Focusing Tip #590 – “A lot of the time in Focusing with a part I don’t hear anything new…”

Charles writes:

A lot of the time in Focusing with a part I don’t hear anything new. I’ve asked for new information, but rarely get it. Instead I get what I already know and have had insight about. Any suggestions as to how I can get fresh information?

Dear Charles:

I’m glad you asked, because that’s really a key question: How to get new information. And also how to get new behavior, and new feelings, instead of repeating the ways we are stuck. All these questions interest me very much.

And these are the very questions at the heart of the research that Eugene Gendlin did, that led to the development of Focusing. In that research, it was discovered that many therapy clients were not changing, despite the warmth and skill of their therapists.

It was when people were aware of an unclear body sense that they began to change.

It’s this unclear body sense, called a felt sense, that takes us beyond our usual and routine ways of thinking about our problems and our lives. Without a felt sense, you will not get new information… or new feelings, or new behavior.

Felt senses are odd. Certainly you’ve had them. But you may not have paid much attention – because they are easy to ignore.

Staying with a felt sense without trying to “figure it out” is a real skill. It takes practice.

And yes, often the old information will come first, even when you do have a felt sense. So another thing that takes practice is to stay with the felt sense beyond the first answer. That’s when you will really get something new.