Using Focusing in Psychotherapy
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I've just returned from the great Focusing International Conference in Quebec, and here are two questions I was asked there: "Do I need a certification in order to use Focusing with my psychotherapy clients?" and "How does one use Focusing with psychotherapy clients?"
There is no need to have a certification in order to begin using Focusing with psychotherapy clients. In fact, we wish all psychotherapists would start using Focusing modalities with clients!
Of course this will work better if you have (1) Focusing training for yourself, and (2) training and supervision in using Focusing with clients. But you can always begin…
And just to clear up one common misunderstanding: in most cases, using Focusing in therapy does NOT mean telling the client that you will be using or teaching a technique called "Focusing." This tends to bring up self-consciousness, concerns about pleasing or failure, and is really not necessary.
Listening for Focusing Moments
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The most basic way to begin using Focusing in psychotherapy is to listen for the Focusing moments that are already happening, but which often get lost or passed over.
Listen for those moments when your client slows down and begins to be unsure about what the words are for a presently felt experience. Those are natural Focusing moments that arise far more often than we give credit for, because people so often discount them.
"I think it must be denial. I'm feeling… I don't know… something like a wall inside… no, that's not quite it… oh, never mind, I just must be resistant!"
Can you hear how, in that little example, the client slows down and senses something directly felt and hard to describe? And then gives up on it? The therapist can be so helpful right there, just giving the client encouragement to stay longer at the place of groping for words.
"You were sensing something like a wall there… and that wasn't quite right… see if it's OK to stay a bit longer there, just feeling that. It's OK if words don't come easily, it's worth it to just feel that."
Our own confidence that there is something valuable in the not-in-words-yet place can be communicated to the client, as we help them stay longer there. We trust that the real forward movement (as opposed to just repeating thoughts and emotions) will come from the emergent place where words and images are freshly forming.
And then the next way to use Focusing in psychotherapy is to help those Focusing moments form if they don't form naturally. For a demonstration of doing this with a client working with issues of anger related to trauma, see my DVD available here.
See below for foundational training in Focusing; for in-depth training in using Focusing in psychotherapy see here.