Constellations, with Sarah Henbrey

Fri, 24th April, 2015 from 9:00 AM, in Latimer Park

For many years I’ve been fascinated by the dynamics that we see in organisations and I’ve always been curious about why do some teams and departments (or whole organisations!) seem to be ‘stuck’ in some way: in the past, in negative relationships, in inaction etc.,, even when they are comprised of perfectly capable and reasonable people. Since starting my training last year with John Whittington in Systemic Coaching & Constellations, I’m beginning to use systemic mapping and constellations increasingly in my coaching and when working with groups. I’ve been amazed at the insights that emerge when we explore the organising forces which sustain and limit organisational systems and how these insights can help us to bring systems into equilibrium to achieve whole system health. This approach has its roots in family therapy, but my training is in the context of organisations (although of course peoples’ families of origin do have a strong bearing on the organisational system).

For some time now I’ve been toying with the idea of sharing some of my learning with Sadler Heath and offering you a chance to experiment with systemic mapping and constellations work. Tessa finally persuaded me to pluck up the courage to do a session! I still feel somewhat of a novice but am encouraged by the powerful results I’ve achieved so far using this approach in my coaching. I’ve had less experience facilitating groups in Constellations but would love the opportunity to work at my ‘learning edge’ with what I know will be a very open, welcoming and patient Sadler Heath group.

After giving a short overview of some of the key ideas and principles underpinning systems & constellations, I’ll invite you to spend the majority of the morning experimenting with different ways of using a systems approach. You are encouraged to bring an issue/challenge/dilemma you are facing at the moment to explore. If there’s an important issue that you’d like to explore but feel uncomfortable revealing the nature of it to others, the beauty of this approach is that we can also use ‘blind’ constellations where only you know the content. We will ‘map’ the elements of our system by using other people as ‘representatives’ of these elements, so not only will you be exploring an issue that’s important to you, you will also be experiencing the power of another person’s systemic insights.

Here are a few ways in which I’ve seen a systems approach work:

• Finding ways to create a better equilibrium between running a business & family life
• Bringing insights about what’s causing a relationship problem
• Making choices about which direction to take next
• Making sense of a situation in the past that we cannot seem to let go of
• Moving forward in a situation that we’ve been avoiding and/or are feeling ‘stuck’
• A method for self-supervision in coaching
• Understanding the perspectives of others in the ‘system’ to enable us to move forward effectively

We’ll do a mixture of whole group, small group and pairs work so that you can see how this approach might be useful in different contexts. I’m hoping that everyone will go away with some insights about an issue that’s important to them as well as some ideas on how they might safely and confidently start to incorporate a systems approach in their work.

Sarah Henbrey:   Sarah had a long corporate career in senior HR and OD roles before leaving corporate life two years ago to set up her own executive coaching/consulting business. Her work aims to help leaders bring their best to their work and to their lives, with a strong emphasis on helping leaders notice the impact of their behavior on other people and on the organisational ‘system’. She lives in Hampshire with her husband Alan and has two children aged 18 and 22.

Tessa Bradon and Lorraine Purbrick will be moderating and hosting this event.  As all our events are both experiential and experimental, our moderators ensure the space is kept safe for learning, for both the participants and the presenters. The event will start promptly at 09.00 (with a light breakfast available from 08.30) and formal activities will close at 12.30.  Lunch will be available for you at 12.30.

Please register for the event by emailing: [email protected] or through [email protected] . For catering purposes, it would be helpful to know numbers at least a week in advance.

Accommodation – The Latimer Place Hotel is a short walk away from Latimer Park