If You Already Tried Focusing, and
You Found it Didn't Work As Well As You Wanted,
Read This:

"I was first introduced to Focusing sometime in the 80's. It became popular with many of our local counselors and healers and through the grapevine I heard impressive things about it. So I bought Gendlin's book Focusing, read it, sat down to do it for myself and had instant 'Beginner's Luck'. Awesome! I was very impressed.

"Subsequent sessions ran me afoul of my Inner Critic, of course, and I found Gendlin's instructions for dealing with shame not at all helpful. So I just put Focusing on the back burner thinking there was something really good there but that at the same time something needed to be simplified for me to get reliable results out of it.

"I noticed that Focusing also lost popularity here in town with the therapists as well. I figured they had run into the same problems I had.

"Then about a year and a half ago I ran across your website while I was doing a search for 'body scanning/body focusing/body sensing'. As soon as it came up in Google I thought, 'Oh! Focusing! I haven't thought about that in a while. I wonder if they've worked the bugs out of that Inner Critic loop. Sure would be a useful tool if they could do that.' So I dove immediately into all of the information on your wonderful website and immediately ordered The Power of Focusing at our local bookstore.

"What a breath of fresh air! I resonated strongly with what I read of your approach. I ordered your older manual and your audio tapes and your video. And I started getting more reliable results for myself.

"But it was the new manuals, that you wrote with Barbara McGavin, that took me over the top. The languaging about "Being Present" made it suddenly all clear. (I teach Breema Bodywork: The Art of Being Present, which you have probably seen ads for.) Once I 'got' that being present with the felt sense was the big picture of what Focusing was about, everything fell into place. All the instructions made perfect sense. So I just taught the process to myself. After I'd been doing it for some time, I thought it might be interesting to experience doing it with a friend. So I bought a second set of books as well as talking a few friends into buying their own copies and we just started exchanging. Those books are really, really good! Very complete and well organized.

"The funniest thing is when someone comes who has had some experience with the 'old style' of Focusing, invariably they are pleasantly surprised. Sometimes even astounded. 'This is Focusing? This is so much easier/more natural/more effective than what I experienced as Focusing before!' "

— Linda Hedquist, Fairfield, Iowa

...go back.