Five Simple Things…to prepare for seeing clients

How I feel before a session is disconcertingly unpredictable, says Nicky Johnson, so my ritual preparations always help…

I run Family Constellation Workshops from the beautiful Blue Room at Stokes Croft in Bristol. This involves working with a group of 10 to 12 people, while I also work one to one with individual.

Systemic family constellation work takes us into the world of the right brain where we are more aware of our interconnectedness. Myself and others coming to a workshop will often feel this connection from first thinking about booking a workshop. It’s as though a force field is bringing together those that need to be brought together for work that needs to be done and often we arrive with common stories of flow or resistance. This is the field building for the workshop.

Connecting to my ancestors

A few days before a workshop or a one-to-one, I do a ritual that I learned from Francesca Mason Boring who is a facilitator of Shoshone heritage. It comes from her book, Connecting to our Ancestral Past.

I go for a walk, away from others, often in the woods nearby where I live, and I speak quietly but out loud with any ancestors of the clients that are coming for a workshop or session with me, and with my own ancestors acknowledging their presence and asking for their support for the work we are going to do. Doing this settles me every time and brings me into awareness of all the ancestors that will be with me and my clients on the day.

Avoiding caffeine to stay grounded

To stay as embodied as I can I avoid caffeine. My energy rises before a workshop and any caffeine makes me quite disconnected to the ground so I give my morning coffee a miss. In my experience, hot drinks especially those with caffeine in, can take us out of our bodies, as can sugar. We are such sensitive beings and the more embodied I can be, the easier it is to notice what helps and what hinders connection.

Morning meditation

I try to meditate every day for at least 30 minutes and on workshop days or when I am seeing individual clients I make a special effort to do this first thing so I don’t let it slip by. I use the insight timer app simply to mark the time with a lovely Tibetan bowl dong. This way I can relax and watch what passes through my body and mind. I always sit cross legged on the floor with my spine straight as the body energy flows when I do this.

Lighting the flame

I always start each session by lighting a candle. This helps us all to focus, slow down and reminds us that the work can be sacred, we are engaging with our souls however we understand this part of us to be.

Group grounding

Once introductions and housekeeping have been done, we move more into the constellation space, and at this point we gather with a short meditation, body scan or visualisation which brings us further into our bodies together. By this stage, I have more of a sense of the group and I always find this short meditation very important for my grounding in the present and it really helps both with a group and with an individual to spend some time in silence together. It is an important part of the ritual of beginning a session for me!

Nicky Johnson, is a Family Constellations Facilitator, at our Stokes Croft Practice Rooms in Bristol – https://www.constellationslive.com / nicsj@constellationslive.com. Her next workshops are on26  July and 27 September, and she is also running a weekend workshop from 28 – 30 November.