A Short Guide for the Focusing 'Coach' - Focusing Coach Information

Written by Ilan Shalif, Ph.D.

If the shifts happen too fast and for too trivial felt sensations, suggest that the trainee lean his head back (on the available support) in order to recover the lost felt sensations. If the shift in the experience is significant (with regard to the surprise or alleviation of suffering resulting from it), stress to the trainee that what he has just experienced is the core of the focusing technique. Stress again and again that the nature of the trash-programs is such, that there is no simple relation between the suffering or disturbance they cause, and the focusing effort needed in order to update, improve or mend them.

This may be a most suitable point to stress the difference between the effort of the structured focusing on the felt sensations originating from trash-programs (in order to mend them), and the various trends of Yoga and Meditation which strive to clear all contents of the awareness in order to achieve Nirvana.

The sixth step

This step sums up the first session of the focusing training. In this step, the trainee who has not experienced a shift of the felt sensation or at least a significant weakening of it during previous steps, is supposed to feel one now. If he did not experience a shift during previous steps, it is crucial to supply him with one at this step "at all costs".

In order to make this step effective, while giving him the instructions of this section, be sure he is focusing all the time on one felt sensation or another. To ensure it and to make it less difficult for him, ask him often where he is focusing. If not even one sensation is available for his focusing, suggest that he opens the nape of the neck. If no significant shift and no positive change has happened to any of the felt sensations of the trainee, try to achieve it by one of the following "means justified by the end".

There are a few tactics available, when tackling a stubborn felt sensation, and only very seldom does one of these sensations defy all tactics*:

*The new technique is "nearly omnipotent". Whenever you meet an obstacle keep this fact in mind. "Opening the nape of the neck" and other tactics presented in previous chapters always succeed in forcing the reluctant supra-programs to bring a sensation which is worth focusing on to the center of awareness. So it is with rubbing the hands or other tactics a focuser can use in order to dispel an intense and stubborn sensation. There are, indeed, a few means to overcome all other obstacles - including the ones which already mentioned (or better ones you can invent yourself). However, keep in mind that it is not always worth overcoming an obstacle. Many times it might be wiser to go around it or defer the encounter to a more suitable opportunity.

1. Ask the trainee to increase his concentration on the felt sensation and to describe in great detail what it is.
2. Suggest he use the light touch of his palms against each other to enhance his concentration.
3. If the target sensation is not in a place too inconvenient to touch, ask him to put a finger on the region of the felt sensation.
4. Suggest that he find in the vicinity of the felt sense a muscle which he can grasp, pinch, or squeeze to increase temporarily the felt sensation.
5. If the sensation is very stubborn, which is frequently so with those that are chronic or semi-chronic, and if the nearly impossible occurs, and none of the previous tactics help even after a few minutes have passed, continue with the repeated and enlarged explanation about the natural biofeedback processes that are working on the problem. Tell the trainee that, sometimes, the focusing on a felt sensation till it changes involves a thorough overhaul of the relevant programs, the completion of which takes a prolonged period of time.

   Point to the fact that the mending mechanisms continue to work on a problem on the margin of the awareness even after one ceases to pay full attention to it. Add the reassurance that the efforts dedicated to the mending of a program has an accumulative affect and one is not bound to solve a problem in one trial only. Then, without committing yourself too much, tell him that after a few trials in that same session he may overcome it. Then suggest to him to focus on another felt sensation.

   After the preliminary preparations for retreat are completed, it is worth checking if the dominant sensation is really covering all other ones or whether weaker ones are also available. Even if there are other alternative sensations and even if the focusing on them brings about substantial results, it is still most important to encounter frequently the stubborn one previously abandoned in a tactical retreat. As long as the session continues, return from time to time to check on the stubborn felt sensation. In most cases, even the most stubborn ones yield in the end.

1. If half the session has passed and no significant change has occurred in the stubborn felt sensation, it is time for the sixth and decisive tactic:

• Suggest the trainee use the intensive rubbing of the palms against each other* while focusing on the stubborn felt sensation.

  *The application of this tactic is usually restricted to emergency situations. It is recommended for use in combination with the focusing on the felt sensation even when its causes are "purely" physical or physiological. Even if the direct contributors to its initial emergence are only physiological, this does not last so for more than a few seconds as various trash-programs join the arena. The additional focusing resources will help to bring relief of the unpleasant sensation and one and the same time improve the trash- programs involves.

• Postpone the explanations of this act for about a quarter to half a minute so the trainee will experience a complete surprise.