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Focusing-Oriented Therapy

Focusing
«The body knows what the mind has not yet found words for. Slow down and listen.»
Definition

Focusing-Oriented Therapy (FOT) — an experiential approach built on turning to the felt sense — a whole, bodily-felt knowing of a situation, vague at first but carrying more information than words. The therapy rests on the skill of noticing this "something between thought and sensation" and letting it unfold.

Founder(s) and history

Eugene Gendlin (1926–2017) — an American philosopher and psychotherapist of Austrian origin. Born in Vienna; in 1938 the family fled Nazism for the United States. He studied philosophy at the University of Chicago, where he became a student and colleague of Carl Rogers.

In the early 1960s Gendlin took part in a large-scale study: what makes the difference between clients whom therapy helps and clients it does not? The result was unexpected: successful clients — regardless of the therapist's approach — did something specific. They periodically slowed down, turned inside, and tried to catch a vague, not-yet-worded sensation. Gendlin named this the felt sense.

The key conclusion: what is decisive is not the therapist's method, but the client's way of inner attention. Which means it can be taught.

In 1978 Gendlin published Focusing — a step-by-step manual for a wide audience. It became a bestseller and took the method beyond the therapy room. In parallel he developed the philosophical grounding A Process Model (1997), his main theoretical work.

The method was carried on by Gendlin's students. Ann Weiser Cornell developed Inner Relationship Focusing — a version that adds the language of "something in me" for safe distancing from the experience. Laury Rappaport created focusing-oriented art therapy. Jan Winhall integrated focusing with polyvagal theory for work with addictions.

Gendlin was a rare combination: a deep philosopher and an accessible practitioner. His method is used by therapists, writers, scientists, and ordinary people for decision-making and creative thinking.

Key concepts

Felt sense

The central concept of focusing. The felt sense is a whole, bodily-felt, pre-conceptual knowing of a situation. Not an emotion, not a thought, and not an ordinary body sensation — a "something" between them, vague, carrying more information than can be said at once.

✅ A felt sense is always linked to a specific situation or theme. Not a "sensation in the body in general", but a bodily-felt meaning of this problem, this relationship, this decision.

⚠️ A common error: confusing the felt sense with an ordinary emotion (anxiety, sadness) or a physical sensation (tension in the shoulders). The felt sense is wider — it includes the whole of the situation.

The six steps of focusing

A teaching tool, not a rigid protocol. In real practice the steps interweave and repeat:

1. Clearing a Space — turn attention inside, notice everything that "stands between me and full well-being", set each theme carefully aside at a distance 2. Felt sense — pick one theme and ask the body: "How does all of this feel together?" Do not dive in mentally — sense the whole 3. Handle — give the felt sense a word, phrase, or image. Do not analyze — let it come. "Tight", "heavy as a stone", "a knot" 4. Resonating — place the symbol back against the felt sense. Does it fit? Is there a bodily echo of "yes, this is it"? 5. Asking — ask the felt sense directly: "What about this makes it exactly this?", "What is hardest?", "What does this need?" 6. Receiving — accept what came, kindly and with thanks. Protect it from the inner critic

The six steps are a guide for learning. An experienced focuser can start at any step and move freely between them.

Felt shift

When the precise word for the felt sense is found, a tangible bodily shift happens — relief, release, deeper breath, tears, a physical "letting go". This is the sign of real change, not just a cognitive insight.

✅ Each felt shift is a small step of change. Many such steps change a life. The body works "one shift at a time".

Implicit intricacy

The body continuously interacts with the world and "knows" more than concepts can grasp. Any life situation contains an implicit intricacy — many aspects, links, and meanings not yet unfolded. Focusing is a way of letting that intricacy show itself.

Crossing

A philosophical idea of Gendlin's: each new experience is not simply added to earlier ones, but crosses with them, producing something that did not exist before. The organism keeps generating itself anew — a process not determined by the past, yet taking it into account.

Listening Presence

In focusing-oriented therapy the therapist practices a special way of being present: tracking not only the content of the client's words, but how the client relates to their inner experience. The therapist gently moves the client's attention from talking "about" the problem to direct contact with how the problem feels in the body.

✅ The key question of a focusing-oriented therapist is not "What do you think about this?", but "How does it feel inside, as you say it?"

⚠️ Do not rush the client and do not fill the pauses. The felt sense needs time — usually 30–60 seconds of silence to appear.

Format of therapy

Focusing-oriented therapy — weekly individual sessions of 50 minutes. The length of the course is determined by the client's needs.

Focusing is not a separate "protocol" — it is rather a way of attending that integrates into any therapeutic approach. The therapist may use focusing within CBT, psychodynamic therapy, Gestalt, or client-centered work.

There is also the format of partnership focusing: two people take turns accompanying each other in the process — without interpretations, only presence and reflection.

Gendlin emphasized: focusing is not the therapist's technique, but the client's skill. It can be practiced alone, outside therapy.

Evidence base

Hendricks (2001) — a review of 89 studies: the client's capacity for "experiencing" is a key predictor of therapy outcome, regardless of approach. The Experiencing Scale (Klein et al.) reliably predicts success.

