#2: Annette Dubreuil Discusses Eugene Gendlin's Felt Sense as it Applies to Meaning, Creativity, and More.

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Many emerging therapies like EMDR, IFS, Somatic Experiencing, and Psychedelics target a client’s “Felt Sense” and “Embodied Knowing” rather than intellectual and cognitive insight.  The term “Felt Sense” was coined by philosopher Eugene Gendlin, who developed a peer to peer therapy process called Focusing in the 1950s.  

Here we present a conversation with Focusing expert Annette Dubreuil on the history, allure, and methodology of this internal psychotherapeutic process. Annette describes her personal connection to Focusing, her experiences as a long-time Focusing facilitator, and her specific teaching process, the Pupa process.  She also describes Gendlin’s Thinking at the Edge method for creativity, and how we can combine knowledge from different fields to enhance creativity and meaning.  Stick around till the end to learn the meaning of life according to Annette Dubreuil and consider whether Focusing may be right for you.

Timestamps

• 3:15 - Definition of the “felt sense”
• 9:30 - Annette introduces Focusing
• 14:00 - Annette’s discovery of Focusing
• 17:30 - Combining Polyvagal Theory and Focusing 
• 23:10 - Giving credit to Eugene Gendlin
•  24:32 - Crossing therapy processes and modalities (“Thinking at the Edge”)
• 26:59 - Combining the 8 C’s of IFS and Focusing 
• 30:10 - Focusing and Heart Energy 
• 32:07 - Annette’s transition from Focusing client to collaborator 
• 35:00 - How empathy factors into Focusing
• 38:00 - Tanya Singer’s meditative monks
• 42:00 - Catastrophic thinking
• 46:27 - Annette’s background 
• 49:20 - Victor Frankl’s 4 Components of Finding Meaning
• 54:36 - “Meaning issue” in Annette’s clients
• 56:40 - Conversation about Dirk and Annette’s shared experience 
• 59:30 - Psychedelics and Focusing 
• 1:01:30 - Annette’s personal focusing practice
• 1:05:00 - Focusing prompts
• 1:06:47 - Rapid Fire questions and wind down

Produced by Dirk Winter and Violet Chernoff

Theme music by The Thrashing Skumz