SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF EMOTION FOCUSED THERAPY
www.EFTSoCal.com

Focusing is a fundamental human skill to connect with ones inner life and to acknowledge, understand, and trust it. It is a process of inner awareness, accessing bodily felt experiences as a source of knowledge about oneself in this world.

In the 1970s, Eugene Gendlin, the founder of focusing, started investigating what clients and therapist do that made therapy successful. By analyzing countless therapist-client sessions, they discovered it is not the therapists’ techniques, nor what the client talks about, it was the way clients talk that made the difference. It was clearly something about what these clients do inside of themselves: they slow down while speaking and seem to turn more inward, sort of searching and checking inside. Gendlin called this process Focusing: attention turned inwards, consulting the wisdom of the body, ‘the bodies take on it all’.

Focusing is an experiential, embodied and evidence-based practice. It’s called Focusing because it requires a special kind of focus to notice inside what is implicitly felt, not yet clear, fuzzy and vague. This fuzzy dimension of experience Gendlin called the “Felt Sense";. This vague bodily Felt Sense is that promising ‘something’ inside us, we want to focus on and start a dialogue with. This can lead to an amazing experience, a bodily felt shift, providing you with a fresh and new perspective. A deep knowing of what it is all about and what you need.

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In EFT Focusing is one of the important tasks. It is also used a lot in emotional deepening and as a mini task, getting in touch with what is happening inside. Focusing can be used for and by everybody, in daily life and in therapy for a wide range of issues. Focusing is a wonderful technique/process on its own. Gendlin also developed the Focusing Oriented Psychotherapy- an experiential treatment model that deliberately works with focusing and the implicit wisdom of the body. 

This four half-day masterclass on Focusing is an introduction to the theory and practice of Focusing. The classic six steps defined by Eugene Gendlin in his 1978 book Focusing are offered here as a starting point for understanding and learning the process. As you grow in your practice and experience you will move beyond these steps to allow a more fluid process.

The format of the masterclass will be a mixture of brief lectures, videos and demonstrations, experiential practice exercises in small groups, and discussion. We will start with ‘clearing a space’ (step one) and the focusing attitude, such as being present, being curious and open, listening patiently gently and acceptingly (day1). Then we will learn to invite and contact the Felt Sense (step two), followed by learning how to resonate and find a handle/symbol -step three- (day 2). The is followed by next steps ‘asking’ (step five) and receiving (step six) (day 3).
Finally on day 4 we will practice Focusing as a more fluid process, guided by the steps but following and trusting the process (day four).

Schedule:

Day 1

- Theory Focusing in general
- Practice: clearing a space, install presence and the focusing attitude (step1)

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Day 2

- What is a Felt Sense and how to invite and contact the Felt Sense. (step2)
- What is resonating (step 4) and how to resonate between the felt sense and the symbol/handle (step 3)

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Day 3

- Unfoldfing of the Felt Sense: ‘asking’ (step 5) and receiving (step 6).
- Making sense: connecting to the narrative and allowing the moving forward energy

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Day 4

- Theory on how and when to use focusing in therapy
- Obstacles , do and don’ts in Focusing
- Practicing Focusing as a more fluid process- integrating the steps and following the process.