Focusing and focusing-oriented therapy

1. Introduction

Version followed: Eugene T. Gendlin's Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy (FOT) as set out in Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy: A Manual of the Experiential Method (Guilford, 1996), with the "classic six steps" of focusing from Focusing (1978/1981, ch. 4, as published by The International Focusing Institute), Gendlin's therapist-response rules (1968) and the client's-client stance (1984), and Hendricks' FOT how-to paper. Inner Relationship Focusing (Cornell & McGavin) is included as a named variant and labelled as such.

Focusing is a teachable way of attending to a felt sense: an unclear, bodily, whole sense of a situation or problem, felt mostly in the middle of the body, that is at first hard to put into words. Focusing-oriented psychotherapy is not a separate school with its own techniques so much as a way of doing any therapy: the therapist keeps returning the client's attention to that bodily edge, and checks every statement, interpretation or exercise against it. Change happens in small felt shifts: when words, images or actions arise from the felt sense and fit it, the body eases ("a slight give or release") and the situation is experienced differently; this is what Gendlin calls the experience being "carried forward". Talk about a problem, insight without bodily change, and repeated intense emotion are treated as dead ends unless they lead to such a shift. [source: Gendlin 1978/2007 six steps (focusing.org); Gendlin 1996 chs. 2–3 (focusing.org GOL excerpt); Gendlin 1968; Hendricks n.d.]

Focusing is also practised outside therapy (focusing partnerships, "Changes" listening groups, self-help); this guide is written for a clinician using it inside therapy, with notes on those formats where relevant. [source: Gendlin 1984 "Politics of giving therapy away"; Hendricks n.d.]

2. Framework

FOT has no fixed phases, session count or protocol. Gendlin's 1996 "manual" is organised as (I) focusing and listening, then (II) integrating other therapeutic avenues (body work, role play, dreams, imagery, catharsis, action steps, cognitive therapy, the superego, values, the relationship). The structure below is the order of priority the sources describe, used flexibly within and across sessions, not a sequence of treatment stages. [source: Gendlin 1996 table of contents (Guilford); Gendlin 1984 client's client] Typical length: not specified in the primary sources [uncertain]; FOT is usually delivered as open-ended individual therapy, often weekly [synthesis].

Layer A: Relationship and listening (always first, throughout).

Goal: a safe, steady presence in which the client feels exactly received; the relationship takes priority over any technique.
Format: long stretches of pure listening and precise reflection; few or no instructions.
Move on when: the client is talking from inside (pausing, searching for words, referring to something felt but unclear), or talk is going round in circles and a gentle bodily invitation might help. If the client objects to being instructed or the contact feels strained, come back to this layer first. [source: Gendlin 1984 client's client; Gendlin 1996 summary; Hendricks n.d.]

Layer B: Inviting bodily attention within ordinary dialogue.

Goal: help a felt sense form and be referred to, using pointing responses, slowing down, and brief invitations ("How is that whole thing in your body right now?").
Move on when: the client can find and stay with a felt sense for at least moments; if not, consider explicit teaching (Layer C).

Layer C: Explicit teaching of focusing (optional).

Goal: give the client the steps (clearing a space, felt sense, handle, resonating, asking, receiving) as a skill, in session, sometimes as a short guided sequence, sometimes alongside partnership practice or a class outside therapy.
Gendlin presents the six steps as a provisional scaffold that experienced focusers stop experiencing as separate steps. [source: Gendlin 1978/2007 six steps; Gendlin 1996 chs. 7–9 titles]

Layer D: Integrating other avenues.

Goal: use role play, imagery, dreams, catharsis, action steps, cognitive work and the relationship itself as ways into or out of a felt sense, keeping only what produces a bodily effect. Any avenue can lead to a felt sense, and a felt sense can generate new experience in any avenue. [source: Gendlin 1996 ch. list; secondary summary of Gendlin 1996]

Within-session criterion for every move: after anything the therapist says or proposes, check whether it brought a bodily shift in how the problem is felt; if yes, stay with it; if no, drop it and return to where the client was. Progress is judged by referent movement (felt shifts), not by insight or the amount of emotion expressed. [source: Gendlin 1996 ch. 2; Gendlin 1968 rule 8]

Ending: not specified in the sources [uncertain]. Reasonable markers [synthesis]: the client can find and stay with felt senses alone, can take a friendly stance toward what comes, and is taking their own life-forward steps; continued partnership or group practice can replace therapy.

