Focusing” is a mind-body method developed by Dr. Eugene Gendlin after conducting research with Dr. Carl Rogers at the University of Chicago in the 1950s on what contributed to effective psychotherapy.
 

It incorporated an inner listening, with an attitude of friendly curiosity toward what Gendlin named, the felt sense – a bodily felt experiencing, to access the body’s innate wisdom for healing and transformational change.

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Today’s Focusing has been integrated into many fields and is also used as a tool for psychotherapy, self-awareness enhancement, wellness, community work, conflict resolution and creative arts.

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By integrating Focusing with the Expressive Arts, Dr. Laury Rappaport introduced a creative way to provide visual and external expression of the bodily felt sense. This process is named “Focusing oriented Expressive Arts or focusing-oriented Art Therapy (FOAT ®) – which offers a nonverbal modality to capture aspects of the inner felt sense that words alone may not sufficiently describe.

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The creative expression during the FOAT ® process may include art, music/sound, movement, words, and sometimes a combination of these modalities.

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Such an array of methods gives access to one’s inner creator, naturally enhancing one’s awareness of self and inner feelings through the focusing process and creative arts expression.

 

(Above information is quoted from the pamphlet of the Art exhibition of the FOAT ® journey on February to March 2016)