Dear Chris,
From the transcript of your intensive: "Bowing is a movement back into
self that precedes a genuine encounter with another."
Thank you for bringing this idea wider distribution in your teaching. It
is a gem.
The paragraph with this phrase from my post last year on Constellation
Talk is:
"The deeper purpose of bowing has nothing to do with recognition,
acceptance or acknowledgment of the other. It is an inner process for
the one who is bowing. It is a movement back into ourselves that
precedes a genuine encounter with the other. When we take a breath,
exhale and bow, we take a moment for ourselves alone, to move into our
own field."
I learned this perspective from Ursula Franke, who as a body therapist
has been researching systemic interventions on the physical level for
nearly twenty years. She has been looking into how to access a bow, to
gain the benefits of giving in, finding the position of saying 'yes' and
relieving the body of its often decades-long tension, without triggering
traumatizing or painful memories, particularly with clients who have had
biographical difficulties with their parents - which of course, often
points to trans-generational issues.
By observing and describing the body in the act of bowing, she peeled
off the psychological interpretations of the bow - by lowering the chin,
one turn towards one's self, get out of the field and the trance of the
one whose field is opened by looking into his eyes and by so doing, one
separates the fields, making it more possible to perceive one's own
being here and now. This is Presence which is free of personal and
systemic implications. It is the healing experience we want for
ourselves and our clients. An exhale carries and supports this movement.
Please read more about bowing and consenting in her book "In my mind´s
eye" (pp 126 to 131, Carl Auer 2003, or in German "Wenn ich die Augen
schließe, kann ich Dich sehen". Carl Auer, 2002). Currently we are
writing a book that describes the development and refinement of our
thinking and practice since we have been collaborating together.
All the best,
Thomas Bryson
