Dear Jo:
I just wanted to share with you how tremendously helpful your words were to
me. Up until now, I've been a silent participant in these discussions.
A graduate of the 2002 US facilitator's training (led by Bert, Harald
Hohnen, and a host of other senior practitioners, including Hunter
Beaumont), I have been experiencing, watching and training in this work
since 2001. However, our US training (originally intended to have a second
year of supervision) catapulted some of us forth without that phase of
"getting us on our feet", due to some changes within the US organization.
Some of us readily began to facilitate nevertheless, while some of us have
felt more hesitant to step up to facilitating, and up until this weekend, I
was one of the latter.
A fellow graduate was kind enough to invite me to co-facilitate a workshop
for the first time this last weekend. So last Saturday was my opportunity to
do that, and frankly I was terrified.
In the first and only supervised constellation I'd conducted previously, my
mind had gone completely blank, and all the insights and apt phrases I'd
rehearsed from the sidelines vanished without a trace. I felt like I was
chin deep flowing rapidly down river in deep waters. Somehow with the firm
support of my trainer/supervisor, the constellation happened. I could barely
recall any of it.
Last Saturday morning, as I arose and readied myself to head out to the
workshop, I was convinced that I would repeat the same experience. I felt
more than a little concerned about what the loss of my usually razor sharp
left brain functions would mean for clients. But I also knew that there was
little I could do to summon that up, if it chose to go.
Then I checked my email and read the words you wrote below.
I felt that you had written them for me. They were the perfect words to
nudge my little boat out onto those waters with trust. They addressed my
exact concerns, they offered firm guidance.
As I took my seat in the workshop, I remembered and followed them. They were
my guideposts.
And through them, after four years of training, (and God knows how years of
work on myself), my passion for the work was actively transformed into the
capacity to serve in this way. It was helpful to the clients, I was told and
a wonderful experience for me.
I feel deeply moved, and enormously grateful for your words, and for all the
teaching and healing. Best of all is the gift of being connected. I'm in awe
of the field, and its power to heal if we enter it in the humble, empty and
open way you suggest.
Thank you for helping me to graduate...
warmly,
Alison
Alison Rose Levy
Health Writer
Health Coach
Constellations Facilitator
On 6/14/04 3:02 AM, Jo Fenwick at fenwick@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
I want to clarify my suggestion of being mentally blank when facilitating.
I hope the context I intended was taken. It is important to use left brain
concepts such as asking self what underlying/hidden realities may be
operating or whatever is appropriate to the constellation. When one is
centered in the void, these questions 'rise up' internally and naturally
when sufficient knowledge supports the facilitator. Greetings. Jo
Jo Fenwick wrote:
Hi Gang!
Perhaps I can humbly offer an explanation of phenomenological from my
understanding. Coming from the word phenomena, it means one off. While we
may be able to use the Orders and various principles as guidelines, we are
each individuals and use life et al, as much as possible as we choose, with
all the givens pertaining to us as individuals. Thus with the Orders and
principles at the back of mind, we go into the constellation field as
Einstein - seeing that the Emperor as naked and taking what we find as
phenomena - the 'what is' that has been talked about. As phenomena, there's
no set formula only guidelines to be adapted to what we see moment to
moment.
So I recommend going into the field with the left brain switched off as much
as possible, or certainly in the lowest gear you can. When something 'fits'
into the Orders etc, that's when the recognition happens, but even then,
it's almost a subconcious thing. Go into the field mentally blank, take as
much time as is needed and trust what comes up inside you as correct - you
will know because it will feel right. You may even find that when you've
taken enough time and still you hesitate, that 'something' will push you to
move. Be prepared to experiment and I bet you'll be surprised that most of
the time your experiments will work. Say out loud "I just try this" or "I
experiment with ..." or "I have a hunch" if this makes it easier.
Trust that you have the correct knowledge imbeded in you and that you are
working with a much greater force which will guide you. I refer to Bert's
fabulous lead article in the 2003/Issue 4 Systems Solutions Bulletin,
Psychotherapy and Religion, subheading 'The Empty Void:
"For psythotherapists the question remains: "How do I arrive at such a
place and how can I bring about such resolutions and have courage for the
truth?" Personally I don't worry too much about it. I always keep in mind a
close friend of mine, a certain Lao Tse, who died long ago. He talked in his
scripture of Tao Te Ching about the effect of holding oneself in an empty
void and renouncing all intentions.
"If one remains in such an empty void, one is without purpose and without
fear. Order will create itself around one, of its own accord, without any
need for direct action. This is the stand a therapist can take in the face
of grave illness and heavy fates. He has to centre himself in the empty
void. He does not close his eyes in this space, as it is not an isolated
space. It is a space that is connected. The therapist exposes himself to
the heavy fate of the illness, with his full being and without fear. The
latter is of utmost importance as someone who is afraid and foresees
possible dangers loses their strength and wisdom...................."
With Love Jo Fenwick.
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