Pos et al. (2003) — in process-experiential therapy of depression, the depth of experiencing in the middle stages of therapy significantly predicted the result.

Krycka & Ikemi (2016) — a review: focusing-oriented therapy shows significant effects in anxiety, depression, psychosomatic disorders, and alexithymia.

Clearing a Space (the first step of focusing) has been studied as a stand-alone intervention: Grindler Katonah (2012) — a significant reduction of stress and improvement in self-regulation in oncology patients.

The unique feature of the focusing evidence base: what is studied is not the therapist's method, but the client's process. This gives transdiagnostic validity — the results apply to all approaches.

Limits
  • Acute psychosis — the client does not distinguish inner and outer, is not capable of an observing stance
  • Acute dissociation — turning to the body may deepen the dissociation; prior stabilization is required
  • Severe personality disorders — there may not be enough inner stability for safe contact with the felt sense
  • A client in acute crisis — first safety, then focusing
  • "Flooding" by emotion — if the client easily "drowns" in their experiences, start with Clearing a Space and safe distancing
  • Unwillingness from the client — focusing is not imposed; it requires a voluntary turn inward

⚠️ Focusing requires the capacity for conscious observation of inner experience without "flooding". If this capacity has not been built, it must first be developed through stabilization and resourcing.

✅ As an addition to other approaches, focusing has practically no limits. It does not replace therapy but deepens it — adding a bodily dimension to any work.

Focusing is one of the few approaches that goes beyond therapy. It is used in education, creativity, decision-making, and philosophical inquiry. Gendlin saw this not as a side effect but as the core of the method: focusing is a way of relating to experience, not a clinical technique.

Therapeutic stancePresence, experiential listening, "keeping company"

Your client already knows the answer — but the knowing lives in the body, not in the head. Your task is to help them slow down and hear what the body has long been trying to say.

Don't rush. The felt sense comes in pauses, in "uh-h-h.", in the slowing down. Silence is not emptiness, but the space in which something new is forming.

"If you have never repeated to a client exactly what they said, you don't really know client-centered therapy." — Eugene Gendlin

The six steps are a guide, not a checklist. In a live session they interweave and repeat. Trust the process.

THE THERAPIST'S STANCE

"How does all of this feel inside?"

✅ Listen not to words and not to emotions — listen to the felt sense behind the words

✅ Repeat exactly what the client said — do not paraphrase, do not interpret

✅ Hold the pauses: 30–60 seconds of silence is normal

✅ "Keep company" with the experience — do not fix, do not improve, just be alongside

⚠️ Do not impose interpretations — even if you are "right", that is not focusing

⚠️ Do not rush — the felt sense needs time

⚠️ Do not replace the felt sense with familiar labels: "Is this anxiety?" — no, ask the body

Gendlin: "The therapist must know that just being precisely with what the client expresses already does much"

THE LANGUAGE OF PRESENCE

Help the client separate the self from the experience:

MergedAt a distance
"I am afraid""Something in me is afraid"
"I am angry""I notice something that feels angry"
"I am worthless""There is a part that feels worthless"

A shift in language creates space between the I and the feeling — that itself is therapeutic

MARKERS OF FELT-SENSE WORK

slowing speechpauses, "uh-h-h."hand to chest/bellyclosed eyesa deep sightearssurprise

✅ Notice these signals — they show that the client is turning inward

✅ A deep sigh — often a sign of a felt shift. Mark it: "Did something shift?"

Contact and tuning inPresence, safety, an invitation to turn inward
"How are you right now?"
"What did you bring today?"
"What is the most important thing right now?"

✅ Listen with full presence — reflect not only the words, but the quality of the experience

✅ Do not collect a history — let the client be where they are

Without a safe relationship the client will not go deep. First the alliance — then focusing.

"Wait — and how does it feel inside, as you say it?"

✅ Gently bring back to the body, without breaking the contact

Clearing a SpaceClearing a Space — set aside what gets in the way and feel the calm beneath

Clearing a Space can be the entry into focusing or a stand-alone practice. Its therapeutic effect is dis-identification: "I am not my problems".

"Bring attention inside — into the chest, the belly. What is between you and a feeling of full well-being right now?"

✅ Do not let the client answer "from the head" — let the body answer

HOW TO RUN IT

1. Noticing — the client turns inward and finds a "thing" (a theme, a tension, an experience) 2. Naming — describe it briefly: a word, a phrase, an image, a color, a metaphor 3. Placing — mentally set it at a distance: in a container, on a shelf, in a balloon 4. Repeating "Good, that one is set aside. What else is between you and the calm?" 5. Sensing the space — once everything is set aside, be in the cleared space

"Imagine that each of these things can be carefully set down beside you. Not pushed away — simply placed at a comfortable distance."

⚠️ This is not suppression and not pushing away — this is a careful "setting beside"

"This thing does not want to let go? That's okay. Just notice that it is here. Maybe move it just a little."

✅ Do not insist — even a symbolic distance is enough

"You don't have to dive inside. Be alongside it — as if observing from the side."

