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copyright © 1999, by Karyn Greenstreet. All rights reserved.
KG: What exactly is Focusing? What is it used for?
What benefits does it give people? AWC: Focusing is a skill of awareness that involves
sensing inwardly, sensing a certain kind of inner experience that everyone has but that we
haven't learned is important. It is turning attention to something called a "felt
sense" -- a kind of body awareness that is subtle and (at first) unclear. For
example, an uneasy feeling in the stomach or a fluttery feeling in the solar plexus or a
slight tightness in the chest. These sensations are subtle enough that you can easily
ignore them -- and in fact many of us do. What Eugene
Gendlin discovered when he did the research that lead to the development of Focusing was
that these body sensations carry messages from a kind of holistic inner awareness. By
listening to these, you find that they contain a great deal of wisdom. They also contain
what is called the life forward direction, the forward movement of your organism, so that
you can actually use the awareness of these subtle sensations for positive life change --
and feel the results in your body. KG: Where do these sensations come from? AWC: They are quite simply messages from your self. KG: It is a kind of listening to yourself? AWC: Yes, Focusing is listening to yourself, listening
in the body. We already listen to ourselves all day long in our heads. The head chatter --
"I should do this" and "What is wrong with me?" -- that doesn't get us
very far. When Gendlin did the research that lead to Focusing, he discovered that the two
dead ends of therapy, the classic ways that therapy doesn't work, are either repetitive
talking or repetitive emoting (crying). So there have been
people who have been in therapy for years talking in circles about the same things. Or
they sit there using up Kleenex crying about the same things. These things don't work,
because people aren't dropping down to a level of awareness where they are paying
attention to the felt sense. The felt sense is not exactly emotional. It is also not
exactly thought. You know how they say that a picture is worth a thousand words? The felt
sense contains much more information than can be put into words. KG: It is more than just being aware of these felt
senses, but being able to interpret them or talk to them. What are the steps? AWC: You're right, it's more than just awareness.
First you describe something physically -- like "tightness" or
"jumpiness." Then you stay with it in a nonjudgmental, accepting way. (Attitude
is very important!) The next step
would be to sense the emotional state, for example maybe it's a "scared
jumpiness." There is more detail, of course, than I'm able to go into here.
At a certain stage there is what Gendlin would
call the "felt shift"-- a release of information and positive feelings. It
starts feeling really good in there! KG: Do people find that when they are doing this that
in the beginning they are uncomfortable? AWC: No, I wouldn't say that uncomfortable is a common
experience. Some people find that they are doubtful. Like they are being asked to pay
attention to something that never before had been given any value. They ask if this is
really right and if they are supposed to pay attention to this little fuzzy thing that
they can't put words on! Yes, that is exactly right. KG: It is a very subtle thing? AWC: It can be subtle, yes. You can also use the
Focusing process to work with strong emotions, like strong sadness or anger. Even then,
you will be paying attention to the subtle edge of that, almost like the aura around the
emotion. KG: Is this something that people only do when they
are in therapy? AWC: Now we are getting to the question of the uses of
Focusing. No, it's not only for therapy. It was developed thirty years ago to help people
in therapy, yes. But since then it has been used in so many other areas that the list is
very, very long. KG: Making clear decisions and knowing better what
you feel and what you want? AWC: Yes, and also handling strong emotions, like
fear, anger, or sadness. Getting past blocks, like writer's block or other kinds of action
blocks. Understanding puzzling reactions to people, like, why does that person bug me so
much? Working with the kinds of things that you might go to a therapist for, like
addictions, or depression. It's especially useful for situations of inner conflict, like
part of me wants to slow down and another part of me wants to speed up! It is actually a
marvelous tool for every moment of life. It is essentially a way of being aware of your
true self and your ongoing moment-to-moment experience. There are many, many possible
applications. KG: One of the things that you mentioned were one of
the ways that you could apply this was why do I react this way or that way to that person.
Is it something that is truly only for personal self-insight or can people in a
relationship do it together. AWC: Yes, people in a relationship can do it together.
