Workshop

Group Constellations Exploring Race and Ethnicity

Date
March 29 – April 1, 2019

Join us for an in-depth exploration of the impact of transgenerational trauma and family history using Systemic Constellations.  The workshop focuses on the experience of people of color and their families in the United States. The work will be primarily concentrated on healing and exploration through facilitated constellations, with multiple constellations offered each day to support opportunities for many.

We are aware that having a space that is for and centered on people of color can support deeply vulnerable, transformational connection and healing. In order to do so, we are reserving Saturday and Sunday for attendees who identify as people of color. On Monday, selected white-identified people will be invited to offer supportive presence and serve as representatives in the constellations of POC. We imagine they may be called on to represent the mixed lineages held by many POC, parts of us who assimilated and/or gathered strength and power/privilege from assimilating albeit at a high cost, split loyalties, tension between the outer masks/inner parts, oppressor parts and possibly our movements towards the loved ones from the dominant culture.

Each day will have a loose theme as follows:

Friday, 3/29  Intimate Relationships.
Explore how race and ethnicity has impacted us, with a focus on our intimate relationships. This will be an opportunity for you and your partner to explore the couple dynamic, including the impact of race and ethnicity, with other couples. In order to join this one day couples’ event, one member of the couple must identify as a person of color. (To register for the couples’ event, email Roxy.)

Saturday, 3/30  Family and historical trauma.
Explore how the history of people of color, both in our families and as ethnic groups, has impacted how we move through the world. (POC only)

Sunday, 3/31  Relationships.
Explore the impact of transgenerational trauma on all of our relationships – partner, parent/child, sibling, community, etc. (POC only)

Monday, 4/1 – Race Relations. Explore the relationships between races. Constellation seekers will be POC.  Experienced white-identified folks will be invited to be in the space/available for the field. (POC, with support from invited white-identified people)

 

Constellation seekers (those selected to be the focus of individual constellations) will be chosen by lottery from all those interested in having a constellation. In alignment with the intention of white-identified people being invited to support the work of POC, white-identified people who attend on Monday are invited to be witnesses and representatives, but will not be eligible to be constellation seekers.

Facilitator:  Sarah Peyton
Talli and Roxy, the organizers of the workshop, have invited Sarah Peyton to facilitate this workshop. We know of no other highly experienced constellation facilitator of any ethnicity who can create the depth of healing Sarah does in her approach to family constellations that combines family constellations, Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) and  the healing potential of resonant presence and language.  While we acknowledge there will be inevitable conscious and subconscious impacts of having a white-identified person as a facilitator for the constellations of people of color, from our personal experiences of Sarah as she presents her work and engages with issues of race, privilege and class, gives us strong faith that for most, the power of her facilitation will still offer potential for significant healing.

Who is Sarah? Sarah Peyton, CNVC Certified Trainer and international facilitator of family constellations, teaches and lectures internationally on the way that language heals the brain from emotional trauma.  Her special interest is the way that difficult events impact our automatic brain patterning, and how to transform our tendencies toward self-criticism into self-warmth. Her book, “Your Resonant Self: Guided Meditations and Exercises to Engage Your Brain’s Capacity for Healing,” was published by W.W. Norton Publishing internationally in September, 2017.

Requested Contribution:

You may register at this time for either Saturday or Sunday, or Saturday, Sunday and Monday. If you wish to register for just one day, you can add your name to the wait-list.  We will give priority to those who can attend all three days, then those who can attend two weekend days, then those who can attend only one day. We will notify those on the wait list of openings on March 1, 2018.

Tuition fees:

  • $360:  Saturday, Sunday, Monday
  • $270:  Saturday, Sunday
  • $150:  Single day rate

Please email Roxy if you would like to attend, but are unable to contribute at these levels.