Working in a one to one setting

Constellation work has two aspects –

The philosophy – an understanding of the role of belonging, the power of loyalty, the principles that apply to relationships and the effect of entanglements and trauma over generations, andThe practice – the relevance of spatial relationships and the phenomenon of representative experience.

Whichever context you work in, you will want to include a wider context, and see your client embedded in a constellation. You might want to ask the client to imagine people in their fields and speak to them, or to set up markers and experiment further. At any level you would be looking for some kind of order and resolution.

Without representatives the facilitator will have a more complex set of roles and responsibilities, and the client will be more actively involved. Individual work may feel an easier starting point for many clients, even if they do eventually attend a group.

The initial set up of the field will be very important in individual work – plenty to take in and lots of time to share observations.

You can use floor markers (paper, shoes, cushions, felt cut outs), as long as the direction they face is clarified. You can illustrate the markers too, and stand above them and look together. It’s often helpful to ritualise the move from one marker to another – a short walk e.g. Markers can be extra flexible – eg piling them on top of each other. The client can be involved in all the statements, ritual and processes, as can the facilitator. Tabletop markers are useful in limited space, and when greater distance is of value. They allow for playfulness and you can put in any number of representatives in a contained way. (play mobiles or stones or other objects)Visualisation needs no special space or equipment but is not so good when the client’s view of a person is too fixed. It evokes trance – but you need to make sure they haven’t gone too far away so you can still reach them. It’s an intimate process. You have to make sure the client is fully present again before the end of the session. You can also use the body – putting elements into the hand or use one side of the body and the other.

The challenge for the facilitator is not to interpret but to explore, not to go faster than the client can participate and has energy for, to find ways of deepening the observations via sentences, to notice the way the client is absorbing and responding at a bodily level.Clients may need to be helped to use this kind of approach, to be able to shift into other roles, to be willing to be guided.

You can add in markers for abstract elements - - meta qualities like dignity or love, or barometer markers, e.g. how the children are affected when other changes are made, the goal, the good solution, the future, a cultural setting like medical knowledge or war. a beneficiary, etc.

There is an advantage to beginners to work individually because the dynamics are less complex. Using markers the client can still observe a family structure from all sides – a meta position, useful in itself. They are also good for fearful clients as yet are unready for a group. Interventions are based on the same knowledge and capacities as are needed when there are representatives.

Therapist needs to be in resonance with the client as the process unfolds and make time for the whole process – the clarification of the issue, the history, the constellation itself, and follow up discussion.

Floor markers of A4 size are easiest. Need arrows. Standing up is strengthening. Often helps to begin with drawing a genogram. A single steps to be the focus rather than a solution. Client and therapist can stand in the places and feel the bodily dynamics.

Clients can be asked to imagine and speak just as they would in a full constellation, and the therapist can be the other where needed.

But the therapist may have to do a lot to help the client remain embodied and aware. The work may be slower. It’s more of trance work as in gestalt experimentation, may stay at the level of ego.

Another way of working is asking the client to set up the therapist/facilitator as the intention of the client. This then may reveal useful information for both of where feelings are stuck. It is also a valuable tool in supervision.