✅ Clearing a Space is a safe entry for people who easily "drown" in their experiences

Forming the felt senseNot an emotion, not a thought — a whole bodily knowing of the situation

The felt sense is not "anxiety" and not "pain in the belly". It is a vague, whole, bodily-felt "something" that carries more than words can express.

"Pick one of these things. Do not dive into it mentally — be alongside it. How does all of it together feel in the body?"
"Wait. let it form. do not rush."
"If this whole situation had one feeling in the body — what would it be?"

✅ Give the client 30–60 seconds of silence — the felt sense needs time

✅ Bring the attention into the body: chest, belly, throat

⚠️ Do not accept the first quick answer — "Well, this is anxiety" — that is a label, not a felt sense

"That is normal. Be with this 'nothing'. Sometimes 'nothing' is the start."
"Try simply noticing what is happening in the body when you think of this theme."

✅ Give more time. Try starting with the breath and bodily sensations.

"Wait. do not rush the answer. Drop the attention into the body and let it answer."
"Set aside for a moment what you already know about this. How does it feel right now, freshly?"
Handle and resonatingHandle — find a precise word, Resonating — check it with the body

FIND A HANDLE

"Which word, phrase, or image fits the quality of this sensation?"
"If it could speak — what would it say?"
"What color, shape, texture does it have?"
tightheavya knota gray clouda stoneemptinesssomething frightening

✅ Do not analyze — let the word come from the sensation

⚠️ If the client describes it with a familiar label — help to find a more precise, fresher word

CHECK THE RESONANCE

"Place this word back against the sensation. Does it fit? Is there a small bodily echo — 'yes, this is it'?"
"Check inside — is this the precise word?"
"If not quite — which would fit better?"

✅ Move between the felt sense and the symbol until there is a precise match

✅ When the word is precise — there is often a slight sigh, a release, a feeling of "got it"

"That's okay. Just be with the sensation. The word will come."

✅ Sometimes the precise symbol is not a word, but an image, a gesture, a sound

AskingAsking — ask the felt sense what is most important in it

Key point: the question is asked of the felt sense, not of the mind. The answer comes from the body — slowly, unexpectedly, sometimes surprisingly.

"What about this problem makes it exactly this [quality]?"
"What is the hardest thing in this?"
"What does it need?"
"What would be good?"
"What is it afraid of?"
Sense the quality afresh — newly, in the present moment

✅ Be sure to let the client sense the felt sense afresh before asking — do not ask "from memory"

✅ Wait — let the answer come from the body, not from the head

⚠️ Do not accept an intellectual answer: if the client answers instantly, without a pause — it is most likely the mind, not the felt sense

"Maybe just stay with this and see what comes."
"Ask this sensation gently — do not demand an answer. Just invite it to show."

✅ Do not rush. Sometimes the answer comes after a minute of silence, sometimes between sessions.

Receiving and integrationReceiving — accept what came, protect it from the critic
"Receive what came — kindly, with warmth. Stay with it."
"Thank your body for this work."
"Protect what came from the inner critic."

✅ Do not evaluate or criticize the result — any answer of the felt sense is valuable

✅ The body works "one shift at a time" — do not chase a big insight

✅ Note if a felt shift happened: relief, release, a deep breath, tears

⚠️ Do not move straight to the next theme — let the client stay with what came

T: What came? C: Something about needing care. But this is silly. T: Wait. Tell the critic: "I hear you, but for now I will be with this." And come back to the sensation. C: (pause) ..Yes, this is important. I need care.

✅ Help to protect the insight — it is fragile in the first minutes

CLOSING THE SESSION

"What are you taking away from today's work?"
"Can you mark this place — so you can come back to it?"

✅ An invitation to "mark" — the client remembers where they stopped and can come back next time

✅ Do not give a "summary" interpretation — let the client name what mattered

Each felt shift is a small step. With many such steps, life changes.

© Eugene Gendlin — Focusing-Oriented Therapy

Experiential ListeningExperiential Listening

The basic skill of an FOT therapist: listening not to words and not even to emotions, but to the underlying felt sense — the whole, not-yet-formed experience standing behind the client's words. The therapist reflects exactly this implicit experience, and the client checks the reflection against the inner sensation.

  • 1. Listen to the client with full presence — do not prepare the answer while they are speaking
  • 2. Repeat exactly what the client said — do not paraphrase, do not interpret
  • 3. Pay attention to the "feel of it all" — the overall quality of the experience behind the words
  • 4. Reflect that quality: "It sounds as if behind this there is something like."
  • 5. Let the client check inside: does the reflection fit or not
  • 6. If "not quite" — search further together: "Maybe more precisely it would be."
  • 7. Do not add anything of your own — only what the client brought

When to use:

  • The start of every session — establishing contact
  • The client describes the situation but does not touch the feelings
  • The client uses familiar labels ("anxiety", "anger") without going deeper
  • When the client needs to slow down and turn inside
  • As the basis of any intervention in FOT — used constantly

Key phrases:

If I am hearing you right, behind all this there is something like.
It sounds as if there is something else in what you describe — something hard to put into words at once.
Let us check — you say "anxiety", but maybe what you sense is something more?

