Thankyou Helena for your question. I think it is a very important one & I am
certain other people will be able to add to my ideas.
Firstly I think preparation is very important. At a general level
I have found very helpful to have done some significant psychological work
myself. - especially dealing with my own shadow side which includes
compassionately acknowledging my own perpetrator energy. It also has been
useful to know which issues I strongly resonate with and may even
over-identify with, because of my own history. These issues can cause blind
spots when facilitating a constellation. There is always the danger of
over-focussing on those issues and missing other equally important issues.
They also can lead me to hold the constellation's energy inside of me
instead of letting it pass through me and leave me. Of course the same thing
can happen with representatives.
In regard to preparing for the actual workshop I think you are better
protected if you do the normal things you would do to make you strong and
resilient in any circumstances. eg eat well, sleep well, manage your stress
levels & have a good support system around you (friends & colleagues &
ideally a constellation peer supervision group)
One practical trick I find very useful while facilitating constellations is
being very mindful of where I am placing myself as facilitator in regard to
the constellation. Sometimes I move into the energy, which is usually close
to representatives, in order to get more information about the energy.
Sometimes I move right out of it to rest myself or to just get more of an
overview. Recently I have found doing physical stretches movements or yoga
postures between each constellation has been very helpful both for me and
the participants.
Finally I find my regular mindfulness meditation practice invaluable. It is
a perfect complement to the phenomenological approach. It really does help
me observe what actually is with much less distortion by my own ego. It also
helps me to let energies pass through me without grabbing hold of them (or
letting them grab hold of me as it often can feel) In the end, this is no
different to the mindfulness meditation practice of watching your thoughts,
feelings, energies & other phenomena go past like clouds.
Thanks again Preeti for asking this question. Answering it has certainly
helped me clarify some of my thoughts on the matter.
hasta la vista
Chris Walsh
An Australian Constellation Website:
www.constellationflow.com
----- Original Message -----
From: <preeti@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, 21 April 2005 1:32 PM
Subject: Re: [ConstellationTalk] Constellation as Ceremony
Hi Chris,
I would love to hear your ideas on how to protect ourselves while staying open
in a constellation. This is what came up for me after holding a very deep and
successful workshop in March. I was blown away how deep it went and felt it
was not me doing it but something came through me. But I did take something on
from it and still feel the pain in my body.
Preeti
Quoting Chris Walsh <chrisjwalsh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
What an amazing couple of constellations John. As well as your humility in
the first one, I found your openness to the field which allowed to do
something completely different than you would normally expect a great
example for us all. That same openness is probably what caused your strong
reaction to the second. I have some ideas about how we can protect ourselves
a little while still staying open.
Before I go into that, I was curious to know how you got perpetrators to
come to your workshops & if victims or even associates of victims can
tolerate being in the same room as them at the beginning of a workshop?
hasta la vista
Chris Walsh
An Australian Constellation Website:
www.constellationflow.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Family Constellations" <familyconstellations@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, 21 April 2005 5:17 AM
Subject: Re: [ConstellationTalk] Constellation as Ceremony
>
> Dear Barbara,
>
> Thank you for sharing your feelings with me.
>
> For me, Fc work is about a personal journey of spiritual healing. Apart
> from
> working on our 'normal' issues with our family and relationships, for > me
> it
> extends much further than that, into the realm of spiritual growth and
> acceptance the world and everything that is, exactly as it is. Many
> spiritual masters talk about taking the middle road and to giving up
> resistance to the world. FC work provides another path in that > direction.
> For me, there is nothing more humbling than bowing before that which is
> greater than ourselves. Ultiately, I feel that we need to bow to
> everything
> that we our, our gender, our sexuality, our race, body type, > background,
> heritage, all of it, for these things are in the hands of fate, they > can't
> be changed.
>
> My entire journey with FC has taken me to a fery neutral place with > many
> things. The news on TV rarely upsets or angers me now for I often taste
> the
> bigger picture. I now see things like the Tsunami as an opportunity for
> change. It gave the richer nations the opportuntiy to ensure that their
> word
> is trustworthy and pledges aren't just forgotten, and it gave the
> population
> as a whole to embrace the concept of a global village and to extend the
> hands of compassion towards hitherto unknown nations.
>
> Some of the most moving work I've done has been with perpetrators.
> Especially here in South Africa I've had men on my workshops that were
> involved in the systematic torture of 'terrorists' during the Apartheid
> years. These men's hearts lift the entire room and the depth of their
> guilt,
> pain and shame allowed others to move out of judgment to a place of
> embracing them with grace - truly beautiful.
>
> For me, Fc work is much much more than psychotherapeutic process, it is
> about Soul. Oftimes an constellation movement has filled the workshop
> space
> with an audible silence and a sweet floral smell, for me, the hand of > God,
> for want of a better word. From darkness comes light.
>
> I've had my other moments too, constellations that have haunted me > deeply.
> I
> would like to share one of those.
>
> A deeply troubled young male client of mine displayed many symptoms of
> schizophrenia, however, he refused to seek medical assistance, but I > chose
> to work with him anyway. My client is half German Christian and half
> German
> Jew. His aunt was in Auschwits with her young son. The day before > Hitler's
> birthday the camp commandant came to her and told her that as it was
> Hitler's birthday they would celebrate this by sending several Jews to > the
> ovens without gassing them ahead of time - in other words, burn them
> alive.
> He gave her the choice of murdering her son herself that night, or
> allowing
> her son this terrible fate. The Aunt chose to kill her own son.
>
> When my client sat down he said "I have a scream in my head, it won't > go
> away". I asked him, "Who had reason to scream in your family?". This is
> the
> sotry he told me, the one above.
>
> We set up the constellation. My client, his mother, his aunt, the > little
> boy, and the commandant.
>
> The scream, although not audible could clearly be felt and heard.
>
> It took me 3 days to recover from this constellation and I had to go > and
> see
> a healer friend of mine to get it out of my own head. I hit a low > point,
> and
> was very angry with God, shouting in my own head "Why do we have to go
> through such horror just to learn the lesson of love". I was almost > beside
> myself.
>
> I continued to work with this client over a period of a year. One of > the
> most moving aspect of this work was when during a constellation my > client
> cried and mourned for the camp commandant and his family. That's when I
> got
> my own answer. If we can love this man, his wife and his children, we > can
> love anyone and that's how we heal the world....one person at a time.
>
> The voices and screams in my clients head are gone. It is interesting > to
> note, that this clients German family were all in the German military
> during
> the Nazi period and WWII. Hence his split......and he was strongly
> identified with both his aunt and the commandant.
>
> warmly,
>
>
> John
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Barbara Morgan" <Barbara@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2005 9:41 AM
> Subject: RE: [ConstellationTalk] Constellation as Ceremony
>
>
>>
>> Dear John,
>> I too found this very moving and it raises a general issue for me >> around
> the
>> need for self exploration and self awareness so that we can become
> familiar
>> with our own prejudices.
>> Barbara Morgan
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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