Books: Power of Presence Lesson 5

Focusing

– Eugene T. Gendlin

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,” you’ll 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.

The Power of Focusing: A Practical Guide to Emotional Self-Healing

– Ann Weiser Cornell

Focusing is a gentle yet powerful skill that lets you tap into your body’s wisdom and make positive changes in your life. The Power of Focusing shows readers how they can train themselves to learn this vital technique of self-exploration and self-discovery.

Your Body Knows the Answer: Using Your Felt Sense to Solve Problems, Effect Change, and Liberate Creativity

– David I. Rome

Combines mindfulness with the Focusing technique made popular by Eugene Gendlin to tap into your body’s subtle wisdom for dealing with all life’s challenges.

Your body has an answer to just about any question or challenge that arises. It’s simply a matter of learning to recognize and listen to the subtle physical signal that comes from someplace inside you other than your mind. This “felt sense” was first made widely known by the psychologist Eugene Gendlin, whose book on learning to use your felt sense, Focusing, has sold millions of copies since it was first published in 1978. Certified Focusing teacher David Rome here enhances the traditional Focusing techniques with mindfulness and other Buddhist principles learned from his teacher Chögyam Trungpa to provide remarkably effective techniques for learning to access your felt sense–and not only for applying it to problem solving and dealing with challenges, but for kick-starting the creative process in oneself. With its short, accessible chapters and its abundant practical exercises, this may be the most compact and accessible guide to Focusing yet published.

Minding the Body, Mending the Mind 

–Joan Borysenko

Based on Dr. Borysenko’s groundbreaking work nearly twenty years ago at the Mind/Body Clinic in Boston, Minding the Body, Mending the Mind continues to be a classic in the field, with time-tested tips on how to take control of your own physical and emotional wellbeing. The clinic’s dramatic success with thousands of patients-with conditions ranging from allergies to cancer-offers vivid proof of the effectiveness of the mind/body approach to health and its power to transform your life. Here are tips on how to elicit the mind’s powerful relaxation response to boost your immune system, cope with chronic pain, and alleviate symptoms of a host of stress-related illnesses. Updated with the recent developments in the field, the new edition is a must-have for anyone interested in taking an active role in healing himself or herself.

The Power of the Mind to Heal 

Joan Borysenko Ph.D

The authors have intergrated their considerable knowledge of medicine, metaphysics, spirituality, and alternative forms of healing into a beautiful book that reveals how we can use the amazing power of the mind to heal the physical and emotional ailments that afflict us. This is truly a transformational work!

 

Focusing in Clinical Practice: The Essence of Change

– Ann Weiser Cornell

“Focusing” is a particular process of attention that supports therapeutic change, a process that has been linked in more than 50 research studies with successful outcomes in psychotherapy. First developed by pioneering philosopher and psychotherapist Eugene Gendlin, Focusing quietly inspired much of the somatically oriented, mindfulness-based work being done today. Yet what makes Focusing a truly revolutionary approach to therapeutic change has been little understood―until now.

Focusing is based on a radically different understanding of the body as inherently meaningful and implicitly wise. Mere intellectualizing or talking about problems can keep clients stuck in their old patterns of behavior. Focusing introduces the concept of the “felt sense,” a moment in process when there is a potential to experience more than is already known and to break through old, frozen, stuck patterns. Clients who see real change during the course of their therapy work are often those who can contact and stay with a felt sense―but how to help them do so is not obvious.

Ann Weiser Cornell, who has been teaching Focusing to clinicians for more than 30 years, shows how to help clients get felt senses andnurture them when they appear, how to work with clients who have difficulty feeling in the body, how to facilitate a “felt shift,” how to support clients who experience dysregulating emotional states, and much more. Beginning with a clear explanation of what makes Focusing so potentially transformative, she goes on to show how to effectively incorporate Focusing with other treatment modalities and use it to treat a range of client issues, notably trauma, addiction, and depression.

Designed to be immediately applicable for working clinicians and filled with practical strategies, clinical examples, and vignettes, this book shows step by step how to bring Focusing into any kind of clinical practice. Cornell expertly demonstrates the Focusing process unfolding, moment by moment, in the therapy room, and illuminates its powerful capacity to support a client’s growth and change.