In My Mind's Eye E-Book

Ursula Franke

• Herausgeber: Carl-Auer Verlag
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 269

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

"In My Mind's Eye" is the first book about family constellations in individual therapy and counselling. The procedures presented rest on a broad range of therapeutic knowledge and experience from various psychological methods and approaches. In the first section, Ursula Franke describes the foundations of her therapeutic work. The second part addresses the inner processes, questions, and decisions leading to interventions, that guide the therapist through the whole process of a constellation. The main focus is on the techniques of constellations in individual therapy, and on constellations in the imagination, which the author has developed over years of experience and observation.

Leseprobe

Carl-Auer

Dedicated to my mother

In My Mind’s Eye

Ursula Franke

Family Constellations in Individual Therapy and Counselling

Translated by Colleen Beaumont

Second Edition, 2005

Published by Carl-Auer-Systeme Verlag: www.carl-auer.comPlease order our catalogue:

Carl-Auer-Systeme Verlag

Vangerowstr. 14

69115 Heidelberg

Germany

Cover: WSP Design, Heidelberg

Printed in Germany

Second edition, 2005

ISBN 978-3-89670-410-8eISBN 978-3-84978-110-1

© 2003, 2005 by Carl-Auer-Systeme Verlag, Heidelberg

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any process whatsoever without the written permission of the copyright owner.

Title of the original edition:

„Wenn ich die Augen schließe, kann ich dich sehen“

© 2002 by Carl-Auer-Systeme, Heidelberg

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche BibliothekDie Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the Internet at http://dnb.ddb.de.

Contents

Letter from Bert Hellinger

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Introduction

I. On Theory

The Development of Constellations

What Is a Constellation?

Constellations in an Individual Setting or in a Group?

Advantages of Constellations in Groups and in Individual Sessions

Constellations in Individual Therapy

Setting

Time Frame

Space, Furnishings, and Equipment

Constellations in On-Going Individual Therapy

Frequency of Sessions

New Constellations

Techniques for Constellations in an Individual Setting

Constellations with Floor Markers of Paper, Cardboard, or Felt

Discourse: The Morphic Field

Getting Information about Other People

Visualized Constellations

Constellations Using Figures

Symptoms, Feelings, and Inner Movements

Reaching Out, Turning Away – Primary and Secondary Feelings, Feelings Taken Over from Another, and Meta-Feelings

Symptoms Are Right

Primary Feelings and Inner Reaching-Out Movements

Secondary Feelings, Inner Turning-Away Movements and Interrupted Reaching-Out Movements

Recognizing Secondary Feelings in the Therapeutic Process

Patterns Taken on from the System: Feelings, Behaviour, Thoughts

Recognizing What Has Been Taken Over from the System

Conflicting Movements

Meta-Feelings

Body and Breathing

Learning

What Happens When You Exhale Deeply?

Body Tension and Relaxation Exercises

Body Awareness and Constellations

A Short Exercise for Body Awareness

What Helps?

Explanations

Suggestions

Vagueness

Questions, Questions, Questions

Language

The Body

Counter-Indications and Disruptions

Grounds for Interrupting or Breaking Off a Constellation

Testing

Accompanying The Therapeutic Process

Client-Therapist Relationships

Counter-Transference as a Signal

Discourse: Counter-Transference

Stay Concrete

Body Reactions

Hyperventilation and Panic Breathing

Resistance

‘Slow’ Clients

No Reaction from the Client

Prevention

Carrying Through

Break Off or Not?

II. On Practice

Constellations in an Individual Practice

Warming Up

Describing the Problem and Clarifying Issues

Notes and Drawings

The Presenting Issue

Outline for a Good Future

Symptoms, Problems, Questions

Understanding Symptoms

Two Levels of Intervention

Eliminating Symptoms and Finding Replacements

Symptoms As Clues

Personal and Family Case History

Discourse: First Impressions and Feeling the Atmosphere

Case History and Life Context

Family History

Who Belongs to the System?

