What Is Focusing? A Guide to Inner Clarity and Calm
- 9 hours ago
- 16 min read
Author: Therapy-with-Ben
Focusing is a gentle, yet surprisingly powerful, way of turning your attention inwards to listen to what your body is trying to tell you. It’s not about forcing your concentration but about softly tuning into a very specific kind of bodily awareness that we call the ‘felt sense’ – a physical sensation that holds a deeper meaning about what’s going on in your life.
This practice helps you make sense of that 'gut feeling' or the unexplained heaviness in your chest. It’s about learning to understand its message.
Demystifying Focusing and the Felt Sense
When you hear the word ‘focusing’, it’s easy to picture someone staring intently at a screen, trying to solve a tough problem. But in the world of therapy and self-awareness, Focusing is almost the complete opposite. It’s a practice developed by the psychologist and philosopher Eugene Gendlin, and it’s rooted in listening rather than analysing, in allowing rather than forcing.
At the very heart of this approach is learning to connect with what Gendlin called the felt sense.
What Is a Felt Sense?
So, what exactly is a felt sense? Think of it as a subtle, often quite vague, physical sensation in your body that carries information about a particular situation. It's the bodily experience of a problem or a feeling before you can find the right words to pin it down.
You’ve almost certainly experienced it. Think about:
That uncomfortable, churning feeling in your stomach just before you have to make a difficult phone call.
The warm, expansive feeling in your chest when you get some really good news.
A familiar tightness creeping into your shoulders when your to-do list feels completely overwhelming.
These are all examples of a felt sense. It’s more than just a physical ache and it’s more than a straightforward emotion like 'sadness'. It's your body's holistic, all-of-it-at-once impression of a situation.
Focusing is the process of finding and staying with that unclear, fuzzy, bodily feeling to see what it is and what it has to say. It’s about being a friend to your inner world, not a critic.
This whole practice is built on a profound idea: your body holds an intelligence that your conscious, thinking mind might not have access to yet. By gently turning towards these sensations with genuine curiosity, you can unlock fresh insights, find relief from old patterns, and discover the next right step to take.
As a counsellor here in Cheltenham, I often bring this approach into my sessions. It helps people move beyond just talking about their problems and start to experience real, tangible shifts from the inside out.
Where Did Focusing Come From?
The power of Focusing isn't just a happy accident; it all started with a simple but game-changing question about what actually makes therapy work. The whole approach grew out of the work of a psychologist and philosopher named Eugene Gendlin at the University of Chicago. He and his team set out to solve a puzzle: why do some people get amazing results from therapy, while others seem to stay stuck?
What they found was pretty surprising. The success of therapy didn't really come down to the therapist's specific technique, the client's diagnosis, or even what they talked about. Instead, it all hinged on something the client was doing inside themselves, often without even knowing it.
The clients who were making progress would naturally pause during their sessions. They’d slow right down, turn their attention inwards, and check what they were saying against a subtle, bodily-felt feeling. They were almost listening for a physical 'click' – a sense that their words truly lined up with their inner experience. Gendlin gave this inner knowing a name: the felt sense.
From a Natural Knack to a Skill Anyone Can Learn
Gendlin realised this intuitive process was the secret sauce. The clients who got better were having a dialogue with their inner world, using their body's awareness like a compass. Those who stayed purely in their heads, just talking about their problems without this inner check-in, were far less likely to see any real, lasting change.
This insight was a total game-changer. If this internal checking-in was the key ingredient for successful therapy, could you teach it to someone?
Gendlin was convinced this wasn't some special gift for a lucky few. He saw it as a natural human ability that could be broken down, understood, and learned by absolutely anyone. He basically reverse-engineered this innate process into a clear, step-by-step method.
That method became known as Focusing. It’s a series of gentle, deliberate steps designed to help you connect with your felt sense on purpose. He created a practical roadmap that anyone could follow, turning what was once an unconscious process into a conscious and genuinely empowering skill.
