Practitioners of somatic therapy are always exploring innovative methods to support healing. One such strategy is the 6 Steps of Focusing, created by Eugene Gendlin and championed by other somatic therapists, like Jan Winhall.
Focusing has roots in felt sense therapy, and invites clients to connect and interact with their internal experiences to foster deep, transformative healing. These steps guide clients through an experience that puts them in touch with their felt sense, and allows them to tap into body wisdom to explore their trauma in a way that feels safer than talking about it…
What are the 6 Steps of Focusing, and how can you apply them to your therapeutic work? Keep reading to find out (and watch the YouTube video to explore steps 1 & 2 with Jan Winhall)…
The Importance of Focusing in Somatic Therapy
Focusing techniques serve as a bridge between the body and mind, creating a unique connection that can be especially valuable in helping clients process trauma. These techniques enable clients to access their inner wisdom through the concept of the felt sense, which refers to familiarity with bodily sensations that carry significant meaning. As therapists, guiding clients to attune to their felt sense can unlock powerful insights, aiding in somatic trauma healing.
Understanding the 6 Steps of Focusing
The 6 Steps of Focusing provide a structured yet flexible framework for engaging in somatic therapy and activating body wisdom. This tool can easily be integrated into whatever other modalities you’re already using in your practice. Think of focusing as a skill that you can teach your clients to help them feel more grounded and safe in the world.
While the full process is expansive, you can explore the first two steps in this video with Jan Winhall:
Deep Dive: Steps 1 & 2 of Focusing
In this featured YouTube video, Jan Winhall introduces two pivotal steps from the 6 Steps of Focusing:
- Clearing a Space: This initial step is about creating an internal environment that allows for safe exploration. Clients are encouraged to tune into their minds and find the things that are bothering them—that are preventing them from feeling okay. Then, one at a time, they visualize putting those things into a container or a balloon and temporarily pushing them away to clear space in the mind to focus on the felt sense.
- Getting a Felt Sense: The second step involves tuning into the body to sense an underlying, often unarticulated, feeling associated with an issue or experience. Jan describes this as the issue or part that calls out to you, asking to be examined now. Once your client has identified this element, you encourage them to explore it and examine how the feelings are making themselves known – where do they feel it in their body? What is within the client that wants to be heard? This practice of attending to the felt sense can reveal layers of emotion and meaning that are not immediately accessible through verbal exploration alone. This is what makes focusing and tuning into felt sense such an effective tool for trauma and addiction therapy.
This video is meant to give you a glimpse into the comprehensive methodology Jan employs. For a more detailed understanding, we invite you to watch the full video, click HERE to check it out.
Integrating Polyvagal Theory and Focusing Techniques
Polyvagal theory, which explains how our nervous systems respond to safety and danger (fight and flight, etc.), complements the process of focusing by providing a framework for understanding your clients’ physiological states. By integrating these concepts, therapists can support clients in developing greater self-regulation and resilience, foundational elements in therapeutic embodiment practices.
Conclusion
Using focusing and other powerful somatic therapy techniques in your practice will have a profound effect on how you approach trauma healing. By teaching clients to tune into to the felt sense and use the 6 Steps of Focusing, therapists can empower clients to engage deeply with their experiences and begin to process them more effectively. We encourage you to explore these methods further and consider how they can enrich your therapeutic toolkit.
In her Academy of Therapy Wisdom course, Treating Trauma and Addiction With the Felt Sense Polyvagel Model, Jan Winhall walks participants through the 6 Steps of Focusing, and explains how they function as part of the Felt Sense Polyvagel Model of Therapy. Jan uses this approach to treat trauma and addiction in ways you’ve probably never seen done before… If you’re interested in Jan’s course, click HERE to learn more.
Let’s continue to explore, learn, and apply these transformative approaches in our work together.
For those who wish to explore all six steps, the complete video is available here:
Watch this FREE Video from Jan Winhall:
Discover Gendlin’s 6 Steps of Focusing: A Somatic Approach to Healing With Jan Winhall
In this free video, Jan Winhall will teach you:
Guide yourself and clients through Gendlin’s 6 Steps of Focusing to connect with the body’s inner wisdom.
Learn how Interoception and Neuroception shape the nervous system to help clients feel safe and grounded.
