Collective Presencing book site
Introduction to Systemic Constellations
Seeing a facilitator of Systemic Constellations (a constellator) at work, it looks easy and simple. She moves some people around, let hem speak some sentences, ask them what they perceive
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Standing in a constellation and representing somebody or something (being a representative) is mostly fascinating, sometimes weird and always rich in experience.
Being a client who wants his issue/topic/question being set up is the easiest part: putting the representatives by intuition or gut feeling in a certain spot and then sit back and let the representatives do the work.
Systemic Constellations started of as Family Constellations, by Bert Hellinger, a German, who through his work in South-Africa noticed that people were a lot more connected to their ancestors than in the West, and he realized the power and healing of being linked into this bigger field of belonging, the family system. As with all good tools, over time they are used for other tasks and in other contexts. Best known are still the Family Constellations, but these days Organisational Constellations and applications in educational settings are finding their place too.
You might be curious how it works? Everyone is. Some constellators say they don't know; others use concepts as the knowing field or morphogenetic fields; still others find explanation in the notion of non-locality, a concept of quantum physics. Sure is that it is a subtle, multilayered and complex thing, which a lot of people find valuable in relation to the questions they hold.
Complex indeed. All systems where humans are involved are complex, as many mutual and reciprocal relationships and influences happen all at once. Many, many are totally invisible to the eye and are intangible. This is exactly the strength of constellation work, to make these systemic undercurrents visible, in a way we can try to work with them in a life-affirming way. Here comes the so-called simple job of the constellator back in. Actually, it is very hard to know which (simple) move will benefit the system as a whole. Remember the flap of one butterfly causing a tornado on the other side of the world? Behind the simple movements or sentences induced by the constellator is a huge knowledge and experience of possible systemic dynamics, on many different levels. With a stance of non-attachment, being at ease with not-knowing, paying attention to all phenomena that present itself and with no judgment the constellator continuously checks out hypotheses around possible dynamics. Learning from the feedback, watching if the system moves more into flow and health for everyone involved he/she knows which tread to follow.
Collective Presencing Constellations
Most of the time systemic constellation work is used to heal something from the past, even many generations ago. I am particularly interested in how this work can be used to support the future and our learning from it. From experience we know that in collective inquiry groups where there is a high level of non-judgment, non-attachment to specific outcomes and a relaxation with not-knowing, constellations seem to present themselves after enough exploration of the territory, provoked by the overall question of the gathering. Participants in these constellations have been deeply moved and got a lot of understanding how the bigger dynamics of life play out in our world today: be it as representing Humanity, totally caught up in frantic movement - "It seems something is going on!" - finally shifting gears when asked to come to a place of rest; be it the Grandmothers, first of all present to protect the children, but in the end being the ones who can be trusted by all and who are able to speak in a way the masculine archetype could soften up
and many more
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I am trained in Organisational Constellations and experienced in Family Constellations.
Information about open workshops (Family Constellations) in Dutch is here.
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