Unusual Features in the Personal or Family History

Resources of the Client and the System

Constellations

Constellations with Markers

Constellations in the Mind’s Eye

Disturbances

Unknown Family Members

Suggestions

Bowing and Consenting

A short exercise for therapists

Sentences

Finding the Right Sentences

An Image of Resolution

Developing Images

The Reality of Resolution Images

Practice and Homework

Exercises and Change

Patterns

Practice Tasks

Body Awareness and Physical States

Observing Behaviour and Inner Processes

Developing Alternatives

Experimenting with Alternatives

Choosing, Planning, and Testing

Beginning Exercise Assignments

Exercises in the Course of Therapy

Exercises Following Constellations

Exercises and Questions for the Therapist

Literature

About the Author

Letter from Bert Hellinger

Dear Ursula,

As I read this book, I often closed my eyes and allowed myself to be guided by you, letting forgotten images arise in my mind’s eye and finally truly looking at them. This is a book that held my attention from beginning to end. You guide your readers gently along in small steps, until suddenly they find themselves on a journey of adventure and discovery through their own souls, families, personal histories, and, above all, into a future less burdened by tensions. As they feel themselves carried along, they are also painlessly learning how to bring order into confusion, in themselves and in others. It is easy to forget that this is primarily a book meant for those who wish to use family constellations, particularly in the protected setting of an individual session, in order to help people in difficult, sometimes hopeless, situations come to new insights and recognize new possibilities.

The repertoire that you offer here is astounding, but always clear and easy to understand in the richness of examples. It is a beautiful and useful book that has been long awaited. Congratulations!

Bert Hellinger

Acknowledgements

My thanks go to Bert Hellinger, who has opened my eyes and my heart to new, broader perspectives that bring a sense of calm and certainty into my work and my personal life. I thank Gunthard Weber, who has given me support and encouragement, and who invited me to write this book for publication. Thanks also go to Muck Bermuda, who never had doubts about me or my work, and who stood by me through every crisis. I thank Hunter Beaumont, from whom I have learned so much about myself and about therapy. He taught me to remain calm and composed as I question and look.

I also thank my friends: firstly, Marianne Franke-Gricksch. In our work together I learned much about feelings, feelings, and feelings; Lisete Tabacnik (posthumously), Sá Cristina Winter and Eve Kroschel, who guided me through the first phases of practical therapeutic work. I continue to profit from their work and knowledge; to Sieglinde Schneider, Inga Wild, Barbara and Hans Eberhard Eberspächer, who openly and generously shared their personal development in constellation work; to my family, and all those who inspired me in conversations, invited me for meals, and were always there for me when I needed them.

I am particularly grateful to Eva Madelung, Brita Stauder-Jahnke, Katrin Wille, and Petra Kirchmann for support and assistance with the manuscript.

Colleen Beaumont deserves a special word of thanks for her elegant translation. Her good humour and relaxed approach made it very easy for me to agree with her suggestions.

Above all, I thank all those who have come to me as clients and students, and who have shared the adventure of therapy with me. Through their questions, their life stories, and ideas, they stimulated a continuing interest in developing co-operative interventions and adapting these to their needs and inner movements until we were able to find a peaceful place to stand.

Foreword

My work as a therapist began after my course of study, quite naturally, with individual therapy. I had begun a training programme in George Downing’s body-oriented psychotherapy, and was learning to examine and analyse the inner process in bioenergetic work on the physical, cognitive, and emotional levels, and in internal images as well. We were asked to make precise observations and to approach the total therapeutic process slowly and carefully. We saw how easy it was to provoke dramatic outbursts, and we concentrated on observing the effects of interventions, and understanding and interpreting these in all aspects of the client’s personality structure. During my training in behaviour therapy, I discovered other aspects of psychotherapeutic reality. I realized the importance of a clear and systematic structure for looking at learning process and context, and in identifying repeating patterns.

In my first encounter with family constellations, almost ten years ago, my experience as a representative made a deep impression on me. I suddenly experienced myself differently, had thoughts I had never had before, and felt a strong, affectionate connection to a complete stranger. The moment I moved back out of the role, these all disappeared again. I knew immediately that I would have to explore this marvel in my own work. I was lucky enough to find a group of colleagues who were also infected with enthusiasm for constellation work, and we began to experiment. At that time, Bert Hellinger had not yet published any material, so we could only explore the rules and dynamics of family systems through our own experience and observations. As I was doing individual therapy in a psychiatric clinic at that time, I could see, within the contained framework of an individual therapy session, how family systems, traumas, and experiences affect people’s symptoms and how they cope with them.

Shortly thereafter, I chose the topic of systemic family constellations for my doctoral thesis, which provided a good opportunity for me to address these issues in detail. As I was not in a position to lead constellation groups, I set about examining family systems and their effects in individual sessions with my clients. I had learned imaging techniques in my studies and training as well as in my own therapy, and was familiar with inner images, fantasies, associative development of pictures, scripts, and dreams. I experimented with various techniques, and found that I could most easily identify the images of systemic connections and life experiences by using observations and interventions taken from body work therapy.