Follow-up questions:

Does this fit? Or not quite?
Is there a sense that this is not quite the word? What would fit better?
Is there something else behind this?

Warnings:

  • ⚠️ Do not paraphrase — exact repetition teaches how hard it really is (Gendlin)
  • ⚠️ Do not interpret, even if you think you know the answer
  • ⚠️ Do not add your own hypotheses — only what the client brought
  • ⚠️ If the client says "no, not quite" — that is a good sign, not a mistake

Gendlin E. 1996, Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy

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Clearing a SpaceClearing a Space

The first step of focusing and a stand-alone technique. The client turns inside, notices everything that is on their mind, and carefully "sets aside" each theme at a distance. The result is a sense of inner space and calm, a dis-identification with the problems.

  • 1. Invite the client to bring attention inside: into the chest and belly area
  • 2. Ask the guiding question: "What is between you and full well-being right now?"
  • 3. The client names the first "thing" — a word, an image, a sensation
  • 4. Help to "set it aside" at a distance: "Can you imagine putting it down beside you? On a shelf? In a container?"
  • 5. Confirm: "Good, that is set aside. What else is between you and the calm?"
  • 6. Repeat until the client says "That is all" or "Nothing more"
  • 7. Invite them to feel the cleared space: "How does this place inside feel, with everything set aside?"
  • 8. Let them stay in this space for 30–60 seconds

When to use:

  • Start of the session — entry into focusing
  • The client is "flooded" with emotion and cannot observe
  • High anxiety — a safe distancing is needed
  • Trauma work — building a safe inner place
  • Stress reduction and centering as a stand-alone practice
  • The client does not know where to start — too much at once

Key phrases:

Bring attention inside, into the chest and belly. What is between you and a feeling of full well-being right now?
Do not dive into any of these things — just notice them and set them down beside you.

Follow-up questions:

Good, that is set aside. What else?
Can you put this at some distance from yourself?
How would you like to "place" it? In a container? On a shelf? In a balloon?
When everything is set aside — how does this inner space feel?

Warnings:

  • ⚠️ This is NOT suppression — the client carefully sets aside, does not push away
  • ⚠️ If the client "falls into" one of the themes — gently bring them back: "Let us first set this aside"
  • ⚠️ Some clients cannot "set it aside" — that is information about how captured they are
  • ⚠️ Do not rush — each person has their own pace

Gendlin E. 1978/1981, Focusing; 1996, Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy

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Felt Sense FormationFelt Sense Formation

The key step of focusing: the client picks one theme and lets the body form a whole, pre-conceptual sense of the entire situation. The felt sense is not an emotion and not a thought, but something between, vague and at the same time carrying more information than words.

  • 1. The client picks one theme from the cleared space (or the topic of the session)
  • 2. Invite NOT to dive into the problem mentally: "Be alongside it, do not dive in"
  • 3. Ask the guiding question: "How does all of this together feel in the body?"
  • 4. Wait 30–60 seconds — the felt sense needs time to form
  • 5. If the client starts to analyze — gently bring back to the body: "Not from the head, but from the body"
  • 6. Help to notice: "Where in the body do you feel it? Chest? Belly? Throat?"
  • 7. Confirm: "Stay with this sensation. Do not rush to name it"

When to use:

  • After clearing a space — a theme has been chosen for work
  • The client speaks "about" the problem but does not feel it
  • The client is stuck in familiar emotion labels
  • When we need to go beyond cognitive analysis
  • The client knows what the problem is, but nothing changes

Key phrases:

How does all of this together feel in the body?
Do not dive into the problem — be alongside it. How does it feel?
Wait. let it form. do not rush.

Follow-up questions:

Where in the body do you sense it?
If this sensation had a quality — what kind?
What is its texture, temperature, density?
Stay with this. What is coming?

Warnings:

  • ⚠️ A felt sense is NOT an ordinary emotion (anxiety, sadness) and NOT a physical sensation (pain, itch)
  • ⚠️ If the client answers too quickly — it is most likely from the head, not from the body
  • ⚠️ Do not rush: 30–60 seconds of silence is normal and necessary
  • ⚠️ Distinguish "talking about" (EXP levels 1–3) and "sensing" (level 4+)
  • ⚠️ Some clients need several sessions to learn to make contact with the felt sense

Gendlin E. 1978/1981, Focusing; 1996, Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy

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Handle / SymbolHandle / Symbol

Finding the precise word, phrase, or image that grasps the quality of the felt sense. The handle is not analysis or interpretation but a symbol that comes "from inside" and resonates exactly with the bodily sensation. Once the handle is found, the felt sense begins to unfold.

  • 1. Make sure the client is in contact with the felt sense
  • 2. Invite: "Which word, image, or phrase fits the quality of this sensation?"
  • 3. Do not analyze — let the word/image come on its own
  • 4. Wait: the client may go quiet, half-close the eyes, "listen"
  • 5. Once a word comes — help the client check it (→ Resonating)
  • 6. If nothing comes: offer "What color? Shape? Texture? If it could speak, what would it say?"

