Focusing in counselling

Focusing in counselling is a skill that involves listening to the client and working with them to choose what to focus on.

Think about everything that is going on for you at the moment; you may be busy in your personal and family life, there may be issues with friends, you might have stress from work, and so on.

Clients will have lots of things going on in their life and may not come to counselling with a specific focus or goal in mind.

Focusing is like seeing the whole picture of a person’s life and choosing which area of that picture to look at in detail.

The focusing is in the hands of the client, and the counsellor is supporting them to make the decision on what to focus on.

The concept of focusing was first developed by Eugene Gendlin who went on to establish an approach which continues to exist under the British Focusing Association.

Carl Rogers adopted focusing into person-centred counselling in the 1950s from Gendlin, whom he worked with.

Benefits of focusing in counselling

In counselling, the client may have a variety of different thoughts, emotions, and feelings that they would like to deal with in counselling.

However, when everything takes priority, it can also mean that nothing gets sorted.

I like to think of it as 20 people all trying to get through a door at the same time.

By helping the client to focus, you are putting priority onto one issue that the client has raised.

This does not mean that all the other issues will not be attended to, but it means that we can let each issue through the door as they come, and give them the time and attention they require.

The client may also have plenty of noise and issues surrounding their issues that are taking up mental capacity, but do not necessarily need to have focus.

The counsellor can use focusing to help the client remove some of the noise that is surrounding their issues.

How to focus in counselling

The counsellor should remain in the client’s frame of reference, being cautious not to direct the client towards your own agenda.

Create a safe space for the client to be able to reflect and slow down, encouraging them to pause and not feel like they have to rush through everything.

The client may use feeling words when exploring their issue.

The counsellor can reflect the feeling back to the client to communicate it has been acknowledged, as well as giving the opportunity to reflect more on that feeling.

Silence is a powerful tool that can help focusing; the client may need time and space to explore their emotions.

Be aware of any shifts in the client’s body language and non-verbal cues as this can give information about their internal process of the sensations that come up.

In prioritising issues, the counsellor can explicitly ask which issues require focus and which issues can be picked up later.

While counselling tends to focus on a lot of negative issues, it can also be beneficial to focus on the more positive changes or actions as well.

If the client has experienced some level of growth or change, the counsellor can help to focus on that, particularly if there is a level of negative bias in the client’s thinking.

It does not matter how small the positive change is – it can still be a big achievement for the client and is something worth focusing on and celebrating.