What happens in a workshop?
We all come together as a small group and sit in a circle, people often have a cup of tea before we begin.
We agree boundaries. Mainly about confidentiality and treating all group members with respect, but sometimes other issues come up too, like if someone needs to leave early, or has childcare issues.
Next we introduce ourselves and set our intentions for the day. Often when you hear other people's intentions it really helps to get closer to your own intention.
Sometimes we do a short meditation, to help feel more grounded and present in our bodies. This helps with recognising what is going on when we do a constellation.
Then an issue holder comes and sits besides me and talks a bit about their issue and how they would like to see things resolved. For example we recently had someone who found it difficult to feel connected to their kids, or another person who was experiencing sudden and deep fears for no apparent reason.
Then I ask a bit about that person's family or origin. And what I am looking for is facts rather than stories. So if anyone died young, or if there were abortions in the family or if someone had been married before. Plus if there were other traumas that could have affected the family such as someone going to war, dying in childbirth or migration. Then the issue holder picks representatives from among the circle to represent key members of their family - or even themes such as "famine" or "slavery".
The issue holder guides the representatives to what feels like the "right place" for them to stand in the circle. And then a curious thing happens. The representatives will say things like, "I feel really tired" or "I only want to look out of the window" or "that person is annoying me", and from there the representatives will be guided to move to better places or say certain sentences which help the issue holder to gain a different perspective on the situation.
Often what unfolds can be dramatic and very moving. The resulting scenes can have a very big and freeing impact on the issue holder and all the participants. We try to move the constellation along to a place that feels more resolved and better for the issue holder. There are times when a situation is so stuck, it is not possible to do so. But even then often issue holders find that quite liberating. Simply to see set out before them how their family is and how difficult it is to resolve matters can be very freeing. And often just the act of seeing how stuck something is, can create movement.
At the end of the day people are encouraged to leave behind what they need to leave and not to talk too much about the work they have done during the day, to allow it time to settle.
After a constellation, I do not contact you to check how you are. I trust that you will care for yourself and attend to your needs. However people are absolutely at liberty to - and invited to book a one to one follow up session. This can be helpful to make sense of what happened, and often people like to learn a little more about the principles and how they fit into your own experience.
For this reason it can be really good to come to a number of workshops. Don't be fooled into thinking it's only worth coming as an issue holder. Often people have a far more valuable experience when they come as a representative. It can be because we are so blind to the issues that are really holding us back that we can only see them when we are representing for someone else. But also the more contact we have with this way of working, somehow the deeper and more impactful our experience.
Testimonial from one participant who booked a follow up session:
"Liz was able to remind me and shine a light on the real value of the dynamics of my constellation. It was almost impossible to take in all the information at the time, so the follow up session was invaluable.
I took away a primary big message and seeing Liz 2 months later, she helped me to extract so much more from the experience.
Having had time to take in the first message, things have shifted and I'm looking at a whole new landscape two months on, so now I can address the other things that came up."
We all come together as a small group and sit in a circle, people often have a cup of tea before we begin.
We agree boundaries. Mainly about confidentiality and treating all group members with respect, but sometimes other issues come up too, like if someone needs to leave early, or has childcare issues.
Next we introduce ourselves and set our intentions for the day. Often when you hear other people's intentions it really helps to get closer to your own intention.
Sometimes we do a short meditation, to help feel more grounded and present in our bodies. This helps with recognising what is going on when we do a constellation.
Then an issue holder comes and sits besides me and talks a bit about their issue and how they would like to see things resolved. For example we recently had someone who found it difficult to feel connected to their kids, or another person who was experiencing sudden and deep fears for no apparent reason.
Then I ask a bit about that person's family or origin. And what I am looking for is facts rather than stories. So if anyone died young, or if there were abortions in the family or if someone had been married before. Plus if there were other traumas that could have affected the family such as someone going to war, dying in childbirth or migration. Then the issue holder picks representatives from among the circle to represent key members of their family - or even themes such as "famine" or "slavery".
The issue holder guides the representatives to what feels like the "right place" for them to stand in the circle. And then a curious thing happens. The representatives will say things like, "I feel really tired" or "I only want to look out of the window" or "that person is annoying me", and from there the representatives will be guided to move to better places or say certain sentences which help the issue holder to gain a different perspective on the situation.
Often what unfolds can be dramatic and very moving. The resulting scenes can have a very big and freeing impact on the issue holder and all the participants. We try to move the constellation along to a place that feels more resolved and better for the issue holder. There are times when a situation is so stuck, it is not possible to do so. But even then often issue holders find that quite liberating. Simply to see set out before them how their family is and how difficult it is to resolve matters can be very freeing. And often just the act of seeing how stuck something is, can create movement.
At the end of the day people are encouraged to leave behind what they need to leave and not to talk too much about the work they have done during the day, to allow it time to settle.
After a constellation, I do not contact you to check how you are. I trust that you will care for yourself and attend to your needs. However people are absolutely at liberty to - and invited to book a one to one follow up session. This can be helpful to make sense of what happened, and often people like to learn a little more about the principles and how they fit into your own experience.
For this reason it can be really good to come to a number of workshops. Don't be fooled into thinking it's only worth coming as an issue holder. Often people have a far more valuable experience when they come as a representative. It can be because we are so blind to the issues that are really holding us back that we can only see them when we are representing for someone else. But also the more contact we have with this way of working, somehow the deeper and more impactful our experience.
Testimonial from one participant who booked a follow up session:
"Liz was able to remind me and shine a light on the real value of the dynamics of my constellation. It was almost impossible to take in all the information at the time, so the follow up session was invaluable.
I took away a primary big message and seeing Liz 2 months later, she helped me to extract so much more from the experience.
Having had time to take in the first message, things have shifted and I'm looking at a whole new landscape two months on, so now I can address the other things that came up."