It is a wonderful thing to do with an intimate partner, especially if you take turns, one
Focusing and the other one listening. "Something went wrong between us and we had a
misunderstanding. We both feel kind of crummy. Maybe I will take a turn first sensing what
it means and what it is for me and what it is that that touched me so deeply and what
buttons it pushed in me." While I do that, my partner would just listen and
"hold the space." Then after an agreed time, we would switch and take turns.
It's no longer one of these "well, you did this and you said that" kind of
reactive discussions. You really take the time to listen respectfully. Already, that will
get you quite a long way into the deeper levels of compassion for each others' point of
view. KG: It sounds like there are very specific steps to
doing the process. AWC: There are specific steps. As you learn to do
Focusing, you learn to take yourself through those steps. Rather soon however it starts
feeling very natural, not like you're following steps, but more that you're simply
bringing awareness to how you are. Your true self. The other thing
that I wanted to say about that is that I am always teaching Focusing to people both for
themselves and to do with a partner. By that I don't mean an intimate partner, although it
could be that, but I mean for example a friend, or someone you meet through the classes.
People often find it is very easy and rewarding to do Focusing in a partnership, taking
turns. I focus and you hold the space for me. You focus and I hold the space for you. It
is a little easier than doing it alone. KG: It sounds like that would be very helpful to be
supportive of the process, as well. If you feel like you have missed a step or something,
there is someone there to remind you. AWC: Yes. KG: If people were to come to a workshop with you,
what can they expect out of a first time workshop versus or are there more advanced kinds
of things they can learn? AWC: In the Level One workshop you begin to learn how
to take yourself through the Focusing process, and how to be a partner to another person
who is Focusing. You complete the workshop knowing what your own Focusing process feels
like, and knowing how to continue practicing. Like any skill which is partly physical,
like tai chi or playing an instrument, Focusing takes practice and it gets easier with
practice. By the end of a two-day workshop, you have what you need to keep going with that
practice. Then there are
three more advanced levels. At each one we teach more advanced and sophisticated
"guiding skills," for helping the other person. By the end of the whole
training, you could even take somebody through the Focusing process who has never done it
before. At the same time,
the self-Focusing skills increase through the series of workshops. As the workshops
continue people become able to take themselves to deeper and deeper levels with the help
of less and less sophisticated partners or alone. KG: How did you get involved with this yourself? Did
you take classes in this yourself? How did you get started? AWC: When I first got involved, there were no classes
yet. This was 1972 and I was a graduate student in Linguistics. I was one of the people
who would not have been successful at therapy, according to the research; I was not in
touch with my body, I was not able to feel at a subtle level. At that time, I was not
necessarily looking for something and I wasn't even in touch enough to know I needed it. I
did know that my personal life was a mess. A couple of different friends of mine said that
there was something exciting happening on Sunday nights. This was in 1972. It turned out
that Eugene Gendlin, who later wrote the book Focusing, was teaching the method for free
out of a community church in the neighborhood where we were going to school. He is really
a remarkable person, by the way, one of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century.
Every Sunday night a hundred people would come and sit in this little church library and
learn Focusing together. We became a community of the process. It was then that I began
turning inward for the first time. I was 22 years old. I thank the divine spirit that I
was that young that I began my inner journey, because I had a long way to go! There I
began the process of introspection. I began the process of finding out who I was and
following my own inner light instead of just giving myself away and doing what was
expected of me and doing what I thought other people wanted. KG: Do you find that this is a "lifelong
process"? Do you find that people do Focusing for a while and then back away from it
and then move into other parts of their life, but still keep coming back to it? Is it
really a once thing, like you do it for one year or five years, and it has enough impact
that carries you? AWC: I believe that Focusing is a natural human
ability that is our birthright. It is simply bringing awareness to our present
experiencing. I believe that cultures that are less cut off from the earth than ours is,
have it already. They don't have to have Focusing teachers! It is also something that
babies have naturally. I think that for the advantages that western industrial culture has
brought us, the cost has been to cut us off from other ways of knowing. As I teach people
Focusing, I am helping them rediscover a birthright. Focusing was discovered, rather than
invented. It was discovered due to research into what some people were doing naturally,
looking for how we can teach this to the rest of us. For me, it has
been 27 years now and it just gets deeper all the time. That is what I expect and what I
hope, that people will get Focusing and keep it, as I have. It will be a lifelong friend,
you might say. What is nice about Focusing is that it is combinable with other methods.
