An experiential therapeutic group to explore Family Constellations and The Orders Of Love, based on the work of Bert Hellinger

Facilitated by Wendy Mathison
Saturday 25 September 2010 9.30 am to 5.30 pm

Venue: The Gillis Centre
100 Strathearn Road
Edinburgh EH9
Parking is available at the centre and on the main road. B&B also available.

Cost: By donation (min. £5)

Systemic Therapy understands that events and relationships of earlier generations within our family system can create ‘entanglements’, which affect those who come after, particularly children. In this way, the loving energy within family relationships can become blocked. Using the family constellation as a vehicle for exploration, hidden dynamics within the family may come to light. Being in the present and acknowledging what is, we can release the flow of healing energy and make peace with the past. Participants in the workshop will have the opportunity to constellate their family and/or to act as representative in others’ constellations. Taking part as a representative and being a member of the group may be experienced as healing, and also forms a holding container for the work.

Times: 10.00 to 5.30

Venue: The Gillis Centre, Strathearn Road, Edinburgh

A Constellation is an experiential process in three parts: First, an individual presents a concern or an issue, a desire for something in their life to be different. It can be anything from an immediate crisis to a lifelong negative pattern. Many different issues can be explored in a Constellation. Second, the process of the constellation reveals the hidden dynamics that have been making the issue resistant to change. The assumption is that all human beings have the capacity to understand and respond effectively to problems and so when that doesn’t happen, the needs or dynamics of the larger family system are likely to be playing a part. Third, once they are brought to light, the dynamics in the system seem to respond to being reshaped. Participants frequently report afterward that the presenting issue becomes much lighter or is fully resolved.

This 2-day experiential workshop can change your perception of yourself, your parents, your life, and the world we all live in. Collectively we will embark on a deep exploration of commonly shared burdens, such as addiction, the alienation of adoption, the legacy of trauma and war, loneliness, sibling estrangements, marital collapse, the mother-daughter volcano, the absent or abusive father, at-risk children, and so on. All of these circumstances, no matter how deeply embedded or seemingly hopeless, can be transformed for the better in the healing space of a Constellation. A problem is presented; the heart of darkness is felt and perceived; we reach the place where love abides and the sweetness of life endures. Tears flow and joy is restored.

The workshop leader is Dr. Dan Booth Cohen, an internationally known expert in the field of violence prevention and conflict resolution. For 30 years, his work has taken him to places of harsh conflict, to institutions of social dysfunction, to intimate spaces of loneliness, heartache, and estrangement. In all of these places where can be found the lives of ordinary people with everyday struggles, Dan hopes to help participants to find their own way to profound and lasting healing. For the past 10 years, he has devoted his practice to what he calls, “the missing tool,” the Systemic Family Constellation process.

Dan works with an open heart, a clear intention, and a warm sense of humour. His recent book is I Carry Your Heart in My Heart: Family Constellations in Prison. Besides leading Constellations, he will incorporate some of the theory of the process, its roots in Western philosophy and traditional healing practices, and the hidden architecture of love and relationships.

Contact : Gabi.Henzler
phone: 07956/829404
email: gabi-art@gmx.de
Time: 9:30 – 17:00
Cost: £150
There will also be some 1-to-1 sessions available in the week after the workshop at £80 for an hour

Whether it is the effects of trauma, or a kind of participation in someone else’s suffering or guilt, or an unconscious identification with an excluded family member; we can be held back from expressing our full potential by the blind love and loyalty that keeps us so deeply connected to our family system.

The constellation group process helps the participants to open their minds, to discover new ways to look at family and relationship issues. It sheds light on our need to belong to our family system and the effects that entangle us in the past. It allows us to move away from suffering, to release and resolve the tensions, to be more available to participate in our present reality.

Join us for a Family Constellations weekend workshop.

You can attend the workshop as an ‘issue holder’ where you will have a chance to look at your question, or as a representative where you will be supporting others. Many participants have experienced how being a representative brought new clarity to their own issues. If you’re not sure, don’t hesitate to contact me.

The Gillis Centre
100 Strathearn Rd,
Edinburgh EH9 1BB
Accommodation is available at the Gillis Centre.

info@carinascotland.com
Tel: 07909 680397
Download booking form

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Saturday, May 15th, 2010 in Glasgow

• Struggling in your relationship, in your family, or with your children?
• Feel something is holding you back ?
• Struggling with an addiction, or the breakdown of a relationship?
• Maybe stress is pushing you towards your edge?
• Is bereavement is turning to depression?
• Feelings of resentment have been lingering and old patterns are repeating?
• Maybe you are just interesting in learning something?

