01_Gendlin_FocusingResearch
As the song “I Can See Clearly Now” (written by Johnny Nash) says, “I can see clearly now, the rain is gone. I can see all obstacles in my way. Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind.” The ventral vagal state is hopeful and resourceful. We can live, love, and laugh by ourselves and with others. This is not a place where everything is wonderful
... See moreDeb A. Dana • The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology)
It envisions a person as a process, capable of continual change and forward movement. The “problems” inside you are only those parts of the process that have been stopped, and the aim of focusing is to unstop them and get the process moving again.
Eugene T. Gendlin • Focusing: How to Open Up Your Deeper Feelings and Intuition
Focusing, by contrast, is optimistic. It is based on the very positive expectation of change. It doesn’t envision a human being as a fixed structure whose shape can be analyzed once and for
Eugene T. Gendlin • Focusing: How to Open Up Your Deeper Feelings and Intuition
It concerns a different kind of inward attention to what is at first sensed unclearly. Then it comes into focus and, through the specific internal movements I am about to present, it changes in a bodily way.