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The Skill of Focusing Explained
Focusing as a Counselling Skill
Focusing is a counselling skill that involves actively listening to what the client is bringing, and then choosing an area to focus down on.
Focusing is like zooming into a detail in a photograph. The counsellor zooms in on the emotions behind the story, or narrative, that the client is bringing.
Who Is the Focuser?
‘Focusing’ is sometimes misunderstood as a term, quite understandably.
When we think about the word ‘focusing’, we may be drawn to thinking that it’s about us paying more attention and really focusing our concentration on something that the client is bringing. But it’s not this at all. Indeed, it is the client who is the focuser, with the therapist supporting this process.
Gendlin himself wrote (2010, p. 10): ‘The most important rule for a therapist or friend to observe, in helping someone to focus, is to stay out of the focuser’s way.’
Focusing involves helping the client make decisions about what issues the client wants to deal with. They may have mentioned a range of issues and problems, and focusing allows the counsellor and client together to clear away some of the less important surrounding material and to concentrate on the central issues of concern.
Focusing may involve prioritising issues and making decisions about the urgency of the issues the client has brought.
Choosing Where to Focus
So where do we support the client to focus their attention?
First, the counsellor aims to maintain the focus on the client’s agenda and needs in the counselling session. One of the places we might choose to focus on is if the client brings up a feeling word.
For example, the client may say: “When I left I felt devastated, realising I could never return again.”
The feeling word in this example is ‘devastated’ and the counsellor may reflect back: “I hear you were completely devastated.” This intervention invites the client to dive deeper into the feeling word ‘devastated’.
It often happens in counselling that the client will come in with a story. Although they bring in the weight of this material, there is also an element of safety in staying in the story, because there’s a distance between this and the feelings that underlie it. Some of these feelings may be really painful. And that’s our work as counsellors – to be there in those painful feelings with people.
Focusing can encourage a client – if they wish – to go and explore a feeling or movement more deeply. This deepens the bond, taking the therapeutic connection to a new relational depth.
How to Focus
When we have decided where to focus on, how do we then focus down? Since person-centred counselling is non-directive, we would need to invite the client to explore something.
First of all, we need to be in their frame of reference. The client is bringing their story. Maybe they will touch on a feeling word as they’re going through that story.
As a person-centred counsellor, you could just use a really simple reflection of the feeling word that they brought. In this way, you would be acknowledging that that feeling is there – and inviting the client (if they choose and feel ready to do so) to go to that feeling and to focus on it, drilling down to bring more of themselves and so to gain enhanced awareness.
Example of Therapeutic Focusing
Counsellor: But when it comes to making that choice of doing something for yourself, you use the word ‘selfish’.
Client: Very much so. It feels – when it is for my own gain, want or pleasure – I guess, it really feels selfish.
In this example, the focus word is ‘selfish’. That’s because when the story was brought, the word ‘selfish’ didn’t seem to fit for the client; she didn’t seem to resonate with it and it seemed to be a painful area. So the counsellor reflected that word back, inviting the client to focus down on what ‘selfish’ meant to her, and to explore that.
So look out, among all the material that the client brings, for when a client uses a ‘feeling’ word. That’s a great place to go back and focus down on. It’s like the client is taking a flag, bashing it into the material that they’re bringing, and saying, ‘Look, there’s a feeling that lives under here!’
It may well be that the client chooses not to take up that invitation and so not to look at that feeling right now, and that’s OK. At least you have acknowledged that by focusing, and that in itself lets the client know that they’ve been understood.
Prioritising Issues and Goal-Setting
Focusing involves thinking through the implications of prioritising. If one issue is dealt with first, how will this affect the other issues? What will this mean for the client?
Questions that the counsellor may consider are:
- Which issues may need swift action?
- Which may be left until later?
Focusing also involves an estimate of the length of time the counselling is likely to take, and discussion of this with the client.
Aside from this, the counsellor also needs to look at their own level of experience as a counsellor. For example, do you have concerns around your competence to work with the client’s issue? Do you need to refer on?
Focusing may involve goal-setting and/or contracting with the client. It involves a realistic assessment of what is possible.
