, that's it.' This often physically-felt experience of tension release and easing in the body, this sense of having found the right words, is called a Felt Shift by Dr. Gendlin. Dr. McGuire calls it a Paradigm Shift It can be a small step of 'Yes, that's it' or a larger unfolding, a huge insight, with many pieces of the puzzle suddenly falling into place and a flow of new words and images and possible action steps. Sometimes there is also a flood of tears of acknowledgment and relief or the release of other pent-up emotions. This is an Instant 'Ahah!'.

(6)Receiving: at each new step, each Felt Shift,taking a moment to sit with the new 'intuitive feel,' simply acknowledging and appreciating your own inner knowing for this new insight. Then, you can start again at step (5), Asking another open-ended question, ('And what is so important about this?'; 'And why did that have me stuck?'; 'And where does my mother come into all of this?', etc.). And, again, step (2), waiting for the Felt Sense to form, step (3) finding a Handle, step (4) Resonating and Checking until there is a Felt Shift,a sense of 'That's it!', another Instant 'Ahah!'.

A First Attempt: Find Out What Is Bothering You

Set aside at least 30 minutes for this first attempt. Remember, Focusing is a skill usually taught in 10 two-hour classes or two weekend workshops ---so, if it doesn't work for you immediately, don't give up! Find a nearby teacher from the Focusing Institute Listings (www.focusing.org ) or arrange for phone sessions with Dr. McGuire or another Creative Edge Consultant at http://www.cefocusing.com/store/products.php?cat=8 .

But, some people are natural Focusers and just say, 'Oh, yes. I've been doing this all my life. Now, I can just do it better, more predictably, whenever I want. Give it a try:

(You can read these to yourself now or into a tape recorder for playback -- or purchaseComplete Focusing Instructions CD as part of our Self-Help Package at http://www.cefocusing.com/store/products.php?cat=7-- leave at least one minute of silence between each instruction)

Step One: Clearing A Space (Relaxation exercise in this case)

---Okay --- first, just get yourself comfortable --- feel the weight of your body on the chair --- loosen any clothing that is too tight ---

(one minute --- )

---Spend a moment just noticing your breathing --- don't try to change it --- just notice the breath going in --- and out ---

(one minute --- )

---Now, notice where you have tension in your body (pause) ---

(one minute --- )

---Now, imagine the tension as a stream of water, draining out of your body through your fingertips and feet (Pause) ---

(one minute --- )

---Let yourself travel inside of your body to a place of peace ---

(one minute --- )

Step Two: Getting A Felt Sense

---Now, bring to mind an incident or a situation that was troublesome for you this week (pause as long as necessary) --- Think about it or get a mental image of it ---

(one minute --- )

---Now, try to set aside all of your thoughts about the situation, and just try to bring back the feeling you had in that situation (pause) --- not words, but the 'intuitive feel' of yourself in that situation ---

(one minute)

Step Three: Finding A Handle

Eugene T Gendlin

---Now, carefully try to find words or an image for that feeling ---

(one minute)

Step Four: Resonating and Checking

---Go carefully back and forth between any words and the 'intuitive feel of the whole thing' until you find words or an image that are just right for it ---

(one minute --- )

Step Five: Asking

---Now, gently ask yourself, 'What is so hard about this situation for me?', and wait, at least a minute, to see what comes in your wordless intuition, your whole-body sense ---

(one minute)

---Again, carefully find words or an image that exactly fit that whole feeling --- going back and forth until the symbols are 'just right.'

(one minute --- )

---Now, imagine what the situation would be like if it were perfectly all right ---

(one minute --- )

---Now, ask yourself, 'What's in the way of that?' and, again, don't answer from your head, what you already know, but wait, as long as a minute, for something new to come in the center of your body, more like a wordless intuition or whole-body sense ---

(one minute --- )

---Again, carefully find words or an image for that, 'whatever is in the way' --- go back and forth until the symbols are 'just right.'

(one minute --- )

---Now, see if you can find some small step you might be able to take to move yourself in a positive direction --- again, don't answer from your head, the already known, but wait as much as a minute for the wordless, intuitive 'feel,' the bodily felt sense of an answer to arise ---

(one minute --- )

---Take a moment, again, to carefully find words or an image for this possible next step ---go back and forth until the symbols are 'just right.'

(one minute --- )

---Check with your 'intuitive feel,' 'Is this right? Is this really something I could try doing?' --- If your 'intuitive feel' says, 'Yes (some sense of release, relaxation), I could try that,' then you can stop here.

---If your 'felt sense'says 'No, I can't do that' or 'That won't work,' then ask yourself again, 'What small step in the positive direction would work?', again, waiting quietly, as much as a minute for an intuitive answer to arise, then making words or an image for it --- going back and forth until the symbols are 'just right.'

(one minute --- )

---Keep going back and forth between the 'intuitive feel' and possible words and images as long as you are comfortable, or until you experience 'Ahah! That's it!'.

(one minute or more --- )

Step Six: Receiving

---Whether a 'solution' has arisen or not, appreciate yourself and your body for taking time with this, trusting that pausing to take time is the important thing -- solutions can then arise later.

