A Phenomenological-Hermeneutic Study of Adept Practitioners' Experiences of Focusing

This study presents a qualitative analysis of six accounts of focusing, a method of embodied reflection. Six expert practitioners were interviewed, and each participant`s account was brought under two rounds of analysis. First, a modified descriptive phenomenological analysis was performed on a portion of the interview in which the participant described a particular focusing experience. This was followed by an interpretive phenomenological analysis of the participant`s interview as a whole. Analyses resulted in the identification of explicit and implicit themes that were constitutive of focusing experiences across participants. Several themes that were identified include: the importance of social support and validation for experiences that depart from the norms and values of materialist culture, the exquisite gentleness and receptivity of the focusers` attitude toward their experiences, and the dialogical qualities of the practice. The details and significance of the dialogue, which is a synesthetic exchange between the focuser and responses arising in her perceptual field, is explored in the discussion. Attention is paid to the fluid and at times ambiguous self-other experience suggested by the dialogue, and an archetypal framework for interpreting this dialogue is introduced. Additionally, the two phenomenological methods employed are reviewed and compared for their relative merit in the study of focusing.

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Immediate Access

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Clinical Psychology

Year dc:date.available

2012

Author dc:creator

• Nokes-Malach, Sarah

Contributors dc:contributor

• Russell Walsh
• Will Adams
• Eva Simms

• Archetypal
• Dialogue
• Focusing
• Hermeneutic
• Phenomenological

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/985

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dsc.duq.edu:etd-2001