Teaching Focusing by Instancing

Click here for notes from Bruce Gibbs' multi-week class using the Instancing process

Rationale

Eugene Gendlin's first insight around therapy patients and successful outcomes was that successful patients were doing something different. Even before he was able to fully articulate the process that they were doing, before it was called Focusing, this process was already happening for many people.

This process of pausing, sensing into, and allowing a certain feel-quality to occur in our experiencing - then fine-tuning what comes by resonating with it and checking for right fit - is not limited to therapy settings. It is common in many creative endeavors and for many who have mastery of their craft. The instancing approach helps people identify and expand where they are already using this natural process.

This approach to teaching Focusing via instances is very similar to what Rachel Naomi Remen calls "The Discovery Model." It works primarily with the wisdom that dwells within the participants, more than that which is outside of them.

This minimizes the tendency of participants to wonder "if they are doing it properly," or to think of Focusing as something outside of their experience that needs to be learned. Instead, it helps them connect with grounded knowing in one area of their lives and encourages it to generalize into other areas.

Another benefit is that participants discover the numerous ways that Focusing is already happening in different areas of people's lives, expanding the limiting belief that Focusing is only a therapy or self-help process.

The process of curiously inquiring into one's own and others' inner processes builds excitement and sets a tone for continuous learning and growth.

There is also a more advanced form of instancing, where the teacher or guide learns to identify and reflect back the micro-movements of Focusing. This can be adapted for coaching and counseling.

Advantages

1. This method honors the reality that Focusing occurs naturally in many people.
2. Minimizes a sense of student ignorance or that Focusing is separate from their present living.
3. Allows traditional Focusing instruction to build on an experiential base with less confusion.
4. Shifts the learning context from something to acquire into an ongoing discovery process.
5. Encourages Focusing as something that can happen in daily living - "mini-Focusing moments."
6. Advanced instancing allows teachers to reflect and support the sub-movements of Focusing more skillfully.

Disadvantages

1. This teaching style may feel unfamiliar or anxiety-provoking for instructors at first.
2. Some learners may miss the key distinction between being in feelings vs. pausing and sensing into them.
3. Some may underestimate the value of formal Focusing training and miss subtleties.

Related Pages

• Perceiving Focusing Instances - an appreciative approach to teaching Focusing
• Notes from a multi-week class using the instancing process
• Perceiving and reflecting the steps of Focusing