How to use the five levels of skills in the initial interview
The initial interview has two purposes:
- establishing an energetically clear issue
- getting information about the the family history
When the client is in contact with his or her issue and the issue is energetically clear, then the constellation will have clarity and direction and will bring out what needs to be seen and what is needed for resolution — if a resolution is possible.
Some of the skills needed to conduct the initial interview are:
- using focussing questions to help the client to come in contact with their issue
- listening with a double ear to recognize systemic clues
- the capacity to hold the issue without becoming overwhelmed
- stopping secondary feelings in an accepting way
- stopping the telling of stories and focussing on the essence
- avoiding to be drawn into the field of the client
The most important skill while conducting the interview is to stay in contact with your own body sensations (even while you stay in contact with the client and the group), and monitoring the level of your presence, your neutrality, your awareness of your own feelings, and your reactions to the client. You use that in the first place to stay centered and to prevent being drawn into the field of the client. From that place of neutrality, presence and awareness you can observe the client and the state he or she is in. And then you will know what question could facilitate the client to become more focussed and more in contact with their issue. (You also need to stay in that centered state while facilitating the constellation).
Listening with a double ear means that you listen to statements that the client makes about themselves, and asking yourself: to whom in the system might this statement belong? The client may be identified with someone who lived earlier and therefore the client experiences the feelings, beliefs and convictions of this earlier person as if they are his or her own.
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