3. Guiding principles

[source for this section unless noted: Gendlin 1968 ten rules; Gendlin 1984 client's client; Gendlin 1984 politics of giving therapy away; Gendlin 1978/2007 six steps; Gendlin 1996 excerpt and secondary summary; Hendricks n.d.; Cornell & McGavin 2008]

Relationship first. If the contact is strained, attend to that before any focusing instruction.
The person in there. Relate to the person behind the problems and symptoms, not to the presenting problem or a diagnosis; put nothing (theory, technique) between you. [source: secondary summary of Gendlin 1996]
Respond to felt meaning. Aim reflections at what the client is sensing but cannot yet say, not only at their words.
Responses point; they need not be right. A response is useful if it sends the client to check inside, even when it misses; treat misses as invitations to sense again.
Try tentative directions. Offer leads lightly and expect many to be wrong.
Only the client knows the track. The client's inner response, not your theory, decides direction; follow steps that go somewhere unexpected.
Only referent movement is progress. Look for a felt easing; insight-talk without it is not yet change.
Experiential use of concepts. Use theory as a pointer to check against experience, then let it go when the client's experiencing moves on ("zig-zag").
Depth is into the point. Go further into the present felt sense, not out to broader theories about the person.
Felt sense, not just emotion. A felt sense of the whole situation is usually quieter than emotion; do not push for intensity.
Right distance: stand back, don't go in, don't run away. Help the client be near the problem without being inside it, and neither push through nor avoid what is in the way.
Friendly, non-judging attitude to whatever comes. Receive the first, crude-seeming step without asking for reasons or calling it unrealistic; further steps refine it.
Split-level instruction. Give instructions, but let the client's sense that something is wrong override them; "Instructions for not following instructions are the essence of focusing" (Gendlin, six steps).
Instructions sparingly; no stacking. Long periods of listening; brief, occasional instructions; drop any intervention that doesn't help.
Check everything bodily. Interpretations, reframes and exercises stay only if they make a felt difference.
Protect the life-forward direction. Notice and affirm small new openings (energy, playfulness, interest) and guard them from the critic or quick dismissal; don't prescribe what the step should be.
Respond to the positive tendency first. Under defeating behaviour there is usually a thwarted life-maintaining tendency; respond to that.
No whitewashing. Name painful, hopeless or negative aspects as they are rather than reassuring.
Therapist self-expression, rare and purposeful. Clarify your own reaction to yourself, then express it briefly in a way that serves the client.
Medium relaxation. Enough ease to sense subtle things, not so much (hypnotic) that the body stops "talking back".
Use any avenue. Methods from other therapies are welcome if they lead to a felt shift.
Presence (IRF variant). Assume the client can be in a calm, curious, accepting stance toward their parts; speak from that assumption, and prefer gentle statements to questions. [source: Cornell & McGavin 2008]

4. Intervention inventory

Group A covers the therapist's moment-to-moment responses, Group B the six focusing movements as Gendlin teaches them, Group C the other avenues FOT brings in, and Group D formats and variants. All example language is illustrative unless quoted and cited.

A1. Listening (exact reflection)

Purpose / when: the base of every session; creates safety, lets the client hear and correct their own meaning, and is often what makes a felt sense form. Use it most of the time. [source: Gendlin 1984 politics; Gendlin 1996 ch. 2 excerpt; Hendricks n.d.]
Steps: (1) Take in what the client wants to convey. (2) Say it back as they meant it, using their key words and adding nothing of your own (no interpretation, advice or reassurance). (3) Expect the first try to be slightly off; let the client correct you and try again until they confirm. (4) When they confirm, stay quiet; a short silence often comes, followed by something newer or deeper. (5) Reflect especially words that seem to come straight from the felt sense, and what the client says about what they care about or value in themselves.
Example language (illustrative): "So it's not that you're angry at her exactly; it's more that you felt ignored." / "Let me slow us down so I can take that in." (Hendricks' wording is close to the latter.)
Watch for: a small visible relief or "yes, that's it" followed by a pause means you have received it; rapid agreement followed by more of the same story means you are only at the content level.

A2. Pointing (experiential) responses

Purpose / when: to direct attention to the unclear edge of what is felt, rather than to restate content. Use when the client is near something they can't yet say. [source: Gendlin 1968 rules 1–5; Gendlin 1984 client's client]
Steps: (1) Notice the not-yet-clear part (a hesitation, "sort of", a gesture, "I don't know, it's just..."). (2) Respond to it vaguely and accurately, so the client must check inside to see what it is: "something in you...", "that sense there", "...and that isn't clear yet". (3) Offer one tentative direction at a time. (4) If the client answers by inferring ("yes, that must be true... er"), you missed: point back to what they actually feel.
Example language: "Something in you doesn't want to..." (Gendlin 1984, pointing form); "That sounds sort of right to you, but it isn't what you mainly feel now" (paraphrase of Gendlin 1968 example). Illustrative: "There's something about the whole thing with your brother that hasn't got words yet."
Watch for: the client pausing, looking down or inward, and coming back with a new word or a correction. That is working even if your response was wrong.

