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This article describes the experiential method of psychotherapy known as “focusing” (Gendlin, 1981, 1996) and discusses its relevance to transactional analysis. Using information available from the lived body, in the form of what is known as the “bodily felt sense,” focusing can, for example, provide more ready access to the Free Child, facilitate impasse clarification and decontamination of the Adult, and evoke a positive internal Parent. By undercutting theoretical complexity, focusing allows the therapist/consultant to set aside preconceived notions (i.e., to “think like a Martian”) and to let the change process emerge from within the client. This article explores the nature of psychological change, especially how to recognize it and what facilitates it.

Assaults against healthcare staff have gained increasing attention, prompting the Zero Tolerance Zone campaign in the National Health Service (NHS) (Department of Health, 1999). This advised that treatment could be withheld as a sanction, although not from ‘anyone who is mentally ill or under the influence of drugs'. More recently the NHS Security Management Service (Department of Health, 2005) found that the greatest number of assaults (over 43 000) were found in mental health and learning disability environments.