One day, I decided to set up a small constellation with a client using floor markers, as I had observed and experienced in the work of Eva Madelung. This experience was pivotal in my work. I suggested that my client imagine her father standing in the room. She moved immediately into her inner images, and feelings and emotions burst forth out of her. I chose not to interrupt this imaging process, and followed her through her inner space and the dynamics that were appearing before our very eyes. With astounding ease, we arrived at insights, explanations, and an understanding of her situation and her connections within her family system. A few weeks later she came to a seminar with her husband, and these first images were confirmed in her constellation at that time.

I was quickly relieved of any doubts whether other clients had this capacity for inner visualization and my own doubts whether I was capable of following these images and helping them to develop. Most importantly, it became apparent to me that difficulty in finding images is already an indication of the dynamics in the family system. At this point, in individual therapy, I work almost exclusively with constellations in the mind’s eye. The space is ample, and all the people we need for the process and for resolution are there at hand.

Introduction

Constellation work in individual therapy provides an opportunity for both client and therapist to become familiar with a way of thinking systemically and the resultant effects. It is well suited for developing competence in leading constellations later in group settings. Constellations in individual sessions provide a contained framework for gathering experience in small steps with dynamics, possible interventions, and helpful procedures. In this way, one develops the capacity for coping with increasing complexity. In personal contact with the client, the therapist can experiment with the structure of the process, various sentences, and their effects on feelings and bodily sensations in the search for a good resolution and good images for the client.

In order to do constellations in individual therapy and counselling, it is strongly recommended that the therapist have observed and experienced constellations and read the background literature on the subject. The therapist needs the basis of the systemic orders, bonding, and balance before working with actual clients. The dynamics have been detailed in many books. Personal experience doing one’s own constellation – also in individual sessions, depending on the opportunities available – and particularly, experience as a representative in others’ constellations lay a foundation for guiding a client through this process in individual therapy. The optimal preparation is, of course, a training programme in this work and professional supervision. Various institutes and colleagues offer such training world-wide. Information about training programmes is available through the International Arbeitsgemeinschaft Systemische Lösungen nach Bert Hellinger e.V., [The International Working Group for Bert Hellinger’s Systemic Resolutions] c/o Germaniastr. 12, D-80802 Munich, Germany, Tel. +49+89+381 027 10, Fax +49+89+381 027 12, e-mail: [email protected] or on Bert Hellinger’s website at www.hellinger.com.

This book is divided into two sections. In the first part, I describe the foundations of my therapeutic work. The second part addresses the inner processes, questions, and decisions leading to interventions, that guide me through the process of a constellation. The main focus is on the techniques of constellations in the imagination, which I have developed over years of experience and observation. The procedures presented in this book rest on a broad range of therapeutic knowledge and experience from various psychological methods and approaches.

I have changed names and personal details in all examples so that clients will not be identifiable.

I. On Theory

The Development of Constellations

Bert Hellinger’s constellation work is a form of brief therapy with an orientation towards resolution. This work quickly and precisely reveals dynamics that bind a person to his or her relationship system in a dysfunctional way, and that constrain coping strategies and personal development, thereby preventing the person from structuring his or her life in a positive way. The methods of constellation work incorporate techniques, procedures and experiences from other psychotherapeutic approaches including hypnotherapy, behaviour therapy, gestalt therapy, and systemic therapy.

Constellation work has built on the contributions of many predecessors, including Jakob Moreno, Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy and Virginia Satir. A brief introduction to these three important approaches will clarify how constellations, in a psychotherapeutic context, use spatial images, spatial representation, and trans-generational perspectives (Franke 2002; Sparrer and Varga von Kibèd 2000).

The psychiatrist Jakob Moreno was the pioneer of systemic dramatic therapy. In the thirties, he began using improvisational theatre with his patients, an approach he called psychodrama. He thus introduced a completely new concept of therapy and offered this theatre-like scenario as a contrast to the usual psychoanalytic, static individual approach of that time. Moreno brought in observers who soon became participants in the play. He presented the problems and suffering of each patient in a public arena, with an unfolding of creative potential for everyone present. He turned away from an examination of the past as he guided his clients’ awareness towards the actions and interactions of the present.

