An exploration of Focusing-oriented Therapy for Addictions
type: CreativeWork
description: This study aims to provide the first systematic explication of focusing-oriented therapy for clients with addiction. It begins with basic principles from the Philosophy of the Implicit – experience, interaction, focaling and carrying forward - outlining their significance in psychopathology and therapy. General focusingoriented therapy is examined in terms of five client tasks and four therapist responses. A focusing-oriented view of addiction is then developed in terms of phenomena that, socially and personally, deal with unacceptable experience through ‘process-skipping, ‘flailing’ and the use of a ‘carapace.’ Three core tasks of focusing-oriented therapy for recovery are proposed. These help a client stand aside from the addictive carapace, carry forward underlying existential dilemmas and discover a new way of being-in-the-world. Five further recovery ‘avenues’ are identified using experiential aspects of mainstream treatments for addiction and experiential recovery tasks are suggested for them. These understandings of addiction and focusing-oriented therapy for recovery are illustrated in two substantial case studies of therapy in a mainstream drug and alcohol treatment agency. Proposals are made suggesting a greater significance for experiential therapy in addiction treatment.
abstract: This study aims to provide the first systematic explication of focusing-oriented therapy for clients with addiction. It begins with basic principles from the Philosophy of the Implicit – experience, interaction, focaling and carrying forward - outlining their significance in psychopathology and therapy. General focusingoriented therapy is examined in terms of five client tasks and four therapist responses. A focusing-oriented view of addiction is then developed in terms of phenomena that, socially and personally, deal with unacceptable experience through ‘process-skipping, ‘flailing’ and the use of a ‘carapace.’ Three core tasks of focusing-oriented therapy for recovery are proposed. These help a client stand aside from the addictive carapace, carry forward underlying existential dilemmas and discover a new way of being-in-the-world. Five further recovery ‘avenues’ are identified using experiential aspects of mainstream treatments for addiction and experiential recovery tasks are suggested for them. These understandings of addiction and focusing-oriented therapy for recovery are illustrated in two substantial case studies of therapy in a mainstream drug and alcohol treatment agency. Proposals are made suggesting a greater significance for experiential therapy in addiction treatment.
author: Tidmarsh, Alan
language: en
date published: 2013-09
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:11:59Z
provider: University of East Anglia
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of East Anglia