Once you learn Focusing, let's say, you then learn a meditation technique. You can combine
it with Focusing. Or you may learn a kind of cathartic or expressive therapy technique and
you can combine that with Focusing. Or you can use Focusing to make decisions to go into
this or that or to take this or that road in your life. My hope that Focusing is a
lifelong friend for people, a lifelong support in whatever you do. KG: People who are perhaps therapists or personal
empowerment coaches, can they learn this in order to teach this to their clients? AWC: Absolutely! There are thousands of therapists all
over the world who are having a better time as therapists because they are bringing
Focusing into their sessions. No therapist wants to sit across from a client who is stuck.
You want to feel that the client is getting somewhere and that you are really empowering
them. KG: What about people who aren't psychotherapists or
psychiatrists, do you find that people want to learn to teach this just as a tool, not
necessarily for therapy, but as you said, they are teaching it at a church on Sunday
nights? AWC: I have many students in my advanced teacher
training who are not therapists, who are wanting to be helpful to people and to teach them
this wonderful skill, without going through the therapy training and whatever that
involves. I also have body workers who find this a great addition to touch therapies. KG: Have you found that the body workers also can be
in close touch with the sensations that they are feeling while working on people that may
be a reaction to the person? AWC: Yes, and not only body workers, but therapists,
too. KG: Or nurses? AWC: All kinds of people who are in those
caring-for-people professions. First of all, if your body is sensitive, and why wouldn't
it be, you might be picking up the other person's stuff. "Is this tightness in my
throat mine or yours?" Focusing helps you distinguish very quickly between mine and
yours and what to do when it is yours and what to do when it is mine. KG: That is so important for people who are in the
caring field because a lot of times they will pick up things. They won't know what it is
and they will bring it home with them. Then they can't understand why they don't feel good
or they are in a bad mood. AWC: A few years ago I started having what you might
call psychic experiences. I would go to sacred sites, for example, and be able to sense
the guardians there. Because of my Focusing training I was better able to handle the
doubts that might have come up, like, "Am I making this up? Is this me? Or is this
really here?" KG: That is so important. As you know, I teach
intuition development. Doubt is one of the big pieces of the puzzle, trying to get past
that with people. If they had a technique to use to make them more aware of what is going
on internally, they would be able to go a step further. AWC: I am very excited about Focusing as a way of
dealing with doubt, because doubt cannot be resolved in the mind. The mind is where the
doubts are generated. "It could be the way I am sitting. It could be something I ate.
It could be my imagination." The doubts cannot be resolved from the same place that
they are generated. People can just go in circles endlessly. They can make themselves feel
crazy. Going into the
body, you can find a confirmatory place where doubts can be resolved, where you can really
feel, "Yes, this much I know." It is very relieving to have a place where doubts
can be resolved. KG: It is good to have a knowing -- to be sure, not
on an intellectual level, but on a very much gut level. "I know this to be true, just
as I know the sun rises in the east. I have experienced it." Do you have to know how to meditate to do
Focusing? AWC: Not at all. Did I give that impression? KG: No, I am just wondering what the process is. AWC: Actually, when I am giving somebody their first
Focusing session, I sometimes ask if they are a meditator, because there may be some
things that a meditator may need to un-learn. KG: Really? AWC: Any method that you are good at or practiced at
can interfere with learning another method, especially a similar one. That is just how it
is. No, you don't have to know meditation. It can help, but it can also get in the way. KG: Because as many people that do meditate, there is
also a large group who cannot meditate, they just can't focus that way. AWC: I'm one of those. Meditation has never appealed
to me. But many people have told me that, for them, meditation and Focusing go together
very well. KG: Can people do Focusing anywhere? AWC: Yes. KG: You don't need to be in a quiet room alone? AWC: No. When people are first learning it, they may
need to set aside the time and be in a quiet place all alone. But once you learn it, you
can do it anywhere. I am doing it right now while I talking to you on the phone. You can
do it driving. You do it in the middle of a meeting, which is fabulous. You can say,
"Excuse me, but before we move on from this topic, I need to take a little more time
with it because there is something about it that just doesn't feel quite right yet."
