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FAQThe Facilitator Coaching & Training Programs with Jane Peterson These are one-year programs in which participants learn to read and work with human systems in a dynamic and highly effective way. The 2005 offering currently includes training in Portland, Oregon USA. Systemic constellation work has been sweeping Europe and spreading to other parts of the world for the past 15 years. While not therapy as such, this work is widely used by therapists. Because it provides the ability to actually see and understand how systems work, every field of human endeavor can benefit from the insights and approaches used in this work.
Frequently Asked Questions1.What are Systemic Constellations? You may be familiar with the new science of complexity theory and complex adaptive systems. Studies of complexity and complex adaptive systems arose out of the study of biological systems, such as ant colonies, and out of studies of our own macro behavior, such as freeway traffic flow. In these studies, contrary to the dog-eat-dog idea of nature, it was found that many systems have a self-organizing capability that is quite powerful. These systems self-organize in response to changes from within and without, and adapt to their environment in ways that allow the system to survive. In systems, the behavior of the whole is different than the sum of the parts. For example, what a carburetor can do alone and what it allows a car to do are quite different things. Scientists speak of this characteristic of systems as "emergent" properties: something new emerges when the parts function in a system. Human systems are no different. Each human system, be it a family, a business or a community, has an emergent property that we call an information field. This information field carries the pattern that describes how the system "really" operates. All of us have a "gut sense" of how things really work in the systems we inhabit, despite what a formal organization chart or our parents may tell us. This gut sense is how we can tune in to the information field that is present in each system. Even if we have never been told, we know if someone is missing in our system, if someone has been mistreated, etc.. Systemic constellations allow us to tap into this information field and to see the whole system at once so that the conflicts and issues immediately become clear. Few other methods provide such a rapid, clear and complete description of how a system is actually working. Because we all live in information fields, we can sense these even if we are in a different system than the ones we normally inhabit. In fact, it is often easier to sense a different field than the ones to which we have become habituated. This ability to have a sense of what is happening allows us to tap into useful information about the system and to diagnose where the difficulties are in the informal system - the one that really determines how things work. We can therefore have people who know nothing about a family or a business to stand in the places of both individuals and archetypes operating in the system. The informal map and their gut sense or experience of that role will show how things really work in the system we are studying. In this way, hidden dynamics in the system become visible and allow us to find solutions that take into account the whole function of the system rather than merely the parts. Family systems offer a clear and powerful template for all human systems. Members of family systems have a shared unconscious mind that tracks events in the family from generation to generation. When a trauma, wrong-doing, or other difficult event is not dealt with in the generation in which it occurs, future generations will pick up the issue and continue to attempt to resolve it. In this way, systems serve a sense of wholeness. This unresolved issue can travel down through generations as an unconscious pattern of difficulties, be it through illness, accident, misfortune or relationship difficulties. These entanglements of the present generation with past generations follow certain common patterns. The particular pattern that affects certain members of a family can be discovered and resolved through the use of systemic constellations. A constellation quickly makes visible these hidden trans-generational dynamics. Once visible, these dynamics can be addressed effectively and the system brought into a better balance, with old issues returned to their owners and entanglements released. This results in a great sense of peace and true freedom. Rather than divorcing our family because it is such a mess we gain true strength by facing the difficulties there in this gentle yet effective way. As the saying goes in the constellation field, without roots we are not free to fly. What is true in families is also true in any human organization, although the consequences are not often as severe in businesses as families. With systemic constellation work, we are learning how humans are linked together in the shared systems that make up the webs of our social lives. Constellation work dramatically demonstrates the weakness of the linear thinking we have come to rely upon so heavily in western culture. It invites us to new ways of thinking and new ways of seeing one another. 2. What will students come out with at the end? Students of systemic constellation work who complete this certificate program have a wide variety of options available to them and they have greater capacity of work in their chosen fields:.
Typically about half of the students are in the workshop because they want to facilitate constellations professionally and half are there for personal growth and learning. 3. How are people using systemic constellation work today? Those with systemic constellation skills and training are using the work in the schools, in traditional family constellation workshop format, in building teams in business organizations, in helping leadership to understand difficult business issues, in healing physical illness, in facilitating a healing rhythmic process called TaKeTiNa, in teaching music students, in personal healing of deep seated family issues, in medicine, in counseling, in therapy, in social work, in conflict resolution and more. 4. Tell us a little about yourself and how you came into the field. I was originally trained as a chemist, worked eight years in a high tech company as an engineer and manager (including time in a small inner-company start up). I left that world to study Process-Oriented Psychology or DreamBody work with Dr. Arny Mindell, Max Schupbach and other students of this work for about three years. Concurrently, I went back to school in the fine arts, opened a ceramic studio and sold ceramic sculpture and pottery professionally for three years. Due to repeated injuries and other concerns, I quit making pottery. At about this time, I became interested in Neuro-linguistic Programming, hypnotherapy, and family constellations when Bert Hellinger first toured the U.S. in 1998. I also had the good fortune about six years ago to meet and study with Michael Grinder, a master of group dynamics and non-verbal communication, something I continue to do. I also began to study energy work with Americo Yabar, a Peruvian mystic and shaman and I continue in this work as well. I began facilitating family constellations five years ago. Three years ago people who saw my work began to ask me to teach them to do what I did. The Human Systems Institute and the facilitator coaching and training program evolved out of these requests. I bring together everything I have learned from Arny Mindell, Michael Grinder, Americo Yabar, Bert Hellinger, Gunthard Weber and others I have been fortunate enough to learn from in teaching this program. 5. Could you provide an overview of the program content and approach? Yes. The program includes training days (addressing personal issues, supervision of participant constellation work, public workshops and lecture), coaching, as well as observation and interactivities among participants designed to expand each oneís abilities. Elements of the training are: Principles. These are the Orders of Love and other common tendencies in family systems that have been so beautifully articulated by Bert Hellinger and others. A sound knowledge of these principles provides a foundation for approaching the constellation work. Practices. Through lecture and experiential exercises students will learn useful models of managing group dynamics, develop a process level understanding of constellations, learn to manage their own and others' states, develop a phenomenological stance and much more. Developing clean perceptual skills is also an important element in facilitating skillfully. There will be many exercises designed to enhance your perceptual awareness of other human beings and of groups. Self-Awareness. Through home exploration opportunities and experiential exercises, students have the opportunity to discover their own biases, as well as personal and professional issues that might prevent them from facilitating cleanly. Exercises such as "Yourself as Victim", "The Stories We Tell", and others allow student to face themselves in the mirror of this work as they engage in the study of Systemic Constellations. Working with constellations is a lifeís work of learning and exploration. Supervision. Doing is one of the best ways of learning. Students have the opportunity to lead a Constellation Study Group and to facilitate constellations with the supervision of the program facilitator. An emphasis on high quality peer feedback in a safe and supportive environment is part of this section of the program. We often learn the most from watching our peers as they learn. Required Reading: Love's Hidden Symmetry by Bert Hellinger An additional reading list will be provided; books will be made available via Human Systems Institute lending library and may be purchased at discount through HIS. Videos likewise will be provided for intervision groups and may also be purchased. _________________ If you would like more information, please go to the Facilitator Coaching and Training Program to access the Portland program webpages. The Portland, Oregon training begins January, 2005. Please direct questions to Jane Peterson Phone: 503-293-0338 |
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