From: Marianne-Franke@xxxxxxxxxxx (Marianne Franke)
To: "calista streitmatter" <calistastreitmatter@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: AW: modifying work for aged comments
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 09:16:34 +0200
Dear Calista!
Thank you for the mail. I´m just now going to a Mexican School to work with
the teachers. Therefore only a short message:
1. Yes, we worked a lot with a Natural Birth Group of midwifes. It is good
to talk about B.Hellingers thoughts - it is better to do some little
exercises in the introduction. I´m sorry that I don´t have time enough now
to explain, what I usually do. The more you talk about the method, the more
you will have persons who will find it dangerous, not efficient ect. It is
easier to start with little experiences with parents and children, just to
come into the materia.
In my book "You are one of us", Heidelberg, Carl-Auer-Systeme-Verlag I
described my little steps at school, with the kids, with
parents-communication, with my collegues. Before you install it in a bigger
size, it´s better to go little silent steps.
2. School-workshop in Vienna is on November, 19.-21. 2004
School-workshop near Graz is, Friday, 5. September /Sat. 6.September 2003
geraldhoeller@xxxxxx
All of the work is possibly to be modified for every age. It is not
possible here to describe it. One should see it, learn it in contact. And
the most important thing is: You are successfull when you have experienced
the truth of that work on your own, with your own family-constellation. So
also your daughter in law will come in tough with the questions of her own
system, when she visits one of the school-trainings, which I do.
I also will work at a bigger Congress at the University of Koblenz on Sept.
2003 13. 9. kiss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I hope you are contented with my answer Cordially Marianne
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: calista streitmatter [mailto:calistastreitmatter@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Gesendet: Sonntag, 17. August 2003 11:33
An: marianne-franke@xxxxxxxxxxx
Betreff: modifying work for aged comments
Thank you for the information you sent me. I doubt that my paper forwarded,
before, so am sending it now. Two questions I want to ask you: As grant
writer-coordinator of a birth to 3 educational program for developmentally
delayed in Plano, Texas--South Collin County Infant Program for Mental
Health Dept...I would like to present Hellingers work to the parents and
board of directors. Has your work been used in such a context? 2nd
question--from the following paper, do you feel your work is a model--that
modified, could target elders? My 1st degree is very early learning..2nd is
adult education with aging focus. Have you done work in Vienna ?My
daughter-in-law teaches there and is interested in your work. Best,
calista
>From: "calista streitmatter" <calistastreitmatter@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>To: calistastreitmatter@xxxxxxxxxxx
>Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2003 09:37:23 -0500
>
>EDUCATIONAL GERONTOLOGY AND FAMILY CONSTELLATIONS
>
>It is my hope that phenomenological systemic work enhancing educational
>gerontology can facilitate old humans growing into ego integrity or
>gerotranscendence versus despair or depression in their final stage of
>development. It is important that we look at life as instruction, says
>James Hilman (Force of Character, 1999). He talks about moving from a
>lasting to a leaving mindset. Similarly, Swedish gerontologist, Lars
>Tornstams' concept of gerotranscendence (1989) can be seen as a search for
>the spiritual dimensions of aging. Catherine Marshall said in her book,
>Something More, as the physical life winds downthe spiritual life
>accelerates. My life experiences verify such.
>
>Generational healing became an interest of mine while working with Dr.
>Frank Miniriths Spiritual Therapy Program in North Texas Medical Center
>Geriatric Unit doing Bible Studies/ Music/Movement/Art/Pet Therapies and
>Life Reviews. I felt something more was needed beyond existing therapies
>and treatments. Patients spoke of unresolved relationship problems and
>often returned again and again.
>In September of 2000, my husband died, our daughter was diagnosed with the
>same type of brain tumor in the same part of the brain as her father and my
>interest in generational healing intensified.
>Odd events began unfolding: While talking with my son, Eric, who lives in
>Austria, he said, Thomas is almost six feet tall. The last time Id seen
>my grandson, he was five feet tall, so I called American Airlines for a
>ticket to Vienna. The girl said, Oh, but you want to go to Zurich, (they
>had a bargain fare). Then a friend mentioned the importance of family
>fabric to clarify its meaning. I plugged family fabric into a Google
>search and up came Bert Hellinger.with an office in Zurich. Since I was
>now going there, I emailed themand Isabella Stieger met me at the Zurich
>airport. She arranged contacts and resources and when I returned to Texas,
>there was an invitation to see Bert Hellinger at Omega Center in New York.
