A Conceptual Framework for Felt‐Sense Awareness in Counselor Preparation

Abstract

This article explores the concept of felt sense in beginning counselors as it relates to focusing, therapeutic presence, congruence, embodied self‐awareness, and mindfulness. To provide an understanding of how counselors experience and use felt‐sense information, the authors offer a conceptual framework for the process of felt‐sense awareness. In addition, a comprehensive conceptual framework is applied to strategies for teaching beginning counselors to use felt information.

More than a feeling: Constructing emotion in theory and practice

“…Interoceptive awareness parallels Gendlin's (1996) emphasis on felt-sense awareness in focusing-oriented therapy (Peace & Smith-Adcock, 2018). Gendlin proposed that a person can directly experience the implicit source of an experience by means of focusing practice but may struggle to verbalize the "edge" of what is sensed (p. 17).…”

The relationship between mindfulness and multicultural counseling competence among mental health practitioners

“…Like Rogers, Buddhist philosophers conceptualized humans as intrinsically capable of becoming healthy and fully functioning (Germer, 2013). Furthermore, the felt sense of awareness, self-acceptance, and empathy fostered by mindfulness and meditation practice is often experienced as integrated, nonreductionistic, present moment, phenomenological experiences as opposed to the disparate cognitive, affective, or neurological processes (Peace & Smith-Adcock, 2018). Felder et al (2014) noted that the existential-phenomenological philosophies that informed humanistic counseling share similarities with mindfulness.…”

Counselor Education and Supervision: 2018 Annual Review

“…Scholars also recommended a policy for required counseling experiences (Arnekrans, Armbruster, Shindelar, & Feehery, 2018). Others presented arguments regarding cultivating students' cognitive complexity (Castillo, 2018) and felt-sense awareness (Peace & Smith-Adcock, 2018). Christensen, Dickerman, and Dorn-Medeiros (2018) worked to build a consensus regarding professional dispositions for students.…”