Gendlin’s ‘Focusing’ Method as an Aid to Holistic Christian Living

Abstract

‘Focusing’ is a method developed by Eugene Gendlin that enables a person to listen to and dialogue with our internal, complex, bodily held wisdom. The opening out of the ‘felt sense’ can lead to a wider awareness and connection with the energies of Christian communities, liturgies and holy places, with the collective unconscious of societies, and the community of holy people and supernatural beings beyond time and space validating spiritual experiences of inter-relationality. It enables a person to draw on tacit, wide-ranging knowledge, more than can be consciously recalled and verbalised. The method is divided into stages. First an accepting, friendly space is cleared in the mind, laying other concerns to one side. Then attention is given to how the issue to be worked with is experienced and ‘held’ non-verbally in the body. Being open and at ease with this sort of experience can be a great confirming and deepening influence on faith, but also a radical challenge.