When to use:

  • A felt sense has formed — the client senses "something" in the body
  • The client struggles to put the experience into words
  • When we need to "anchor" the felt sense so we can come back to it
  • The shift from a vague sensation to something we can work with

Key phrases:

Which word or image fits this sensation?
If this had a shape — what kind?
If it could speak, what would it say?

Follow-up questions:

What color, shape, texture does it have?
How would you describe it in one word?
Does a metaphor come? An image?

Warnings:

  • ⚠️ Do not suggest words — the handle must come from the client
  • ⚠️ Familiar labels ('anxiety', 'stress') are usually NOT a handle but a substitution
  • ⚠️ The handle is often unexpected: "a knot", "a gray cloud", "tight", "something frightening"
  • ⚠️ If a word does not come — that is normal; give more time, or look through images

Gendlin E. 1978/1981, Focusing; 1996, Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy

Details →
ResonatingResonating

Checking the found symbol/handle for accuracy: the client places the word or image back against the felt sense and senses whether it fits. Resonating is the back-and-forth movement between symbol and sensation, until a precise match is found that produces the bodily echo of "yes, this is it".

  • 1. The client found a word/image (a handle)
  • 2. Invite them to place it back against the felt sense: "Place this word back against the sensation"
  • 3. Ask: "Does it fit? Is there a small bodily signal — yes, this is it?"
  • 4. If it fits — the client often nods, sighs, releases
  • 5. If it does not — look for another: "Not quite? What would be more precise?"
  • 6. Move between the felt sense and the symbol until there is a precise match
  • 7. Once the match is found — stay with it before moving further

When to use:

  • After the handle/symbol is found — the standard next step
  • The client named the emotion too quickly — we need to check if it is precise
  • The word is found but there is no sense of relief or "catching it"
  • The client hesitates: "Well, sort of." — clarification is needed

Key phrases:

Place this word back against the sensation. Does it fit?
Check inside — does this exactly describe what you sense?
Is there a small bodily signal — yes, this is it?

Follow-up questions:

Not quite? What would be more precise?
Is something off in this word? What needs adjusting?
Maybe closer would be.

Warnings:

  • ⚠️ Do not rush to the "right" answer — the search itself is valuable
  • ⚠️ "No, not quite" is not a mistake but a sign of a live process
  • ⚠️ The therapist does NOT offer their own variants — only the client checks against the felt sense
  • ⚠️ Several iterations may be needed — that is normal

Gendlin E. 1978/1981, Focusing; 1996, Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy

Details →
Asking the Felt SenseAsking the Felt Sense

Deepening the work: once the precise handle is found, the therapist helps the client pose a question directly to the felt sense. The answer comes not from analysis but from the body. Asking opens deeper layers: what stands behind the experience, what it is afraid of, what it needs.

  • 1. Make sure the handle resonates — the client is in contact with the felt sense
  • 2. Invite asking the felt sense: "Ask this sensation: what about this problem makes it exactly this?"
  • 3. Important: the client senses the quality AFRESH, freshly, in the present moment
  • 4. Wait — let the answer come from the felt sense, not from the head
  • 5. If an answer comes — help the client stay with it and check the resonance
  • 6. If there is no answer — offer another question or give more time
  • 7. Each answer is a possible new felt sense to keep working with

When to use:

  • The handle is found and resonates — we want to deepen understanding
  • The client is stuck: senses "something" but cannot move further
  • When we need to reach a deeper meaning of the experience
  • The search for resources: "What does this sensation need?"
  • The search for direction: "What would be good?"

Key phrases:

Ask this sensation: what about this problem makes it exactly this?
What is the hardest thing in this?
What does this need?

Follow-up questions:

What would be good?
What is it afraid of?
What stands underneath all this?
If it could get one thing — what?

Warnings:

  • ⚠️ An answer from the head ≠ an answer from the felt sense. Watch the markers: pause, slowing, "uh-h-h."
  • ⚠️ Do not ask too many questions in a row — give time for each
  • ⚠️ Be sure to sense the quality afresh — do not use the "old" felt sense
  • ⚠️ The answer can be unexpected — do not criticize, do not evaluate

Gendlin E. 1978/1981, Focusing; 1996, Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy

Details →
ReceivingReceiving

The closing step of focusing: a friendly reception of everything that came from the felt sense, without evaluation or criticism. Receiving protects the fragile insight from the inner critic and lets change settle in. The body works "one shift at a time" — do not rush to the next.

  • 1. The client has received an answer / insight from the felt sense
  • 2. Invite receiving: "Receive what came, with warmth"
  • 3. Help to stay: "Do not rush. Stay with this"
  • 4. Invite gratitude: "Thank the body for this work"
  • 5. Protect from the critic: if the client begins to devalue — "Protect what came"
  • 6. Mark: "You can come back to this later — it will be here"
  • 7. Do not move further until the client has "taken in" this step

When to use:

  • After any focusing step — receiving what came
  • The client received an insight and starts to devalue it
  • A felt shift happened — staying with it is needed
  • Closing the session — integration of what was received
  • A self-critical client given to devaluation

Key phrases:

Receive what came, with warmth. Do not evaluate.
Stay with this for a while.
Thank the body for this work.

