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Article Excerpt
The author explores Focusing (E. Gendlin, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1967, 1968, 1981, 1989, 1996, 2004) as a psychotherapeutic modality and presents background that led to the development of Focusing, its rationale and theoretical orientation, and supporting research. The author also provides a detailed and experiential illustration of the methodology. Finally, counselor implications, limitations, and areas of further research are discussed.
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Focusing (Gendlin, 1981) turns therapy inside out--questioning the intent of therapy, the authority and purpose of the therapist, and the perception of "problems" themselves. Focusing is based on the experience of a person-and thus depathologizes conflict. Instead, it defines pathology as blocked process and thus offers a powerful method for accessing inner experiences of conflict and facilitating their movement toward change. As a therapeutic modality, Focusing helps to develop and make deliberate an underused potential. It enhances what all people do naturally--although mostly unconsciously or with varying degrees of awareness--that is, turn attention inside with the intent to understand and express what initially boggles or disturbs them. Through this practice, individuals can gain a sense of relief, along with internal sources of information that open up pathways toward tangible change and beneficial outcomes.
Focusing is a psychotherapeutic approach originated by Eugene Gendlin and his colleagues from the University of Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s. Focusing has since grown from a self-help technique to an established training program, offering individuals and therapists a broad-spectrum method to deepen experience and facilitate somatic shifts that enable emotional, cognitive, and behavioral changes. This article explores the development and rationale of Gendlin's (1959, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1967, 1968, 1981, 1989, 1996, 2004) Focusing. The article presents research demonstrating the usefulness of Focusing as a psychotherapeutic modality with a wide range of client populations and areas of concern. This article also takes the reader through detailed steps of application, providing an experiential explanation of the methodology as well as a discussion of the implications for counselors and areas for future research.
BACKGROUND AND DEVELOPMENT
When a client changes, what is it that is really happening? Regardless of paradigm, technique, or therapeutic style, Gendlin found that the fundamental process of change lies within the client. Focusing-oriented experiential therapy grew out of Gendlin's collaboration with Carl Rogers, the founder of client-centered psychotherapy, and is historically rooted in the traditions of humanistic and experiential psychology (Bohart, 2003; Rogers, 1957, 1961). In the 1950s, Rogers identified unconditional positive regard, empathy, and congruence as therapeutic attitudes central to the process of change. Gendlin deepened and elaborated the approach of person-centered therapy by studying and measuring the qualities of client involvement indicative of movement and change.
Gendlin (1981, 1989) found that clients with successful therapeutic experiences show an increasing ability to refer to bodily felt experience, which could be detected early in the counseling process and which predicted outcome. Those clients without this ability did not necessarily learn on their own and had poorer outcome. Gendlin also found that not only is each person's experience unique but that the way of getting to that experience is just as important as what is found. He became interested in the intricacy of internal processes, discovering that people's experiences require "more specificity and precision than logic permits" (Gendlin, 1989, p. 406). In other words, Gendlin amplified what it means to be client centered. He proposed that therapeutic effectiveness improves with an increase in the ability to interact with "demandingly precise feedback" (Gendlin, 1989, p. 410)--a keen awareness of what is occurring in the moment. Hendricks (2001), director of the Focusing Institute, explained "the small steps of change that emerge directly from the client's felt sense of a problem are more creative and exact than we [as therapists] can generate" (p. 20). Progress occurs not because it is linear and logical but because of the intelligent and responsive navigation of one's unique experiential map.
To give a practical example of how Focusing (Gendlin, 1981) occurs in an everyday way,
imagine you have that funny feeling that you have forgotten something, a kind of inner discomfort or conflictual feeling inside yourself that just won't go away. You scrunch up your face, bring your hand to your head, searching around inside of yourself. Not this, not that ... and then, suddenly, "oh yes, it's that!" Ah ha--you and that feeling have made contact. You are left with a sense of resolution for now understanding (i.e., being able to communicate) something that had been disturbing and unknown before.
Focusing is an elaboration on this very process and the many forms that the process takes. Focusing assists clients in approaching conflict (whether defined as individual, relationship, social, health, and so on) with an attitude of curiosity and openness, entering into the unknown and allowing vague sensations and emotions to take form and express themselves verbally--in a way that gives a persona felt sense of meaning, promotes health, and enhances well-being. Out of the clients' experiences emerge body confirmation, unique understandings of their own stories, and movements of change.
SUPPORTING RESEARCH
The approach of Focusing has developed out of and is substantiated by extensive research (Gendlin, 1959, 1962, 1964, 1967, 1968, 1981, 1996; Gendlin, Jenney, & Shlein, 1960). More than 75 studies have found that clients' level of Focusing is correlated with therapy outcome: Clients change and grow when they are able to actively refer inwardly to their experiences and feelings and then articulate those experiences in words (see Hendricks, 2001, for a thorough table of studies and outcome measures). Strong, repeated findings demonstrate that this correlation holds across cultures, therapeutic orientations, different patient populations, and different modalities of outcome measures.
A wide range of studies demonstrate the effectiveness of Focusing with diverse presenting problems and client populations, including its effectiveness with psychosis (Hinterkopf & Brunswick, 1975, 1979, 1981), depression (Elliott et al., 1990; Greenberg & Watson, 1998), addiction to heroin (Hauser, 2001), prison inmates (Goldman & Greenberg, 1997; Wolfus & Bierman, 1996), and other health-related issues (Holstein & Flaxman, 1997; Katonah, 1999; Shiraiwa, 1999), to name only a few examples (Greenberg, Elliott, & Lietaer, 1994). Furthermore, studies support the effectiveness of Focusing with clients from a broad age range. For example, a long-term study with older clients found that experiencing levels predict longevity (Gendlin, 1981). McDonald (1987) taught Focusing to troubled inner-city adolescents, resulting in evidence that suggests a positive impact on both academic and therapeutic achievement. Finally, Santen (1988, 1990, 1999) found that Focusing enhanced his work with children and adolescents, including youth suffering from early trauma, anger, and fear, as well as young people diagnosed with borderline disorder. For detailed examples of case studies, refer to Gendlin (1981), Hendricks (2001),...
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