While traditional therapies typically focus only on the person, Family Constellations works with a whole picture of the individual as part of a larger set of systems – family, community, ethnic group…

‘Family constellations’ can bring clarity and release to problems you are experiencing within your family.

Open to all.

Saturday, May 15th, 2010
10am-5pm
The Wellington Church
73 Southpark Avenue, Glasgow G12 8LE

Limited spaces, book your place now:

www.carinascotland.com
info@carinascotland.com
Tel: 07909 680397
Download booking form

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“Free Your Voice”

One-day singing workshop

with Francine Luce-Lakhan

Sunday, June 6th, 2010

We often hear people say they only sing in the shower. What stops us from singing with the same uninhibited freedom we were blessed with as children?

• Sing freely in a group and by yourselfOpen up your voice
• Expand your vocal possibilities
• Strengthen your voice
• Experiment with melodic and free vocal sounds
• Develop your creativity and spontaneity
• Build up self-confidence.
• Discover your hidden sounds

You will find out how singing can be personally valuable and nourishing, as you free your voice and expressiveness. Start from where you are in a safe environment that fosters your development and potential.

Open to all, no experience necessary. Wear loose comfortable clothing.

The workshop is led by singer Francine Luce Lakhan. Francine is an international professional singer, voice coach and healer. She has run her own private teaching practice ‘Sing your own voice’ since 1992, in the UK, Caribbean, Europe and Japan. Her work is inspired by her experiences with music, dance, theatre, healing and spiritual beliefs.

June 6th, 2010

10.30am-5.30pm
The Theosophical Society
28 Great King Street, Edinburgh EH3 6QH
Course fee: £80

Limited spaces, book your place now: info@carinascotland.com
Tel: 07909 680397

If you need any assistance with information about travel arrangements or accommodation, feel free to contact us. Some participants will be traveling from Glasgow and can share car journeys.

I watched a programme on BBC 4 last week about chaos theory. ‘The Secret Life of Chaos’.

I think I understand it a bit better now, having just watched it again on iplayer..

Chaos as a word has always taken me to the sort of state my bedroom used to get into as a child or teenager, something rather static, clothes in a jumbled heap on the floor, no recognisable pattern, parents saying could you tidy your room…Disorder, confusion and anarchy says the dictionary.

Yet, the images in this programme showed patterns of changing and beautiful symmetry, which appear seemingly out of nothing and are completely self organising. If only clothes and papers would do that!

Chaos theory gives chaos a deeper and more beautiful meaning. Chaos refers to the butterfly effect: how some minuscule difference in the initial conditions of a system causes an event to take a different direction, a completely unpredictable direction. Sometimes it has dramatic results and other times we hardly notice.

The butterfly flaps its wings in Brasil and creates a chain of events leading to a hurricane happening somewhere else instead of the sunny spell that the forecasts had predicted. I didn’t realise till I watched the programme that chaos theory explains why weather forecasts are so often dramatically wrong! A system that is completely described by mathematical equations is more than capable of having outcomes that could not have been unpredicted, without any outside interference whatsoever. The same things that make for this unpredictability also allow for the creation of symmetry, order and patterns of stunning beauty.

One of my tutors during my psychotherapy training used a phrase about group dynamics: ’sensitive dependence on initial conditions’ and I remember I had a friend who loved that phrase and was always getting me to repeat it. But I don’t think I realised then it was a definition of chaos.

I was at a funeral the other day and after the service, in the hotel where relatives and friends gathered, I found myself talking to a woman I had met once before years ago. The conversation was interesting enough but what preoccupied me was the sensation I had of wanting to back away from her, just about an inch would have done it. Inevitably each time I shifted back a fraction, she seemed to move with me, and in the crowded room I couldn’t go very far. I began to wish the conversation over, and found it hard to stay present.

Later on I thought about constellations and the strange but undeniable experience that representatives repeatedly have – that a slight repositioning can make all the difference to their ability to stay open and to the flow in the constellation. It helps to explain also why we take the initial positioning of representatives seriously. Sometimes an inch is all it takes. With each step in the process after this, the system moves further and further away from where you might have thought or predicted it would go.

I have got to know Sneh the past couple of years at the ISCA Intensive in Germany, where she is part of the faculty. I love her work. It has given me a glimpse of a synthesis of two aspects of myself that have struggled to find their place together in my work. Inevitably, my decision to ask Sneh to come to Edinburgh is partly selfish as well as coming from a desire to offer you a chance to benefit from her work. There are a few more places available for her amazing family constellations workshop in Edinburgh on March 6th and 7th

I love the way she lets tiny events come into her work . This is what she says about chaos constellations.

