Focusing Therapy


When life becomes all mixed and confused
And your thoughts are scattered and low
Refocus yourself and look inside
To the emotions that are charged below
Breathe deeply and slowly and calm down the mind
Let the body resonate with itself
Then ask what the sense of the problem is
That is slowly stealing your health
You are a vessel full of love and joy
And if this has diminished then why
Only in looking within yourself
Will you spirit begin to fly
By Peta Zafir
Peta Zafir

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Eugene Gendlin founded the Focusing Technique, this centres on the client focusing their attention inwardly to discover awareness & the meaning of what they have not yet been able to verbalize. It bridged the connection between psychology and philosophy & found that clients who focused internally are more likely to succeed in therapy.

Clients experience what Gendlin called ‘felt sense’ which refers to the physical sensation of unease, emptiness, tension, or heaviness, relating to a previous trauma. Focusing allows the client to detect, observe, & evaluate the felt sense, becoming aware of what they personally feel, thereby creating the ‘felt shift.’ This is when the client is able to name the issue & see clearly how it relates to a situation or problem in the person’s life, allowing the body to relax , & the person may feel relief, elation, energy, or gratitude.

The Focusing Techniques follows 6 steps:

  1. Clearing A Space – be silent, relax, & focus inwardly on your body, breathing & stomach. Ask ‘How is my life going?
    What is the main thing for me right now?’ DO NOT GO INSIDE IT just sense the feelings.
  2. Felt Sense – select 1 personal problem to focus on. DO NOT GO INSIDE IT. Stand back as there are many parts, many
    feelings, & get a sense of all of the problems. Let yourself feel the unclear sense of all of that.
  3. Handle – let a word, phrase, or image come up from the felt sense; possibly a word, like tight, sticky, scary, stuck,
    heavy, & jumpy or a phrase, or an image. Stay with the quality of the felt sense until it fits just right.
  4. Resonating – Go back & forth between the ‘felt sense’ & name a word, phrase, or image; do they resonate with each
    other, see if there is a body signal, that lets you know there is a fit.
  5. Asking – Now ask: what is it, about this whole problem that makes this word, phrase or image. Sense it again, sit with it,
    & ask, ‘What makes the whole problem?’ or ‘What is in this sense?’ Stay with the ‘felt sense’ until a shift, a slight “give”
    or release occurs.
  6. Receiving – Receive whatever comes with a shift, stay with it a while. Whatever comes, this is only one shift; there will
    be others.

Focusing, is a therapeutic treatment in which the therapist works to help the individual gain awareness into their bodily ‘felt sense,’ & helps people learn to direct their attention toward things they experience that are difficult to describe in a concrete way.

If you had a holistic body sense of a problem then you succeeded in Focusing. The body-shift will come on its own.

Remember this is one process & no formula fits every person. One must find one’s own path.

Clients are Our Focus and Your Health is our Concern
Peta Zafir (Owner and Head Therapist)