To me, "trusting the field unconditionally" means that I let go of my
preconceived ideas of what should happen, including even everything I know
about the orders of love, in order to unconditionally observe what is present
in the field. This stance has allowed me, on many occasions, to notice
relationships or movements in the field which I would probably otherwise have
missed precisely because I bring my own loyalties and biases with me. Often it
is my own sense of surprise at what I see that guides the questions I ask or
the movements I suggest, in order to reveal more of what is happening in this
particular system. In that sense, trusting the field is a powerful antidote to
getting caught up in my own ideas and theories.
At the same time, I believe I need to be fully present as myself, with all my
ethical awareness (thank you Rosalba for stressing this), all my social and
historical knowledge, all my experience and training about trauma, and also all
my experience as a representative, in order to (very gently) interpret what the
field is showing us. By working gently I mean that I do not claim to know what
must happen, but I can suggest movements. I might ask, "Can you look at her?"
or "Do you see that she is your mother?" And then again I trust the field is
revealing something useful if the person answers, "No, I won't look at her" or
"She doesn't know how to be a mother."
To me, working gently, respectfully, humbly is to work phenomenologically.
Asserting that I know what must happen makes me less effective, risks
re-traumatization, and is generally about me rather than about the client and
their system.
Deborah Frangquist
San Francisco, CA
