Whether you have previous experience with therapy or are considering therapy for the first time, Focusing-Oriented Therapy can offer a unique and empowering experience.
Focusing Oriented Therapy is deeply respectful and empowering of the client’s thoughts, feelings, and experience.
Rather than the therapist being “the authority,” the therapist and client participate in a collaborative process that nurtures and values the client’s experience. This respectful attitude creates a safe and supportive environment in which difficult issues and persistent obstacles to change can be openly explored. Clients often begin experiencing increased awareness, sensitivity, and empathy toward themselves and their own personal predicaments.
Focusing Oriented Therapy emphasises each person’s directly-felt experience. What the client actually feels bodily is the most important guide to a Focusing Therapist. During sessions, the therapist listens deeply to what the client says and encourages the client to be guided by their ‘inner sense’ of rightness. When the client can accurately describe what they feel, and the therapist is attuned to the client’s experience, then this feeling in the body often releases at least a little, and each bodily release is an indicator of real change.
Here are three ways in which Focusing Oriented Therapists encourage clients to explore feelings that can initially appear vague and not easily described in words:
- 1st: Clients learn the value of gently setting aside pre-existing assumptions, opinions, and beliefs.
- 2nd: Through the process of Focusing Oriented Therapy, clients learn to recognize and be guided by their own authentic “voice,” thus differentiating it from voices that are self destructive and growth-blocking.
- 3rd: A Focusing Oriented Therapist typically uses a process called Experiential Listening. The client’s words are reflected back by the therapist in a manner that allows the client to check with his/her inner sense of felt-meaning and accuracy: “Is this really what I meant?” If there is not an inner fit between words and meaning, time is taken to explore exactly: “What do I mean?”
Further information on Focusing Therapy (PDF file)
We welcome your inquiries and look forward to hearing from you with questions or comments about this approach to therapy. Listings of professionals offering Focusing sessions and Focusing Oriented Therapy in your area can be found by clicking the link below.