SENSES OF FOCUSING, v.II

This second volume of Senses of Focusing carries exploration of the many ‘senses’ of ‘focusing’ in new directions, beginning with the crucial area of ‘spirituality’ and the wisdom of ‘dreams’. The value of living and working from inner experiencing ‘in individual lives and in therapeutic practice’ is explored across a variety of cultures as well as through different manifestations in the ‘Arts’, specifically poetry, theatre and music. A section on Focusing in ‘science and neuroscience’ is followed by cross-cultural takes on the theory and practice of ‘Thinking at the Edge’ and a section on the significance of the body’s knowing in ‘ethics and decision-making’. The volume concludes with an examination of Eugene Gendlin’s contribution to Client-Centred Therapy and examples of how his work is now regarded by more recent theorists and practitioners of the Person-Centred Approach.

Focusing, FOT and the Philosophy of the Implicit
Within these volumes many elements of Focusing theory and practice are addressed, including different takes on Focusing and Focusing-oriented Therapy as it is understood and practised in a variety of cultures and contexts.
The thinking and cultural precedents that prefigure and underpin Eugene Gendlin’s formulation of the Philosophy of the Implicit and Focusing-oriented Therapy are explored by a wide range of authors. Drawing on sources from philosophy, science, the Arts and religion, they demonstrate that ‘Focusing’ has existed in various forms across the centuries before it found its mid-twentieth century name and became itself reified into a ‘construct’.
Some of the many applications of Focusing are considered, including the use of body-mapping with children and adults, how Focusing can help when working with physical illness, how Focusing can be applied to dreams, how Thinking at the Edge (TAE) can bring new insight and understanding and how the practice of Focusing can help with decision-making and everyday living.
Gendlin’s own spoken words are interspersed throughout the volumes.

PCA / PCE

Focusing originated in Client-Centred Therapy and in the close collaboration that existed in the 1950s and early 60s between Eugene Gendlin and Carl Rogers. Gendlin insisted that if early practitioners of Client-Centred Therapy had better understood the experiential response, i.e. ‘focusing on the felt edge of experiencing’, there would have been no need for there to be two separate therapies: Person-Centred Therapy and Focusing-oriented Therapy (FOT).
The early research into Client-Centred Therapy demonstrated that it is the ‘focusing’/ experiential response that is the critical factor in successful therapy.
In mainland Europe, Focusing is more commonly integrated into Person-Centred training as Person-Centred Experiential Therapy (PCE), but in some parts of the US and UK (and elsewhere) Focusing is often dismissed as a ‘technique’.
These volumes, which range in many directions to demonstrate myriad manifestations of ‘focusing on the felt edge of experiencing’ in different cultures and contexts also invite a re-evaluation of ‘focusing’ and a deeper understanding of its role in Person-Centred practice.

Contents

About the Editors
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgements
Notes on style and conventions
Foreword, by Mia Leijssen, Professor Emeritus, University of Leuven
Prologue
Preface (with ‘A general outline of volume ΙΙ’)

Introduction: New Focusing. Random thoughts about ‘nakedness’, nonsensical and appropriations, by Nikolaos Kypriotakis

Section 1: Focusing, spirituality and dreams
1 Mia Leijssen, Living forward: The challenge of carrying forward Gendlin’s legacy
2 Peter A. Campbell, Exploring the body’s role within BioSpiritual development. Unfolding an elusive, yet bodily-felt interiority within serious seekers (With contributions from John Keane and David Young)
3 Greg Walkerden, Focusing, vastness and union: Elaborating the Focusing practice tradition and the Philosophy of the Implicit to describe an additional kind of space
4 Fiona Parr, Focusing and practical spirituality—A personal approach: How Focusing contributes to the ‘death of the ego’
5 Leslie Ellis, Gendlin’s unique contribution to dreamwork: Embodying helpful and contrary elements to bring in the new

Section 2: ‘Senses’ of Focusing in individual lives and in therapeutic practice
6 Salvador Moreno-López, Everyday life is enriched by the Philosophy of the Implicit and Focusing
7 Zoe Voulgaraki, Meeting with the Other
8 Svetlana Kutukova, Focusing possibilities in the psychotherapeutic process: Two case studies
9 Isabel Gascón, The mother-daughter relationship: Focusing contributions

Section 3: ‘Senses’ of Focusing in the Arts
10 Michael Seibel, Bodily awareness as a necessary condition for creative work in the aesthetic production process in acting
11 Stephanie Aspin, Writing at the edge
12 Jen White, ‘It lulls me into a false sense of security, but I go there willingly’; music resonates with stopped process: An IPA study into musical experiencing unravelled through music and Focusing
13 Judy Moore, Poets, mystics, Focusers and the physicality of spiritual opening

Section 4: ‘Senses’ of Focusing in science and neuroscience
14 Rob Parker, Re-visioning science: A process model of the double slit experiment
15 Peter Afford, The felt sense, the body & the brain

Section 5: TAE: Theory and living applications
16a Satoko Tokumaru, Three-part TAE and the website ‘TAE Reflection’
16b Satoko Tokumaru (with Nikolaos Kypriotakis and Judy Moore), Threepart TAE—Applying the method. Case example: My teaching style
17 Monika Catarina Lindner, Always at the edge—TAE/Focusing and second language acquisition
18 Jenny Newman, Creation and creativity: Thinking at the edge and writer’s block
19 Yael Teff-Seker, Using Focusing and TAE for science: A personal account

Section 6: Focusing, ethics and decision-making
20 Anna Magee, Focusing on ethics in research… and beyond. The body as a means of negotiating cultural borders and finding common ground
21 Friedgard E. Blob, Saying ‘no’ in presence: Setting limits through body sense

Section 7: Focusing and the Person-Centred Approach
22 Judy Moore, Introduction: Eugene Gendlin’s contribution to Client-Centred Therapy
23 Tomonori Motoyama, Focusing and Congruence
24 Mick Cooper, Interview
25 Brian Thorne, Interview

Gendlin’s spoken words, recorded by Nada Lou
Fragments from video clips: Transcription of extracts from video clips
Focusing and other methods
Dreams open doors to Focusing
What matters most is to like the dream
Felt sense and space
Best laboratory
Because it is you
Who is thinking?
Coming back into conceptual structure with thinking
Words and phrases
Something precious to say

Index

Contributors to this volume: Peter Afford, Stephanie Aspin, Friedgard Blob, Peter Campbell (with John Keane and Dave Young), Mick Cooper, Leslie Ellis, Isabel Gascón Juste, Svetlana Kutokova, Nikolaos Kypriotakis, Mia Leijssen, Monika Lindner, Nada Lou, Anna Magee, Judy Moore, Salvador Moreno-López, Tomonori Motoyama, Jenny Newman, Rob Parker, Fiona Parr, Michael Seibel, Yael Teff-Seker, Brian Thorne, Satoko Tokumaru, Zoe Voulgaraki, Greg Walkerden, Jen White