• January 30th 2010 (Glasgow) The workshop will be held at the Wellington Church. 10am-5pm details
• March 6-7th 2010 in Edinburgh, special workshop with Sneh Victoria Schnabel, from Germany
• March 28th in Edinburgh with Wendy Mathison
• May 15th 2010 (Glasgow) The workshop will be held at the Wellington Church. 10am-5pm details
• June 26-27th 2010 (Edinburgh) The weekend workshop will be held at the Gillis Centre. 10am to 5pm
• September 25-26th (Edinburgh) with Wendy
• November 27th (Edinburgh) with Wendy
• Further family constellations workshops to be announced.

There are two ways to participate in a Family Constellation Workshop. As an ‘issue holder’, you will have the opportunity to work on the ‘issue’ or question that preoccupies you. If you are not sure what the issue might be, Clare will guide you through the process.

You can also participate as a ‘representative’ where you support the other issue holders. Many participants have experienced that being a representative has brought them clarity and helped them take the next step in their own process.

Costs: one day workshops £65 (issue holder) or £35 (representative) and weekends: £125/£80. For the special workshop with Sneh Victoria, please see details

Download booking form

book a two-day workshop now:

Issue Holder £125.00 Representative £80.00

Leading international systemic constellations facilitator

Sneh Victoria Schnabel

will facilitate a two-day workshop in systemic constellations

6th-7th March 2010

The systemic constellating approach is a simple yet profound method that can shed light on difficult issues. A constellation usually reveals a fuller story of the unspoken dynamics in a family. When we witness and honour what our ancestors suffered we can become freer from the loyalties that bind us to pointless suffering and entanglements, giving us the strength of a love which lets us take our place more fully in life.

About Sneh Victoria

Sneh was born in Freiburg, Germany in 1947. She originally studied art and art history and taught in high school for 7 years. She then trained in Gestalt, Psychodrama, breath awareness, Primal Therapy and meditation.

While working as a co-leader and therapist at the Ellcrys School for health practitioners (1987-1990), she also trained in NLP and Ericsonian hypnosis – becoming a master practitioner, and took advanced training with Robert Dilts and the Southern Institute of NLP (Florida) to become a trainer.

She began her study of family constellation work with Bert Hellinger in 1993 and has presented this work and taught throughout Europe, India and the United States. As one of the first facilitators of constellation work on the West Coast of the USA in the late 90’s she led training in the Colville Reservation of the Confederated Tribes.

She now lives and works – together with her American husband – in Freiburg. Since 2005 she has trained in body work for trauma – Somatic Experiencing – with Peter Levine, (Waking the Tiger) Steve Hoskinson, Raja Selvam. She has been on the faculty of the International Systemic Constellations Association Intensive for the past three years

We are INCREDIBLY lucky to have Sneh coming to Edinburgh. We would normally have to head off to another country to see her work! Here is your chance to sample it closer to home. Read her words on how she lets tiny events bring meaning into family constellations

DATE AND TIME: 6-7th March 2010 9.30am -5.30pm

VENUE: The Theosophical Society 28 Great King Street,  Edinburgh EH3 6QH

COST: £200 or £180 if paid in full before February 5th

Booking and information: Wendy Mathison wsmdance@talktalk.net 0131 447 5462 or Clare Crombie: info@carinascotland.com

Download the booking form now

Learning how to integrate this approach into your work and life can be an exciting and fulfilling process that opens your mind to new ways of looking at problems.

This Introductory course consists of three weekends in March (Friday 19th 6-8pm & all day Sat. 20th, Sun. 21st) July (Friday 2nd 6-8pm & all day Sat. 3rd, Sun. 4th) and October (Fri 22nd 6-8pm & all day Sat. 23rd, Sun. 24th). Further training is planned for 2011 and 2012.

Who might attend?
Therapists, counsellers, healers or bodyworkers looking for CPD opportunities and personal development; community workers, social workers or teachers or in fact anyone working with people in any capacity who is interested in a different way of understanding human systems. The introductory course can be taken as a one off complete course or is also a prerequisite to continuing to the further training in 2011/2012

Who facilitates the workshops?

Clare Crombie and colleagues from Edinburgh and Cork

Cost: £500 if paid in full before February 19th 2010

£170 per weekend, if paying in installments,
(3 payments, one by Feb 19th, the second by June 4th and final payment by September 24th)

More information and booking: www.carinascotland.com
info@carinascotland.com 07909680397

Download booking form for the family constellations training