Chapter 6

A SHORT GUIDE FOR THE FOCUSING "COACH" (cont.)

I. General recommendations for professionals

1. Do not try to sell to others a commodity you have never tried yourself. If the focusing approach or part of its technique appeals to you, try them first on yourself (with or without a coach). It is easier to teach someone something you know, even if the knowledge is slight. Even if you believe - like us - that the best way to learn is by teaching, it is still better and easier to do this after having had some practical experience. Even the most naive trainee will discern if your knowledge is merely theoretical.
2. Do not feel obliged to implement more than is convenient for you or more than your specific role allows, permits or requires. Even if it does not seem to you as appropriate to explain to your client the rationale of the focusing or to advise him to practice it as a whole, there are still many options available.

   For instance, the reflexologist, the masseuse, the physiotherapist, the teacher of "gymnastics for health", and all those that are involved with the physical side or aspects of the body, can adhere to the old role, and only add some aspects of the focusing technique. For instance, one can content oneself with a suggestion given to the client to focus on specific bodily sensations of physical origin or on other related felt sensations, in specific instances, all through the sessions or even in between sessions. (Adhering to a level that parallels the practical side of the first few steps for the beginner, without any theoretical or other explanation.)

   As a professional you can integrate the directives of focusing into your old role and techniques, keeping them relatively intact without the need of the client to be wise to it. One can start with the systematic suggestions of elements of the focusing technique to those one treats. Highest on the list for those who apply physical treatments is the suggestion to concentrate on the feelings and sensations aroused in the relevant muscles or organs, at various points, during their sessions.

   This elementary level - with minor adaptations - is applicable to all the other professionals who deal with the mind. The psychiatrists, the psychologists, the social workers, various kinds of counselors, teachers, nurses, specialists of interpersonal relations... and all those who deal with shaping the "soul" of the individual. They could merely suggest to their clients (or patients) to pay close attention to their own felt sensations, aroused there and then during the session.

   An additional suggestion may be added by both kinds of professionals to the first one, without changing their noncommittal level of implementation of the focusing technique. The professional could suggest to his clients that they pay attention to the same focused or hazy felt sensations, of muscles, of organs or of other locations, first experienced within the treatment, outside it too. He could suggest doing this in specific situations or whenever they are felt in life generally.

3. The accumulated professional knowledge, of all those who apply these different kinds of treatment, guidance and therapy does not become obsolete over night, although parts of it may need to be overhauled urgently. At least part of it is worth integrating into the new technique as it is. Other important parts can be adapted without too much effort or change.

   Those professionals who are willing, but not in a position to change the content of their sessions and their procedures overnight, can do it gradually. They would be able to see how, what, when, and while working with whom, to integrate the focusing tactics and strategies with the older techniques.

4. A few professionals could implement the focusing technique and integrate it within their own professions in a roundabout way: though focusing is historically a late development of the trend for getting in touch with one's feelings and emotions, it does not have to be so for the new focusers. One could start by "arranging" for the client the experience of focusing on a substantial felt sensation till it dissolved and only later build on this.

   The professionals who choose this approach, can start to coach a few trainees in focusing according to the schedule of chapter five, in a non formal context and fashion, and gradually integrate it into their professional knowledge. The introduction of focusing does not even have to be under the label of treatment for emotional problems.

   It is usually easier to introduce the focusing technique as a procedure for reallocation of one's brain resources, for the upgrading and mending of the activation programs involved with the current felt sensations or other concrete daily problems. Just as the guiding of others in the building of a healthy diet, is not medical treatments, but preventive measures, so can be the training in the use of the General Sensate Focusing technique (and so one can present it).

5. The best use a professional could make of his knowledge and insights when coaching a trainee is not by sharing them with the focuser. While the various tactics of the focusing technique are not yet integrated as habits into the life of a person, it is better that the bulk of the knowledge remain with the coach. It could be used by him - and for the best results - as a source of ideas or projects offered to the trainee or themes to be emphasized in the future.

   For instance, when a professional of the physical treatments knows the relationship of a felt sensation encountered by the trainee to that of a complicated physical system, he could suggest he begins work on another part of that system, without bringing a detailed explanation. In the same way, when a psychologist thinks that the encountered felt sensation is related to the Oedipus complex, he could suggest to the trainee to focus on felt sensations aroused in him by the photograph of the relevant parent. Both can defer the detailed explanation for a later opportunity, if not rendered obsolete by later developments.

6. When people encounter intentional focusing for the first time, they usually react with funny feelings, and even more so, when it is suggested that they participate. Usually, those mixed feelings arise from their more general trend to resist direct suggestions, and from the more specific trash-programs of our western culture which are prejudiced against the allocation of attention to the felt sensations of the body.

   There are two main approaches that may be taken to overcome this obstacle: The first one involves teaching focusing as one would for trainees of sensate focusing. The second, and more recommended one, is to start asking during treatment, in an offhand way or in a matter of fact fashion, what the client is feeling at that moment. When the answer does not include a verbal or other description of a felt sensation, one can ask him about the sensations of the body felt at the moment - those related and those that do not seem to be related to the feelings.

7. In any context, the best opportunity to introduce the focusing technique is when the "candidate" complains about an unpleasant felt sensation he is experiencing at that time. With a bit of luck, the question of "where does it feel the worst?" and the suggestion to "try to concentrate on it for a while, before you give me a detailed description of it" will cause him to have a short focusing, and bring about a certain relief or a shift of the original felt sensation elsewhere or even its termination.

   It is better not to leave the astonished client to digest his experience alone. A short explanation will soften his embarrassment and contain his wonder. After a few successful encounters with focusing, if he is not overwhelmed by too many and too early explanations, the introduction of focusing as a technique or tactic, and the continuation of its use, will be a lot easier.

   Whether within formal or informal situations, it is always better to ask "where do you feel?" rather than "what do you feel?" or the worst "why wouldn't you focus on it?". The direct suggestion or advice of "focus on it" is best restricted to situations where a specific felt sensation is the subject of conversation between the coach and the trainee, or when it is related to a problem contemplated in a focusing session. Otherwise, a blunt directive of this kind is bound to arouse resistance, even if rapport has already been established.

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