The Heart of Gendlin's Approach
Gendlin’s work really shifted the whole perspective on therapy. It moved the spotlight away from the therapist having all the answers and put the power back into the individual's hands. The core ideas that came from his research are both simple and deeply respectful of a person's inner world.
Your Body Knows Best: The central idea is that your body holds a deep, unspoken wisdom about your life and what's troubling you. This wisdom often shows up as a vague, unclear 'felt sense' long before you can find the right words for it.
A Gentle Attitude is Everything: Focusing isn't about analysing or fixing yourself. It requires a shift from self-criticism to a gentle, patient curiosity. You simply sit with the feeling in a friendly, accepting way, like you’re getting to know a shy friend who has something important to tell you.
Small Steps, Big Shifts: Meaningful change doesn't always arrive with a dramatic "aha!" moment. More often, it unfolds through a series of small, felt shifts—a slight release of tension in your shoulders, a new image popping into your mind, or a single word that just feels right.
Ultimately, Gendlin gave us a tool that honours the expert inside all of us. It's not some complex academic theory but a practical, down-to-earth way to access your own internal compass for guidance, healing, and figuring out the way forward.
Right, so we’ve touched on the theory behind Focusing. Now for the good bit – how to actually do it.
Let's walk through the six core steps of a Focusing session. Try to think of this less as a rigid set of instructions you have to get right, and more like a gentle, step-by-step invitation to check in with yourself in a completely new way.
The whole point is to create a safe, compassionate space inside where your feelings and bodily sensations can finally have a voice, without being judged or pushed away. It's a skill, and like any skill, it gets easier with practice. Perfection is definitely not the goal here. Each step is just a simple, mindful action designed to help you listen to that quiet inner wisdom we all have.
Eugene Gendlin didn't just invent this process out of thin air. He carefully observed what was actually working for people in therapy and created a repeatable method from that natural, intuitive ability. This diagram shows that simple journey from his research to the structured Focusing steps we use today.
It’s this journey from observation to a teachable skill that makes Focusing so accessible. It’s a pathway anyone can learn to follow.
The Six Gentle Steps of Focusing
These are the six steps that make up the backbone of a Focusing session. They’re designed to flow naturally from one to the next, guiding your attention inwards with a real sense of care and curiosity.
Clearing a Space: Think of this first step like mentally tidying a room. You just sit quietly and ask yourself, "How am I doing inside right now?" You then gently notice everything that’s there – the worries, the to-do lists, the little tensions – without getting tangled up in any of it. You mentally set each issue aside for a moment, creating a calm, open space inside you.
Felt Sense: From this newly cleared space, you pick one problem or situation to bring your attention to. But you don't dive into the story or the details in your head. Instead, you bring your awareness down into your body and ask, "What’s my body’s sense of all of that?" Then you just wait, patiently, for a vague, subtle bodily sensation to form.
Getting a Handle: Once you can feel that vague sensation (the felt sense), you start looking for a word, a phrase, or even an image that seems to capture its unique quality. It might be something like "heavy," "like a tight knot," or "all fluttery." The key is to find a 'handle' that feels just right – a perfect match for the feeling.
Resonating: This is a crucial little check-in step. You go back and forth between your handle (the word or image) and the felt sense in your body. Does the phrase "tight knot" really fit the feeling? When it does, there's often a small, internal nod of recognition – maybe a slight easing, or just a feeling of 'yes, that’s it'.
Asking: Now you can start a gentle, curious conversation. With a friendly attitude, you can ask the felt sense questions. You could ask, "What is it about this whole problem that feels so heavy?" or maybe, "What does this feeling need from me?" You don't try to answer with your thinking mind; you just wait and let the felt sense provide the answer, which might pop up as a new feeling, a memory, or an image.
Receiving: Whatever comes up during the 'Asking' step, you just receive it with acceptance. You don't judge it or brush it aside, even if it’s unexpected. You welcome the new insight or the small shift in the felt sense, maybe even thanking your body for its wisdom.
