«Focusing», a technique for self-exploration and stress reduction

He focusing It is a very effective therapeutic tool where the person must become aware of what is happening in their body and then proceed to emotional healing. It would therefore be about learning to focus our gaze and our attention towards that “felt sensation” to relate much better to ourselves and thus face life’s problems.

We are aware that in terms of stress and anxiety management we have already read almost everything. We also understand that sometimes, there are those who, after having gone through therapy, who, after having tried various approaches, schools, and going through various offices, continue to have almost the same problems. Why do we sometimes feel that psychotherapy does not work for us?

This is what Eugene Gendlin asked himself in his day. For those who don’t find this name saying anything, it should be noted that this experiential philosopher, psychotherapist and colleague of Carl Rogers, asked himself the same question for a good part of his professional career. Thus, if there was something that characterized Dr. Gendlin, it was his determination, his curiosity, and his obsession with research.

It was throughout the 60s when after hundreds of analyzes and therapeutic sessions he realized one thing. There was a way, a powerful emotional resource that allowed him to successfully complete 95% of the interventions with his patients.. That technique, that therapeutic process that Dr. Eugene Gendlin developed is called focusing.

What this philosopher and therapist developed earned him the first prize as distinguished psychologist from the American Psychological Association (APA) and today, the technique of focusing It can be applied to any area of ​​our life: stress management, education, health, work, creativity…

What is the focusing?

To understand what is focusing We will start with a simple example. Let’s say that We get home at night and our partner asks us “how was your day?” We, as always, respond that “good, tired but good.” We may even tell them a story about a colleague or tell them what we have to do the next day.

However, Eugene Gendlin in his sessions invited patients to describe their “felt sensation“. This term may seem little more than a redundancy to us, but what he was really looking for was to explore that physical-emotional universe that went beyond words, beyond the story of “Today has been a normal day, I’m tired, but fine.”

And so If we focus our attention on our own body, we will most likely do another type of reading.: There is abdominal pain, tension in the stomach, we perceive stiffness in the neck, a racing heart and a pounding headache that extends only to half of the skull. All of these are felt emotions, clues that perhaps there is something in our lives that may not be going as well as we think.

He focusing It is above all one of the best-known body psychotherapies. It is also part of other types of approaches such as the characteroanalytic vegetotherapy of Wilhelm Reich or the bioenergetic analysis of Alexander Lowen.. They are psychological prisms that emerged at the time as a reaction to behaviorism or psychoanalysis, where interest is returned to the human experience, to sensations and not only to observable and measurable behavior.

He focusing It puts us in contact with our emotions and sensations through felt experience.At first, these physical processes may go unnoticed by us. However, when we delve deeper into the reason for that tension, that overload, that discomfort, an emotional quality emerges that needs to be translated into words. After accepting that emotional reality, that problem, we will then proceed to action, to a healthy behavioral change.

How does he help us? focusing to manage stress

If there is one thing we all know, it is that it is not easy to discourage stress or anxiety. Often, it is not enough for us to relax, it does not help much that the weekend arrives if the following Monday, we put on the same suit again, in the same heavy and rusty diving suit from which it is impossible to free ourselves.

He focusing It proposes that we begin a gradual detachment by attending to the “felt sensation”, but to do so we must do it in the appropriate way. These would be the recommended steps.

Keys to practice focusing

The first step of focusing It is putting into practice what is known as “clearing a space.” It consists of directing our attention towards each physical sensation. For example, if at work we are told that we must make a report, go to a certain place or communicate with someone, and what we immediately experience is stomach pain, let’s ask ourselves why this physical discomfort occurs.

The ideal is not to let one physical discomfort after another adhere to us.. He focusing It demands immediacy, it requires us to ask ourselves what is between us and that sensation, that feeling. It invites us to maintain a compassionate dialogue with ourselves. It is necessary that we ask ourselves kindly what is happening to us, what hurts us, what worries us. We must establish a relationship of trust with the body to listen to it, accepting the experiential reality of each moment to become aware of our weaknesses and also our strengths.He focusing It also requires action, it involves generating changes in our behavior to restore physical and emotional balance.

To conclude, we are sure that this humanistic practice, this approach to self-exploration and physical self-awareness seems at first glance as useful as it is interesting. Actually it is. Nevertheless, It should be said that no one learns to establish such genuine communication with their own body and their emotions from one day to the next.. It requires time, patience and will.

Becoming aware of the felt experience to proceed with emotional healing and adequate stress management involves a few weeks of training. However, it can be achieved and the results are undoubtedly sensational.

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