Healing History - Creating the Better Future

Aims:

to understand the role of history in shaping individual processes (our work, personal and family life, including trans-generational trauma and chronic symptoms).
to understand how the “ghosts of history” influence conflicts in groups, between nations and individuals
to learn methods to spot the ghosts of history in the „here and now” in working with individuals and groups
to work with national/ group stereotypes: how to raise awareness, react against, unfold and find the hidden messages
to learn group facilitation of processes with history in the background
to develop skills and methods to work with trauma
to learn to understand and work with historical trauma and contemporary problems (ex. immigration, terrorism, fundamentalism) on various levels: individual/ group/society; Consensus reality/ Dreamland / Essence.

Objectives:

to learn how to use process-oriented principles in small and large groups facilitation
to get to know inner work methods: how to raise your self-awareness in the moment, track your reactions, unfold the emerging process and find a place of momentary resolution in a group
to become fluid in facilitating relationship conflicts on different levels
to learn process-oriented methods of working with trauma

Background

The concept of this training is based on our experience of increasing fear and insecurity, in the growing right-wing extremism and racism in Europe and worldwide as well as an escalating sense of ‘us versus them’ and a deep yearning to find new patterns in a more and more complex world. We want to bring together people of different backgrounds, faiths and political interests in order to create an atmosphere of mutual trust and understanding across national boundaries. We want to reduce prejudice against other ethnic groups, beliefs and “xenophobia”, and facilitate conflicts based on the European history as well as regional conflicts between countries and people.

Previous achievements

During our first 4 Worldwork seminars held in Warsaw, Poland, Bonn, Germany, Brussels, Belgium and Budapest, Hungary since 2012 people from many countries where meeting to explore our identities as individuals, cultures and countries and how our current interactions are shaped by history. We have built deep relationships and developed our awareness of each other. Hence there is a great need for deeper dialogue, relationship and for awareness, responsibility and leadership to create a better future towards a multicultural Europe.

Recipients

This is a specific training for human rights, peace, and political activists, facilitators, organizational development practitioners, psychotherapists and other interested people worldwide. The training is open to everybody interested wanting to integrate this approach in their professional field and / or use it for personal development.

Theory and methods

Methods of political, social and psychotherapeutic work will be combined and connected based on Worldwork. Worldwork is an aspect of Process-Oriented Psychology developed by Arnold Mindell (briefly also called Process Work). Process work is a holistic methodology working with individuals, relationships, groups and systems in very different areas, attempting to find meaning in every experience. The central principle is to follow what is happening with awareness. Worldwork as one application of Process Work offers methods for non-violent conflict resolution and includes concepts such as diversity, “Deep Democracy”, self-perception, “participant facilitator”, “Eldership” and concepts of dealing with power, rank and privileges as well as with hot spots, trauma and accountability.

Topics:

Foundations of Process Work
Group process a specific form of working with groups
History and psychology
Rank awareness
Conflict resolution
Facilitation skills
Working with trauma and abuse
Working with extreme conflicts
Leadership and eldership
Second training: earth and universe based methods of conflict facilitation

Format

During the training you will participate in at least 4 Healing History seminars offered in different countries that will also give you a chance to understand different cultures and to learn about their perspective of history, cultural habits, patterns and edges and how this is entangled within Europe and the world. During these seminars there will be slots of personal supervision to work on issues that might come up.

As a Certificate Program student you choose an advisor (from the list) and together you create a learning plan. It consists of:

The list of seminars attended / to be attended
A plan for using 15 sessions between personal growth and supervision, based on:

2.1 Identifying areas of needed personal work (ex. historical/ political aspects of personal issues, own trauma, family and cultural patterns, large group identifications etc; aiming at developing awareness about who you are as a facilitator;

2.2 identifying needs for support around your final project

Final project

Within the training you will develop a project that helps you to apply your learning into your life and keep being in dialogue with your community, organisation, society and world. This can be an open forum, a seminar, a special family gathering, an art project etc. The development of the project will be accompanied and supervised by a chosen mentor. You need to write a short essay about the project, your ideas, how and where you want to develop and apply them, your interests/motivation, edges and learning as well as the methods you are using. You will also be asked to prepare a short information about your project for our website.

Summary- course requirements:

Participation in 4 Healing History seminars
15 hours on personal work/ supervision
Healing-history project

Formalities:

We need a written application that contains your interest, aims and individual situation. The trainers decide about participation individually. Upon completion of the training, participants have attended at least 15 hours of personal work/ supervision. They will receive a certificate that entitles them to work with the methods of World Work in the field of Healing History

Flow of Seminars

Seminar 1---Basics of Healing History

The first seminar focusses on basic methods of group facilitation. This includes a summary and review of theory and basic concepts about “group process” as well as “inner work”. Inner work is a central method of Process Work to develop awareness of the field and how issues in the outer world are reflected in the inner realm. We all carry our personal and collective history inside us. With inner work exercises and with small and large group processes we will explore how the history has shaped us and affects our lives today. The goal is to develop awareness about inner patterns such as “inner oppression” and free ourselves from the ghosts of history in order to connect with our deeper selves and find a place from where we can facilitate current world issues. Identifying unhealed parts of history within current world situations such as the refugee flow, we will apply and reflect our learning.

Seminar 2---Trauma, Helplessness and Revenge

In the second seminar we will continue to deepen the learning from the first seminar and focus on trans-general trauma. We explore tools crucial for transforming patterns of frozenness, helplessness and revenge in order to reconcile with ourselves and in relationship with others.

Whether our family roots are grounded in the side of victims or offenders, the unresolved collective trauma often keeps us in a cycle of silence and depression that can lead to revenge and violence.

With inner work, dyad and group exercises we will identify the dynamics of power, rank and oppression within ourselves and collectively in order to facilitate these dynamics within our family and community. The goal is to reconnect with our strength, develop awareness about national and group) stereotypes, and become fluid in facilitating relationship and group conflicts.

Seminar 3---Working with Extreme Conflict

The third seminar focusses on working with situations of extreme conflict such as war, violence, terrorism and fundamentalism. Special tools will be taught in terms of working with strong emotions and the heat of conflict in order to make violence an obsolete method and create a safe space. This includes awareness about escalation and descalation signals as well as developing fluidity about one’s own attitudes, roles and styles. We will explore and train these methods within our group and apply them into the regions of the world we are working in.

Seminar 4--- Applying “Second Training”-methods of Process Work into Healing History

In this seminar we will focus on more intuitive and sentient methods (second training) to work with Healing History. Beyond the topics, tools and interventions we have studied, we will apply new methods that help us developing detachment, wisdom, compassion, and empathy in order to make changes sustainable. The seminar will consist of theoretical introductions and exercises to understand and learn about these subtle aspects of facilitation.

Seminar 5---Facilitation of systems and fields

In the last seminar we will focus on how to apply our learning into our families, communities, organizations, political parties, governments, as well as to facilitate and work on healing history between groups and nations.

We will explore different levels of the practical details, the emotional field, and the larger system our actions take place in order to help us bringing this work into the world and implementing our projects.

You will get a chance to present your research and get 721-feedback. 721-feedback is an interactive multi-levelled approach that unites the awareness of various dimensions of experience. It includes not only practical learning, but also the hidden dreaming background, which is crucial to any learning situation. The goal is to move into community learning and into action of world change.