Extra Material complex trauma page
Sometimes that means to not constellate. I learned that in 2003, at a training weekend with Hunter Beaumont, one of my most deeply honoured constellation teachers. A young woman took the seat to his right. She was fairly composed, while also namimng her request and sharing the heartbreak, connected to it. In his inimitable demeanour Hunter gave her his full attention, ample time to share, while wordlessly ‘assigning’ the circle to become a strong holding container for this young person’s struggle and pain. After she had said all she needed to, he waited a few moments. Then, he gently turned his frame to look directly at her, while also slightly leaning back to give her a bit more space. I will never forget the voice he spoke in to thank her. After another pause he said: This is not an issue that will benefit from a constellation. This pain needs to be tended to, for a while, in one-on-one sessions with a person you can trust.”
He added more, which I don’t recall in the same way, to guide her possible next steps. I took away, 22 years ago, that constellating, then, was not a silver bullet for all issues. That said, it did open my heart to develop (my kind) of creative constellating that addresses biographical wounding where it surfaces. In the meantime, I am exceedingly grateful for the learning I received about visceral desolation from many of the Change Seekers I have been fortunate to meet and work with.
Need it a bit more practical?
I facilitate by blending three sources that feed my work: the lived experience of developmental trauma and its (ongoing) mending
apprenticing and studies with many teachers
interdisciplinary curiosity and systemic imagination
The group (withnessing), myself (facilitating), and the change seeker (gifting an issue) enter into co-creating a trusting –always unique– space. I bring my treasure chest, filled with good tools, and the delight of many playful ‘presenters’ (elaborated on elsewhere.) I also bring my indefatigable curiosity to embrace personal biography and nesting it into ancestral narrative(s). Tha mapping begins to locate an issue among the human experience, at large.
The comportment of a systemic traumatologist is the base I acquired by spending six years of apprenticing (in traditional, lived in style)a at Anngwyn St. Just’s Colorado Social Trauma Centre (1995-2001).) This became the solid foundation of –courageously and whole heartedly– meeting and engaging trauma that enters as a narrative or arises in a body. Over, and again, a process oriented, intentionally trauma receptive engagement with a change seeking human, nourishes their resilience, collaborates with their tenacity, and celebrates their strength. all present are invited to honour and care for the pain. We also share in seeing what was and is right about the person and their way of ‘making it’.
One participant, new to constellating, and my in-person group style, send me the following, after a three-day weekend workshop:
“I just wanted to reach out to let you know how impactful last weekend’s workshop was for me. I didn’t immediately understand the depth of what we were doing, but by the end of the day on Saturday, I was blown away. Thank you for facilitating such meaningful work! I’m so glad I was able to participate, and I look forward to the next one!” (A.N., June 2024)
? You are wholeheartedly invited to join an upcoming event?
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