Here's an interesting piece on re-defining mental illness.
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CONTRIBUTING OP-ED WRITER
Redefining Mental Illness
BY T. M. LUHRMANN
New research recognizes that diagnoses and drugs are not the only approach.
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Sent from my iPad
On Jan 20, 2015, at 2:56 AM, Robert Grant erebees@xxxxxxxxx
[ConstellationTalk] <ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello Friends,
I would like to share this excellent writing by Vivian Broughton who
articulates some of the fundamental challenges I have observed in so many
constellation sessions. Although the article focuses on intention it has
general significance about the way constellations are facilitated.
" Trauma is a situation in which, in the moment of the shift from high stress
to trauma, we simply are looking death in the face. The psychological
splitting that occurs in this moment is the organism’s last-ditch attempt to
manage the devastation it faces by dissociating from the experience. This is
the most extreme situation we can ever face, and survive. All real traumas
have this life and death element. We have no resources, we have no choice, we
have no autonomy. We are absolutely in the power of the forces at play,
whether natural or relational. Resignation and surrender are the only
possibilities; the situation is beyond ‘fight or flight’.
A baby is all feelings; you cannot tell a baby he is safe, he only knows if
he feels safe, and essentially he should feel safe with his mother. But if
his mother is traumatised, and emotionally unavailable, dissociated, absent
to the child, the child cannot feel safe; he must fear for his survival. The
mother’s traumatised state becomes the child’s traumatised state, and the
lack of good, clear loving connection with the mother becomes the child’s own
first moment of trauma… the point at which the child resigns to his fate of
non-connection. This doesn't even begin to deal with the issue of later
traumatisation, for instance in an intentionally abusive family.
Understanding trauma in this way underlies the idea of the constellation of
the intention, because the authority and power of what happens in the work
must always remain with the client. If we understand the powerless experience
of the traumatised, we must understand that every moment of their life
embodies a question of power: who is in charge now? Who is the more powerful?
Am I safe with this person, in this situation? The tension between the
survival need to control, and the terror of being in the control of another
underlies all trauma work.
The formation of the constellation of the intention requires the client to
formulate her intention for this constellation, and for the facilitator to be
acutely attentive to the potential power and authority of any of his
interventions. However easily clients may attempt to make us the authority of
what her intention will be… we cannot take this on. Because the individual’s
autonomy is destroyed in the trauma moment, their continuing existence
oscillates between not trusting others’ potential to have, and take, power
over them, and their need to project their own power out onto others, to make
others the powerful ones. The facilitator must continually avoid falling into
the trap of assuming authority for what happens in the whole constellations
process.
So the intention must belong to the client, be in her own words, and from her
own reflections and deliberations. As much as she may look to the facilitator
to help with forming her intention, we fail her if we do so. We must listen
carefully to everything she says, with our whole being. We may ask questions
if we think we need information or if we have not heard correctly, but
essentially the journey to establishing the intention should be the client’s
own journey.
Once the client’s intention is established, it is the client who must
energise her constellation by choosing a representative for her intention.
She must be free to choose whoever she wants, place this person as she
wishes, and stay with this representative for her intention. This frees the
facilitator from having any influence on who is chosen and how the
constellation is set up.
The ‘intention’ then becomes this extraordinary wildcard that, through the
representative’s experiences, shows the underlying dynamics at play that
relate to the clients stated intention. The representative for the
‘intention’ is free to move, to speak, to follow his or her experience. The
beginning process of the constellation is the development of the relationship
between the client and her ‘intention'; this already represents a split, two
parts of the client: herself and her ‘intention’.
The main task of the facilitator from this point on is to observe the
developing relationship between the client and her ‘intention’, and try and
understand the dynamics that unfold in relation to the stated intention. The
continual question for the facilitator could be expressed as: how does what I
see happening in the constellation relate to the stated intention, and what
are the observable survival/healthy/trauma dynamics?
The advantages of the constellation of the intention then are:
· right from the beginning it represents two parts of the split psyche in
the client (client as separate from her intention, an intention meaning that
she wants something she doesn’t think she has, ie other than her, or separate
from her)
· it is intended to keep as much power and authority for what happens in the
constellation with the client
· it keeps the facilitator’s interventions to a minimum: observation,
understanding and comment
· this gives the process an in-built safety factor: provided the facilitator
doesn’t overstep his place, the constellation will only go as far as the
client can allow (whether consciously or unconsciously)
This last is perhaps the most advantageous item. Safety when working with
trauma is extremely important. The client’s trust of himself, and of the
facilitator, varies from moment to moment, depending on what is happening. If
his trauma is too frighteningly re-triggered he will likely go more into
survival mode, and the constellation will not go further until he is ready.
In my view and experience, situations of severe re-traumatisation of the
client in any constellation is due to the facilitator having pushed the
boundaries and intervened too much.
Anyone can facilitate something that looks like a constellation of the
intention, but the underlying purpose of this process requires a clear grasp
of the reality of trauma, of the relational dynamics between the healthy,
traumatised and survival parts of the traumatised person, and of the power
issues involved."
Best wishes to all,
Robert
