1st SIETAR Polska Congress 4-5th of December, 2009 – Call for proposals
Laatst aangepast (vrijdag 16 oktober 2009 12:19)
Topic
„new concepts, tools and approaches in intercultural research and practice“
Submission format
Workshop (90 min) in English
(or paper presentation (50 min) in English)
Title
A new approach to intercultural family constellation and systemic work – also useful in intercultural consulting, coaching and training
ABSTRACT
A new approach to intercultural family constellation and systemic work – also useful in intercultural consulting, coaching and training
Desiree van der Krogt, Susanne Konigorski, Wolfgang Koenighaus
Individuals who grew up with more than one culture in their family socialization can be seen as cultural hybrids. When working with them, some classical methods in counseling, consulting and training may not be suitable or need some adaptation.
Here we will introduce our new approach and results from our work with descendents of parents who left their homeland due to political and national reorganization.
Our multidisciplinary workgroup conducted a seminar in intercultural family constellation and systemic work in Klodzko, Poland. Participants were descendents of refugees and settlers from Silesia, Poland, to Germany after 1945.
Koenighaus developed the new approach based on his previous work in the Indo-Dutch field. This method applies a comprehensive and differentiated analysis of culture and country to resolve entanglements, e.g. with parental history.
In the meantime we have successfully integrated this approach into our work in the field of intercultural systemic coaching, consulting and training.
SYNOPSIS
A new approach to intercultural family constellation and systemic work – also useful in intercultural consulting, coaching and training
Desiree van der Krogt, Susanne Konigorski, Wolfgang Koenighaus
Individuals who grew up with more than one culture in their family socialization can be seen as cultural hybrids. When working with them, some classical methods in counseling, consulting and training may not be suitable or need some adaptation.
Our multidisciplinary workgroup focuses on working with cultural hybrids with various backgrounds:
• Immigrants in 2nd or 3rd generation
• Emigrants and their children
• Persons married to partners from a differing country or culture
• Children of parents from differing countries or cultures
• Adopted children from faraway countries
• Descendents of parents whose original homeland got reorganized due to post-war events or after decolonization (states regaining independence)
• Stateless persons
Many of these persons concerned have difficulties to settle in a country. When they try to settle down, they often get dragged into unsolved conflicts between the countries – intercultural entanglements. Moreover, we find similar patterns in vita and living conditions of several individuals in this person group. Their feeling of not belonging anywhere can get expressed in several ways, e.g. on personal level, in professional career paths, financial misfortune. (Some descendents are affected more than others; variations between siblings can be observed.)
The first step in this new approach to intercultural family constellation and systemic work is to take a more comprehensive and differentiated look at country, nation and related terms. The following tripartition model turned out to be useful:
Ethnic background Landscape United nations
People Territory Nation
Language Nature Power over territory
Culture Part of the world Social order
Religion Ecosystem Organization + administration
The second step in applying this new systemic approach is to differentiate between existential fields and constructed fields when exploring the collective forces. While in existential fields life is passed on from one generation to another, constructed fields are man-made. Both fields can have a powerful influence on individuals – strengthening or weakening. In order to improve the situation of affected individuals we have to deal with these fields in different manners.
Our approach can be illustrated by the following example.
We conducted seminars in family constellation in different settings - one of those in Klodzko, Poland, for descendents of refugees and settlers from Silesia, Poland, to Germany after 1945.
Applying the tripartition model (shown above) to descendents from Silesia,
in a first step, we were able to show that there are no entanglements regarding landscape, nature etc. (middle column). Though we did identify entanglements concerning ethnic background and nation.
In a second step, we put individuals and their fate into a broader context - existential field - in the context of “one world”, “one mankind” (and “spiritual power” if applicable). Remaining entanglements could be resolved. Afterwards participants felt empowered to experience life adopting a more global perspective - possibly opening up to new opportunities in their individual path of live.
In this spirit …
What are the learning points for intercultural systemic training, coaching and consulting?
• Parental (unsolved) intercultural issues can produce symptoms in the lives of children and grandchildren. This effect needs to be considered when working with immigrants, emigrants, refugees, and settlers - even in 2nd and 3rd generation.
• To solve intercultural team conflicts it is worthwhile to have a closer look at the different aspects of the tripartition model and distinguish between them.
• It is reconciliatory to put intercultural issues or conflicts into a broader context, to use a systemic approach.
• Intercultural aspects can have implications on organizational constellation work.
• Multinational organizations and companies may benefit from this approach when developing vision and mission and concerning internal and external cooperation.
• Methodological approaches from different fields cross-fertilize each other. This is a call for working multidisciplinarily.