>Pre-requisites for the workshop were doing a three-generation Gen-o-gram
>and reading Hellingers book, Hidden Symmetry of Love and John Bradshaws
>book, Family Secrets. While Bert Hellinger was doing my family
>constellation, with the Issue being my daughters tumor and her fathers
>grandfathers murder identified as the Entanglement, I was feeling both my
>own gratitude and a desire for other older people to have family
>constellations. At least, that their struggles, issues and sufferings
>could be addressed with this almost miraculous way of solving lifes most
>serious problems. Meanwhile, at age 75, I am a trainee of this work,
>training two years in California with Heinz Stark (one of the great
>teachers from Germany).
>
>EDUCATIONAL GERONTOLOGY
>Gerontology generally promotes the medicalization of old age, with focus on
>the physical. Educational gerontology, Gerotranscendenc;e, and
>Psychoanalysis emphasize old age having a holistic focus and see old age as
>a distinct stage of growth. Joan M. Erikson devoted the last chapter of
>her revision of Erik H. Eriksons,The Life Cycle Completed(1997) entirely
>to the Gerotranscendence Theory. This process is recognized by a number of
>alternations, including:
> An increasing feeling of affinity with past and future
>generations.
> An increasing feeling of a cosmic communion with the Spirit of the
>Universe.
> A redefinition of the perception of time, space and object.
> A redefinition of the perception of life and death and a decrease
>in fear of death.
> A decrease in interest in superfluous social interaction.
> A decrease in interest in material things.
> A decrease in self-centeredness and more time spent in meditation.
>
>Many elderly individuals develop a new view of reality, human existence and
>the Self. Some aged internalize, we have a round-trip ticket to this life
>journey. While family constellations work aids every age, for the old
>person, the work is a final opportunity to resolve entanglements, leave a
>legacy of family love flowing freely and allow a good death.
>Educational gerontology using adult education process to address elderly
>needs by balancing loads with powers, and extended with family
>constellations seems a logical way to bring Hellingers work to the aged.
>Howard Yale McCluskey, renowned leader in the field of Educational
>Gerontology, developed the Theory of Margin, identified needs of the
>elderly and was my professor. He said, I came into the field of
>gerontology from the domain of adult education. The gerontological
>movement is geared to the protection of old people and the production of a
>floor of support, so that older people can live in dignity and self-respect
>and as independently as possible. This is as it should b e. But the
>educational approach is a little different. When we turn to education, we
>find a more optimistic domain.
>
>Categories of Need, (identified by H. McCluskey as co-chair, White House
>Conference on Aging) includes:
>*Coping Needs older persons are frequently not ready for the realities of
>retirement, adjustment to basic changes, changing biol9ogical and social
>demand. People often need to learn to be older adults.
>*Contributing Needs. Many older people have a need to be needed and be of
>service to others.
>*Expressive needs. Individuals have a need to develop their Potentialities
>to the greatest extent possible. The later years can be a time for
>liberation of creativity.
>*Influence Needs. Persons need to influence their own life and that of
>future generations.
>*Transcendence Needs. Rising above age-related limitations; learning to
>balance power and load. We are all growing, developing, searching for
>knowledge and wisdom to understand our self, our world, our Creator and
>where we fit in all this.
>
>THEORY OF MARGIN
>Margin==Load divided by Power. Margin is a function of the relationship of
>Load to Power. Load consists of demands of society and self. External
>tasks of living and Internal-personal expectations.
>Power consists of resources, both external and internal.
>ADULT EDUCATION PROCESS;
> Build rapport with Learner
> *Diagnosis Need
> *Prioritize
> *Design Program
> *Do Program
> *Evaluate with ongoing modifications to meet actual, current need.
>(Participation of Learner=Key)
>
>
>Erik Eriksons famous life cycle delineates eight stages of psychological
>development. The last stage challenges the individual to rework the past
>while remaining involved in the present. In and interview with the famous
>couple (Erikson in His Own Old Age Expands His View of Life, New York
>Times, June 14, 1988) Joan asks, What is real wisdom?. Her husband
>answers, It comes from life experience, well digested. Its not what
>comes from reading great books. When it comes to understanding life,
>experiential learning is the only worthwhile kind; everything else is
>hearsay! When we looked at the life cycle in our 40s, we looked to old
>people for wisdom. At 80, we look at other 80-year-olds to see who got
>wise and who not. Lots of old people dont get wise, but you dont get
>wise unless you age. Originally, the Eriksons defined wisdom in the
>elderly as a more objective concern with life itself in the face of death.
>Now that they are at that stage of life, they have been developing a more
>detailed description of just what lessons each part of life lends to wisdom
>in old age.
