2020-10-26 Gendlin Focusing - 6 Step process # 1. Clearing A Space Take a moment to set aside any immediate problems or concerns and make some mental space for yourself. Be silent, just to yourself. Now, pay attention inwardly, in your body, perhaps in your stomach or chest. Invite what wants your attention to come forward. This could be positive or negative sensations, feelings, emotions, thoughts, or images - just see what comes up in your mind and body. See what comes *there* when you ask, How is my life going? What is the main thing for me right now? Sense within your body. Let the answers come slowly from this sensing. When some concern comes, DO NOT GO INSIDE IT. Stand back, and say, "Yes, that’s there. I can feel that, there." Let there be a little space between you and that. Then ask what else you feel. Wait again, and sense. Usually there are several things. # 2. Felt Sense From among what came, select one personal problem to focus on. This might be the thing that feels the biggest, or the most important, or that wants your attention most. Or you might select arbitrarily, or for reasons you don't understand. Just select one thing from among what came. Again, DO NOT GO INSIDE IT. Stand back from it. Of course, there are many parts to that one thing you are thinking about — too many to think of each one alone. But you can *feel* all of these things together. Pay attention there where you usually feel things, and in there you can get a sense of what *all of the problem* feels like. Let yourself feel the unclear sense of *all of that*, all at once. # 3. Handle What is the quality of this unclear felt sense? Let a word, a phrase, or an image come up from the felt sense itself. It might be a quality-word, like *tight, sticky, scary, stuck, heavy, jumpy* or a phrase, or an image. Stay with the quality of the felt sense, trying on words and images that arise, until something fits it just right. # 4. Resonating Go back and forth between the felt sense and the word (or phrase, or image). Check how they resonate with each other. See if there is a little bodily signal that lets you know there is a fit. To do it, you have to have the felt sense there again, as well as the word. Let the felt sense change, if it does, and also let the word or image change, until they feel just right in capturing the quality of the felt sense. # 5. Asking Now gently ask: What is this whole thing about? What is it about this thing that makes it have this quality (which you have just named or pictured)? Make sure the quality is sensed again, freshly, vividly (not just remembered from before). When it is here again, tap it, touch it, be with it, asking, What makes the whole problem so [word or image]? Or you can ask, What is in *this* sense? If you get a quick answer without a shift in the felt sense, just let that kind of answer go by. Return your attention to your body and freshly find the felt sense again. Then ask it again. Be with the felt sense until something comes along with a shift, a slight "give" or release. # 6. Receiving Receive whatever comes with a shift in a friendly way. Stay with it a while, even if it is only a slight release. Whatever comes, this is only one shift; there will be others. You will probably continue after a little while, but stay here for a few moments. --- If while following these steps you have spent a little while sensing and touching an unclear holistic body sense of this problem, then you have Focused. It doesn't matter whether the body-shift came or not. It comes on its own. We do not control that. --- Give a short summary of the 6-step process that can be used to refresh a practitioner and a guide as they begin a session. > [!ai]+ AI > > 1. Clearing A Space: Create a quiet space for yourself and pay attention to the feelings or thoughts inside you. Acknowledge them but do not delve into them. > 2. Felt Sense: Select one personal issue to focus on. Try to feel the entire problem together as a whole, again without trying to dissect it. > 3. Handle: Identify the quality of the felt sense and let an appropriate word or phrase emerge naturally that captures this quality. > 4. Resonating: Go back and forth between the felt sense and your chosen word/phrase/image, adjusting either until they resonate well with each other. > 5. Asking: Ask yourself what this issue is really about, what gives it its particular quality. Discard any answers that come too quickly without a shift in the felt sense; patiently wait for a response that comes with a 'give' or release. > 6. Receiving: Welcome any shifts in your felt sense in a friendly manner; stay present with these shifts, acknowledging that they are just one part of the process. > Remember, successful Gendlin Focusing is about sensing and touching an unclear holistic body sense of the problem rather than controlling or forcing any shift in it. ![[2b1b Complete Focusing Instructions (1).pdf]]