ARTICLES
Some of What I Have Learned
Whenever I had the chance to learn something new, I realized that the more I knew about someone's way of living, the more I got a sense about if I would want to learn it from this particular person who offered the training. Mostly, I was lucky with my choices; a great deal had to do with having had a first hand experience with my future teacher. The times that I knew too little about the teachers and "went for it" anyway, were the times that I sometimes regretted my choice. Out of this experience, I wrote down everything I would want to know from someone with whom I might want to work or train. With the following, you will find something like an unprofessionally long description of my professional development.
Born in 1947 in Freiburg, Germany, I originally studied art (painting) and history of art. After seven years of teaching and counseling students in high school, I left in order to continue to study with various teachers of psychology - getting trained in Gestalt, TZI and Psychodrama. In 1980, I traveled to India for the first time to meet my spiritual master, who would remain so for many years, and to be further trained in breath awareness, Primal Therapy and meditation.
While working as a co-leader and therapist of the Ellcrys School for health practitioners in Freiburg (1987-1990), I also trained in NLP and Ericsonian hypnosis with Ragini E. Michaels (Seattle), becoming a master practitioner, and took advanced training with Robert Dilts and the Southern Institute of NLP (Florida) to become a trainer. Opening a private practice in 1990 and working as a coach and trainer for companies, I began my study of family constellation work with Bert Hellinger in 1993. In the following years, I accepted many invitations to present the work and to teach throughout Europe, India and the United States. As one of the first facilitators of constellation work on the West Coast of the USA, (1997, Seattle), I started leading trainings in Colville, Washington, the Colville Reservation of the Confederated Tribes, and in Portland, Oregon.
Having spent two years dividing my time between Maui, Hawai’i and Freiburg, Germany, I now live and work - together with my American husband - in Freiburg. He has, for many years, been doing the organization of my groups and trainings, and for those of invited teachers from around the world.
Having been a speaker at many international conferences, and a teacher at international workshops, intensives and trainings, I recently co-organized - together with my husband - the 3rd International Conference on Constellation Work and Spirituality.
Current training:
From 2005-2007, I have taken part in an experiential group of constellation work and Somatic Experiencing with Peter Levine, and finished my training of Somatic Experiencing (Steve Hoskinson, Raja Selvam) in August, 2008.
Some of my earlier training:
When I was eight years old, my parents separated - each of them going into a new marriage. We three children stayed with my father and his new wife, who brought two children of her own into the family. From that time, I learned how to live as one of five children, with a very different and rather restrictive set of rules.
Some of the many things I learned in this "patchwork family" were:
- the beauty of regular meals at a table full of children
- how to cope with the pain of missing my mother’s cuddling (and to find it elsewhere)
- how to successfully dodge strict rules.
When I took my driver’s license test, I failed. It was the first time that I was confronted with having failed an exam, and it was a rather healthy experience - shaking me out of the illusion of, "I can do it if I want it." (I managed the second time - despite the fear.)
When starting to work as a young teacher of art with politically left-wing persuasions, I joined an anti-authoritarian theater group that started a series of plays for children, offered in one of Freiburg’s playhouses. Standing on stage as a main character, I had to cope with stage fright. And learning about the mechanics and psychology of theater life made me thank my father for having coaxed me out of a life as an actress and into art study, suggesting that I can always play theater for fun in my free time.
From 1977-1980, I took part in a program to counsel inmates in our city’s prison, which resulted in an in depth knowledge of how it feels when doors lock shut behind you; it also left me with a profound questioning of our punitive system.
From 1982-1985, I lived in Italy - in the countryside of Toscany - in a comunity of 47 people. We were working on the land and in our "Center for Meditation and Therapy".
Some of the many things I learned were:
- how to speak Italian
- how to mow a meadow by hand
- how the fragrance of bread - when baked in an outdoor oven - with the wheat you planted and harvested, can bring tears to your eyes
- how to live and work with a psychatric patient (we took one in those years)
- how to be a meditation leader from 5.30-6.30 AM, a kitchen helper from 6.30-8 AM, a therapist from 9.30 AM to 5.30 PM and again a kitchen helper or cleaning lady from 5.30 to 8 PM. (yes - all in one day)
- how to say "no", when my belonging to the group was starting to betray my being myself.
The learning, of course, continues. In time, I will have to add to this section.