Jenny White - UEA - Senses of Focusing
Channel: Νίκος Κυπριωτάκης
Date: 05/05/2022

Jenny White, UK - UEA - Senses of Focusing
https://sensesoffocusing.com/
Senses of Focusing, Vol. II
Section 3: ‘Senses’ of Focusing in the Arts
(Chapter 12) ‘It lulls me into a false sense of security,but I go there willingly’; music resonates with stopped process:an IPA study into musical experiencing unravelled through music and Focusing

Jen received her doctorate in 2018 from the University of East Anglia (UEA) where shefirst learned Focusing as part of her Person-Centred counselling training. She works as astudent counsellor at the UEA Counselling Service where she offers Focusing-Orientedtherapy and Focusing inspired workshops to students. She lives with her husband Andy,daughter Willow and Van Damme, their ginger maine coon, in Norwich.
[e-mail: jenmwhite@mac.com]

Jen White describes a research project where a group ofexperienced Focusers and a group of student counselling clients were invited tolisten in a recorded session to a self-selected piece of music that was particularlysignificant to them. Each one was then invited to dwell in a Focusing way onits meaning. While the experienced Focusers were able to stay with inner discomfortso that new meaning contained in their experience of the music couldslowly, and often painfully, be revealed, listening to their chosen music led thestudent clients into a kind of ‘stopped process’. The individuals’ responses areevaluated using the EXP (Experiencing) Scale and the qualitative data from theFocusing/ client sessions analysed through Interpretative PhenomenologicalAnalysis (IPA) to shed more light on these contrasting outcomes.

Abstract: The mysterious power of music, its effect on bodily experiencing, paradoxand connection to memories and people has consistently eluded explanationand baffled theorists across the ages. This study, which was carried out between2010 and 2013 with experienced Focusers known to the researcher and also withstudent clients at the Counselling Service of the University of East Anglia, Norwich,UK, presents a phenomenological enquiry into the experiencing involvedin focusing on music. It asked client and experienced Focuser participants toselect music that said something about how they were currently feeling in orderto establish if focusing on personally selected relevant music can unravelimplicit experiencing. The data, an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis(IPA) Study which uses qualitative data to examine lived experience phenomenologicallycrossed with the EXP scale (Experiencing Scale), demonstrated thatall participants were able to form an intricate felt sense from their music fromwhich the Focuser participants were able to unravel important information tocarry forward. The client participants were not able to work with their felt sensein the same way and became stuck. Analyses using the EXP scale suggested lackof experiential movement that resonated with structure-bound processing and astuckness. This suggested that the enigmatic power of music may have similaritieswith stopped processes.