Why Practising with a Guide Matters
Learning these steps on your own is absolutely doable, but it can feel a lot easier and safer with a guide. As a therapist, I can help you create that initial 'clear space' and learn how to recognise the subtle felt sense that you might otherwise miss. This can be especially helpful in a calm, supportive setting, like one of our walk-and-talk therapy sessions here in Cheltenham.
Having a guided practice is particularly important given the rising stress levels many of us are dealing with. The power of Focusing really shines when you look at the UK's burnout statistics, where an incredible 9 in 10 workers reported high or extreme stress in the past year. With the prevalence of common mental health issues rising, finding effective ways to manage our inner worlds has never been more vital. You can learn more about the generational divide in stress levels from the 2026 Burnout Report.
This practice isn't about getting it 'right'—it's about building a better, more compassionate relationship with yourself. It's a journey, and every small step is a move towards greater self-awareness and healing.
How Focusing Compares to Mindfulness
When people first hear about Focusing, a common question pops up: "Isn't that just another word for mindfulness?" It's a fair question. Both practices encourage a deeper connection with our inner world, but they go about it in quite different ways. Understanding these differences is the key to figuring out which path might be the right one for you.
Mindfulness, in its most popular form, teaches you to become a neutral observer of your own mind. The aim is to watch your thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations come and go without getting caught up in them. You learn to acknowledge them—a bit like watching clouds drift across the sky—without needing to follow them or believe their stories.
Focusing, on the other hand, asks for something a little more intimate. Instead of observing from a distance, it invites you to gently turn towards a specific, often vague, bodily sensation—the felt sense. The attitude here isn't one of neutral observation, but of warm, gentle curiosity.
The Observer vs. The Gentle Companion
This is where the real distinction lies. Mindfulness helps you create a spacious, non-judgemental awareness of everything happening inside you at any given moment. Focusing uses that same kind of awareness but zooms in on one particular feeling, offering it your full, compassionate attention.
Think of it this way: Mindfulness is like sitting on a riverbank, watching all the boats (your thoughts and feelings) float by. You notice them all, but you don't climb aboard. Focusing is when you spot one particular boat that seems to hold something important for you. You gently invite it to the shore and have a quiet, respectful chat to find out what it’s carrying.
This subtle but profound difference leads to very different outcomes. Mindfulness is brilliant for creating a sense of calm and reducing our reactivity to life's ups and downs. Focusing is specifically designed to uncover fresh insights and help us make deep, internal shifts. If you'd like to explore this further, you can read more about how mindfulness is used in therapy in our detailed guide.
Placing Focusing in the Wider Context
So, where does Focusing sit in the bigger picture of mind-body therapies? It’s often seen as a type of somatic therapy. This is a broad term for therapies that put the body at the centre of healing and emotional processing. The core idea is that our bodies hold stories, tensions, and a kind of wisdom that our thinking minds can't always access.
While mindfulness definitely brings awareness to the body, Focusing gives you a structured, step-by-step way to actively engage with that bodily wisdom. It offers a clear process for listening to the messages held within a felt sense, making it a very specific tool in the wider somatic toolbox.
To make things clearer, let's break down the core differences in a simple table.
Focusing vs Mindfulness vs Somatic Therapy
This table lays out the unique goals and practices of each approach, helping to place Focusing in context.
Approach | Primary Goal | Core Practice |
|---|---|---|
Focusing | To access the body's inner wisdom and facilitate deep, felt shifts in understanding. | Gently holding attention on a specific 'felt sense' to allow its meaning to unfold. |
Mindfulness | To cultivate present-moment awareness and non-reactive observation of thoughts and feelings. | Broadly observing the flow of inner experiences without judgement or engagement. |
Somatic Therapy | To resolve trauma and emotional issues by working directly with the body's sensations and nervous system. | A wide range of techniques, including movement, breathwork, and tracking bodily sensations. |
Ultimately, choosing between these practices isn’t about which one is "better." It's about knowing their unique strengths and finding what feels right for you and your needs. Focusing offers a powerful and direct way to have a meaningful dialogue with your inner self, creating a pathway not just for awareness, but for deep and lasting change.