A3. Slowing down and silence

Purpose / when: clients often talk fast to avoid the discomfort of an unclear edge; slowing lets a felt sense form. Use when talk is quick, circular or after any small stirring. [source: Gendlin 1996 ch. 2 excerpt; Gendlin 1984 client's client; Cornell & McGavin 2008]
Steps: (1) Repeat a deeply felt phrase slowly, perhaps twice. (2) Ask permission to pause. (3) Wait; in the IRF variant pauses of 15 seconds or more are common and valued. (4) If a stirring appears without words, stop talking and help the client stay with it silently.
Example language: "Let's be quiet for a moment, so you can sense all that" (Gendlin 1984 wording, paraphrased lightly). Illustrative: "Can we stay right there a moment?"
Watch for: silence that feels like searching (good) versus silence that feels blank, anxious or shut down (check the relationship, A10).

A4. Locating bodily attention

Purpose / when: for clients who don't know where to sense or live mostly in their heads; prerequisite for felt sense work. [source: Gendlin 1984 politics; Gendlin 1984 client's client; Gendlin 1996 ch. 2 excerpt]
Steps: (1) Invite attention to the middle of the body (throat, chest, stomach). (2) If that is hard, start further out: toes, then knee, then stomach and chest, so the client learns they can put attention somewhere inside. (3) Ask what is there now, about this issue, without asking for a label. (4) Accept any answer ("tight", "nothing much", "a sort of jumpiness").
Example language: "How is it in your chest or stomach now?" (Gendlin 1996 excerpt, short quote). Illustrative: "Just let your attention come down into the middle of your body and see what's there when you think about all of that."
Watch for: reports of pure sensation without connection to the situation are a start, not yet a felt sense; panic, numbness or flashback signs mean stop and ground (see 5.6).

A5. Widening an emotion into a felt sense

Purpose / when: when a client is caught in a recognisable emotion (fear, anger, guilt) that repeats without changing. [source: Hendricks n.d.; Gendlin 1984 client's client]
Steps: (1) Acknowledge the emotion fully. (2) Invite the client to step back slightly and sense the whole situation in which the emotion arises. (3) Ask for the quality of that whole. (4) Do not try to increase intensity.
Example language (illustrative): "You're scared, yes. And if you step back a little and feel the whole situation that the fear is about, what's the feel of all that?"
Watch for: a quieter, more complex sense replacing the familiar emotion; new words that are not the usual story.

A6. Bodily checking of any intervention (interpretations, reframes, theory)

Purpose / when: whenever you offer an interpretation, reframe, explanation or idea from any school. [source: Gendlin 1996 ch. 2 excerpt; Gendlin 1968 rule 9]
Steps: (1) Offer it tentatively, as something to check. (2) Invite the client to look inward and see whether it matches what they sense. (3) If there is a bodily shift, stay with what came. (4) If not, drop it quickly, say so, and return to where the client was. (5) You may try a method from another approach instead.
Example language (illustrative): "I'm wondering whether some of this is about your father. Check it, don't take my word: does anything in there move with that?"
Watch for: intellectual agreement without any easing means it didn't land; don't argue for it.

A7. Responding to the positive, life-forward tendency

Purpose / when: when the client mentions something they value, a new interest, energy, playfulness, or when defeating behaviour hides a thwarted positive aim. [source: Gendlin 1968; Gendlin 1996 ch. 2 excerpt and ch. 20 title; Hendricks n.d.]
Steps: (1) Notice the small new or positive thing. (2) Reflect it, often first, before the problem. (3) Help the client sense it bodily. (4) Protect it from the critic ("that's silly") or from being dismissed as fantasy; don't prescribe its form.
Example language (illustrative): "Something in you lit up just then when you talked about the garden." / "There seems to be a sense of wanting more ways to connect, even if you don't know what form yet."
Watch for: the client brightening, sitting up, or a release of tears with relief; the opening shrinking if the critic rushes in.

A8. Therapist self-expression

Purpose / when: when your own reaction (pushed, impatient, embarrassed) is shaping the interaction, or when a client has no experiential track yet and needs a more expressive therapist to engage. [source: Gendlin 1968]
Steps: (1) Notice your reaction and treat it as information. (2) Clarify it to yourself first. (3) Respond first to the client's constructive aim. (4) Then say briefly and honestly what you feel and what you'd like between you. (5) Return to the client.
Example language (illustrative): "I can see you really want us to get somewhere fast, and I want that too. I notice I'm feeling pushed, and I don't want us to be like that with each other."
Watch for: the client re-engaging more personally; keep these rare.

A9. Not whitewashing

Purpose / when: when the client describes something bleak, hopeless or shameful. [source: Gendlin 1968]
Steps: reflect the negative exactly as it is, without reassurance or reframing, then let the client sense it.
Example language (illustrative): "It feels completely hopeless right now."
Watch for: relief at being met, and further movement, rather than defensive arguing.

