Synopses & Reviews
The classic guide to a powerful
technique for personal transformation
Based on groundbreaking research conducted at the University of Chicago, the focusing technique has gained widespread popularity and scholarly acclaim. It consists of six easy-to-master steps that identify and change the way thoughts and emotions are held within the body. Focusing can be done virtually anywhere, at any time, and an entire “session” can take no longer than ten minutes, but its effects can be felt immediately-in the relief of bodily tension and psychological stress, as well as in dramatic shifts in understanding and insight.
In this highly accessible guide, Dr. Eugene Gendlin, the award-winning psychologist who developed the focusing technique, explains the basic principles behind focusing and offers simple step-by-step instructions on how to utilize this powerful tool for tapping into greater self-awareness and inner wisdom. As you learn to develop your natural ability to “focus,” youll find yourself more in sync with both mind and body, filled with greater self-assurance, and better equipped to make the positive changes necessary to improve and enhance every aspect of your life.
Synopsis
What is focusing? Based on research at the University of Chicago, focusing is a new technique of self therapy that teaches you to identify and change the way your personal problems concretely exist in your body. Focusing consists of steps of felt change. Unlike methods that stress "getting in touch with your feelings," there is a built-in test: each focusing step, when done correctly, is marked by a physical relief, a profound release of tension. Focusing guides you to the deepest level of awareness within your body. It is on this level, unfamiliar to most people, that unresolved problems actually exist, and only on this level can they change.
About the Author
Eugene T. Gendlin, Ph.D., University of Chicago has been honored three times by the American Psychological Association for his development of experiential psychotherapy. He received the first Distinguished Professional Psychologist of the Year award from the Clinical Division” he and the Focusing Institute received an award from the Humanistic Division in 2000. He was the founder and editor for many years of the Clinical Division journal Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, and Practice. His book Focusing has sold over 400,000 copies and is translated into twelve languages. His other books include Let Your Body Interpret Your Dreams, Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy, Experiencing and the Creation of Meaning, Language Beyond Post-Modernism: Saying and Thinking in Gendlins Philosophy (edited by David Levin). He has published many articles. He is internationally recognized as a major American philosopher and psychologist.