Moreno had stages constructed on which scenes could be acted out: inner dramas, dreams, fantasies, and reality. Props provided a representation of the life context that was as close as possible to reality. Using this freedom of presentation and the creativity of all the participants, he attempted to penetrate levels not usually apparent to the patient in his or her daily life.

Psychodrama was designed to develop alternative methods of handling difficult situations. As a therapeutic method, it created a space in which a client could experiment with new behaviours within a social context, and also supported the development of spontaneity. Clients could test their fears and anxieties against reality, and the role-playing facilitated changes in behaviour.

At the beginning of the seventies, Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy described structures of relationship which were beyond the boundaries of individual and transactional approaches to psychotherapy. He drew these structures from the repetitive, almost predictable events he had observed in the family histories of thousands of families in his psychiatric hospital practice. These led him to the conclusion that the depth of relationships was determined by existential ethical dynamics.

As these structural effects were not externally visible, he described them as “Invisible Loyalties”, the title of his first book (1973). In his experience, these invisible loyalties have a stronger effect than those actions which can be seen, or the learned patterns that can be assumed from the biographical information.

The strong influence of Martin Buber is visible in Boszormenyi-Nagy’s emphasis on a balance between giving and taking (Buber, 1996). An essential element of relationship was described by Boszormenyi-Nagy as an implicit ethic which demands justice and retribution, often extending over multiple generations. He developed the model of a personal accounting ledger of debt and contribution, monitored by an intrinsic trans-generational tribunal. There must be a balance in the relationship between what is received and what is given. The burden of settling the account rests with the future and the next generations rather than with past generations and past actions. When one person contributes, there is a credit established in the system which entitles that person to receive something. Debts which are not cancelled out, are passed on to the next generations. Boszormenyi-Nagy’s “contextual therapy” with individuals, couples and families, attended primarily to this balance of intra-psychic ledgers (Boszormenyi-Nagy: Between Give and Take, 1986).

Virginia Satir developed a broad repertoire of therapeutic techniques. Her work was strongly focused on communication within the system. The members of a family who came to her for counselling or therapy were guided and supported in open communication with one another. Her work was based on the following principles:

– Change is possible.

– We already have within us the resources we need for our personal development and growth.

– People do as well as they can at any given time.

– The more we can accept the past, the greater will become our capabilities for dealing with the present.

– People connect on the basis of their similarities, and grow through their differences.

– We are all manifestations of the same life force.

– Healthy human relationships are based on an equality of values.

– When it is possible to raise a client’s feelings of self-esteem so that he or she can accept others as they are, the basis for change is established.

According to Satir’s metaphor of an iceberg, we can only see the tip of a client’s behaviour. Underlying this is the “self” which is based on attitudes, awareness, feelings, expectations, and longings.

Satir called the family sculptures that she developed “techniques of a family simulation.” In this method, the family members were arranged to reveal the relationships in the structure of the family by using a spatial presentation. The family members themselves took on the roles, or else these were played by participants of the workshop. Every family member presented a picture of the family, which made it clear to everyone how the communication patterns and family rules were experienced differently by each person.

Satir used this sculpture work within the framework of her family reconstructions, her term for the client’s intense confrontation with his or her family history. The client brings in pictures, a family tree, and a genogram which describes the relationships and all known details of the lives of the family members. In reconstructions, which often went on for days, the inter-relationships and social network of the family members were examined and presented, and missing pieces of the family history could be expanded upon.

What Is a Constellation?

Building on these methods, Bert Hellinger developed constellations as a form of group therapy. In a seminar, a client identifies an issue, a problem, or symptoms, and describes what he or she is seeking as a resolution. The therapist collects information about the important people and events in the client’s life, and in the lives of the parents and grandparents. Based on the facts and feelings, the therapist develops a hypothesis about the family dynamics involved, and tests this hypothesis in a constellation.

Clients choose representatives from the group participants to represent important family members, including a representative for themselves, and set them in a spatial relationship to one another, according to their inner image. The therapist asks each representative for feedback about physical sensations, feelings, and awareness. These statements confirm or change the original hypothesis. The therapist broadens his or her picture of the dynamics and resolutions and begins to experiment with changes in the constellation placements. Often, additional representatives are added for people who have an impact on the dynamics of the system. When all the representatives have found a “good” place, the client takes the place of his or her representative in the constellation. The therapist may ask the representatives of the family to utter certain sentences, or complete certain rituals in order to help the client move towards a resolution. Many constellations lead to insights about inter-psychic dynamics or relationships that are having an effect on the health and well-being of the client. Some lead to an image of resolution that brings physical and emotional relief, and that continues to have an effect over a long period of time.

