How Systemic Constellations Are Carried Out In Practice

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

The method of systemic constellations in its practical understanding is a way to achieve a goal (search for the cause of existing problems, search for an optimal solution, therapy, etc.). It is a tool for obtaining specific benefits for the client. It should be noted that it is a very effective tool! Therefore, the constellation method is of such interest among specialists and clients. For those who do not yet understand how constellations are carried out in practice, I will, as it be, open the veil of secrecy. We bet after that you want to see it all with your own eyes?

Stages of the system placement:

1. Request. The key to the success of the system-family constellation is the presence of some "sore point", a problem that really worries the client. The request should be clearly formulated: it is necessary to tell not only “what exactly hurts”, but also “what I want to get in the end”. Otherwise, you can, as they say, not see the forest behind the trees - you can get so carried away with the description of the problem that you forget about your ultimate goal. Sometimes the client cannot formulate his request clearly, but the constellations work in this case too: what is significant for the client will still reveal itself through some symptom, emotion or negative life scenario (what is called a hard fate).

The constellator always pays attention not only to the request itself, but also to the emotions and gestures of the client accompanying the story - they often suggest what the constellation will be about and what kind of problem will need to be solved.

2. Information process. Little information is needed for the placement: the events are important, and not the feelings about them and not the characteristics of the participants.

What information is important for the placement?

• information about the persons included in the system (for a family constellation - family members, for a business constellation - company employees);

• data on significant events (family and ancestral history - for family constellation, history of the creation and development of the company - for organizational). When collecting this information, the constellator looks in 2 directions: which events can be attributed to the person's personal trauma, and which to the system (for example, to the family). The latter are very significant for humans. It is better to collect all the information gradually, in the process of the placement. By the way. very often, the most important and significant data are revealed already in the course of the systemic constellation.

3. Selection of deputies. This is already the immediate beginning of constellation actions: the client is invited to choose group members for the role of participants in his situation. You need to choose quickly and on a whim, not paying attention to either appearance, gender, or age - all this does not matter in the arrangement. From this moment on, all the participants - the client, the therapist, the group - are required to be calm and attentive. If a member of the group is not ready to be a substitute, he can refuse the offered role. The number of participants in the constellation depends on the size of the system being placed and on the problem voiced, but nevertheless, the constellator always tries to start with as few participants as possible: it is easier then to introduce missing persons into the constellation than to immediately overload it with unnecessary participants and paralyze the dynamics of the constellation.

4. The process of placement. The therapist invites the assignee to arrange the substitutes in the field as he sees fit. Already the places for which he assigns various members of the system will tell a lot to an experienced specialist. If the client forgets to place someone, gets lost, confused, doubts, the therapist either encourages him, or stops the placement: perhaps the wrong time and the wrong system have been chosen.

5. The action of the constellation image. After the placement of the substituents, a phase of silence begins so that the substituents can feel. Here the constellator pays attention to various bodily manifestations: obsessive or restless movements, posture, facial expressions, glance shifting from one face to another, or "running away" gaze.

6. Interview with deputies. The therapist asks the assistants questions about how they feel in their places. It is important that the deputy voice not his thoughts about the constellation, but only what he feels. The survey begins either with the substitute who shows some unusual dynamics, or, with unexpressed dynamics, with the father and mother, then moving on to the children (in family constellations).

7. Detection of system dynamics. This is the core of constellation work - following the reactions of substitutes, following what the therapist himself sees and feels, as well as additions and permutations. At this stage, step by step, the problem that oppresses the system - a family or an organization - is revealed.

8. Establishing order within the system itself. Most often, the arrangement comes to the creation of a new order in the system, which manifests itself in a certain image-decision. Most often, this is the correct order of the arrangement of the members of the system. The deputies do not know “how it should be,” because they are inside the system, and it is a task for the therapist to arrange them correctly, since there is a single correct order, where each member of the system must take its place.

9. Inclusion of the client in the constellation. The client is included in the constellation when it becomes clear in which direction the decision will go, but the client must go through the decision process itself. In cases where it is difficult for the client to accept the complex processes of his family, the constellator works with the deputies to the end. Although it happens that the client does not have a substitute and himself participates in the constellation from the very beginning, it is usually easier for him to observe the dynamics from the outside.

10. Image-solution. This is such an order or actions, after which all participants in the constellation feel good: their faces become open and clear, a sigh of relief is often carried.

11. "Permissive" phrases. The final stage of the arrangement is the "necessary" words spoken by the participants to each other. They can be suggested by the therapist or by their search for substitutes. When pronouncing these phrases, eye contact is very important, even if some of the participants constantly look away.

This is how the systemic constellation process takes place. And yet, even laid out "on the shelves", this method does not reveal to us the main secret - how does it work ?! Where do strangers get such detailed information about the family, clan, organization ?! But the main thing is that the method works, and very successfully.