Moments of Movements
Another place where we can use focusing is if there has been a moment of movement within the counselling session. If the client has experienced some development or growth – no matter how small that is – that may be a massive win for the client and so it is a good place to focus.
Counsellors are not there just to dig and find pain, and take the clients to places that are uncomfortable for them. They can also focus on something that the client feels is a win or a small moment of movement. We can acknowledge these moments and say: ‘Yes. Wow, look at that!‘
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The Skill of Focusing Explained
Example of Focusing following a Moment of Movement
The client has been speaking about how she felt judged and evaluated by other people when she was making decisions for herself.
Client: Not to assume what the other person would like, need or want from that, but to allow them maybe to express that, to bring what it is that I would do and maybe not be so sensitive if it’s not taken up or accepted, and to allow for whatever the situation is that occurs, that it’s not a rejection of me. It’s just …
Counsellor: It’s not a rejection of me.
Client: Yeah, it’s just a choice or a decision or a like or a want or whatever, but it’s not ultimately rejecting me.
Counsellor: Wow. That feels massive. That really feels massive when you say ‘Not a rejection of me’ because mere moments ago, you were talking about that as being a rejection.
It feels like – looking at it and examining it – you may be able to see that slightly differently now. You’re acknowledging that not as a rejection of you and, I guess, as maybe their opinion, want or need.
But at the same time, I recognise how fragile that want and need of self is, feeling that it does take second place.
So I guess it’s about maybe that courage to bring your wants and needs out, measured against the idea that ‘it’s not a rejection of me’.
Client: Yeah. It doesn’t feel as make or break, or life and death anymore. The idea of me purely expressing something that I’d prefer is not the ultimate ‘this is going to be you liking me or not liking me’. It’s purely a thought or an idea.
This illustrates the power of focusing in person-centred counselling. One moment, the client was talking about how she felt judged and evaluated by other people when she was making decisions for herself. Then, thanks to a little focus on that moment of movement, it doesn’t feel like that anymore for her. She’s able to see that there is a change.
Next Steps
Focusing is a very useful and necessary skill in what we do as counsellors.
Why not practise focusing? You can use various different interventions to encourage focusing, for example a one-word reflection or a paraphrase.
Why not try sharing with peers what it feels like for you to invite somebody to focus down on something? You might like to talk about your experiences of this: perhaps it has deepened the bond, taking the therapeutic connection to new relational depth.
Over to you to go out there and look at the skill of focusing with a new focus!
Frequently Asked Questions
What is focusing in counselling?
Focusing is a counselling skill where you actively listen to everything the client brings and then help them attend to one part of it, like zooming in on a detail in a photograph. It is often an area that carries emotional weight, even if the client only mentions it briefly. The aim is to help the client explore what matters most, without you deciding it for them.
Who is the focuser, the counsellor or the client?
The client is the focuser, not the counsellor. The word can mislead people into thinking it means the counsellor concentrating harder, but your role is to support the client’s process rather than run it. As Gendlin put it, the most important rule is to stay out of the focuser’s way.
How do you focus a client in a counselling session?
Because person-centred counselling is non-directive, you stay in the client’s frame of reference and offer a simple reflection, often of a feeling word they have used. This gently invites the client to explore that feeling more deeply if they wish. They can take up the invitation or leave it, and either way they feel understood.
What is a moment of movement in focusing?
A moment of movement is a shift or small piece of growth a client experiences in the session, however small it seems. Focusing is not only about difficult feelings, so these moments are a good place to focus too. Acknowledging them helps the client notice the change they have made, rather than letting it slip by.
When should you use focusing in counselling?
Focusing helps when a client brings several issues at once and needs support to prioritise what matters most, and when a feeling word or a moment of movement invites deeper exploration. It also supports goal-setting, including thinking about the likely length of the work and whether to refer on. It is especially valuable in time-limited counselling, where sessions need to be used well.
References
Armitage, S-A. (2022). Using the Skill of Focusing in Counselling [lecture]. Counselling Study Resource, Counselling Tutor.
Gendlin, E. (2010). Focusing: How to gain direct access to your body’s knowledge. Reading: Random House.
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