Ever heard of family or systemic constellations? - Well, one of my friends has been telling me…read moreabout this work for years and so I finally decided to try it out myself. Needless to say, I had very high expectations...and usually this is not a good thing, but this time, I have to say that my expectations were exceeded!
Before signing up for a workshop like this I do, however, recommend that you do some research into this topic, as this is clearly not for everyone. During these workshops you'll likely be experiencing a ton of (unexpected) emotions and I assume not everyone is prepared for this.
But first of all, what is this all about? - On her website, Judith Hemming sums it up like this: "Constellations are a solution-focused healing approach. While traditional therapies typically focus only on the client, Constellations works with a whole picture of the individual as part of a larger set of systems - family, community, ethnic group and so on. By seeing 'what is', rather than our usual incomplete pictures, it has the capacity to clarify hidden forces that often include previous generations or rejected elements, which may be actively entangling you in the here and now."
I have to admit that when I first heard all about this, I was very sceptical and I thought it was all a bit mumbo-jumbo. But attending the workshop, made me think very differently about this kind of work and even opened my heart towards it:
Below is a description of the workshop and how things unfolded:
- We were about 12 people and we were sitting on chairs that were arranged in a circle. The chair next to the facilitator, Judith Heming in this case, was empty and was reserved for the issue holder. On her other side sat her assistant who recorded and then transcribed each of the five sessions. (To be handed to the issue holder as a record afterwards.)
- At the beginning of each session, Judith asked the issue holder to take a seat on the empty chair next to her. She then started of the constellation with an interview, during which she asked various questions about the issue at stake.
- Next she would ask the issue holder to pick people from the "audience" to stand as a representative for a certain issue. (For example, the issue at hand was an estranged son, Judith asked the issue holder to appoint people to represent the son, the mother, the father, the siblings and even abstract entities like "the scary secret".)
- The representatives then walked into the middle and Judith asked them to walk around and find a comfortable place. This is the beginning of the constellation.
Then, depending on how the people ended up being distributed in the room, Judith started interpreting or influencing the constellation by either asking the representative to say how they feel at the moment or to move them around and say how that makes them feel.
- Over time, the constellation gave away the dynamic that is inherent in a particular issue. Judith then interpretes it with the help of the issue holder and by the end of the constellation some kind of conclusion will have been drawn.
- It should be noted that by no means will the issue have been resolved, but some underlying dynamics will have been cleared up so that the person actually has a better picture of the situation
At the end of the day all of the participants seemed to have been "emotionally drained" and as for me I was in no state of going to a party ;-) So, do allow for all of the experiences to sink in and don't plan on doing something super-social for evening after the workshop.
