June 2022

The Gendlin Research Center exists both to generate new research and to make better known existing relevant studies. As a member of the Gendlin Center Committee, Dr. Rob Parker has published this comprehensive review of the state of existing research, including what kinds of research the Gendlin Grant would like to fund. Please share this widely. It can be found at www.gendlincenter.org

This is an exciting time to do research on Focusing, first because our theoretical and practical understanding has grown enormously since the early research in the 1960s, and secondly because the absence of experimental research gives the prospective researcher an open field in which to make important new discoveries. For those considering researching some aspect of Focusing, this is a brief overview of the current research and of the most important research questions.

After a period of considerable research in the 1960s and 70s, outcome research on Focusing declined following the cognitive revolution in the 1980s, which focused most research attention onto cognitive behavior therapy. Thus, just as Focusing has been considered indispensable by growing numbers of clinicians, it has been largely ignored by researchers, particularly those with the resources to conduct randomized controlled trials.

We extend a huge thank you to Susan Lennox for her many years of service organizing the TIFI Roundtables.

During her service on the TIFI Board, Susan recognized the need for a Membership Committee, so that we could concentrate on helping our members get connected to the Institute's resources as well as to one another. When Susan sees a need, she doesn't say, "Somebody should...," she says, "I will..." and then she does it! She put countless hours into developing a Committee and then many additional hours into its key program, the Roundtables. These are regularly scheduled conversations on Zoom about a variety of topics, which are free to members. They have been wildly successful and are always over-subscribed.

Even after Susan handed the chairing of the Membership Committee over to Mary Jennings and then Mariana Písula, she continued her herculean efforts at organizing countless Roundtables. In addition to the regular monthly Roundtables, she has also nurtured various Roundtables series for Italians, people "Down Under" (in Australia and New Zealand), for therapists and more.

Susan, we can't thank you enough for your dedication, foresight, organizational skill, warmth and good humor. You've made this community stronger and more vibrant.

Read more about Susan and her contributions in the interview below.

And a warm welcome with great appreciation to

The New Roundtables Team

(yes, it took 3 people to replace Susan Lennox!)

From Law to Focusing:
An Interview with Susan Lennox
by Sarah Paul

Susan Lennox is a founding member of the TIFI Membership Committee, where she has been coordinating the Roundtables for many years. In 2022, she relinquished that role to dedicate more time to her psychotherapy and coaching practice, and creative projects. From her home near the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, she talked to me about her experience of helping to build a thriving international community for Focusers, and how she integrates Focusing into her work and creative life.

Sarah Paul: What is Focusing to you?
Susan Lennox: Focusing is central to my life. Before I learned to Focus, I was a lawyer for 25 years. I was very cognitive, linear and left-brain orientated. When I hit my late 40s, something just didn’t feel right about my career anymore. I felt drawn to move in a new direction but I wasn’t clear where. I decided to do some therapy and was very lucky to find Joan Klagsbrun, a Focusing Coordinator in the Boston area where I then lived. Joan introduced me to Focusing and, in the process of our work together and by using Focusing, I found my authentic calling.

“Focusing let me put my feet on my own ground, and to go from there.”

Focusing seemed to bring the other half of me to the fore, allowing me to be more whole. I felt I was connecting to something very true inside, that I didn’t know in my head, but that could be discovered by just making space for it. If I had never learned to Focus, I’d have probably just kept on being a lawyer – which I enjoyed, but it didn’t feel like my mission in life, or like it was really coming from my heart and soul. Focusing let me put my feet on my own ground and go from there. I left the law, enrolled in grad school for a PhD in Human Development, and trained with Joan to become a Focusing Professional in 2000. I started teaching Focusing and became a Certifying Coordinator in 2009.

In my professional practice as a psychotherapist and coach, I see how Focusing helps others find their way too. I often see clients who are struggling under a pile of things that they’re told by their families or their culture that they should be doing or they should want. When I teach them Focusing - that gift of pausing, noticing inside and being open to what comes, having the patience to sit with it, and eventually hearing it speak - they reconnect to what they really want. That makes such a difference to so many people.

Juneteenth
A Letter by Darry Commings