Hello All,
I find it wonderful how we can learn from one an other on this forum. Yet
there are so few active peer to peer practice groups around. The one in
Sydney has faded out some time ago.
I draw great inspiration from an observation Hellinger has made;
“Constellation restores the connection to what was separated. How is that
possible? The first thing is that facilitators themselves are in connection
with their parents and their ancestors, and also with their fate, their
guilt, and their death."
There is a critical difference between a training group and a peer practice
group. In a training group someone asserts leadership, collects the fee and
decides which side is up. In a practice group, like in this forum, the
field is open, we experiment and remain open to not knowing.
Best wishes,
Robert
On Thu, Sep 25, 2014 at 11:18 AM, 'Sarah Peyton' peytwood@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[ConstellationTalk] <ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi, Den – I just wanted to catch that you were in the place of “I must get
this right for the participants” – and wondered how it would be to
imaginally set yourself up as the part of you saying that outside the
circle (in your own mind, without sharing that with the participants)
before you begin, so that your longings for tenderness and precision and
exquisite care could be acknowledged without hampering your movement as
facilitator?
I wonder if your wish to “get this right” captures a bit of the fragility
of the frozenness of the trauma you are holding with these vets, like a
sense that it needs to melt, rather than shatter, and that without the
precision, gentleness and deftness that comes with knowledge, you might
shatter the peace, rather than melt into healing?
In terms of PTSD, although I haven’t worked with vets, most of my practice
is about how to use constellations and language to support healing from
trauma, and I work with women in prison weekly on these issues, so I’ll
chime in a bit here with the thoughts and musings this question has
inspired –
I believe that with constellations we are most often working with an
unnamed, and as-yet-unknown, frozen moment of trauma for the person and
their system. And that the movement that starts to happen is the system
looking to find its way through to fluidity again (so I’ve really been
appreciating the title of your work, “The Vet’s Journey Home,” and the
perspectives and inspiration that our colleagues have been offering here.)
In the brain, PTSD shows up as activation of the amygdala and either
hyperactivity of the right insula (in which case people tend to heal more
quickly) or dampening of the right insula (in which case people can get
stuck in the healing process) – (this is the work of Ruth Lanius). The
right insula is the part of the brain that lets us know what’s happening in
our body and makes social meaning out of our emotions. If we have that
shut down, we suffer much longer from experiences of overload and horror.
My sense of constellation work is that with it we can get some of the
overload out of an individual’s brain and body so that their insula can
come back on line and they can start to see and move again.
This can be done much like Peter Levine’s somatic experiencing, where the
original traumatic event is only lightly referenced, and the focus of the
work is on physical experience, or more traditionally, where more of the
players in the system or event are represented in the field.
Bertold Ulsamer speaks cogently of the need to stay connected with the
seeker’s body, as do Franke and Bryson, so as not to retraumatize. How is
the seeker doing? Is he or she breathing at all? Just in the chest? Down
into the abdomen? How do we resource the seeker most fully so that the
constellation is actually supportive? If we allow the traumatized part to
be moved out of the seeker and represented by another in the field, will
that permit the seeker to “see?”
Whatever the approach, in my opinion the most important part of all of it
is the moment by moment connection between facilitator and seeker. Does
the facilitator know what’s happening with the seeker’s breathing?
Very warmly, Sarah Peyton
On 23 Sep 2014, at 4:49 pm, Denis Fitzpatrick DenisFitzpatrick@xxxxxxxxx
[ConstellationTalk] <ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
G'day All,
At the end of Nov. co-facilitating a program called "The Vets Journey
Home". It is the first time in Australia for this cultural adaptation of a
successful USA program which now serves Paramedics & other emergency
services as well as Vets.
I am wondering if any of you have worked with Vets and / or PTSD and have
anything like processes or experiences that you might share.
In discussions with my US piers I am given to understand much of the work
is listening and then facilitating an often powerful and deeply emotional
process for an each individual when they arrive at the place of being
ready.
I "feel" there could be some healthy appropriate way to apply
constellation work yet I seem to have a mental block as to how that might
be. Unusually for me I seem to be stuck in the place of "I must get this
right for the participants"....:-)
Sooooo Help please. I'm really interested in what you have to say, even
if it is simply stretching your imagination and general experience to
looking outside the box for something that might benefit these people.
Many thanks
Love, Light and Laughter...Den
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