For some years now, these insights have also been applied in individual therapy. This can be useful when there is no group setting readily available, when time considerations preclude a group experience, or when a client, for whatever reason, is not in a position to participate in a group. So much experience has now been gathered and refined using constellations in an individual setting, both with constellations in the imagination and those utilizing floor anchors, that this can now be considered a good alternative to constellations in groups.

Many clients come to individual therapy sessions accompanied by their partner or spouse. In this case, as in a regular group setting, the therapist can ask each of them to set up a constellation of the current relationship. If it becomes clear that one or the other of the couple is carrying a heavy burden from their family of origin, the therapist can move to a constellation of the family of origin of that person. The partner remains present as an observer. Since the two have shown a mutual trust and interest by coming to a therapy session together, allowing the partner to remain as a support in the background almost always meets with a positive response. In the final, resolving image of the constellation, the partner can be included as a resource for the client and as the primary relationship partner in the present. Constellations done in the presence of a partner or spouse strengthen understanding between the two and deepen the bonds. (Further references to constellations with couples: Neuhauser 2001.)

When a therapist is feeling at a loss for ideas in a particular case and brings this dilemma into supervision for assistance, a constellation can often provide clarity and stimulate new impulses for movement. The dynamics which lead the therapist to supervision are usually due to personal blind spots or to difficult, complicated family structures. Such questions can also be addressed in an individual setting. Using a constellation, the position and attitude of the therapist can be looked at in relation to the family dynamics of the client in question. At the same time, the therapist can find strength and resolution from his or her own family system by gathering resources from that system and examining his or her own family structure in relationship to that of the client.

Constellations in groups, as well as individual sessions, are applicable in psychosomatic clinics, counselling, schools, in mediation, in organizational consulting, and in human resources development. They help to clarify the dynamics of the context, to gain understanding of the family connections, and to find a position of inner strength and helpful inner images for the client.

Constellations in an Individual Setting or in a Group?

In therapy, we come into contact with the biographical-constructivist and the systemic-phenomenological levels of reality. Usually, the client describes his or her symptoms at an ego level, formed by experiences in life. The client has experienced injuries, influences, and has learned patterns of behaviour. He or she has usually tried to escape the symptoms through willpower and discipline, and to realize hopes, visions, and desires in others and in him or herself.

Constellations allow a view of the dynamics of the family systems which lie beyond the level of biographical experiences: the “systemic entanglements” (Hellinger) or the “invisible bonds” (Boszormenyi-Nagy). This level of archaic order represents a more comprehensive dimension, and is normally at an unconscious level for the client. Nevertheless, the person feels the effects. In a constellation group, the client finds access to this archaic level through the experience and feedback of the representatives. The response from the representatives does not spring from the biographical level of experience, but rather from the phenomenological level. The representatives are not bound to the client’s family system, and normally have very little information about this system at all. Nonetheless, they can provide clear statements about relationships and their qualities. Physical reactions provide further indications about dynamics which the client cannot recognize.

In an individual setting, this external source of information is not available. The basic question arises whether it is possible to achieve the phenomenological quality that comes from the statements of neutral representatives, and if so, how. The question for the therapist is how to test out the client’s images for this quality.

ADVANTAGES OF CONSTELLATIONS IN GROUPS AND IN INDIVIDUAL SESSIONS

In constellation groups, a client is not only exposed to his or her own family dynamics, but also has an intense experience of the family dynamics of other participants over a period of several days. The experiences as observer, or sometimes as a representative, provide a differentiated insight into systemic connections and possible resolutions. When some complicating factor in the system is far removed from the client, and cannot be tapped cognitively through memories or other methods, the resonance of the entire group, as well as the body awareness and comments of representatives may be particularly useful in providing clues.

A group is advantageous for clients who are dealing with early childhood issues or traumas as well as for addressing a so-called interrupted reaching-out movement. When a client regresses physically and emotionally to an infantile state, interventions appropriate to the inner processes of that stage are helpful. Appropriate methods for these deeply emotional processes occasionally include the methods of primal therapy as well as procedures from holding therapy. The support of a group and/or a co-therapist is a great help in this situation.

