Man, I have been waiting so long/hard for someone(s) to try different approaches to teaching focusing (although I haven’t tried learning at CFAR, not sure what their lesson there is like)
The Gendlin’s Focusing audiobook worked for me (my girlfriend and I listened to it together and it gave us tools useful both for the relationship and life in general). But I was keenly aware that the thing-I-got-out-of-the-audiobook wasn’t that tightly coupled with the particular way the audiobook works, and that there were probably better/simpler/different ways to explain it.
I think this is a pretty good description—at the very least, it conveys why you’d want to learn this, even if it’s not quite enough to learn it on it’s own. (I’m curious if anyone else who’s wanted to learn focusing is able to make progress via this post, I hope it works out at least for some people)
I have learned about Focusing from CFAR instructors and what you took away from it is what I took away as the core, useful thing. Even though this isn’t really how it was taught. The version I heard had a lot more focus on the physical sensations (which did bupkis for me) while the thing you described “Is it X?” did more.
Not really, since I haven’t taken it, but my raw impressions from what I’ve heard is that the CFAR class follows Gendlin’s process more explicitly, covering all six steps in a way that Gendlin would be likely to recognize and endorse. So stuff like being more emphatic at the beginning about clearing a mental space and getting into a comfortable physical position and sort of dropping into your body and stuff, which I never found super useful personally but which I’ve seen be very useful for others.
The way I learned it at CFAR was a four step process of notice the felt sense, describe the felt sense, check if that’s correct, and then go back to describing if it doesn’t. Almost exactly what you stated above.
Man, I have been waiting so long/hard for someone(s) to try different approaches to teaching focusing (although I haven’t tried learning at CFAR, not sure what their lesson there is like)
The Gendlin’s Focusing audiobook worked for me (my girlfriend and I listened to it together and it gave us tools useful both for the relationship and life in general). But I was keenly aware that the thing-I-got-out-of-the-audiobook wasn’t that tightly coupled with the particular way the audiobook works, and that there were probably better/simpler/different ways to explain it.
I think this is a pretty good description—at the very least, it conveys why you’d want to learn this, even if it’s not quite enough to learn it on it’s own. (I’m curious if anyone else who’s wanted to learn focusing is able to make progress via this post, I hope it works out at least for some people)
So, a lot of props for this. Thanks. :)
I haven’t actually taken CFAR’s Focusing lesson, but from what my friends tell me, it’s not at all like the above.
I have learned about Focusing from CFAR instructors and what you took away from it is what I took away as the core, useful thing. Even though this isn’t really how it was taught. The version I heard had a lot more focus on the physical sensations (which did bupkis for me) while the thing you described “Is it X?” did more.
Can you say more about what’s different?
Not really, since I haven’t taken it, but my raw impressions from what I’ve heard is that the CFAR class follows Gendlin’s process more explicitly, covering all six steps in a way that Gendlin would be likely to recognize and endorse. So stuff like being more emphatic at the beginning about clearing a mental space and getting into a comfortable physical position and sort of dropping into your body and stuff, which I never found super useful personally but which I’ve seen be very useful for others.
The way I learned it at CFAR was a four step process of notice the felt sense, describe the felt sense, check if that’s correct, and then go back to describing if it doesn’t. Almost exactly what you stated above.