Exploration in Focusing and Felt Sense – Sensing into our Upper Left

Exploration in Focusing and Felt Sense – Sensing into our Upper Left

As a group, we are committed to doing personal inner work in an effort to develop our capacity and skills in holding a more profound We Space experience. In previous meetings San Diego Integral has covered topics like the uLab process, Albere’s Evolutionary Relationships, and Embodiment Practices.

This month we are exploring the art and practice of Focusing and Felt Sense. Focusing is process that uses a bodily felt sense to identify and dialog with our internal feelings - the Felt Sense. The process was discovered and developed by philosopher, psychologist and student of Carl Rogers, Eugene Gendlin. The finding was part of research project where Gendlin and others were trying to identify what works (and doesn’t work) in Psychotherapy. They were hoping to find the most effective techniques or practitioners. What they found was that the way clients interacted make more difference than anything. Clients who to tried to describe what they felt internally had the best results. Also the more they refined the description, the better the results. Others have refined Gendlin's process since his initial findings but you could use his focusing process to get results

Jerry and Eloy have been using Focusing/Felt Sense in small group and have had some profound discoveries about ourselves. We used a partner focusing process developed by Ann Weiser Cornell. We’ll do the partner exercise in dyads, each taking a turn as focuser and listener. Prompts will be provided for each role. The partner focusing can be a powerful sharing experience and well as an individual one

We think that the Focusing process may have the basis for the uLab Presencing (the downside of the U). Focusing seems to be more precise and maybe lead to more understanding.

Focusing/Felt Sense practice can be deep inner work (Upper Left) that can be of benefit to you regardless of your developmental level. Doing this kind of inner work can free up mental and emotional energy that can be redirected towards your work in the outer world - like sacred activism for example. The process is like a form of shadow work but not just dark shadow. It can help with therapy work, both from the role of therapist and client.

Inner-subjective meditation in the form of Authentic Relating and Circling have become a positive practice in building collective intelligence in the Integral community (and beyond). Focusing practice can help you connect more directly with what's going on in your body and bring that forward for you to learn from but also as a powerfully vulnerable piece of you to share. It can help connect to truth that lives within. It can help clarify what your felt response is to another person's share without going into the usual thought patterns of your usual type of response. The unexpected can emerge through you.

We will introduce the process, demonstrate it and then assist dyads in taking turns experiencing the process.

The meeting is free and we also accept donations to offset the cost of snacks and other overhead. You're welcome to also bring a snack to share

SDI is committed to the creative advance into novelty.

If you have a topic suggestion please let us know and we'll bring it to the conversation.