Follow-up questions:

Protect what came from the inner critic.
Tell the critic: "I hear you, but for now I will be with this."
You can come back to this. It will wait for you.

Warnings:

  • ⚠️ The inner critic often attacks right after the insight — be ready
  • ⚠️ Do not move to the next theme too fast — receiving needs time
  • ⚠️ The body works "one shift at a time" — do not expect everything at once
  • ⚠️ Even a "small" insight deserves receiving — do not devalue the scale

Gendlin E. 1978/1981, Focusing; 1996, Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy

Details →
Presence LanguagePresence Language

Ann Weiser Cornell's development of Gendlin's method: a shift in language that creates space between the I and the experience. Instead of "I am anxious" — "Something in me is anxious". This simple linguistic move restores the observing position and helps not to "drown" in emotion.

  • 1. Notice when the client speaks in the first person: "I am scared", "I am angry", "I am worthless"
  • 2. Gently offer: "Maybe you can say: something in me is scared?"
  • 3. Let the client try — speak the phrase in presence language
  • 4. Ask: "How does it feel to say it that way? Is there a difference?"
  • 5. If the client notices a difference — reinforce: "Yes, YOU are not the same as this part"
  • 6. Continue the work with "this part" as something that can be observed

When to use:

  • The client is identified with the emotion: "I am my anxiety"
  • The client is "flooded" — cannot observe, only experiences
  • Work with the inner critic: "I am worthless" → "A part feels worthless"
  • Any moment that asks for distance between the I and the experience
  • At the start of teaching focusing — a basic skill

Key phrases:

Maybe you can say: "Something in me feels."?
Try: "I notice that something in me is anxious".
Instead of "I am angry" — "There is a part that feels angry". How is that?

Follow-up questions:

Do you notice a difference when you say it that way?
How does it feel — to separate yourself from this feeling?
You are not the same as this part. You are the one who notices.

Warnings:

  • ⚠️ Do not impose — if it is uncomfortable for the client to speak this way, do not insist
  • ⚠️ This is not denial of feelings, but creating space for observation
  • ⚠️ Presence language is not an intellectual exercise but a bodily one: the client must SENSE the difference
  • ⚠️ For some clients it is too unfamiliar — start with simple examples

Cornell A.W. The Power of Focusing; Focusing in Clinical Practice

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Focusing PartnershipFocusing Partnership

A pair-practice format in which two people share the time equally and switch roles: the focuser works with their inner experience, the listener is present, reflects, but does NOT advise. A powerful tool for building the skill of focusing and for therapist burnout prevention.

  • 1. Explain the format: two people, the time is shared equally (20–30 minutes each)
  • 2. Define the roles: Focuser and Listener (Companion)
  • 3. The focuser chooses the type of presence: silence, reflection, or guidance
  • 4. The focuser works with their inner experience, the listener is present
  • 5. The listener does NOT give advice, does NOT interpret, does NOT comment
  • 6. After the first one's time — switch roles
  • 7. The content is NOT discussed after the session. Confidentiality is absolute

When to use:

  • Teaching the client solo focusing
  • A support group for therapists — burnout prevention
  • The client wants to practice focusing between sessions
  • A couple wants to deepen the emotional bond through mutual listening
  • Supervision in the FOT tradition

Key phrases:

Focusing partnership is a format in which you take turns listening to each other. The listener is simply present — without advice, without interpretations.
You decide what kind of presence you need: silence, reflection, or gentle guidance.

Follow-up questions:

How do you want me to be present? Silently? Reflecting?
I am here. Take as much time as you need.
The content of what you say will stay here.

Warnings:

  • ⚠️ The listener does not discuss the content after the session — that is the rule
  • ⚠️ The listener does not give advice, even if the focuser "asks" (the exception is an explicit request)
  • ⚠️ Focusing partnership is NOT therapy, but a practice of presence
  • ⚠️ Both partners need basic focusing training

Gendlin E. 1978/1981, Focusing; Cornell A.W. The Focusing Student's and Companion's Manual

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Keeping CompanyKeeping Company

The therapist "keeps company" with what the client is experiencing — without trying to change, fix, improve. That alone is a powerful therapeutic factor. In Gendlin's words: "The therapist must know that just being precisely with what the client expresses already does much".

  • 1. Notice what the client is experiencing right now — do not analyze
  • 2. Be with it. Without trying to change, explain, fix
  • 3. Reflect: "I see something difficult is here right now. I am alongside"
  • 4. Be silent if the client is silent. Be present bodily: open posture, eye contact
  • 5. If the client tries to "escape" into analysis — gently bring back: "Let us simply stay with this"
  • 6. Do not rush to a result. The company is already a result
  • 7. Close gently: "Thank you for letting me be alongside this"

When to use:

  • The client experiences strong pain, grief, loss
  • Nothing needs to be "done" — what is needed is simply to be alongside
  • The client is not ready for active work — support through presence is needed
  • Strong emotions in session — tears, anger, fear
  • Early sessions — building safety and trust

Key phrases:

I am alongside. Nothing needs to change right now.
Let us simply stay with this.
I see this is difficult. I am here.

