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, and
The 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. ndividual
work may feel an easier starting point for many clients, even if they do
eventually attend a group.
!he 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. t$s often helpful to ritualise the move
from one marker to another a short walk e.g. %arkers can be extra flexible
eg piling them on top of each other. !he client can be involved in all the
statements, ritual and processes, as can the facilitator.
Tabletop markers are useful in limited space, and when greater distance is
of value. !hey allow for playfulness and you can put in any number of
representatives in a contained way. "play mobiles or stones or other ob&ects#
Visualisation needs no special space or e'uipment but is not so good when
the client$s view of a person is too fixed. t evokes trance but you need to
make sure they haven$t gone too far away so you can still reach them. t$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.
!he 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 'ualities 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.
!here is an advantage to beginners to work individually because the
dynamics are less complex. )sing markers the client can still observe a
family structure from all sides a meta position, useful in itself. !hey are also
good for fearful clients as yet are unready for a group. nterventions are
based on the same knowledge and capacities as are needed when there are
representatives.
!herapist 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.
*loor markers of A+ si,e are easiest. -eed arrows. .tanding up is
strengthening. /ften 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 &ust as they would in a full
constellation, and the therapist can be the other where needed.
0ut the therapist may have to do a lot to help the client remain embodied and
aware. !he work may be slower. t$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. !his then may reveal
useful information for both of where feelings are stuck. t is also a valuable
tool in supervision.