A10. Using the relationship as an avenue

Purpose / when: when anger, fear or mistrust toward the therapist appears; the relationship is both the foundation and an avenue of change. [source: Gendlin 1996 ch. 23 title; secondary summary of Gendlin 1996; Gendlin 1968]
Steps: (1) Respond non-defensively and receive the feeling fully. (2) Treat yourself and the client as equals; say what is true for you if relevant (A8). (3) Let the client sense what it is like to be met this way.
Example language (illustrative): "You're angry that I said that. I'd like to hear all of it."
Watch for: a corrective experience (client surprised not to be punished or abandoned); a deepening of contact.

B0. Teaching focusing within therapy (framing and pacing)

Purpose / when: when listening and pointing alone don't help the client find a felt sense, or the client wants a skill to use between sessions. [source: Gendlin 1984 client's client; Gendlin 1996 chs. 7–9 titles; Gendlin 1978/2007 six steps]
Steps: (1) Ask whether the client would like to try something more structured; respect a no. (2) Explain briefly: you'll invite them to notice the body's sense of an issue, not to analyse it; they should ignore any instruction that feels wrong. (3) Give one instruction at a time, then go back to listening; don't stack instructions. (4) If the client objects to being instructed or the contact strains, stop and attend to that; teaching can resume later. (5) Use medium relaxation (no deep trance). (6) Afterwards, ask briefly what it was like.
Example language (illustrative): "Would you like to try something a bit different? I'll suggest a few things to notice. If anything I say doesn't feel right inside, just don't do it and tell me."
Watch for: compliance without inner contact (the client "performing" steps), or rising tension; both mean slow down or return to listening.

B1. Clearing a space (making a space)

Purpose / when: at the start of a focusing session; when the client is overwhelmed by many concerns; when a client is too distant and needs a way in; to find a sense of a self that is separate from the problems. [source: Gendlin 1978/2007 six steps; Gendlin 1984 politics; Gendlin 1984 client's client; Hendricks n.d.]
Steps (Gendlin's classic and 1984 group version): (1) Relax a little and bring attention into the middle of the body. (2) Ask inwardly how life is going or what the main thing is right now, and wait for the body to answer rather than listing problems. A variant: say inwardly that "everything is fine" and let the body show what is not fine. (3) When a concern comes, don't go into it; acknowledge it and put it a little way off, neither denied nor entered. (4) Ask what else is there; usually there are several (four or five). Repeat for each. (5) Also notice any background feeling that is always there (e.g. a constant low tension) and set it aside too. (6) Notice the free space left. (7) For each concern, the 1984 version adds: sense what it would be like in the body if this one were resolved, and wait for a bodily easing, not a mental answer.
Variants for overwhelming material: imagery to hold the distance, e.g. Hendricks' client imagined the terror held in a sticky balloon and placed back with the parent it belonged to, and his body eased; invitations to "make a big space" or "a non-judgmental space". [source: Hendricks n.d.] The client chooses the image; the therapist doesn't impose one [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "Let's see what's between you and feeling fine right now. Just wait and see what comes first... Can you set that down a little way off, not gone, just over there? ...What else is there?"
Watch for: a bodily easing as each item is placed (working); a mental picture of setting aside without bodily relief (not yet; try another way, see 5.1); a concern that keeps coming back (it may be the one to focus on).

B2. Letting a felt sense form

Purpose / when: after clearing a space, or whenever one issue is chosen. [source: Gendlin 1978/2007 six steps; Gendlin 1984 politics; Gendlin 1996 ch. 3 excerpt]
Steps: (1) The client chooses one problem, or lets the body choose. (2) Invite them to stay outside it: don't enter the familiar painful feelings; refer to it loosely as "all that". (3) Ask them to sense all of it at once, as a single unclear whole in the body. (4) Gendlin's 1984 version: say inwardly that all of it is solved and fine, and wait for the uneasy sense that comes in response. (5) Wait; a felt sense often takes some seconds to form and is at first vague.
Example language (illustrative): "Without going into the details, see how the whole of that thing with work feels in your body right now. It may be fuzzy. That's fine."
Watch for (eight characteristics, Gendlin 1996 ch. 3): it forms at the edge of awareness; is at first unclear but distinct; is felt bodily; is one complex whole; moves in steps; brings the person closer to themselves; has its own growth direction; can be explained only afterwards. If what comes is a familiar emotion, return to the whole (A5).

B3. Finding a handle

Purpose / when: once a felt sense is there. [source: Gendlin 1978/2007 six steps; Gendlin 1984 politics]
Steps: (1) Ask what the quality of the unclear sense is. (2) Let a word, phrase or image come from the felt sense itself (quality words like heavy, stuck, jumpy; or an image). (3) Stay with the quality until something fits it closely. (4) The therapist may offer words tentatively; the client checks them.
Example language (illustrative): "What's the quality of it? See if a word or a picture comes that matches it."
Watch for: a small physical release when the right word comes; labels from the head ("it's anxiety") without any fit.

