2009 Portland Training Syllabus

Facilitating Constellations in Professional Practice

USING SYSTEMIC CONSTELLATIONS IN INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE

Program Content
Program Structure
Certification through the Institute

Location: 4220 SW Freeman St, Portland, Oregon, 97219

Sponsor: The Human Systems Institute

Trainer: Jane Peterson

Contact: 503-293-0338 or email

Number of Participants: 20 max.

DATES for In-class sessions:

Session 1: Oct 9-11, 2009

Session 2: Nov 6-8, 2009

Session 3: Dec 4-6, 2009

Session 4: Jan 8-10, 2010

Session 5: Feb 5-7, 2010
Session 6: Mar 5-7, 2010

WHO SHOULD JOIN US for this Program?

Physicians, Psychologists, Psychotherapists, Counselors, Clergy, Social Workers, Body Workers, Coaches, School Counselors, Marriage and Family Therapists, Consultants.

PROGRAM CONTENT
The specific content of each program is customized to meet the needs and interests you bring into our learning circle.  This topic list is a starting place for us to use to address constellation work in professional practice.

Session 1: Oct 9-11, 2009
• Program structure & certification requirements
• The three orders of love in relationship
• The function of conscience in human systems
• Perception & the phenomenological attitude
• Seeing two ways & beyond the social mask
• Hallucination vs. hypothesis
• Examining healing paradigms & the Orders of Helping
• The role of helping, the healer and the client
• Constellations with two persons

Session 2: Nov 6-8, 2009
• Intimate relations from the constellation perspective
• Orders of love in intimate relationships
• The fundamental turn towards or away from life
• Give & take in couples’ relationships
• The neurobiology of fighting in couples
• Spatial maps & the FOO factor (family of origin)
• Sensing the field of the family system
• The phenomenological attitude & bracketing
• The concept of permission in gaining client commitment
• The breath as an indicator of permission
• Floor anchors in spatial mapping
• Using objects as representatives of family members

Session 3: Dec 4-6, 2009
• Parents & children in constellation work
• Three things that harm love between parents & children
• The irresistibility of entanglements for children
• Why suffering is chosen over resolution
• How children get out of place in family systems
• Humility and the facilitator, what you can and can’t do
• Why communication doesn’t work the way you think it does
• Beyond the mind-body paradigm: constructing social worlds
• The function of stories in family systems (and other systems!)
• The intake as intervention
• Finding healing sentences
• Deadly assumptions: the ladder of inference
• Six questions to setting a constellation

Session 4: Jan 8-10, 2010
• Beyond the family system – intersystem dynamics
• The nervous system and bonding in relationships
• Types of trauma
• The interrupted reaching out movement
• Personal trauma & illness
• Family trauma & trans-generational transmission
• Social trauma
• Systemic vs. non-systemic approaches
• When to use constellations and when not, assessing the client’s resources
• Extreme states
• Putting the pieces together in a whole piece of work

Session 5: Feb 5-7, 2010
Topics in constellation work:
• Organizational constellations
• Symptom & symbol in illness
• Blind constellations
• Structural constellations
• “Issues” constellations
• Espresso constellations
• Group & ritual constellation
• Video supervision & final coaching round begins

Session 6: Mar 5-7, 2010
• Video supervision & coaching continues
• Closing ceremony & graduation

Session hours
Friday, 9:30 AM – 5:30 PM  Mornings will focus on principles, afternoons on practices
Saturday, 9:30 AM – 7:30 PM Public workshop.  Diverse cases from the community.  Post workshop discussion and Q & A.
Sunday, 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM – Mornings will focus on case analysis from student cases and demonstrations of different approaches.  Afternoons will be a supervised guided practicum.

PROGRAM STRUCTURE
Training Methods and Goals

The training is structured around four major content areas:

1. Principles – lecture, discussion and experiential exercises ground the participants in the underlying philosophical principles of the systemic constellation work. You will apply these principles flexibly to the situations you will encounter in practice. As Bert likes to say, the constellation work is “applied philosophy.”

2. Practices – artistry requires a solid set of skills. You will be introduced to the basic practices and skills you need to facilitate constellations well. We provide you with a firm foundation for their continuing development after you leave the program.

3. Self-awareness – brings to surface your own perceptual and cognitive filters and familial tendencies, things that could obscure you ability to cleanly facilitate constellations for your clients. We call this portion of the training “cleaning the instrument of self.”

4. Feedback – as part of “closing the learning loop” during the program, you will receive constructive and supportive feedback on their progress in several ways, including, process questions for each public workshop day, on-line discussion questions, supervision sessions with the instructor present, personal constellation days for you to explore your own issues, self-assessment questionnaires, and coaching conversations with the trainer.

On-line Classroom & Between Sessions Learning Opportunities
While enrolled in the training program, participants have access to both the Lending Library the Institute maintains, and the on-line classroom that is designed for their specific training. Structured inter-vision practice sessions are also strongly encouraged and the Institute will provide proven guidelines for maintaining healthy practice groups.

The on-line portion of the training consists of:

1. A discussion forum for participants with two questions per month provided by the instructors to provide learning and discussion opportunities for participants. This is also a place to ask questions and exchange ideas with the instructors and each other between sessions.

2. A resources folder is provided that contains URL’s, articles in .pdf format and other useful resources for the participants (rather like putting materials “on reserve” at a library).

CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS
This is a learning program with the option of certification. Those of you who complete the following list of activities will be eligible to be certified through the Institute and will be listed as certified on the Institute’s website. You may also take to incorporate elements of systemic constellation work into your current profession without being certified.

To be eligible for certification, you must:

• Complete the application, letter of commitment and self-assessment questionnaire prior to the beginning of the training program and complete all payments on time.

• Attend all of the in-class training weekends (18 days total). A one-day absence from training days is allowed if content is made up per agreement with the trainer AND advance arrangement with the trainer is secured prior to the absence.

• Report on a minimum of five of your own cases in the online forum.

• Complete five process questions with Jane during the public workshop days. One of these may be made up at a later date if pre-arranged.

• Attend at least one other workshop (minimum of two days) given by an experienced and approved facilitator (other than Jane), with a process question from the trainer. A brief answer to the process question with another facilitator must be posted in writing on the discussion forum and a copy emailed directly to the trainer.

• Complete and turn in to the trainer the self-assessment questionnaire two times – prior to the training and before the final session.

• Respond to at least one of the posted “questions of the week” on the on-line forum per month. A MINIMUM of two postings on the forum per month is required while the program is active.

• Post at least one question of your choosing (created with your study buddy) on the online forum during the month you agree to.

• Watch and complete and post a commentary on at least three videos or DVD’s of Bert Hellinger and/or Hunter Beaumont facilitating constellations (this means the entire video tape or DVD, not just one constellation off the recording).

• Read at least two books on constellations, including Love’s Hidden Symmetry (LHS) and one other book by Bert Hellinger. Post a brief book report on each book online. You must also be able to demonstrate that you have a reasonable grounding in human development. Based on your individual interests and background, the trainer may request additional reading.

• Complete at least one supervision session with the trainer.

©2009. The Human Systems Institute. All Rights Reserved.