Individual work has an advantage for a therapist who is just beginning to work with constellations, in that he or she is not subjected to the complexity of the numerous comments and dynamics brought in by representatives in a group. The therapist can begin by looking at a single dynamic or examining the formative or feeling qualities of a relationship, and observe the changes when one or more persons appear in the relationship structure. Particularly in constellations using floor markers or figures, the client can look at the family from various perspectives, and observe the family structure from all sides, that is, from a meta-position from without. Individual sessions serve to make the client familiar with the method and the art of thinking systemically, and also facilitate clarification of questions following the constellation.

The decision between individual or group work is, in practice, determined mostly by external circumstances or necessities. Individual sessions are beneficial when clients are too fearful to expose themselves to a group, or when considerations of time or space present difficulties. Sometimes, there is simply no group available.

CONSTELLATIONS IN INDIVIDUAL THERAPY

With almost ten years of experience with constellations in individual therapy, I have become convinced that a constellation in this setting can be just as effective as a constellation in a group. One purpose of writing this book is to offer my experience and conviction in the hope that others will also find this approach useful.

Over time, a deductive model of dynamics and procedures has emerged that help to form productive hypotheses. The practical application has also proven useful in groups, in that the phenomenologically orientated representation usually confirms the hypotheses, since both the representatives’ awareness and the therapist’s ideas arise out of the client’s field.

A constellation is based on biographical facts and the people who belong to the client’s system. Their relevance for a resolution is determined by testing them against the reactions of the client and the therapist. Attention is directed towards traumatic events in the client’s life, and the lives of family members, including those of earlier generations. As a working hypothesis, I proceed on the assumption that such events have caused the client or another family member to withdraw, and this continues to cause disruptions in the present, expressing itself in current symptoms.

During a constellation, there are underlying questions that focus attention on the basic inner movement of the client and on models of understanding the secondary feelings of the client and other members of the system. The therapist’s orientation is in alignment with the on-going processes and a continual search for an image of resolution that might lead the client to the desired goal: one that will allow him or her to breathe out in relief with an inner sense of harmony.

The therapist has the means at hand to determine the relevance of the client’s statements. In individual work, the therapist sits opposite the client, whose total being reflects the movements and memories in the field. In addition to the quality of the person’s inner images, this total resonance of the organism provides information that is physically, atmospherically, and emotionally precise. The therapist too is in resonance with the verbal and non-verbal messages of the client and can draw information from this input that will help in the development and testing of hypotheses.

When clients ask me whether they should have an individual session or come to a group, I suggest that they imagine themselves doing one or the other and see how it feels. Then, I usually get a very clear answer that reflects what they are ready and able to do at that moment.

Setting

TIME FRAME

In my individual practice, fifty minutes is the usual time for a single session. It is sometimes possible to answer a client’s question or develop an image of resolution to a problem with one constellation in a single session. It is, of course, possible to vary the length of sessions, for example, to one and a half or two hours if that seems useful or necessary. If it becomes clear that a client will need more than the allotted time for the presenting problems and the family history, these can be dealt with in a constellation in a second or later session. However, fifty minutes has usually proven to be adequate, and the available time can be easily subdivided into individual steps, which are:

– 10 minutes for the description of the presenting difficulty and clarification of the issues

– 10 minutes for a family case history

– 20 minutes for the constellation and steps towards an image of resolution

– 10 minutes for a follow-up discussion and homework assignments.

Within this framework, it is possible to accompany the client through a process that is often deeply emotional and guide him or her back into everyday life. If it becomes clear after taking the case history that it is too late to begin a constellation and complete the whole process within the available time, it is advisable to postpone the constellation until the next session. The time in the session can be used to make issues more concrete through body and breathing experiments, practising relaxation techniques, and clarifying the first homework exercises. These exercises, familiar from systemic therapy and behaviour therapy, will serve as a useful resource in the constellation.

An important consideration in determining the use of time in a session is that the visualization of family members often brings up deep emotions. Sometimes a trance is so deep that it makes sense for a client to spend some time in the waiting room after the session to get back to a ‘normal’ state. It is the responsibility of the therapist to ensure that a client leaves in a state conducive to travelling and is able to get safely home or to work.

SPACE, FURNISHINGS, AND EQUIPMENT

To identify the positions of family members within the working space, we use so-called floor markers. A client can experiment with these marked places during the constellation process. The person stands in context within the system and finds a good place to stand by noticing any difference when changes are made. This physical experience will be anchored in the physical organization as a new structure. When I do constellations using floor markers, I prefer to work with full-sized sheets of typing paper. These are readily available and provide exactly enough room for both feet.