B4. Resonating

Purpose / when: right after a handle comes. [source: Gendlin 1978/2007 six steps; Gendlin 1984 politics; Hendricks n.d.]
Steps: (1) Go back and forth between the word or image and the felt sense. (2) Re-sense it freshly each time. (3) Let either the word or the felt sense change until they fit. (4) Repeat the word and notice the bodily "yes".
Example language: "Does that resonate inside?" (Hendricks, short quote). Illustrative: "Check 'heavy' against it. Is that quite right, or is it something a bit different?"
Watch for: a feeling of fit and slight loosening; if the sense shifts as the word is checked, that is welcome.

B5. Asking

Purpose / when: once a felt sense has a fitting handle; this is where most shifts come. [source: Gendlin 1978/2007 six steps; Gendlin 1984 politics; Hendricks n.d.]
Steps: (1) Freshly sense the quality again (don't just remember it). (2) Ask it, and wait: what about the whole problem makes it so [handle]? or what is in this sense? (3) Hendricks also uses questions such as what is needed to ease it, or what would be a right next step. (4) If a quick answer comes with no change in the body, let it pass and ask again. (5) Wait; Gendlin's group version notes it can take about 30 seconds or so.
Example language: "What makes the whole problem so ___?" (Gendlin six steps, short quote). "What is needed to ease this?" (Hendricks). Illustrative: "Just ask it, and don't answer from your head. Let the answer come from there."
Watch for: the shift: "a slight 'give' or release" (Gendlin six steps), often with a new word, image, tears, a sigh or a laugh. Old explanations arriving without easing are to be let pass.

B6. Receiving (and protecting the shift)

Purpose / when: whenever something shifts, however small. [source: Gendlin 1978/2007 six steps; Gendlin 1984 politics; Gendlin 1984 client's client]
Steps: (1) Welcome what came in a friendly way; don't evaluate it yet. (2) Stay with it for a while and let the body take it in. (3) Repeat the words or image that came with the shift so it isn't lost. (4) If a critical voice rushes in, the client can repeat the words that came and check whether the shift returns, letting the critic wait. (5) Don't decide or act on it during the session; protect the step. (6) Expect more steps may follow, now or later; a major issue may need many steps over days.
Example language (illustrative): "Just let that be there for a moment. No need to do anything with it yet." / "You said 'I want to use my strength'. Say it again and see how it feels."
Watch for: Gendlin counts it as focusing if the client spent time with an unclear whole-body sense of the problem, whether or not a shift came. Don't treat "no shift" as failure.

Group C: other avenues. Gendlin (1996, Part II) devotes chapters to working with the body, role play, dream interpretation, imagery, emotional catharsis/reliving, action steps, cognitive therapy, the superego, the life-forward direction, values and the relationship. The chapter texts for most of these are not drawn on in this guide; the entries below use the material drawn on (Gendlin 1986 dreams chapter, Gendlin 1984, Hendricks, and a secondary summary of the 1996 book), and procedural detail beyond that is marked. [uncertain]

C1. Working with the inner critic (superego)

Purpose / when: when the client attacks themselves, hears a harsh, repetitive inner voice, or a fresh step is immediately dismissed. [source: Gendlin 1984 client's client; Hendricks n.d.; secondary summary of Gendlin 1996 ch. 19]
Steps: (1) Help the client recognise the critic as a voice that comes at them from outside their felt sense (repetitive, unreasonable, not based in fact), not as their own truth. (2) Invite them to move it aside, or to create a non-judgmental space, and return to a felt sense of the situation. (3) When a small shift comes and the critic rushes in, repeat the words of the shift and let the critic wait. (4) Strategies the 1996 book reportedly describes: not granting the critic authority, role reversal with it, and sensing the fear underneath it. [uncertain: from a secondary summary; ch. 19] (5) As therapist, avoid acting like a directive critic yourself; drop interventions that feel wrong to the client.
Example language (illustrative): "That sounds like the voice that always says that. Can we let it sit over there for now and see what your body says about the situation itself?"
Watch for: the client's tone softening and a felt sense reappearing. IRF handles critics differently (D1): it turns toward the critic with empathy rather than setting it aside; choose one stance at a time.

C2. Role play

Purpose / when: to let a felt sense show itself in action, voice and posture, or when role play arises spontaneously. [source: Gendlin 1996 ch. 13 title; secondary summary; procedure below is synthesis]
Steps [synthesis, based on the general FOT rule of checking every avenue bodily]: (1) Propose a brief enactment (speaking to the other person, or playing them). (2) After each exchange, pause and ask the client to sense how it is inside now. (3) Keep lines that bring a bodily shift; drop the rest. (4) Return to the felt sense rather than continuing to escalate the drama.
Example language (illustrative): "Try saying it to her, here, just once. Then stop and notice what happens inside."
Watch for: performance without inner contact; a new, more real sentence emerging.

