Hi Vinay and all,
There is a great in depth research by Brene Brown, PhD, researcher (Social
work), and storyteller. Her research started with the topic ‘Connection’
and right in the very beginning of the study she discovered that there is
something that unravels connection. On further examination she could tell
that this something was ’Shame’.
Brene describes it all in her book ’Daring Greatly’. Her TedTalk The Power
of Vulnerability’ can give you a first impression of her research. There is
a longer youtube series (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCwsGlMVbZE), in
case you wanna dive in deeper, it is worth it. She talks about
vulnerability, guilt versus shame (guilt-I did something wrong, shame-I am
wrong), coping mechanisms, trauma and much more.
I find it to be an easy and fun listening with lots of examples.
These are such fundamental findings, which I believe to be universal, that
they can be applied to any culture to a major degree. Probably good for any
facilitator, with a background in psychotherapy/psychology or not.
Enjoy,
Verena
On Mon, Mar 14, 2016 at 7:56 AM, Steve Vinay Gunther spirited@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[ConstellationTalk] <ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hey folks
I wanted to raise a professional issue.
There are many different styles of constellation facilitation. From one
point of view, they are all welcome.
At the same time, I wonder how people feel about facilitation which
utilises shame.
Especially in the 60’s and 70’s, many forms of therapy used a
confrontative type of approach to get people to some core truths, and jolt
them out of their less functional patterns of communication.
In this century, a lot of therapies have moved towards a more ‘relational’
approach, which often is informed by current understanding of the effect of
shame, and the importance of understanding this in a therapeutic or
teaching type of interaction.
However, there are constellation facilitators who are not therapists, and
perhaps do not see Constellation work as necessarily needing to reference
therapy theory or practices. And constellation facilitators from different
cultures have different views on how to move people through their process;
some cultural styles may be more ‘robust’.
This is not just an abstract question. There are examples where
facilitators use confrontative encounters in a constellation context.
I am interested in how others see this, and to what degree there may be
culturally based views operating in our underlying assumptions about
matters such as this. For those who dont see constellations as necessarily
having to reference the world of psychotherapy, then what are the views
about the use of shame.
I reflect on these things, as most of my constellation work is done in
Asian cultures. On the one hand there is a particular kind of sensitivity
to shame. But in other ways, attitudes differ from the west regarding
teaching, as Confucian style approaches are traditionally more vertical. At
the same time, my understanding of shame is that it is a universally
experienced social emotion, which is not generally helpful in learning
contexts.
Vinay