Focusing
A Gentle Approach to Self-Understanding
Sometimes we can understand our difficulties intellectually without feeling that anything has really changed. We may have spent years thinking about a particular problem, analysing our experiences, or trying to find a way forward, yet something remains unresolved.
Focusing offers a different way of listening to ourselves. Rather than trying to think our way towards an answer, we gently turn our attention towards our embodied experience, allowing understanding to emerge from within.
Through a process of curious, compassionate attention, we can begin to recognise the feelings, sensations and meanings that may be difficult to put into words. We don’t need to force an answer or make anything happen. Instead, we create space for our experience to unfold at its own pace.
What is Focusing?
Developed by philosopher and psychologist Eugene Gendlin, Focusing is an experiential process that involves paying attention to the subtle, often initially unclear bodily sense of a situation.
We all have an implicit bodily knowing that can extend beyond what we can immediately articulate. Sometimes we sense that something isn’t quite right, feel an unexplained tension, or carry a feeling that we haven’t yet fully understood.
Focusing invites us to meet these experiences with curiosity rather than judgement. By staying with them gently, we may discover new perspectives, a deeper understanding of ourselves, or a sense of movement where things previously felt stuck.
Focusing isn’t about analysing ourselves, searching for the right answer, or trying to eliminate uncomfortable feelings. It’s about developing a different relationship with our inner experience — one characterised by openness, patience and acceptance.
How can Focusing help?
Focusing can be a valuable way of exploring experiences that are difficult to understand through thinking alone.
Our sessions may offer space to explore:
- Emotional patterns and recurring difficulties — becoming more aware of what lies beneath familiar reactions or ways of relating.
- Stress and overwhelm — gently attending to what we are carrying and discovering what we might need.
- Transitions and uncertainty — making room for conflicting feelings and allowing a clearer sense of direction to emerge.
- Relationships and attachment — exploring our felt responses to closeness, distance, boundaries and connection.
- Dreams and inner imagery — attending to the bodily felt sense of a dream and allowing its personal meaning to unfold.
- A deeper relationship with ourselves — developing greater self-awareness, self-acceptance and trust in our own experience.
Focusing is not about forcing change. Sometimes the most meaningful shift begins with allowing ourselves to acknowledge something that has not previously had space to be felt.
What happens in a session?
Sessions offer a supportive space in which we can slow down and turn our attention towards your experience.
We begin with whatever feels present for you. This might be a relationship difficulty, a recurring feeling, a decision you’re facing, or simply a vague sense that something needs attention.
Rather than immediately analysing the situation or looking for solutions, I may invite you to notice what happens in your body as you bring it to mind. You might notice a tightness in your chest, a heaviness in your stomach, a sense of unease, or something more subtle that is difficult to describe.
We take time to stay curious about these sensations, finding words, images or gestures that seem to resonate with your experience. There is no need to get it right, and no expectation that you should feel a particular way.
I offer guidance and companionship in this process, while respecting your pace, your boundaries and your own sense of what feels appropriate.
Sessions are collaborative. You remain the authority on your experience, and we work together to create the conditions in which greater understanding can emerge.
Focusing and somatic awareness
My approach to Focusing is informed by a broader interest in embodiment — the relationship between our bodily experience, emotions, memories and ways of being in the world.
Sometimes our bodies seem to carry experiences that we haven’t yet found words for. By approaching these experiences with patience and curiosity, we can begin to recognise what is asking for our attention without needing to force a particular outcome.
Alongside Focusing, my work draws on my training in TRE® (Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises), embodied dreamwork and meditation. These approaches offer different ways of exploring our experience, and may complement one another where appropriate.
We don’t need to use a particular method or follow a fixed process. The work begins with you and what feels most relevant in the moment.
A little about my approach
My interest in this work has developed through many years of contemplative practice, personal exploration and professional training.
I spent 20 years in Theravada Buddhist monastic life, where meditation and the cultivation of awareness were central to daily life. Over time, my interest expanded to include the ways we experience and process emotion, the body and the less conscious dimensions of our lives.
I have undertaken Levels 1 and 2 training in Focusing-Oriented Therapy with Dr Leslie Ellis, alongside training in TRE embodied dreamwork, meditation teaching and trauma-informed facilitation.
These experiences inform an approach that values presence over fixing, curiosity over judgement, and respect for the individual pace at which understanding and change can unfold.
Online Focusing sessions
I offer online sessions for people who would like to explore their inner experience in a supportive, unhurried setting.
You don’t need any previous experience of Focusing, and you don’t need to know exactly what you want to work on. We can begin with whatever feels present for you.
If you’re curious about Focusing and would like to explore whether it might be helpful, you’re welcome to get in touch.
Get in touch to discuss online sessions.
