As of April 2018, the way I like to work is to be sensitive to the Knowing Field first and to allow healing sentences to intuitively form within me, then to use known interventions second. That said, there are certain patterns, dynamics and natural laws I have noticed in constellations work.
I use a combination of Family Constellations and Inner Parts (pioneered by Karin Huyysen) constellations during the process. This is sometimes described as a hybrid constellation. As a guideline, here are some of the dynamics that present themselves during a constellation:
- For a child to give back a burden they have taken out of love from a parent, the parent needs to be resourced. Their mom or dad needs to be a support for them before a child will give back to the parent. The support/resource can also be an ancestor or relative.
- A hybrid of FC and inner parts possible: with a classical constellation, if a representative is feeling discomfort and there is no known source, it is possible to ask the representative where they feel the discomfort and externalise that using a pillow. Sometimes the externalised part is an inner part, like The Doubter.
- Representing miscarriages and other dead family members has a large impact on the system with a strong flow of energy. Other children are sometimes not seen by a parent if the lost child or person is not acknowledged.
- One needs to be guided by the field, sometime other movements need to happen before setting up a representative for the dead. Other representatives will prompt you, the Facilitator, to place the missing person in the Field. It is tempting as a Facilitator to bring the dead in from the beginning.
- In the case of disconnect I am not sure what to do – as a representative I also feel some disconnect from the field. It could be a sign of a lot of death, loss or abuse. Shut down.
- With inner parts, there is an internalised image of the father and mother. If they are setup in an inner parts constellation, it is possible to separate out the external father and inner father – the inner father is an image that develops through the relationship the child has with the father. The inner father can be worked with. It is sometimes quite judgemental or critical.
- Inner parts need to work as a team. It is useful to bring in the higher self or wise part, as long as the client resonates with that word. Ask them which word would best describe the wise part of them. The higher self has a guiding effect on the other parts. There is more of a sense of team work when the higher self comes in. No other part dominates.
- If an inner mother or father is represented, often the constellation is confused about if it is a family constellation or an inner parts constellation. It will be possible to do a hybrid to see how the family affects the inner parts, but this must be clear to the facilitator. Or to separate the inner part of mother father out, as discussed above.
- With abuse, the abuser becomes a part of the system. The inner part often gets stuck at the age the abuse happened. For example, the client can develop a sense of protection of others (which can become exaggerated) later in life if they did not receive protection when they experienced the abuse.
- There can be many movements (times when energy/love flows in the constellation) triggered by movements of representatives in the workshop space, by healing sentences, by including the excluded. It is important to be sensitive to these movements and to give them time.
- Sometimes it is good for the facilitator to give the constellation time to release the energy and let it flow before introducing a new intervention.
- The importance of the “Order of Love” is something only impressed on me recently as I have observed the power this intervention has to trigger a healing movements in the system.