Hi Chris
It's not been my experience that Bert has lacked transparency. I think it
depends who asks, how they ask and what the intention is behind the question.
I think if we try to fit constellation work in with other approaches in order
to give it credibility we will fail and the work will indeed disappear.
It stands alone as a paradigm-shifting, radical, field-based, systemic approach
and I think we should not shrink from that. Francesca Mason Boring writes about
this in her latest book: Family Systems Constellations and other Systemic
Constellation Adventures:A transformational journey. An extract appears in the
latest issue of The Knowing Field.
Best wishes
Barbara
Sent from my iPhone
On 9 Mar 2016, at 23:13, "Chris Walsh chris@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[ConstellationTalk]" <ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Dear Tanya
I agree very much with what you say. As you know we collaborated some ago to
write something about the African contribution in a series of article I
developed for the ISCA website. Unfortunately I think those articles have now
been removed from that site. It is indeed unfortunate that Bert Hellinger has
not been more transparent about his influences. Many people have asked him
but not received very clear answers.
This makes it difficult to truely ground the work. I think this manifests in
many practitioners stepping away from other important foundation principles
like phenomenology and systemic thinking. Because that leads to a lack of a
solid base for the work, valid questions about things like gender
stereotyping, are difficult to address because of a lack of solid reference
points within the work. Without this solid base I am afraid that
constellation work will become more and more marginalised as one of hundreds
of unvalidated new age therapies. This is a terrible pity because
Constellations when grounded in systemic understanding and good
phenomenological technique can be amazingly effective and transformational.
Without that my experience is that they just tend to be good theatre.
Cheers
Chris Walsh
Melbourne, Australia
ph +61 (0)3 9420 1425
www.cwalsh.com.au
On Thu, Mar 10, 2016 at 6:36 AM, Tanja Meyburgh tanja@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[ConstellationTalk] <ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Dear Patricia,
Thanks for opening this discussion. I find that different facilitators work
in different ways depending on their background - the emphasis on how they
negotiate the knowing field changes with their own knowledge genealogy. The
question that arose in me around your question of the knowledge roots have
both to do with the biography and knowledge lineage of Hellinger, but also
on what makes a family constellation in the style of Hellinger a
constellation? I have been seeing people call their work Constellations in
the tradition of Bert Hellinger, but I do not see core philosophical
principles of constellation work present, so I ask myself: is this really a
family constellation (famlienaufstellung) as learnt through our teachers
Hellinger himself and his original students? The principles I refer to,
which I am sure there are others in this forum who can add to, are:
conscience, the knowing field / the mystery, inclusion, reverence and
dignity, orders of love, and the phenomenological stance of the facilitator.
Although I have not studied many of the schools that Hellinger studied
deeply, I do see that some of these particular principles are fundamental
part of both the Catholic Church and rituals and to Southern African
traditions as seen in Zulu culture.
I am still after 15 years of observation and study convinced that a major
part of this work - more than what has been recognised - can be attributed
(even by Hellinger himself) to a deep observation of Zulu cultural
traditions. Essential in everyday culture here is order (positioned
clockwise), the role of parents vs the role of children in the family,
reverence, dignity and extensive knowledge of the ancestral field and what
conditions lie where within events that happened with the ancestors,
pointing also men and women and their very particular roles in family life
and the masculine and feminine lineages. There are aspects of the
fundamental principles of constellations as mentioned above that I have not
seen explained anywhere else in the work of Hellinger’s teachers that are
clearly from indigenous Southern African cultures. Perhaps I am mistaken,
because my focus has been more in this direction than in his other teachers.
Some of the link between the Constellations and Southern African
traditions has been addressed in the article:
http://tanjameyburgh.co.za/reverence-and-dignity-an-exploration-of-southern-african-traditions-and-bert-hellingers-orders-of-love/
. I hope this is also useful. I have been trying to write as much as
possible about this as I am aware that it is difficult to find information
about Southern African traditions as the knowledge is mainly held by elders
and medicine people.
All the best with your search,
Tanja Meyburgh
Founder and Director
African Constellations
Cape Town, South Africa
083 2182668
tanja@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.tanjameyburgh.co.za
www.africanconstellations.co.za
