Systemic Sentences: For Constellators, 
Coaches, Communications experts & Consultants

This course provides constellators, coaches and consultants with three hundred sentences that they can use in their practice. The sentences help to identify and resolve hidden issues.

 

The sentences are grouped into twenty one themes such as 'conflict' and 'realising potential'. Each theme comes with an explanatory video of five to eight minutes in length. There is an accompanying workbook which provides scenarios in which the sentences might be used.

 

The 300 sentences are extensive but not exhaustive. They function as a guide to sentence-making as well as being useful in themselves. The student may wish to develop sentences of their own in the spirit of those set out here.

The course has been designed for those with an interest in running Constellations as well as coaches, communications specialists and consultants who wish to have additional tools to use with their clients.

 

The theoretical material provided in the videos helps to make sense of the sentences and why they are applicable. This means that the material is useful outside of a client setting too, that is, when the practitioner wishes to enhance their own understanding and to reflect on systemic questions more broadly.

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The course has been designed to be followed in the sequence in which the sentences are set out and according to the numbering of the videos. Once completed, the course allows for the student to dip in and out of the sentences and videos, in order to check or refresh their understanding. The same applies to the workbook.
 

 

A constellator might wish to have the list of sentences at hand while running a Constellation, although this might slow the work down and prove cumbersome. As far as possible, the practitioner is encouraged to read and internalise the sentences before applying them.
 

 

That said, because the sentences also serve as a general guide to how systemic sentences look and feel, it is not necessary to learn them all by heart. It is better to get a feel for them so that the practitioner can work with the spirit of the sentences, rather than repeating them by rote.
 

 

As the workbook suggests, it is a good idea for the practitioner to develop sentences of their own, based on the criteria provided, whether or not there is an immediate use for them. This will help to develop the practitioner’s feel for what counts as ‘systemic’.

The chief benefit of this course is having a resource that can be put to immediate use. The sentences are ready-made to deploy in a Constellation, just as they are ready-made to deploy in a coaching session or to guide a difficult conversation with a client.

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Although knowing the theory behind the sentences is desirable, it is not necessary for the student to be expert in the theory in order for the sentences to create immediate impact.

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It is sometimes the case that a constellator can become stuck while running a Constellation, not knowing which direction to turn in order to move the Constellation forward or resolve an issue. The second main benefit of the sentences is that, because they are designed to produce a reaction at the systemic level, they can be used at such moments of difficulty. The sentences are a heuristic device that reveal dynamics: when a dynamic is revealed, the constellator is given a suggestion as to the next move to make.

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The third principal benefit is the deepening of the practitioner’s understanding of systemic work. They will better appreciate why they are making the interventions they are making, and what it is more generally that unblocks issues and creates flow for their client.

 

Note:

System refers to the elements that make up a family, organisational, creative, or social system. These include the excluded. Systemic therefore refers to the multifarious interactions between all the elements.