• What Is Focusing And Spiritually-Oriented Focusing?

    by James Strohl, Ed.D.

     

    Focusing is an innovative technique developed by Eugene Gendlin from extensive research into how we access our internal space to create experience and meaning. From this research Gendlin identified the elements that facilitate successful problem resolution and positive change in human beings and eventually developed a simple, yet profound, way of teaching these elements to others.

    Based on his work, Gendlin has become a world renowned existential philosopher and psychological theorist recognized by the American Psychological Association with several honors including the Distinguished Professional Psychologist of the Year for his contribution to experiential psychotherapy.

    Gendlin’s Focusing process guides us to create a safe, caring, supportive presence with our internal environment; and to listen to ourselves in a patient, nonjudgmental, receptive manner with deep respect for our competence and innate potential for positive change. Additionally, Focusing helps dissolve the internal obstructions of judgment, doubt, and fear that distort and block the natural healing processes that emanate from deep inside ourselves.

    When Focusing we turn our attention inside our bodies where all of our personal experiences, memories, sensations, beliefs, expectations, desires, and emotions are carried. We then use the Focusing process steps to bring an unclear, vague, sense of a problem or situation into clearer focus while, at the same time, introducing the elements that facilitate healing. In brief, Focusing allows us conscious access to that which often remains unconscious or subconscious, due to the fact that most people do not know how to access it.

    SPIRITUAL IMPLICATIONS

    Focusing has profound spiritual implications to complement its numerous psychological benefits. Focusing teaches how to access deeper levels of awareness, wisdom, and guidance that reside inside each of us. From a spiritual perspective this deeper, internal level can be viewed as our inner being or soul. It is a sacred place of unlimited knowledge, wholeness, and healing that provides endless support for our efforts to actualize our full potential, solve problems, and achieve personal fulfillment.

    Every one of us was born with the capacity to access and utilize these infinite resources available inside of us. We simply have become distracted and disengaged from our inner being and, with a bit of effort, we can relearn what we have forgotten and reconnect with this vital source of sustenance that is always there waiting for us. Through an easily learned, step-by step process, Focusing teaches how to access this place of unbounded healing and wholeness inside ourselves.

    Focusing is then a gentle, compassionate way of approaching a problem or situation with a special internal processing strategy that increases the chances of a positive outcome. Secondly, Focusing incorporates sophisticated means for helping us identify, honor, and express our personal realities and inner truths. Lastly, it provides a way to access and utilize our unlimited multidimensional resources by helping us bridge the gap between our outer personality and inner being.

    In summary, Focusing is an effective process for solving problems and creating positive change. However it is more than that. It can be accurately viewed as a method for reuniting and aligning with the most sacred aspects of our being in a way that enhances our efforts to utilize our full potential and achieve personal peace and fulfillment.

     

    * FOCUSING …..For more information about Focusing, please contact
    Dr. Strohl or visit the Focusing Institute website at www.focusing.org.

     

    Dr. James Strohl
    1250 Greenwood Drive
    Bethlehem, PA 18017
    610-861-7580 info@jamesstrohl.com