The Eugene T. Gendlin Center
for Research in Experiential Philosophy and Psychology of The International Focusing Institute
Shortly after Gene Gendlin’s death in 2017, the Board of the Institute passed a resolution to create an initiative within the International Focusing Institute to promote high level academic research to build on Gene’s legacy. While we normally say the "Gendlin Research Center" or the "Gendlin Center," the full name is The Eugene T. Gendlin Center for Research in Experiential Philosophy and Psychology.
The Gendlin Research Center consists of a distinguished group of academics in philosophy and psychology, all experts in Gendlin's work as well as in their broader academic field. They meet monthly to further the purpose of promoting academy-level research based in the work of Gene Gendlin. See below for members of the Steering Committee.
Thanks to generous donors, the first major initiative of the Gendlin Research Center has been the Gendlin Grant for Original Research in Psychology. So far, two researchers have received grants for important research which will ensure that Focusing becomes more widely recognized as an evidence-based modality. See below for more information on these two grant recipients.
"Saying What We Mean: A Symposium on the Works of Eugene Gendlin" is the second major initiative of the Gendlin Research Center. The first Gendlin Symposium took place in cooperation with Seattle University in April 2021. The second one took place online September 28 - October 1, 2023.
Contact the Gendlin Center for Research here: [email protected]
| GENDLIN GRANT 2024 |
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Gendlin Grant For Original Research In Psychology Award Year: 2024
Award Amount: Total award(s) up to $5,000
The Gendlin Center grant is a competitive award for promising original research advancing the Focusing process as an evidence-based practice. We are looking for quantitative research proposals which utilize rigorous methodologies. Priority is given to research design that has high potential for publication in a quality peer-reviewed journal. <SEE DETAILS>
| RECOMMENDED PUBLICATIONS & INFORMATION ON FOCUSING RESEARCH |
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Research studies seeking subjects
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Thinking at the edge in the context of embodied critical thinking: Finding words for the felt dimension of thinking within research Donata Schoeller (2022)
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The Current Status of Research on Focusing Oriented Psychotherapy: A Summary and Invitation Rob Parker, PhD (2022)
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Gendlin Center-Sponsored Research Now Published: In The Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapies Journal
- Our list of recommended publications here
- DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS
- 2001 ARTICLE REVIEW: Focusing-Oriented/Experiential Psychotherapy
By Marion Hendricks Gendlin
| GENDLIN GRANT FOR RESEARCH IN PSYCHOLOGY 2023 |
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The Eugene T. Gendlin Center for Research in Experiential Philosophy and Psychology (the Gendlin Center) is delighted to announce its 2023 recipient of the Gendlin Grant for Original Research in Psychology. This award of $2,500 has been granted to Dr. Kumiyo Sakai.
Kumiyo Sakai is a professor at Wayo Women's University in Chiba prefecture, Japan, where she teaches Clinical Psychology and Focusing-Oriented Counseling. She is involved in research on Focusing Attitudes and experimental research on the effectiveness of counseling that incorporates Interactive Focusing. As a Focusing trainer, she teaches Focusing at a civic university. She is also a counselor in a private counseling office as a Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapist and a licensed psychologist.
The Gendlin Research Center funding will allow her to study the effect of Interactive Focusing Counseling on how one handles stress. We eagerly await the findings!
Here’s a video of Professor Kumiyo Sakai in a brief interview by the Chair of the Gendlin Research Center, Professor Akira Ikemi. (Thank you to Taeko Sakurai for the voiceover interpretation to English.)
Congratulations, Professor Kumiyo Sakai!
Thank you to all the donors to the Gendlin Center. Your generosity makes this research possible.
| GENDLIN SYMPOSIUM |
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2023 GENDLIN SYMPOSIUM
The theme of the 2023 Gendlin Symposium was "Deliberative Transformation: Embodied Phenomenology and Process Thinking" and was co-sponsored by DePaul University (Chicago, USA), the University of Iceland and Koblenz University (Switzerland).
2021 GENDLIN SYMPOSIUM
"Saying What We Mean: a Symposium on the Work of Eugene Gendlin" was offered by the Departments of Psychology and Philosophy at Seattle University, in partnership with The Gendlin Research Center of The International Focusing Institute. The name of the symposium comes from the recently published collection of Gendlin's essays, Saying What We Mean. This extraordinary collection, edited by Edward Casey and Donata Schoeller, brings together a series of essays demonstrating Gendlin’s creative and insightful ability to balance conversations across a wide range of voices in philosophy and psychology.
The Psychology and Philosophy of Eugene Gendlin (Psychology and the Other) is an edited collection of presentations offered at the 2021 conference.
