Dear Doug, Chris and all,
I am still jet lagged after returning home to Germany after the training
in Brazil, but I will try to be coherent.
In reading the thread about doll constellations, I am drawn back to talk
about what I see as the foundation of constellation work.
All constellation work can have a good outcome, whether done with dolls,
floor markers, on Skype, with representatives or in the imagination.
Of paramount importance is the presence coming through the constellator
and the degree which the client comes into resonance with that presence.
Simply observing and thinking about the constellation is usually not
enough for deep change to take place.
As constellators we must learn to see with our whole self.
If the process engages the client's senses and emotions as well as their
minds, there is the possibility of deep and lasting change.
All love,
Thomas Bryson
tb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dawn & Doug Smith wrote:
Hi David and others flowing on the topic, I do many doll constellations in
private sessions and they are quite self contained and fully valid
experiences in their own right, so I don't question the status and quality
of one mode as being more or less useful. I have noticed however that the
work is different and sort of busier for client and therapist. Because the
dolls can't talk, the interviewing of the representatives (dolls) as the
constellation develops involves the client and therapist noticing and
reporting what is happening for everyone represented in the constellation.
This seems to change the experience of the client quite a bit in that the
client is not so free to sit and observe in the meta position. For some
clients it seems that this makes the experience very rich in that they feel
into all of the represented persons or elements places. I find that I also
move in and out of these represented people and elements places as well as
maintaining my facilitator position.
I am more experienced with the use of dolls than live work as a facilitator
at this stage, and I have been a rep and have witnessed many more
constellations than I have facilitated. My experience thus far is that being
able to sit back in the meta position and witness live reps has a great
benefit for the clients. Some clients have not been as able to flow with the
doll work in my experience as others so I am presently trying to be
sensitive to which mode of constellating seems most suited to which clients.
For the greater part it seems that readiness and energy to work is the more
important thing to pay attention to with the many people I have done
constellations with (mostly with dolls in private sessions). My experience
has been that some people seem to need the opportunity to sit back in the
meta position more than others do because verbalising on behalf of the dolls
interrupts the flow of the constellation and takes them more into their
thoughts and comments. I think I am learning to pay more attention to the
talkativeness and theorizing nature of the client as I try to notice the
readiness as opposed to the urgency of the client to get the magic answer.
I go along with you David about group size having been a participant with
you in groups and in attending some of your smaller groups. However, at this
stage I find the intensity of very small groups does not allow much rest for
the participants and time to take their constellations in so I try to set a
minimum number of ten, knowing that really good work will happen in smaller
groups any way. In this instance it felt right to encourage my client's
participation in the live work and I will keep observing for any evidence
that she may have felt "recruited" in my service. Thanks for the observation
and helpful thoughts. Doug, Melbourne
_____
From: ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:ConstellationTalk%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:ConstellationTalk%40yahoogroups.com>] On Behalf Of
david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:david%40innersuccess.net.au>
Sent: Wednesday, 5 August 2009 11:58 PM
To: ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:ConstellationTalk%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [ConstellationTalk] re: LIVE CONSTELLATION FOLLOWING A FIGURINE
(DOLL) CONSTELLATION.
Dear Doug,
What a very interesting subject you raise. It prompts some questions
in me, especially since I have seen your doll work and one of your
workshops.
I do many private constellations sessions. I did 6 on Monday this
week. I treat them as 'live constellations'. I don't feel a need, nor
does the client, to follow them up with a workshop setting. So I am
just wondering if you have some beliefs or assumptions that you put on
your doll work. I guess I am asking for clarification from you. Do you
consider these doll sesions as real constellations, or do you view
them as second rate in some way? My own experience is that some of the
most positive healing comes in private sessions. Private sessions have
a few advantages over workshops, but I think it depends on the
client's needs, amongst other things.
I am also a bit wary of encouraging clients to come to fill up a
workshop. I have never felt comfortable doling this. Whose need are
we satisfying here, and what dynamics are we creating and beliefs are
we operating on when we do this? In Constellation terms who is the big
one and who is the small one? I haven't had a client say to me yet
that there are not enough people at a workshop, even though some have
been small. It seems to me that some of my smaller workshops have
allowed more private issues to be worked with.
All the best......David Mathes, Sydney and Guangzhou
LIVE CONSTELLATION FOLLOWING A FIGURINE (DOLL) CONSTELLATION.
POSTED BY: \"DAWN & DOUG SMITH\"
FAMILY.TREE@ <mailto:FAMILY.TREE%40OPTUSNET.COM.AU> OPTUSNET.COM.AU
Tue Aug 4, 2009 3:10 pm (PDT)
Dear Chris, I had been encouraging my client to attend my family
constellation workshop which was only a couple of weeks away as an
introduction to live constellation work rather than going ahead
immediately
with a doll constellation on an issue that she was very urgent about.
My
sense was that she was ready to constellate the issue and she was
familiar
with working with the dolls because she had done a doll constellation
with
me about three years previous on a different issue and that had been
very
useful for her. I went with the client's urgency and constellated her
issue
using the dolls in a private therapy session. This went well, but I
thought
the impact of seeing this work live would be even more useful. Having
the
understanding that we don't re-do (re-constellate) the same issue, I
suggested that the client come to the workshop and that with her
permission,
I bring the photo of the resolution constellation with the dolls and
that we
could set that up live so she could both see it live and then stand
in her
place to experience it live. She agreed to this proposition with the
additional offer on her part of supporting my workshop and the others
attending by being an active participant,which was helpful to me to
achieve
a good sized group to work with.
Her energy to set up her resolution constellation was strong on the
day and
it has a completely authentic feel within the workshop. I explained
the
previous work that had been done privately in my clinic using the
dolls to
the group. I then set up the resolution constellation with the dolls
in the
centre of the group on the floor using the photo to ensure I chose
the same
colour dolls and the same order was reproduced. I asked my client
would she
like me to choose the live representative and to just set it up. She
said
that she would like to choose the reps and have me place them. I
placed the
people by pointing to the place they should stand rather than placing
them
as a seeker does in the beginning of a constellation. Having set up
the
resolution constellation I interviewed the representatives while my
client
witnessed from her chair in the holding circle. The representatives
comments
affirmed what a complete resolution had been reached using the dolls
but
added an element of hearing the experience of each rep as they stood
in
their places. I invited my client to then stand in her place in the
constellation. This had a profoundly deepening effect for her to the
resolution.
There were some very positive outcomes from this experiment.(I call
this an
experiment because I had not done this or never witnessed setting up
a
resolution with dolls to a live situation before, and I thought this
was
authentically following the principle of not re-constellating the
same
issue). For the people in the group who were new to constellation
work it
served as a sort of warm up experience without all of the more
stressful
stages of a constellation. For me it allowed me to follow an idea
that
seemed really authentic and to validate it by testing in a live
workshop
situation. I am feeling confident to do something similar in the
future if
the need arises because I quite often use doll constellations with my
clients in private therapy sessions. For the group, the woman entered
into
the workshop as a member and she represented in other constellations
very
fully. I hope this is useful information and I would like to hear
from
others their comments and experiences if they have done anything
similar.
Doug Smith, Melbourne
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