Working with systemically originated issues by addressing their impact on an individual implicates risk of missing some hidden elements of entanglement.
Photo:© Mcbenny
In one-to-one counselling therapeutic setting I apply various interventions – depending on many factors appearing in a unique moment my client comes to a session. That is a phenomenological way which includes many suitable methods of detail experiential working on presented issues.
I observe that in many cases family system entanglements appear in the content people bring to the session. That’s very natural – we are members of our family system, no matter how we feel about it at some stages in our life. That’s reality of our life – we came to the world through our parents; our patterns of relationships and our personality is shaped in family system. These basic facts must be in the mind of thoughtful therapist.
What I see in a dialogue with my client during the session – I see a personal level of my client’s issues, a family system level of presented problem, an environmental level of the client’s life experiences (schooling, relationships in workplaces); sometimes also a multi-generational level of presented issues, or even a complex of cultural/traditional/national/historical levels of presented matters. It could be seen as a beautiful, colorful 3D mosaic!
Awareness of all these factors leads to a question – how to work with an individual (or with a couple) if presented issues are originated in so many dimensions? Client comes to the session as a hologram carrier, containing all preserved information from systems he/she belongs to. And sometimes – what the client carries is much more than he/she can embrace and transform.
There is always an open way for me to work with the client individually, no matter how much systemic entanglements are presented in my client’s issue. That work is like threading – piece by piece, keeping all fibers in a light of meaning, to make a sense in entangled threads, and to bring a solution to my client’s life. It’s sometimes a stormy journey – with stages of euphoric insights and moments of a bottom hitting; one must be like a seaman, going through storms to a promising land of peace of mind, soul and body.
One of navigation tools in the life journey of transformation is constellation. It could be done in individual work but experience of many facilitators in years of applying that method shows that constellation in a group setting is usually more powerful than individual constellation. Why navigate by the stars only if we could have a powerful compass, and why use only little compass if we could use a big one? I’m not a sailor but I hope my analogies of finding solutions in life storms could be used that way.
Photo: © Felix_ro
Why the group constellation workshop seems to be a bigger and more powerful compass than the individually set constellation?
For me it looks quite simple: what is revealed and what is working during constellation, is a specific systemic energy; when two people are involved in constellation – there is a limited supply of their own systemic energy and their connection to so called Knowing Field, a space of all systemic information (which would be like a space of radio waves, invisible but detectable by a sense of hearing when waves are transformed by a radio tool).
Constellation done in a group space is like radio amplifier with bigger antenna – better connection to the Knowing Field with systemic waves, and more clear signals.
Experiencing that difference and striving to best effectiveness in my work with clients – how could I not tell about that opportunity to my clients? And to all other people who seek ways to bring complex solutions to their life while feeling stuck in their journey…
Hania Gorski (Moser)
Systems in our Life - Entanglement and Success 