C3. Imagery

Purpose / when: images can come from the felt sense as a handle, or an image can be used to reach a felt sense. [source: Gendlin 1978/2007 six steps (image as handle); Hendricks n.d. (balloon image); Gendlin 1996 ch. 15 title. Further detail of ch. 15: uncertain]
Steps: (1) Welcome images that arise spontaneously. (2) Invite the client to sense the bodily quality of the image and what it is like to be with it. (3) Check it against the felt sense (does it fit?). (4) Use images to establish distance in clearing a space (B1).
Example language (illustrative): "What's it like in your body to see that image of the closed door?"
Watch for: images used only as intellectual symbols with no bodily resonance.

C4. Emotional catharsis and reliving

Purpose / when: when strong emotion or a memory comes up. FOT does not treat intense expression as the goal; repeating an emotion can repeat the old pattern and risks re-traumatising. [source: secondary summary of Gendlin 1996; Hendricks n.d.; Gendlin 1984 client's client; Gendlin 1996 ch. 16 title]
Steps: (1) Let the emotion be there and receive it. (2) Don't push for more intensity. (3) Once it can be held, invite the client to step back and sense the whole situation (A5). (4) If overwhelmed, use distance (B1) and grounding (5.6).
Example language (illustrative): "Let it come. ...And now, if you can, take a small step back and sense the whole of what that was about."
Watch for: the emotion changing into something new (a step) versus looping.

C5. Action steps

Purpose / when: when a felt shift points toward doing something in life. [source: Gendlin 1996 ch. 17 title; Gendlin 1984 politics ("don't decide during the session"); procedure is synthesis]
Steps [synthesis]: (1) Let the felt sense indicate a next step; don't prescribe it. (2) Check a proposed action bodily (does it bring ease or tightening?). (3) Keep it small. (4) In the next session, sense how it went.
Example language (illustrative): "If you imagine actually calling him this week, how does the body respond?"
Watch for: actions chosen from "should" (the critic) rather than from the felt sense.

C6. Cognitive work

Purpose / when: when beliefs or reframes are in play. Reframing is not enough by itself; it is useful only if the bodily experience of the problem changes. [source: Gendlin 1996 ch. 2 excerpt; ch. 18 title]
Steps: offer the cognition tentatively; have the client check it inside; keep it if there is a shift, otherwise drop it (as in A6).
Example language (illustrative): "Suppose it's true that it wasn't your fault. Let your body hear that. What happens?"
Watch for: "I know that in my head" with no change; return to the felt sense of what doesn't agree.

C7. Dream work (Gendlin's 16 questions)

Purpose / when: when the client brings a dream. Each question is taken into the body until something comes with a felt shift. [source: Gendlin 1986 ch. 2; focusing.org "Focusing and dreams"]
Steps: (1) Hear the dream told. (2) Always begin with question 1: what comes to you (associations)? (3) Then use any of the others, in any order, one at a time, waiting for a bodily response: the feel-quality of the dream and what in life feels like that; what happened yesterday; the main place and what it reminds you of; the plot in a few general steps and what in life is like that; a character and what it reminds you of; what part of you that character could be; becoming that person (get into the role physically, as an actor would, and let movement and words come; also for objects); whether the dream can continue if you picture the end and wait; what a symbol stands for or is used for; body analogies; how the dream differs from reality and whether it corrects a waking attitude; childhood connections; personal growth; sexuality; spirituality. (4) Stop pursuing questions that bring nothing.
Finding the help and bias control: focusing.org describes locating the life-forward energy in the dream and letting the body take it in (seen as more important than interpretation), and a "bias control" of trying on the reading the dreamer most disagrees with, so the dream isn't read only through existing beliefs. Exact instructions are in chs. 9–10 (not drawn on). [uncertain for detail]
Example language (illustrative): "Take the feel of the dream, just the atmosphere. Does anything in your life right now feel like that?" / "Stand up for a moment and be the old woman in the dream. How does she stand? What would she say?"
Watch for: a felt "click" or shift (the measure, not a clever interpretation).

C8. Working with the body as a source of new energy

Purpose / when: Gendlin 1996 ch. 12 ("Working with the Body") is not drawn on. [uncertain] Within the sources, body work in FOT means the bodily attention of A4 and B1–B6 and noticing gestures: Hendricks returns an intellectualising client to her "tearing" hand gesture and asks about its quality, which opened into a sense of wanting to use her strength.
Steps: (1) Notice a spontaneous gesture or posture. (2) Ask the client to repeat or stay with it. (3) Ask for its quality. (4) Proceed as B3–B6.
Example language (illustrative): "Your hand just did this. Can you do it again, slowly, and sense what it's like?"
Watch for: the gesture opening into words or an image.

Group D: formats and named variants.

