Many people ask me whether it is better to do a private session or join a group for one’s first experience of constellations, or what I think the differences are. So this is an attempt to encapsulate my usual response to these questions.
There are of course differences. In the private session we have just you and me and markers to represent the elements needed in the constellation, whereas in the group we have fellow participants to take up these roles. It is true that having actual people in the constellation allows for all of the set up elements to freely experience and share their experience, even changing their position spontaneously, in response to what happens in the constellation. So if something happens in one part of the constellation other represented elements will have experiences and may move as a result. This is not available in the individual session, although it does often happen that you may have a sense of the impact of what occurs on those represented by markers. If I check with you during the constellation you may tell me that your grandmother, for example, has moved and you can then change the position of the marker accordingly.
In my experience of this work in both group and one-to-one over the past fifteen years I can’t really say if I think one is more effective or ‘better’ than the other. It is the case that many people prefer to start with a private session, thereby getting a sense of me and what the work is about before they go into a group. It also happens that I work with someone in a group and they then want to have a private follow-up session. Sometimes, particularly if this is to be the first experience of any kind of therapy, people prefer privacy in order to talk about very sensitive personal issues. Many people may feel embarrassed, or even ashamed, of what they need to look at which they may never have discussed with anyone before. In this instance the private session is invaluable.
Please feel free to contact me to discuss this further if you need to.