Using Focusing for Anxiety, Depression and Neurodiversity
This is where the rubber really meets the road. It's one thing to talk about what Focusing is in theory, but its true value shines when we see how it helps with some of life’s toughest challenges. It’s not just some abstract self-discovery technique; it's a gentle, hands-on tool that can create genuine shifts when you're dealing with anxiety, the heavy fog of depression, or the unique inner landscapes of neurodivergent minds.
The need for this kind of inner work is huge, especially here in the UK. In any given week in England, 6 in 100 people are diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder. That statistic from the Priory Group shows just how common these feelings are. It gets even more worrying when you look at younger people; in 2023-24, there were a staggering 204,526 new referrals for under-17s struggling with anxiety. That’s more than double the figures from before the pandemic.
Focusing as a Friend to Anxiety
Anxiety often feels like an internal storm. Your mind races with chatter, and your body gets hijacked by physical sensations – a hammering heart, a tight chest, a stomach doing gymnastics. Our natural instinct is to either fight these feelings or try to outrun them.
Focusing gives us a third way: to turn towards the storm with a gentle sense of curiosity.
Instead of getting swept away, you learn to sit with the physical epicentre of the worry. You can gently bring your awareness to that tightness in your chest and just ask, "Hello there. What are you about?" By befriending the sensation, you give it room to tell its story, often revealing fears or needs your logical mind just couldn't grasp. This doesn't make anxiety vanish, but it profoundly changes your relationship with it. It’s no longer a battle; it becomes a compassionate conversation.
Gently Lifting the Fog of Depression
Depression can feel like being wrapped in a thick, grey blanket, muffling not just sadness but everything else, too. It can leave you feeling numb and cut off from your own inner world. Trying to "think" your way out of it is usually a dead end because the feeling is held much deeper than conscious thought.
Focusing offers a quiet way in, a way to find out what's underneath that blanket of numbness. By patiently waiting for a felt sense to emerge—no matter how faint or subtle—you can start to connect with the nuanced, often frozen, feelings hidden beneath. It might be a tiny whisper of grief, a flicker of anger, or a profound sense of exhaustion.
Simply acknowledging these quiet feelings without judging them starts a thawing process. It allows for a gradual return of life, feeling, and connection.
Focusing honours the fact that sometimes the most important feelings are the quietest. It provides a safe, structured way to listen without becoming overwhelmed, creating a path back to yourself.
A Validating Tool for Neurodiversity
For neurodivergent people, including those who are autistic or have ADHD, the inner world can be an incredibly rich but sometimes overwhelming place. Sensory experiences are often amplified, and the standard emotional labels just don't seem to fit. In this context, Focusing is an incredibly powerful and validating tool.
At its core, the practice respects your unique, subjective reality. There are no 'right' or 'wrong' ways to experience a felt sense. This non-judgemental stance provides a framework to:
Explore Sensory Experiences: You can use Focusing to better understand and make peace with your unique sensory profile without ever feeling like you have to explain or justify it.
Translate Inner Worlds: It can help you find words, images, or metaphors for complex internal states that are otherwise hard to describe, which improves both self-understanding and how you communicate with others.
Honour Your Own Pace: The whole process is self-led. You engage with your inner world on your own terms and at a speed that feels right for you.
This is why I find it such an invaluable tool in my work. It empowers you to become the expert on your own experience, something that is absolutely vital in neurodiverse-affirming therapy. If you'd like to read more on this, you might find our guide on neurodiverse counselling support for autistic and neurodivergent minds helpful.
Ultimately, Focusing helps you build a strong, trusting relationship with your own inner compass, no matter how your brain is wired.