D1. Inner Relationship Focusing (Cornell & McGavin variant)

Purpose / when: a widely taught variant suited to clients with strong reactive parts (critics, fear, shame) and to clients who easily become identified with a feeling. [source: Cornell & McGavin 2008]
Steps (sequence drawn from their annotated session, not a fixed protocol): (1) Invite attention into the body and notice where something is felt. (2) Acknowledge it, perhaps with a hand gently on the place, as a way of saying "I'm with you". (3) Say hello to it and to any other part that appears, including doubting or resisting parts. (4) Invite the client to stay with it with gentle curiosity. (5) Reflect what the part says as the part's speech. (6) Offer it empathy. (7) Hear what it doesn't want (not wanting to hope, to trust, to be disappointed). (8) Sense from its point of view what it wants or is protecting. (9) Allow a felt sense or shift to come.
Language guidelines: "something in you" (pointing to a part without identifying with it); "you're sensing..."; adjectival forms ("something in you that's feeling afraid") rather than nouns ("the fear"); prefer statements and soft invitations ("you might like to...") over questions, which can intrude.
Example language (illustrative): "You might say hello to that tightness... and sense whether it's OK for you to just keep it company."
Watch for: identification statements (e.g. "I just need to get over this") signal the client has merged with a part; gently re-establish "something in you...".

D2. Focusing partnerships and listening groups ("Changes")

Purpose / when: to give clients or trainees ongoing practice outside therapy; Gendlin presents listening and focusing as skills lay people can teach each other. [source: Gendlin 1984 politics; Hendricks n.d.]
Steps: (1) Pairs or small groups split time equally. (2) Learning listening: in a round, each person says back what the previous speaker said, then is listened to in turn; leaders model first; start with exact repetition, and after some weeks reflect only the personal meanings and edges. (3) Each person typically gets about 10 minutes, sometimes up to 30. (4) Focusing instructions may be given to the group first, then people listen to each other.
Example language (illustrative): "You'll have 15 minutes. Your partner will only say back what you say, nothing else."
Watch for: listeners adding advice or interpretations; correct gently by returning to exact reflection.

D3. Focusing-oriented supervision

Purpose / when: for supervisees stuck with a client. [source: Hendricks n.d.]
Steps: (1) The supervisee senses what to bring. (2) The supervisor invites a felt sense of the issue rather than diagnosing from theory. (3) Follow what comes (in Hendricks' example, a vague unease turned out to be a fear about the client's diagnosis).
Example language (illustrative): "Before we think about the case, how does the whole of this client sit in you?"
Watch for: a shift in the supervisee's stance toward the client.

D4. Therapist's own focusing practice

Purpose / when: training requirement in the tradition: therapists first find the process in themselves, often through weekly focusing partnerships in the first year. [source: Hendricks n.d.]
Steps: regular partnership practice; using your own felt sense to clarify reactions before self-expression (A8).

5. Handling problems

Items tagged with a source come from the texts drawn on; items tagged [synthesis] are clinical guidance consistent with FOT principles.

5.1 A concern won't stay set aside in clearing a space. If the client only pictures setting it aside and the body doesn't ease, try other ways until it really is set aside (Gendlin 1984 politics), for example a different distance, a container, or placing it with whoever it belongs to (Hendricks). If it keeps returning, it may be the one asking for attention: focus on it (B2) instead. [source: Gendlin 1984 politics; Hendricks n.d.; last point synthesis]

5.2 Intellectualising, speculating, nonstop talk. Continuous talk is not focusing (Hendricks). Reflect the essence, then slow down (A3); point to any gesture or bodily cue and ask its quality (C8); ask for the body's sense of "all that" (B2). Don't argue or interpret the defence; don't stack instructions. [source: Hendricks n.d.; Gendlin 1996 ch. 2 excerpt]

5.3 "There's nothing there" / cannot sense the body. Start further out (toes, knee, then torso) (A4); accept "nothing" as a felt answer and ask what the nothing is like [synthesis]; use making-a-space with distant clients (Gendlin 1984 client's client); keep teaching brief and go back to listening; some clients need a more expressive therapist before any track forms (Gendlin 1968). Expect it to take several sessions [synthesis].

5.4 Drowning in emotion or looping in the same feeling. Don't push for intensity; receive the emotion, then help the client sense the whole situation in which it arises (A5, C4). Repeating the emotion alone can repeat the pattern and risks re-traumatising. [source: Hendricks n.d.; Gendlin 1984 client's client]

5.5 Self-attack and critic intrusions. Distinguish the critic's voice from the felt sense; invite a non-judgmental space; when a fresh step comes and the critic interrupts, repeat the words of the step and let the critic wait (C1). Alternatively turn toward the critic as a part with empathy (D1). [source: Gendlin 1984 client's client; Hendricks n.d.; Cornell & McGavin 2008]

5.6 Overwhelm, trauma memories, panic or dissociation. Gendlin's guidance: stand outside the problem rather than going into it; stop if something feels wrong (B1, principle of right distance). Hendricks uses imagery to create distance from terror. Additional guidance [synthesis]: before inner attention with trauma survivors, agree a stop signal and an eyes-open option; titrate (seconds, not minutes, of inner attention at first); begin with sensing something neutral or pleasant, or the ground and the chair; if dissociation signs appear (glazed look, loss of time, numbness spreading), switch to external orientation, present-tense talk and grounding, then debrief; consider whether a trauma-specific protocol is needed alongside FOT.

