Nolan's Response

[Anonymous]

#658

Excerpt 1:
“‘Manageable’ arose as a temporary wave from the sea of being. “Unmanageable” emerged from their shared sea of being…. And this shared moment deepens their therapeutic journey.”

This moment from Lavender’s piece on “Gendlin’s View of Human Being: Interaction First” speaks directly to the collaborative aspect of felt sense. I first recognized the importance of the human-to-human interaction when Sondra guided the GCCRC group through a focusing exercise last semester. While engaged in this exercise, part of me was conscious of my dependency on Sondra’s voice as it nudged me deeper into the focusing experience toward a felt sense. I knew I wouldn’t be able to recreate this experience without that voice. A certain level of sensory stimulation was needed to hep me focus.

Excerpt 2:
Although the content may be vague at first, with practice, the focuser (and the listener) can identify the phenomenon of BFS distinctly. It is manifested in the quality and prosody of the focuser’s language. Also, BFS, carries within a potential to transform or to move, to “shift” as you come in contact with it. Further, it is accessed through the body, as an epiphenomenon of our experiencing self, yet cannot be localized in the physical body proper.

I post the above excerpt because I find it slippery. I was surprised to learn that BFS could be identified by both the focuser and the listener “distinctly.” Lavender suggests it can be heard in the “quality and prosody of the focuser’s language,” but what does this sound like?

[Sondra Perl]

#677

Interesting question…she doesn’t elaborate but she’s experienced in active listening and can recognize when words ‘ring true’ to the person she is working with and she can also sense into those moments ‘with’ the person and ‘in’ herself: the sea of being that opens between them. She would offer back the words she hears to see if they take the person further into the intricacy of that lived situation.

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