This article is for students and teachers, clients and therapists, workshop participants and leaders. In it I describe and present examples offocusing. Focusing is a gentle, powerful, and nonintrusive method of self-help and therapy developed by Eugene Gendlin. My aim is practical: to improve focusing practice. Readers who want more theoretical material are referred to Friedman (1982a), Gendlin (1981), and works listed in the references. For those who want to try focusing, I have included a set of instructions as an appendix. These instructions can be introduced to groups, in dyads, and in therapy. They also can be tape recorded if one wants to use focusing for self-therapy.
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References
1.
Angyal, A.
(1965). Neurosis and treatment: A holistic theory. New York: Viking.
2.
Friedman, N.
(1982a). Experiential therapy and focusing. New York: Half-Court Press.
3.
Friedman, N.
(1982b). Angyal and Gendlin: Holistic insight and focusing. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 22(3).
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Gendlin, E. T.
(1962). Experiencing and the creation of meaning. New York: Macmillan.
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Gendlin, E. T.
(1960). Focusing. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, and Practice, 6(1).
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Gendlin, E. T.
(1971). A theory of personality change. In A. Mahrer (Ed.), Creative developments in psychotherapy. Cleveland: CaseWestern Reserve.
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Gendlin, E. T.
(1981). Focusing. New York: Basic Books.
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Gendlin, E. T.
, Beebe, J., Cassens, J., Klein, M., & Oberlander, M. (1967). Focusing ability in psychotherapy, personality, and creativity. In J. Shlein (Ed.), Researchin psychotherapyIII. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
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Welwood, J.
(1982). Unfolding of experience. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 22(1).