Follow-up questions:

Do not rush. Take as much time as you need.
I am not going anywhere.
You can simply be with what is.

Warnings:

  • ⚠️ Do not confuse with inaction — keeping company requires full presence
  • ⚠️ Do not rush to "do something useful" — presence is the most useful thing
  • ⚠️ Watch yourself: the urge to "fix" is the therapist's anxiety, not the client's need
  • ⚠️ Keeping company is not a technique, but a way of being

Gendlin E. 1996, Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy

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Inner Relationship FocusingInner Relationship Focusing

A development of the method by Ann Weiser Cornell and Barbara McGavin: radical acceptance of all inner parts, including the critic. Instead of fighting "bad" parts — empathy for all. The key stance is Self-in-Presence: gentle listening with equanimity, without preferences.

  • 1. Help the client notice a "part" or "something inside": "Something in me feels."
  • 2. Invite the stance of Self-in-Presence: "You are the one who notices this part"
  • 3. Ask: "How do you feel toward this part? Can you be with it in a friendly way?"
  • 4. If there is hostility toward the part — that is another part: "I notice that something does not want to be with this. Can you also be with this?"
  • 5. Offer gently, not as questions but as suggestions: "Maybe you could say to this part: I hear you"
  • 6. No part is exiled — even the critic gets attention
  • 7. Listen to what each part wants to say or what it needs

When to use:

  • Inner conflict: one part wants one thing, another wants something else
  • A strong inner critic — the client is devaluing themselves
  • The client is fighting their feelings: "I do not want to feel this"
  • Ambivalence: pull and push at the same time
  • Work with defense mechanisms — not to remove, but to understand what they protect

Key phrases:

Something in me feels. Can you be with this part?
How do you feel toward this sensation? Friendly? Or does something want to drive it away?
No part is "bad". Each came for some reason.

Follow-up questions:

Maybe you could say to this part: "I hear you. I am here"?
What does this part want you to know?
What does it need from you right now?

Warnings:

  • ⚠️ Do not confuse with IFS — IRF does not build a formal system of parts
  • ⚠️ Soft offers, not questions — so as not to intrude on the process
  • ⚠️ If the client cannot be "friendly" with a part — that is information, not a problem
  • ⚠️ The process can be slow — respect the client's pace

Cornell A.W. McGavin B. Inner Relationship Focusing; Cornell A.W. Focusing in Clinical Practice

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Dream FocusingDream Focusing

A method of dream interpretation through bodily sensing rather than symbolic analysis. The dream already brings with it a formed felt sense — instead of "what does the snake mean?" we ask "how does this dream feel in the body?". Based on Gendlin's *Let Your Body Interpret Your Dreams*.

  • 1. The client tells the dream (or a fragment of it) — do not interrupt
  • 2. Invite a return to the sensation of the dream: "Close your eyes. Come back to this dream. How does it feel in the body?"
  • 3. Help to form the felt sense from the whole dream: "How does this whole dream feel together?"
  • 4. Find a handle: "Which word or image grasps this sensation?"
  • 5. Ask the felt sense: "What is most important in this dream? What is it trying to say?"
  • 6. Check the resonance: "Does it fit? Is there a bodily echo?"
  • 7. Do not interpret the dream symbolically — let the client's body decode it

When to use:

  • The client brought a dream that disturbs or occupies them
  • Recurring dreams — the body is trying to communicate something
  • Nightmares — safe access to traumatic material through the felt sense
  • The client is interested in their dreams, but symbolic interpretation does not help
  • Stagnation in therapy — dreams may open new material

Key phrases:

Close your eyes and come back to this dream. How does it feel in the body?
Do not analyze the dream — sense it. How does this whole dream feel together?
Where in the body do you feel this dream?

Follow-up questions:

What is the main thing in this dream — by sensing, not by logic?
If the dream could speak — what would it say?
Is there anything in your life right now that feels the same way?

Warnings:

  • ⚠️ Do NOT give symbolic interpretations — in FOT the client's body is the only interpreter
  • ⚠️ With nightmares work carefully: clearing a space first, the dream after
  • ⚠️ The felt sense of a dream can be very strong — be ready for emotional reactions
  • ⚠️ Not every client remembers dreams — that is normal, do not insist

Gendlin E. 1986, Let Your Body Interpret Your Dreams; Ellis L. Dream Focusing

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Thinking at the EdgeThinking at the Edge

A systematic method for articulating implicit knowing: when a person feels something important but cannot put it into words. Fourteen steps lead from a vague felt sense to a precise formulation. Used not only in therapy, but in academic work, writing, and the development of theories.

  • 1. Identify the "something": the client senses something important that does not fit familiar words
  • 2. Form the felt sense of this "something": "How does it feel in the body?"
  • 3. Find tentative words — let them be imprecise, "clunky"
  • 4. Check: "Does it fit? What is off? What needs to be added?"
  • 5. Look for "fresh" use of language — unusual metaphors, combinations of words
  • 6. Let the felt sense "edit" the formulation — the body as editor
  • 7. Move gradually toward a precise, new formulation
  • 8. Check each iteration for bodily resonance

When to use:

  • The client says: "I feel something important but cannot express it"
  • A creative block — there is an idea but it does not come into words
  • An existential search for meaning — "Something is wrong in my life, but I do not know what"
  • Building the therapist's professional intuition
  • The client finds that familiar words "do not work" for their experience

Key phrases:

You feel something that does not fit the words. Let us stay with this.
Say something, even if imprecise. Then we will check whether it fits.
Which words come closest to what you sense?

