I really appreciate this discussion, but in my own experience with FC work
I have come to appreciate what I experience in the work much more than what
I read about it.
In the late 1950's as a college senior I began to experience that I was
drawn to women. On graduating from college I left my hometown and family
in Ohio and moved to Seattle. It was there that I was able to acknowledge
that I was a lesbian and it was a very isolated and limiting life then. I
should have been reconnected with my family when I learned that my two
brothers were also gay, but that didn't change much. Then five years ago
in a FC workshop with Jane Peterson I had the experience of being
re-connected with my brothers, my parents and my grandparents. That
constellation experience has led to much healing for me. I have lived for
a long time with the experience of being considered outside of the
acceptable and holding myself back to avoid exposing myself, but because of
the work that Hellinger started and many great teachers have expanded
include Jane Peterson, I feel much more comfortable with myself and much
more connected with my family and ancestors. What I find so useful and
important in this work is that we are led by dynamics in the field to
experience and move toward resolution in systems both for the seeker and
for ourselves.
Ellen Pillard
At 06:58 PM 1/27/2008, Carl van Rossum wrote:
Dan,
Thank you for clarifying to Wayne Besen that he is assuming wrong
assumptions from Richard Cohen about Constellation work.
To all:
The striving for a non judgemental approach to phenomena is for me an
essential point in facilitating constellations. Pathology in this way
seems to me opposed to phenomenology.
On the subject of homosexuality:
As a young adult I started attracting other men that seemed to turned
on to me. I enjoyed the intimacy and sexual exploration,as I was too
afraid to approach women, eventhough I always was more attacted to
them. The gay men encouraged me to "come out " and acknowledge that I
was "gay". I saw I was at a crossroads and could rewire my body/mind
in that way, but fate turned out different for me (until now). I
started accepting and embracing masculinity. For me the polarity with
a woman has way deeper, and scarier potential on many levels, not
just physically but also emotionally and mentally and spiritually. I
choose not to rewire because it looked like I would be selling my
soul short. The process of accepting and standing in masculinity has
taken on new depths with doing my own constellations.
Now that is with my condition that I came into the world with.
I do acknowledge that for others there may be different paths to walk
and I honor their fates and support them to live the love they know
in their hearts.
Carl van Rossum
Edmonton, Canada
--- In
<mailto:ConstellationTalk%40yahoogroups.com>ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
"Dan Booth Cohen"
<danbcohen@...> wrote:
Family
In doing my research, I came across an exchange about Hellinger,
Constellations, and homosexuality in two books.claims that
The first is "Coming out Straight" by Richard Cohen. The author
being gay results from the pathological condition Same-Sex AdfectiveHidden
Disorder. He uses Hellinger's statements (e.g. pp. 70-74 "Love's
Symmetry") to buttress his argument.Unmasking
The second is a book written in rebuttal, "Anything But Straight:
the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth," by Wayne Besen. Hewrites:
"Drawing from the work of Bert Hellinger, Cohen proposes that a gayman can
experience recovery by examining his family structure."came
I wrote Wayne Besen's via his website:
"Dear Wayne - I was doing an Amazon search for "Bert Hellinger" and
across your mention of him in Anything But Straight.worldwide
I feel compelled to write you to say that Bert Hellinger and the
community of Family Constellation facilitators would stronglyrepudiate
Richard Cohen's claim that homosexuality is a pathology that can becured by
Family Constellations.Constellation work
I will spare you the details here, but Richard Cohen's claims are an
unfortunate distortion. I regret that your book suggests
supports his claims. The opposite is true."facilitators?
Am I correctly representing the majority of Constellation
Dan
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