Most psychotherapy theories have difficult problems explaining
‘personality change’. Gendlin (1964) states that the present theoretical frame of reference is especially suited to account for change, since it employs concepts that
apply to the experiencing process. In FOT it is important that the clients engage
with their experiencing. Gendlin (1964) explains that experiencing is the process of
concrete, bodily feeling, which constitutes the basic matter of psychological and
personality phenomena. Experiencing refers to what we can sense in our body right
now. We have bodies that live in situations, not just in physical space. For example,
when we are waiting anxiously for the result of an examination: when we get a
phone call to say that the result is good, this news changes our body. Likewise, if
we imagine or call to mind relationship scenarios we can experience the felt sense -
we have been living in those interactions even though the other person is elsewhere
(Hendricks, 2002a).
The two significant features of ‘experiencing’ are that it is always in
process and it always functions implicitly (Gendlin, 1964). However, while that is
so, Gendlin (1964) introduced a new term ‘structure-bound’ that addresses a situation where there is a blocked flow between symbols and immediate experience
with little opportunity for either experience or symbolisations to change (Purton,
2004, p.125). Gendlin (1964) illustrates how the experiencing process in certain
respects is missing in the structure-bound manner of experience. When we adopt an
external viewpoint we may miss the implicit functioning of experiencing that ought
to be there. Only the process-skipping structure and the experiencing surrounding it
and leading up to it are there. So we say the structure-bound elements are not in
process. Therefore, structure-bound is a state in which our experiencing is stuck in
particular forms. When we are in a structure-bound state we do not respond
his father cannot respond effectively to anyone whom he perceives as his father. He
reacts to him as just being like his father and not like a person in a particular
situation. In this case they cannot be aware of the present situation because their
experience becomes frozen into a particular form. Nothing new can come from the
structure. But if we can get beneath the structure to what it is rooted in, to the
foundation, so to speak, we can facilitate a restructuring that will usefully articulate
what has been blocked (Purton, 2004, p.73).
Although the richness and intricacy of human experiencing are beyond
anything we can interpret or analyse, human experiencing is also very specific.
Hence there are times when we cannot put our experiencing into words or concepts.
Language which is far more than just words and phrases is deeply rooted in the
human body. The language, the body and the situations we are in make one single
system together. Language is embodied in the human process of living. When we
stay with the feel of ‘all that’, we sense it as a whole, so all of our implicit sense of the situation is sensed in a bodily way. It is felt directly in the body as heaviness,
jumpiness, tightness or some other physical quality (Gendlin et al, 1986). Feeling
one’s emotions and the felt sense is different (Gendlin, 1996/2003; Purton, 2004). The subtle ways that life is felt directly in the body lie below the level of
thought, concepts and emotions. The felt sense lies underneath emotions like anger,
jealousy or desire but it is more intricate and more difficult to put a name on it.
Gendlin summarises the felt sense in eight characteristics (Gendlin, 1996, p.24):
1. A felt sense forms at the border zone between conscious and unconscious.
2. The felt sense has at first only an unclear quality (although unique and unmistakable).
3. The felt sense is experienced bodily.
4. The felt sense is experienced as a whole, a single datum that is internally complex.
5. The felt sense moves through steps; it shifts and opens step by step. 6. A step brings one closer to being that self which is not any content. 7. The process step has its own growth direction.
8. Theoretical explanations of a step can be devised only retrospectively.
Therefore, the felt sense is the body sense of a whole situation, but it is
typically always vague at first, murky and hard to recognise. It is a unique quality
which comes in the body and mirrors how the situation is lived in the body. We can
recognise our usual emotions and gut feelings of anger, sadness, disappointment
and so forth. Our emotions are not the same as the felt sense. It is the
unrecognisable character of the felt sense that clearly distinguishes it from our
usual emotions (Gendlin et al., 1986). Gendlin (1974, p. 222) suggests that “a
therapist must strive to help the person allow directly felt referents to form, to
attend to a bodily felt sense, and to let that live further in words and interactions.” As the therapists keep their clients’ attention close to a sense of a situation, the client may find it coming into focus. Suddenly, it is no longer just a
diffuse discomfort with the situation, but something quite specific. They may say,
“It is.…” or “There is….” although they have not yet found the words to say it. Suddenly they are ‘aware of’ again in this bodily sensed way of being aware of. We can be aware of many facets of any situation. Then we can quickly respond with
‘what it is,’ and this is something important, for example, “That is what I am worried about,” or “That is what is nagging me….” There is a release and flow of
energy that was stuck before as they can now say in words what that is. There is
also release when they can even name it briefly (Gendlin, 1980b). Thus, the
interaction between the experiencing and the attention to the felt sense brings about
a change in the experiencing. This process can often happen in therapy. The client
formulates his or her experiencing in one way, finds that it is not right, and the first
71). From a felt sense, new and different thoughts and feelings will emerge. The
therapist must again respond receptively to the felt sense (Gendling, 1968/1980a).
The focusing-oriented therapist helps the client carry forward their
experience in a particular situation. In order to do so the therapist has to interact
with their clients in such a way that the clients can contact a bodily felt sense of life
situations. The therapist encourages the client to stay with their edge of
experiencing. Gendlin (1984a) emphasizes that the therapist’s primary and active
responsibility is to direct the client toward his or her experiencing process. I will be
discuss further the concepts employed in FOT in Chapter 6. The next chapter will