Dear Steven, Barbara, Zaquie, Rita, Otteline, Sneh, Stephen and David,
I read with interest your considered replies to my questions and I
feel comforted that others are exploring in similar ways. I did not
mean to imply that not getting an issue is the only way I work. What
I am discovering in my own explorations, and reflecting on your
replies, is that there are many ways to enter the field: an
articulated issue in the chair or as a letter, a look or not-looking,
an emotion, a feeling/sensation in the client or facilitator, a
dream, a vision, and probably many more. Clearly, we each have
preferences as to how we start a constellation and how we see our
function as facilitators.
I have been facilitating a weekly dream constellation group. This
has been a great learning for facilitating phenomenologically as I
don't bring to it all the background knowledge of family
constellations and family dynamics or an expectation of an `ideal'
image, or orders of love. Without having an interpretation of the
symbols being represented, I see there are clear healing movements
that affect the dreamer and those of us in the circle. I agree with
you, Barbara, that not having words assists the phenomenological
somatic experience and there is less interference from ideas and
concepts about the representation and dreams seem to have a similar
advantage.
While I have also noticed, Zaquie, that when the client is
emotionally involved the results are deep, I am not convinced that
he/she always needs to be present and out of a trance: Milton
Erickson worked with his clients while they were in a light trance,
as do current hypnotherapists.
Again, Barbara, I appreciated your thoughts as the question of
the `real' issue intrigues me. Parker Palmer in "The Courage to
Teach" sums up the issue aspect very succinctly: "As the process
unfolds, we are reminded of a simple truth: because we cannot get
inside another person's soul, we cannot possibly know the answer to
another person's problem. Indeed we cannot even know exactly what
the problem is."
Much of what you write, Otteline, I am in agreement, seeing myself
and others on a path of conscious evolution and wanting to support
that `awakening'. I, too, see integration and growing coming from a
process of investigating and chewing or reflecting. However, I
wonder if such a stance is limiting in the sense of limiting the
attitude of `allowing' that seems to me to be an essential part of
the constellation process. Again, I am struck by the fact that when
I don't have an agenda, there are organic healing movements that
constantly surprise me. I think there is a difference
between `mystification' and embracing the mystery of this process.
Finally, David, I agree with you about the nature of the look of the
representative (or client), whether they are looking at something or
not; sometimes the look is clear, focused and sometimes glazed; there
are many qualities to looking. Your observation about projection and
the validity of representations could lead into a whole new thread.
--- In ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, david@... wrote:
I
Dear Jonathan.
A couple of ideas that came to me on reading your thoughtful post.
try not to privilege one way of working, though I know I must failat
this as well, because I have my own prejudices and opinions. So Itry
to blend movement and language. One of the reasons for this is notto
exclude anything, to be inclusive.Others
From my experience I know that many people project quite a bit at
workshops. For example I had a client once who saw the same
representative represent the same way in three constellations.
saw this representative as being different in theseconstellations.
When I talked to the client about maybe he was only seeing a partof
the representative this opened up a whole new area for him of hisprojections.
awareness. So maybe some language can help dispel some
It reminds me of those soulful French films that don't have muchon
dialogue, but seem so beautiful. When I discuss them later with
friends we each have a different interpretation of what was going
when there was no dialogue.they
And regarding how you proceed with placing representatives where
are looking, apologies in advance if you already do this, but Ilearnt
from a body therapist, Jim Kepner, that it is good the check outwhat
is the nature of look. He would ask the client are they looking at
something or looking away from something etc. So maybe the
representative could be placed where they are not looking, but
feeling. I think we have discussed this quite a bit in this forum
about looking at the ground etc and what it can mean.
Cheers........David Mathes. Guangzhou & Melbourne