Starting Your Focusing Journey in Cheltenham
Hopefully, this guide has shown that Focusing isn't some abstract concept but a real, learnable skill for anyone wanting to feel a bit more self-aware and emotionally balanced. So, where do you go from here? Let's talk about how to make this powerful practice a genuine part of your life.
As a counsellor, I often weave Focusing into my work with clients. It’s a brilliant way to help you build that powerful connection with your own inner world. We can explore it in whatever way feels most comfortable and effective for you.
That might be in the quiet, confidential space of a face-to-face session, through the convenience of online counselling, or even out in the grounding, natural environment of a walk-and-talk therapy session around Cheltenham.
Taking the Next Step
Thinking about this next step isn’t about trying to fix something that’s broken. It's more of a proactive choice for your own personal growth and well-being. And the need for tools like this is becoming clearer, especially when you look at the rising rates of depression in the UK.
Recent figures show that 18% of adults aged 16 and over reported moderate to severe depressive symptoms. That number jumps to a concerning 26% among 16 to 29-year-olds. A common thread in these symptoms is an inability to focus, which can trap people in endless cycles of worry.
If you feel ready to start listening to your own inner wisdom, I'm here to support you on that path. You can always get in touch through my contact page to book a session, or learn more about my approach on the 'About Ben' and 'Walk and Talk Therapy' pages.
This journey is about moving beyond simply talking about your problems and starting to experience real, tangible shifts from the inside out. It's a gentle, yet profound, way to find your footing.
For those just starting out, you might want to explore a focusing starter app to help guide your first few steps. Learning how to connect with your inner self is a crucial part of the therapeutic process, and knowing how to find a good therapist in Cheltenham who can guide you is just as important.
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Your Questions About Focusing Answered
When people first hear about Focusing, they often have a few questions. It’s a gentle, body-centred way of listening to yourself, but it can sound a bit abstract at first. To help clear things up, here are my thoughts on some of the most common queries I get.
Do I Need to Be Good at Meditation to Do This?
Not at all. While they both involve turning your attention inwards, Focusing is a very different beast. Meditation often asks you to clear your mind or watch thoughts from a distance, which plenty of people (myself included, sometimes!) find really tricky.
Focusing isn't about creating emptiness. It’s more like having a friendly, curious chat with a specific feeling you can sense in your body. In fact, many people who’ve struggled with meditation find Focusing a lot more doable because it gives you a gentle, clear structure to follow along with.
What if I Try It and Don’t Feel Anything?
This is an incredibly common thing to happen when you’re just starting out, so please don’t be put off by it. The ‘felt sense’ can be very subtle at first, and it just takes a bit of time to learn how to tune into it.
The most important bit is to bring a gentle, patient attitude to yourself. Not feeling anything specific is just part of the process, and this is where a trained guide can make all the difference. I can help you notice the tiny shifts and sensations that you might otherwise miss. It’s a skill, and like any skill, it grows with a bit of practice.
How Long Does a Focusing Session Take?
Once you get the hang of the steps, you can do a personal Focusing session in as little as 10-15 minutes. When we use it in a therapy session, it’s usually woven into our 50-minute hour, flowing naturally as part of our conversation.
It’s not about the length of time but the quality of the attention you bring. The real goal is to build a regular habit of checking in with yourself, even for just a few moments, rather than seeing it as a long, demanding chore.
That flexibility is what makes it so easy to fit into a busy life.
Is Focusing a Good Way to Deal with Trauma?
Focusing can be an exceptionally powerful and helpful tool for working with trauma. The main reason for this is that it’s incredibly gentle and completely led by you, which allows you to go at your own pace without ever feeling pushed or rushed.
However, it is absolutely crucial to do this kind of work with the support of a qualified, trauma-informed therapist. A professional can help create a safe container for the work and guide you in approaching difficult feelings without becoming overwhelmed. Trying to tackle deep trauma work on your own is not something I would ever recommend – your safety and well-being have to come first.
If you're ready to explore how Focusing could support you, Therapy with Ben offers a safe, professional space to begin your journey. Get in touch to book a session in Cheltenham or online.
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