Follow-up questions:

This is not quite it — what needs adjusting?
If you could invent a new word for this — which?
Let the felt sense "correct" the formulation. What does it not like?

Warnings:

  • ⚠️ TAE is a complex process; the full 14-step cycle is for trained practitioners
  • ⚠️ In therapy, use a simplified version: felt sense → trial words → check → adjust
  • ⚠️ Do not rush — articulating implicit knowing requires patience
  • ⚠️ Familiar wording often gets in the way — encourage "wrong", fresh words

Gendlin E. Hendricks-Gendlin M. Thinking at the Edge; Gendlin E. 1997, A Process Model

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Felt ShiftFelt Shift

The moment of real therapeutic change: when the precise word or image for a felt sense is found, a tangible bodily shift happens — relief, release, deeper breath, tears, physical "letting go". This is the sign that not just a cognitive understanding has happened, but a change at the level of the body.

  • 1. Work with the felt sense through the standard steps: formation → handle → resonating → asking
  • 2. Watch for shift markers: a deep sigh, tears, release, surprise, "Aha!"
  • 3. When you notice the shift — bring the client's attention: "Did you notice? Something just changed"
  • 4. Help to stay with it: "Stay with this sensation. Do not rush"
  • 5. Invite description: "How does it feel now — after the shift?"
  • 6. Protect: "This matters. Receive it"
  • 7. Do not chase the next shift — the body works one at a time

When to use:

  • In the focusing process — when the precise word/image is found
  • Long work with one theme — waiting for the "turning point"
  • The client feels that something "moved" — help to bring it to awareness
  • A check: did real change happen, or was it only a cognitive insight

Key phrases:

Did you notice? Something just shifted. Stay with this.
This is the felt shift — the sign that something changed for real.
How does it feel now — afterwards?

Follow-up questions:

What changed? How does the place where the tension was feel now?
Receive this with warmth. This is your body finding something important.
You can come back to this sensation later — it will remember.

Warnings:

  • ⚠️ A felt shift cannot be "forced" — it comes on its own
  • ⚠️ Not every session ends with a shift — and that is normal
  • ⚠️ A small shift is as valuable as a big one
  • ⚠️ After a shift the client may be vulnerable — be careful

Gendlin E. 1978/1981, Focusing; 1996, Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy

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Dis-identificationDis-identification

Separating the "I" from problems, feelings, body sensations. The client comes to know: I am not my problems, not my emotions, not my thoughts. Underneath the layer of problems there is a deeper, healthy I. Dis-identification is the natural result of clearing a space and presence language.

  • 1. Use clearing a space — once all the "things" are set aside, the client senses "oneself without the problems"
  • 2. Help to notice: "Once everything is set aside — who is left? What do you sense?"
  • 3. Reinforce: "This is you. And the problems are alongside, but they are not you"
  • 4. Use presence language: "Anxiety is something you sense. But you are not the anxiety"
  • 5. Let the client stay in this space — the sense of "I separate from my problems"
  • 6. Ask: "What would be right for you right now? What is needed?"

When to use:

  • The client is fully identified with the problem: "I am a failure", "I am broken"
  • Work with chronic pain or illness — separating the I from the symptom
  • Anxiety disorder — "I am not my anxiety"
  • Depression — there is a living I underneath
  • Trauma — "I am not what happened to me"
  • As the conclusion of clearing a space — a natural closing

Key phrases:

Once everything is set aside — who is left? What do you sense?
You are not your problems. They are alongside, but they are not you.
What would be right right now?

Follow-up questions:

This space inside is always there. Even when the problems seem to take up everything.
What is it like to be here, in this place where you are you?
What do you notice in yourself when the problems are set aside?

Warnings:

  • ⚠️ This is not a denial of the problems — the client does not "throw them away", but discovers themselves alongside
  • ⚠️ Do not force — for some clients identification with the problem is a defense
  • ⚠️ In severe dissociation, take care — dis-identification can deepen the split
  • ⚠️ Dis-identification is not a one-time insight, but a skill that builds over time

Gendlin E. 1996, Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy; Cornell A.W. Presence Language

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ALLIANCE

FOCUS

INTERVENTIONS

PRESENCE

CLOSING

🔧 Adapted diary
This approach does not define a standardized client diary. We prepared an adapted version based on its key concepts. If you have suggestions, write to us.
Focusing Journal

Focusing helps you listen to the bodily felt sense of a situation.

By finding the handle for the felt sense, you let the body point toward what matters.

Record the topic → where it is in the body → handle → felt shift.

Materials are informational and educational and summarize publicly available scientific sources. They are not medical or psychological advice, are not intended for self-diagnosis or self-treatment, and do not replace consultation with a qualified professional.