Focusing Eugene Gendlin Free Pdf

(one minute --- )

The crux of change is just spending quiet time paying attention to the 'intuitive feel.'If no clear next step arises, just remind yourself that at least you have gotten a clearer sense of the problem. Because you have spent quiet, Intuitive Focusing time with the 'feel' of 'the whole thing,' you have started a process of change. Something new may 'pop up' later, as you go about your day.

Focusing is a practice developed from the Philosophy of the Implicit. The International Focusing Institute – Building on the work of Eugene T. Gendlin since . Focusing has ratings and 72 reviews. Steve said: For those of us who have to tend to the effects of complex ptsd the most difficult challenge is to c. Focusing may refer to: Adjusting an optical system to minimize defocus aberration · Focusing (psychotherapy), a psychotherapeutic technique.

Often what is next for the body is not what would logically come next. Focusing was discovered through fifteen years of research at the University of Chicago. Ehgene will allow your understanding of thing bothering you to change, and possibly give you access to new ways of dealing with it. I have been able to do this f There are two skills that every self help book assumes you already have to some degree. Philosophy of the implicit, Focusing psychotherapyand thinking at the edge. Refresh and try again.

Focusing 3 9 Jan 21, Gendlin founded The Focusing Institute in now the International Focusing Institute to facilitate training and education in Focusing for academic and professional communities and to share the practice with the public.

Membership in the International Focusing Institute. He lived with his parents in the 9th district of Vienna, a very Jewish district at that time.

Gendlin was born in Vienna, Austria on December 25, Think of this as only the basics. The analysis isn’t effective before these steps. And the opportunity cost of trying this is low, because other self-help is worse. I would not recommend this for people desiring to be more mindful or focused as there are far better alternatives a While it is certainly good that psychology has learned about spirituality over the last decades, this book, however, is from and it shows. Most people find it easier to learn focusing through individual instruction than through simply reading about it.

Read our Strategic Plan.

An Introduction to Focusing: Six Steps

I thought it focusin about focusing as in single-tasking. Focusing is now a worldwide network Hendricks on the basis of Eugene Gendlin’s philosophy of the implicit[16] [17] is a way of developing one’s implicit knowing into an articulated theory.

What is the quality of this unclear felt sense? Retrieved 12 May Useful concepts derive from and are relative to this sense more than logical, intricate order, not the other way round. Humans feel this carrying forward both in the genndlin itself and in the feedback it generates: It includes the reasons of reason, as well as feelings, and much more.

Eugene Gendlin

Focusing is a very boring book with some very great information in it. There’s a touch of the old Zen problem to it, that you’re trying to describe a nonverbal thing in words. The core idea is not insane. Learn more about Focusing. He researched the question: If you’ve experienced focusing and you may very well genddlin not known its name and its power for personal transformation this book will be useful in deepening your work. I find it hard to think how to test this, actually. In any situation, your body is sending you information.

What is the main thing for me right now? It’s a quick read and lays out the 6 gednlin of focusing and while I often thought, “this is just woo-woo stuff” it would also often be followed by a “huh, that makes sense” thought.

Stay with the quality of the felt sense till something fits it just right. The emphasis 3 chapters here on helping others and not just yourself in sweet. Whatever comes, this is only one shift; there will be others. Anything you learn here can go well with anything else that you may find helpful. Therefore this knowledge, here, must arrange for itself to be superseded by you, as you sense for what feels sound, inside you.

Eugene Gendlin – Wikipedia

We are too skilled at deluding ourselves. Some parts of the book do feel quite dated; for example, he discusses how the place of women is shifting from housewife to something else, and he talks about “encounter” groups — both things that place it firmly in the s! The spontaneously creative person had learned to pay attention to at first vague impressions that open into new meaning. Gendlin is best known for Focusing and for Thinking at the Edgetwo procedures for thinking with more than patterns and concepts.

Anyway, let’s focus o on the content and listen some more to our bodies and peers. Jan 10, David J. Although these steps may provide a window into focusing, it is important to remember that they are not THE six steps. Still, every Focusing Trainer is deeply familiar with these six steps, and uses them as needed throughout a focusing session.

Everybody in the world should read this book and practice its easy, insightful discovery.

Focusing Eugene Gendlin Pdf Download

A positive, optimistic and curious book. The felt shift is essentially identical to the freeing insight of the creative process. The worldwide dissemination of Focusing has been facilitated by The International Focusing Institute [1].

Focusing Eugene Gendlin Techniques

One is that differences in therapy methods mean surprisingly little. Clinical formulation Clinical pluralism Common factors theory Discontinuation History Practitioner—scholar model. That’s what one expect from psychological self-help books, however somehow I’ve missed the energy and creativity and at the end I am a bit disappointed. In”gravity” was the pen’s desire to go to the center of the earth; in “gravity” was a force that acted at a distance according to mathematical laws; in the s “gravity” was an effect of curved space-time ; and today physicists theorize that “gravity” may be a force carried by subatomic particles called ” gravitons “.

Gendlin's Focusing

Since focusing is by nature about a non-verbal Focusing is a very boring book with some very great information in it.