SEE VIDEOS FROM 2021 GENDLIN SYMPOSIUM
| GENDLIN GRANT FOR RESEARCH IN PSYCHOLOGY 2019 |
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Gendlin Center-Sponsored Research Now Published
In The Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapies Journal <SEE DETAILS>
SEE DETAILS OF 2019 OF AWARD
Exciting New Research on Focusing
by Leslie Ellis
| GENDLIN GRANT FOR RESEARCH IN PSYCHOLOGY 2020 |
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The recipient of the 2020 Gendlin Grant for Original Research in Psychology:
Congratulations to Dr. Mohamed Altawil
The Eugene T. Gendlin Center for Research in Experiential Philosophy and Psychology is proud to announce that Dr. Mohamed Altawil has been awarded the second Gendlin Grant. Dr. Altawil, a clinical psychologist, is the Founder and Director of Palestine Trauma Centre (UK) and visiting lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire, department of Psychology. Dr. Altawil will be studying the efficacy of the Gaza Focusing Intervention for combating Post-Traumatic Syndrome Disorder (PTSD) in Gaza, Palestine.
The Gendlin Research Center committee was very impressed with the rigor of the study designed by Dr. Altawil and the inclusion of a control group in order to validate findings.
Here is an excerpt from his application for the grant:
“Over the last 70 years, war and conflict have vastly influenced the lives and well-being of Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Giacaman et al. (2004) established that the restrictions on the liberty of young Palestinian people under occupation in the West Bank... have dramatically impacted adolescents’ wellbeing, development and education….
Every analysis of interventions on individuals and communities who are experiencing and observing war and conflict on a daily basis should always have those people’s needs, dignity, culture, honour and resilience as the focus of attention.
With all the above in mind, this study aims to assess the impact of the Gaza Focusing Project among 500 traumatized people in the Gaza Strip by using pre- and post- assessment via PTSD Scale (a validated and published scale)."
Thank you to all of our generous donors for making the second Gendlin Grant possible.
Thank you to the members of the Gendlin Center Committee: Prof. Akira Ikemi (Kansai U.), Prof. Kevin Krycka (Seattle U.), Prof. Mary Jeanne Larrabee (DePaul U.), Dr. Rob Parker, Dr. Joao Messias (Pontifícal Catholic University of Campinas, Brazil) and Dr. Leslie Ellis (board liaison).
The Eugene T. Gendlin Center for Research in Experiential Philosophy and Psychology was created in honor of Gene Gendlin to promote high level academic research that builds on the work he did in philosophy and psychology, as well as encouraging interdisciplinary work. Currently, the Center's primary goal is to promote quantitative research in psychology that will demonstrate the efficacy of Focusing.
| BOOK OF SELECTED PROCEEDINGS OF 2021 GENDLIN SYMPOSIUM |
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The Psychology and Philosophy of Eugene Gendlin (Psychology and the Other)
Eric R. Severson and Kevin C. Krycka
This book is an outcome of our 2021 Gendlin Symposium, which was the work of the Gendlin Research Center and the Departments of Psychology and Philosophy at Seattle University. Drs. Severson and Krycka were chairs of that event and these essays were presented at that Symposium.
| GENDLIN PHILOSOPHY PRIZE |
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Eugene Gendlin received his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1958 and served as an associate professor in the departments of Philosophy and Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago from 1964 until 1995.
In 2023, The Eugene T. Gendlin Center for Research in Experiential Philosophy and Psychology (Gendlin Research Center for short) announced a new prize for young scholars in philosophy.
The purpose of the award is to help generate interest in Gendlin’s philosophy among young scholars. Therefore, the author of the paper must be a current graduate student in philosophy or have received their Ph.D. in philosophy within the past 4 years.
Please watch for an announcement for a prize in 2024. Meanwhile, we are open to your questions and happy to advise you. Please contact us with questions at [email protected].
| WHAT IS FOCUSING |
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Focusing is an experiential, embodied and evidence-based practice of self-reflection (Krycka & Ikemi, 2016). During Focusing, your attention will open up to multiple layers and aspects of living. It’s called Focusing because it requires a special kind of “focus” to notice what is not yet clear, fuzzy and vague, implicit in how you interact with your situations and environment. This fuzzy dimension of experience is called “felt sense”.
Focusing on the “felt sense” allows an in-depth clarification process to happen. Sometimes this leads to an amazing experience that the body is reliable in its living forward tendency. For some persons, Focusing is a very natural process, others can do this with some training. The subtle movements experienced during a Focusing session have the potential to transforms the framework of thinking and stuck emotional patterns. <Read More>
| Thinking at the Edge in Academia (TAE) |
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See details: Thinking at the Edge in Academia
| STEERING COMMITTEE & DONORS |
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Board policy on assigning new members to the Gendlin Center committee
See the Gendlin Center Steering Committee and Charter Donors
| DONATE |
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To donate to the Gendlin Center, visit this page.