>LIFE CYCLE STAGES LEARNINGS FOR OLD AGE
>*Stage 1 InfancyBasic Trust vs. Mistrust . HOPE
>*Stage 2 Early Childhood---Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt WILL
>*Stage 3 Play Age---Initiative vs. Guilt .PURPOSE
>*Stage 4 School Age---Industry vs. Inferiority ..COMPETENCE
>*Stage 5 AdolescenceIdentity vs. Identity Confusion FIDELITY
>*Stage 6 Young AdulthoodIntimacy vs. Isolation .LOVE
>*Stage 7 Adulthood---Generativity vs. Stagnation CARE
>*Stage 8 Old Age---Ego Integrity vs. Despair/Disgust .WISDOM
>
>Bert Hellinger studied theology, philosophy, pedagogy and directed a
>Catholic mission in South Africa for 16 years. He became a psychoanalyst,
>successfully left the priesthood and studied Gestalt, Erikson, Primal
>therapies and worked in comprise analysis, hypnotherapy and developed his
>own approach of system family therapy phenomolocial systemic family
>constellations. As a tool for exposing current, unconscious entanglements,
>family constellations in its spiritual dimensions, exceeds therapy and
>science. Guided by the morphic field of the family to restore the orders
>of love in a family system., Bert Hellingers work has grown from a solid
>foundation of both intellect and intuition ( specifically of the
>observation of thousands of family systems), and continues its ongoing
>growing.
>
>FAMILY CONSTELLATIONS
>The focus in a family constellation is not the evident problem. Mr.
>Hellinger says that psychotherapy is problem oriented and that by constant
>repetition the therapy reinforces the problem instead of alleviating it.
>In psychotherapy we are looking for a change. Something or someone is not
>GOOD AND NEEDS IMPROVEMENT, GROWTH, and MORE OF THIS AND LESS OF THAT.
>In family constellation work, the therapist simply looks for love. It is a
>treasure hunt and when the treasure, Love, is found, it is acknowledged and
>cherished in the open. Once Love is acknowledged everything falls into
>place. In all families it is out of love that family members suffer. A
>child may become sick out of the love for their sick or absent parent.
>With his/her sickness the child tries to avoid suffering or the impeding
>death for mom or dad.
>
>The Basis Theory:
>Each and every one of us is part of their family. The family functions as
>a collective system that can either promote of hinder the growth of its
>individual members. It can function harmoniously only, when every family
>member is awarded the place they hold and deserve. Perfect harmony is
>possible when each family member knows, honors, appreciates and lives the
>fact that they are part of a bigger unit. Copyright@ by Frank Arjava
>Petter, 2001
>
>British biologist Rupert Sheldrake explains morphic field (which guides the
>family constellations) in an interview with Matthew Fox (Knight
>Ridder/Tribune News, 1997): The fields are spread out in space. Theres
>a field in my body and within your body. And there is a field for each
>social group. A flock of birds as it turns, does so because it is ordered
>in a field, a bit like a magnetic field, which embraces the whole flock. /
>I think these fields have evolved over time and have a kind of memory with
>in them I call it Morphic Resonance. The influence of like upon like
>through space and time, from the past to the present. In its most general
>form, this hypothesis says that the whole of nature has a kind of memory
>with it.
>In the interviews, Fox is questioned: And you say religious rituals are
>effective because of a collective memory within the group? Fox answers:
>Ritual is a way of tapping into the fields of our ancestors. You invoke
>the ancestors, their names, their patterns of prayer, but I stress that the
>ritual is not just about memory of the past. It is about our echoing off
>the past into a view of the future. Rupert talks about the field of an
>organism growing toward something. I think it is important that ritual,
>too, draws us toward the future.
>A family constellations works by people looking at their family background
>for patterns of problems or issues they would like to address. The group
>members sit in a circle briefly introduce themselves and the facilitator
>asks who is ready to set up their family constellation. The client gives a
>very brief statement of his/her issue and selects people from the group to
>represent the family members. The client holds a representative and places
>(by feeling) somewhere in the center of the group. When they are placed,
>the client sits down to watch the unfolding constellation. As the
>representatives begin to feel emotions and sensations of the family member
>they represent; inside themselves and in relationship to the others, their
>task is to just stay with what they feel at the momentto allow their
>bodies to express such slowly and softly and to tell the facilitator what
>goes on for them. The facilitator guides the representatives through a
>process of unraveling. The feelings are explored, connections become
>visible and through position change, gestures, short sentences, and the
>entanglements are gently unraveled. The purpose is always to restore the
>flow of love for all.
>I surmise as an educational gerontologist with credibility as an old human
>that extending existing customized solutions for aged clients and their
>families can follow similar prerequisites as the Omega Center workshop
>mentioned earlier. Services sequentially moving from life reviews (based
>on Eriksons Stages of Development) to Genograms (genosociograms) to family
>constellations for resolution of individual issues as requested. Another
>avenue for family constellations to be accessed by aged individuals is via
>the church and other natural networks offering educational
>gerontology-family constellation retreats and life reviews/ stories
>seminars.
>
>by Calista Streitmatter
>
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