What is focusing?
"In harmony with your body, thoughts and feelings through focusing: Release blockages, make decisions, accept yourself".
We humans can talk about many things that we experience or understand. Sometimes, however, there are feelings or situations for which we don't have the right words, even though we somehow sense them. With focusing, we learn to access this inner knowledge and connect with it.
"FOCUSING is the time I spend with a sensed SOMETHING without yet knowing what it is." (Eugene Gendlin)
This encounter with oneself can be accompanied with curiosity, acceptance, mindfulness and patience. Through this process of "inner peace work", blockages can be released, decisions can be made and self-care and resilience can be increased.
Discovery - Development of Focusing
Why do some people benefit from psychotherapy and counseling, while others experience little or no positive change?
This question was central to the development of focusing. Eugene Gendlin (1926 - 2017) recognized after analysing many therapy processes from different schools and with patients in psychiatric clinics that neither the therapist's technique nor the client's treated issues are decisive for the success of the therapy. Instead, the decisive factor is how the client expresses themselves and how they relate to their own experience.
The key finding was that "more successful" clients are able to be in contact with their inner experience in a certain way. During mental and/or emotional processes, the body makes itself heard - initially in a vague way. A "queasy feeling" or "needing more air" or the feeling of a "constricted throat" may arise. These are examples of how words try to express something that is still not entirely clear. "Focusing", according to Gendlin, is the time we spend with a sensed something without yet knowing what it is. In focusing, we make contact with this pre-conceptual something, or, as Gendlin said, with the "not yet formed".
Gendlin first developed Focusing as a method for self-help with personal problems. He described focusing in 6 steps and advocated that everyone should be able to learn focusing without first having to learn a technical language.
About Florian Christensen
Focusing facilitator and focusing trainer
Certifying Coordinator TiFi; certifying lecturer at The International Focusing Institute New York, founder and owner of Focusing-Institut Winterthur. Seminar leader, lecturer, psychosocial counselor PCA/SGfB.
Born in Bremen in 1963, raised in Germany, South Africa and in Switzerland since 1971, I have lived in Winterthur since 1998. My son was born in 2000.
My childhood and youth were characterized by many moves that brought cultural and educational changes. As a result, I repeatedly had to say goodbye to familiar surroundings and start afresh.
As a teenager and young adult, I often felt disoriented, searching, but also convinced, curious and talented. After school, I went through various apprenticeships and worked in different commercial jobs until I realized that I wanted to do something more meaningful.
I switched to the social sector in 1987, where I looked after people with mental disabilities. Later, I supported drug users and AIDS patients, worked in personnel consulting, group management and division management in non-profit organizations (NPO). Since 2004 I have been working as a course leader, lecturer and coach, partly self-employed.
In 2012, I decided to move forward with my professional independence in order to take on more personal responsibility and focus more on my core task of working with people.
I enjoy reading clever books on beaches, practicing yoga and QiGong outdoors, going on trips with my family and socializing in the evenings.
An everyday example of focusing, by Florian Christensen, Focusing
A few years ago, I was invited to dinner by a friend who was curious as to what this focusing actually was. I promised to explain it to him after the meal. During the meal, he told me about his work situation: two months ago, he was lying awake in bed in the morning, feeling poorly and had little motivation to get up to go to work. One morning, while he was lying in bed with this unpleasant feeling, the thought occurred to him: "I don't enjoy my work anymore." This realization brought him relief. He realized that this was the core of the problem. That morning, he went to work feeling light and smiling inside. Over the next few days, he lay in bed again in the morning and thought about what could bring him joy in his work. He came to the conclusion that he wanted to spend more time with his colleagues and communicating at work. This realization felt right and made him feel positive and smile again.
I then said to him: "Before dinner, you asked what focusing is. You gave yourself the answer right away: this vague, indistinct feeling that you perceived until you realized that it was the feeling of meaninglessness at work. This clarity brought you relief and led you to ask yourself more questions about it and ultimately find answers that felt right to you."
This means that if you have mastered and can accompany the focusing steps, a client does not have to suffer such agony for months. It may be possible to get closer to a solution in just one or two sessions.
As Eugene Gendlin said: "The body knows what is contained in a problem. A problem is a whole. The head tends to compartmentalize everything." And further: "This is what we are really looking for: The energy and way of life that should have been there all along - not the causes of why it's blocked... The organism knows exactly how it should have been, and it can still fill it in the gap now."
Focusing seminars are regularly offered by Florian Christensen Focusing Institute Winterthur at Sunnehus in CH-Wildhaus. We cordially invite you to find out about the current dates and courses on offer in the Sunnehus calendar. Immerse yourself in the fascinating world of focusing and discover the possibilities for promoting mental and spiritual health.