Whether you are in a congenial meeting where you can actually use those words or whether
you need to find other words that fit the culture you are in, it's still a great thing to
be in touch. KG: That makes great sense. Then you feel comfortable
moving to the next stage with people, regardless of what the discussion is, because you
know you are at that place where you have absorbed it and you are comfortable with it.
There is not that sensation that sort of taps you on the shoulder and says, "There is
a little bit more here." AWC: Yes, that's the one! KG: I had seen also that you do something called
phone Focusing. What is that? AWC: The ideal first step to learning Focusing is to
have a one-to-one session with a skilled guide. It can be done on the phone just as easily
as in person because it is verbally guided. The guide takes you step-by-step through the
process. This is the best preparation for a workshop or for learning on your own. KG: When you do your workshops, do you limit the size
of them so that people get that kind of attention? AWC: No, I haven't found a need to do that. I do ask
people to have that individual session, in person or on the phone, before coming to the
workshop. By the time they come to the workshop, they are not asking, "Can I do
this?" Because they know they can. KG: That is interesting. AWC: Instead they are saying, "I know I can do
it. How can I do it myself?" Because I have such an active training program, I often
have assistants at my workshop. If there's a need for individual attention, we find ways
of giving it. KG: How often do you do workshops and where do you do
them? AWC: In the San Francisco Bay area, I give my
workshops every three months. I am teaching in New York about every six months. KG: New York City? AWC: Yes, New York City. There is a Focusing
Institute, which is the non-profit institute created by the originator of Focusing, Eugene
Gendlin, and he lives in New York. His wife is the Director of the institute. They are
fabulous. I am one of the main teachers in the Institute's New York programs. KG: Obviously, people can go to your web site and I
will give them your address, but what about people who aren't on the internet. How do they
get in touch with you? AWC: They can call 510-666-9948 and we will be happy
to send out information. KG: That is wonderful. You also teach overseas? AWC: I teach overseas. I teach every year in the
Netherlands. I teach two or three times a year in Germany. I have been teaching every year
in Japan. I will be in Ireland next year. I enjoy travelling. KG: That is so exciting. That is so great. We are
almost out of time. Are there any final thoughts or main points that you wanted to bring
up that we didn't cover? AWC: Let me focus a minute! ...I just want to mention
that the newest area of my work is helping with really stuck and difficult places like
very blocked actions, or addictions, or depression. I am having a lot of successes and am
working on a book on that. KG: That is great. The other thing I wanted to ask
you is that, can this or does this work with children or teenagers? Or is this something
that people shouldn't try to learn until they are an adult? AWC: It works with kids and teenagers. If you work
with kids young enough, they will teach it to you! KG: They already know how, you are saying? AWC: That is what the research with kids has shown.
They know how and then at a certain age it gets trained out of them, unfortunately, by our
culture's emphasis on external authority. We have parents
Focusing with their kids. We have people training teachers to work with kids in
classrooms. We have people working with teenagers. It is very exciting and I know a number
of people who are working in those areas. I do want to
mention that I have a newsletter about Focusing called "The Focusing
Connection." The reason I think of it is that a recent issue has several articles in
it on working with kids. The newsletter is $18 a year inside the US and Canada. It has
articles of interest and applications of Focusing. The latest issue had an article on
working with women and confidence, discussing women who are entering the job market and
empowerment and how it really helps with that. KG: It sounds like a lot of this would work well if
people were just on a generic discovery path along with perhaps doing therapy, personal
empowerment workshops or creativity workshops. This can really touch so many parts of
people's lives in not just "I am having trouble with an addiction and I would like to
work on it," but with so many different parts of their lives. AWC: That is exactly right. It will enhance whatever
people are already doing. If people are seekers and they are wanting to know themselves
more deeply and bring forth the purposes of their soul in this life, they can use it along
with anything else they are doing. KG: That is wonderful. That is so exciting. I know I
am going to take a class! I don't know which one, but I am going to do it. AWC: I must say that I have never had such an
intelligent and to the point interview. KG: Good, I'm glad! AWC: My body is telling me that it really feels so
complete, like you have facilitated me to say everything that I wanted to say. You were a
good listener. KG: Thank you. You can reach Ann
Weiser Cornell via email at Awcornell@aol.com.
Her web site is: http://www.focusingresources.com |
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