5.7 Resistance or "something in the way". Neither push into it nor run from it; focus on what is in the way as its own felt sense, until it becomes clear (Gendlin 1984 politics; six steps). In IRF terms, say hello to the part that doesn't want to and hear what it doesn't want (D1). [source: Gendlin 1984 politics; Gendlin 1978/2007; Cornell & McGavin 2008]

5.8 Ruptures: the client objects to instructions, feels misunderstood, or gets angry with you. Stop teaching; attend to the relationship first; teaching can resume later (Gendlin 1984 client's client). Treat missed responses as invitations to correct you (A1, A2). Respond non-defensively and, if useful, say briefly what is happening for you (A8, A10). [source: Gendlin 1984 client's client; Gendlin 1968; secondary summary of Gendlin 1996] Also [synthesis]: name the rupture explicitly ("I think I just pushed us into an exercise you didn't want"), and ask what would feel right instead.

5.9 No shift, quick answers, slow change. Let answers that bring no bodily change pass and ask again (B5); remind the client that time spent with an unclear felt sense counts as focusing even with no shift (B6); expect big problems to need many steps over days. Gendlin (1984) notes specific further helps for little or no shift are in Focusing (1981); those chapters are not drawn on. [uncertain] [source: Gendlin 1978/2007; Gendlin 1984 politics]

5.10 The body wants to stop, or an instruction feels violent. Stop; if a nervous sense says stopping is wrong, continue from that sense instead (Gendlin 1984 politics). If an instruction felt harmful, stop and sense what went wrong, but don't abandon the process entirely. [source: Gendlin 1984 politics; split-level instruction in six steps]

5.11 Wanting to decide or act on a shift in session. Don't decide in the session; protect the step and let the body digest it; check actions bodily before carrying them out (B6, C5). [source: Gendlin 1984 politics; C5 synthesis]

5.12 Non-adherence to practice between sessions. Not addressed in the sources. [synthesis] Don't frame practice as homework to be graded; offer a very short version (a minute of checking "how is all that in my body?"); suggest a focusing partnership or class instead of solo practice; explore with focusing what in the client doesn't want to practise.

5.13 Therapist-side errors. Pushing for intensity, stacking instructions, holding on to an interpretation that brought no shift, letting theory sit between you and the person, whitewashing pain, too much self-disclosure. Correct by returning to listening and bodily checking. [source: Gendlin 1968; Gendlin 1984 client's client; Gendlin 1996 ch. 2 excerpt]

5.14 Modality-specific cautions.

Body symptoms and health fears: Hendricks works with a client's health fears through the felt sense of the situation, not the medical label. [synthesis] A felt sense is not a diagnosis; new or unexplained physical symptoms need medical review in parallel.
Suicidality: not addressed in the sources. [synthesis] Keep standard risk assessment and safety planning outside the focusing process; do not deepen inner attention while acute risk is unassessed; FOT listening can support the conversation about risk, but does not replace it.
Psychosis, severe dissociation, or very fragile self-structure: not addressed in the sources. [synthesis] Favour listening, external grounding and very brief, concrete bodily check-ins over extended inner focusing; avoid deep relaxation (Gendlin himself advises medium relaxation, not hypnotic states).
Touch: the IRF hand-on-the-place gesture is the client's own hand; the therapist doesn't touch [synthesis].
Clients who find body language foreign (cultural or personal): [synthesis] use the client's words ("the sense of it", "how it sits with you") rather than "felt sense"; Gendlin treats the steps as a scaffold, not a creed.

Sources

Sources:

Books and chapters cited:

Gendlin, E. T. (1968). The experiential response. In E. Hammer (Ed.), Use of Interpretation in Treatment. Grune & Stratton.
Gendlin, E. T. (1978; rev. 1981; reissued 2007). Focusing. Bantam.
Gendlin, E. T. (1984). The client's client: The edge of awareness. In R. L. Levant & J. M. Shlien (Eds.), Client-Centered Therapy and the Person-Centered Approach. Praeger.
Gendlin, E. T. (1984). The politics of giving therapy away: Listening and focusing. In D. Larson (Ed.), Teaching Psychological Skills. Brooks/Cole.
Gendlin, E. T. (1986). Let Your Body Interpret Your Dreams. Chiron.
Gendlin, E. T. (1996). Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy: A Manual of the Experiential Method. Guilford. (Part II chapters on body, role play, imagery, catharsis, action steps, cognitive therapy, superego, values and relationship not drawn on.)
Cornell, A. W., & McGavin, B. (2008). Inner Relationship Focusing. The Focusing Folio, 21(1).
Hendricks, M. N. (n.d.). Focusing-oriented experiential psychotherapy: How to do it. Draft manuscript, The Focusing Institute.

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