Focusing

What is Focusing?

Focusing is a way of tapping into your vast emotional intelligence through the messages of your body. It teaches you to trust your own inner knowing instead of relying on other people’s opinions. Focusing, you return to a source of knowing that has always belonged to you. Focusing gives you direct access to your own inner compass, where you know the right direction for your life. Focusing works because life naturally wants to move forward and find new possibilities.

Where did Focusing come from?

Focusing was discovered in the late 1950s when Professor Eugene Gendlin of the University of Chicago researched the question: “Why is psychotherapy helpful for some people, but not others?” Gendlin and his colleagues studied recordings of hundreds of therapy sessions and made a fascinating and important discovery: successful therapy clients were able to do something more than worry about the future or react to the past. They could pause and pay attention to what was happening in the present moment, in their bodies, in response to the problem at hand. Sometimes in ways that words could not easily convey. Gendlin called this a “felt sense,” and developed the method he called “Focusing” so that anyone could learn this profound way of experiencing breakthroughs in whatever has been holding them back. Focusing allows you to get past what has been making you stuck, using the body-mind’s inherent ability to heal and live forward into new possibilities.

How is Focusing different from other transformational practices and methods?

1) It’s research based" - Focusing has been linked in over 50 research studies with positive outcomes in therapy. Typical outcomes from Focusing include greater emotional regulation, more satisfying relationships, and increased self acceptance. 2) Listening is the key. - In this noisy world where everything is constantly vying for attention, people learn to tune out to survive. Focusing helps you tune back into the most important thing – You! Not only do you become more attuned to yourself, but you get to work with someone who is right there with you deeply listening to your every word. 3) You’re the expert. - As the person doing Focusing, YOU are the expert. We believe that you know YOU the best. That’s why, with Focusing, you don’t need an expert. Many other methods require a practitioner to facilitate, but not Focusing! Focusing empowers YOU to make your own choices and get in touch with your own truth.

What are some of the benefits having a Focusing practice?

Focusing can be used to address a wide array of issues. It enables you to bypass intellectualizing a situation and go directly to where you have a deep body-knowing and internal wisdom about the situation. Our bodies are able to sum up a whole situation into a special kind of experience called a felt sense. The felt senses are fresh; they look ahead; they are focused on what’s needed. When you learn Focusing, you learn how to get felt senses, be with them, and listen. From there, your whole life can change.

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