What is Felt Sense?

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Dr Bruce Lipton...Dr Joe Dipenza....Dr Gregg Braden

Feelings are pointers

Please identify the interviewer and interviewee.

Wonderful advice. Where can we find his book?

Peter Levine - Waking the Tiger

Thank you for this post Dr. Peter Levine. As a Focuser and videographer of Dr. Gendlin's work, It is really nice to have your input about felt sense.

The rectification is needed. Eugene Gendlin was a psychotherapist in the Person-oriented and experiential psychotherapy before he created his own school of psychotherapy called Focusing-oriented psychotherapy..
Please rectify this information.
Dr Peter Levine is an estimed scholar and master psychotherapist and when his words are not accurate here, this is not ok for another eminent and ground-breaking philosopher and psychotherapist, Eugene Gendlin, that the whole body psychotherapy owes so much to.
Also Eugen Gendlin should be tagged as a creator of this term "felt sense", as the gave it a very precise definition, years of exploring and lots of processes.
Respectfully,
Agnieszka Klimek

I still don't get it.
I understand what emotions are. And I understand what bodily sensations are. But I don't think I can discern this 3rd category of "feelings". I've always just used that word synonymously with emotions.

What I understand "Felt sense" to mean is what my conscious awareness can identify as arising within - be that physical, mental, emotional, intuitive, whatever. It can be a perception or interpretation of something external to the self, but it is arising within the conscious awareness. If I have that wrong, oh well. Maybe make it easier to understand.

I think we have a language problem here. We don't necessarily have the same definitions of the words you're using to define felt sense, so I can't understand.

Self referral rather than object or image referral.

Gene was certainly a therapist. I knew him personally. Trust me.

I am really glad he is making the connection to body feelings and creativity… as I learn more I am discovering many professionals using art and movement to treat and apply somatic.
Makes perfect sense.

I believe this is why it's so important to spend time in nature

If Eugine Genglin wasn’t a therapist how would he have gotten involved in the whole testing of therapeutic success, or created the therapeutic terminology , felt sense , and created a modality that was a spring board for Peter levine ‘s work? That was a huge blunder Peter.

I get this. In childhood I felt numb when abuse was taking place. Then I started to feel bad feelings. As I begin to heal I am trying to learn about the feelings in my body, what they mean, such as this pressure in my chest, is repressed sadness, or this feeling off as being upset. God, it's awful how I did not know what was going on before. I hope to continue my healing journey.

Gendlin was a great man and did so much to p the evolution of Therapy in many disciplines. Here is a taxonomy that I use and which clarifies how the felt sense arises and what it is, that I find very helpful in therapy and coaching.

(Emotional) feelings are our emotional brains best guess of our interpersonal status/dynamics in that moment. I feel betrayed and (that makes me) feel insignificant and worthless and alone.

These feelings then cause an emotional reaction, likely of sadness, which dumps a bunch of chemicals and starts a physiological process, which should lead to crying and ideally healing.

This last stage of Behavioral manifestation is where the emotions will often be blocked and bump up against resistance in the body. This stress of resistance is the world of the felt sense. Also when the feelings and emotions are very subtle and the course through the body with very little manifestation this is also the felt sense.

Something Dr Levine did not mention that I think is important, is that Gendlin explicitly noted the patient would pause, often close their eyes, and turn inward, to explore and experience the internal manifestation of these processes in their body. It's this - turning inwards and engaging the non-intellectual part of our self - that seems to be most predictive of people healing and recovering in therapy.

After years of working with focusing and the felt sense I created a variation of what Gendlin did called NEDERA which is specifically designed for emotional expression (and healing) of the felt sense.

His eyes are super bright!

I meditate since 6 years on daily basis. In the early days my Transmission failed because I was intellectualising all my emotions, in thoughts. Then suddenly I could feel the importance of sensations, they just for short moments washed away my negative thoughts and intellectual strategies. I now am more and more capable of just letting be my thoughts, whatever they are 'good' 'bad' 'ugly' etc etc. Ok good thoughts are helpfull in staying in 'balance' in
. But more and more I strongly believe my sensations, crying, joy, compassion love music Dancing laughing humor are a special sense that actually 'overrule' my prefabricated thinking... I often feel like a child that's playing, what 'mum or dad' in my head is saying doesn't matter me at al ;)l😂

Fact Check: As a yoga teacher, I'm a little confused. How is this new or proprietary scientific wisdom, belonging to this person or any other? Ref the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali...it talks about awareness, compassion, aversion, mental and physical obstacles, blocks, pain, anguish, suffering, non-harm, how to move to access healing/rest/change, with awareness and breath, etc. "Felt sense" - as with any other aspect of awareness or sensitivity - is not a concept that was coined or invented by a white male academic or therapist. Patanjali is reputed to be an ancient Indian sage or scholar who documented teachings that had been orally transmitted and passed down (for/by generations of people who lacked the privilege of access to literacy education).

Anyone who has experienced professional dance training will possibly be able to relate too. I don't discredit the wisdom, but it's not theirs, nor is it original. It's a borrowing, or a referencing. Given Somatics claims to help relieve the trauma of loss, harm and oppression, my deeply felt sense is that it's important to acknowledge this lineage and heritage - and there are doubtless many, many others (qi-gong, tai chi, martial arts, dance...). So on Patanjali's behalf, and those whose teachings s/he wrote down, I'm a little nonplussed...

Gene Gendlin was a philosopher but he became a main assistant to Carl Rogers and of course he did a lot of therapy and trained a lot of therapists and so this was a little slip of the tongue by Peter, not too long after he slipped, and said that this research identified the therapists who benefit when he actually met clients.

Most simply: as Gene taught it, what he called The felt sense was to distinguish it from the five organ based senses. So this is the sixth sense, and he loved to assign Plato‘s Meno and passages in Aristotle psychology, particularly the one where Aristotle wrote that we only know sugar is white and sweet because sight and taste occur to one inclusive encompassing sense.

Thank you for the insight!