Bert Hellinger phenomenological approach to psychotherapy

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 16 May 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

firemaiden	16 May 2003
Hi Guys, have any of you in your travels ever come across Bert Hellinger? as in "the Bert Hellinger Approach for systemic solutions with families and organizations?", and " The Phenomenological Approach in Psychotherapy " http://www.hellinger.com/international/english/index.shtml Good, bad, useful?

Inana	31 May 2003
Hi firemaiden! I dont know Bert Hellinger (will check the site later anyways). In fact, im answering cause im interested in to know a bit about psychotherapy. I have a brother who is ill and he has been recommended to do some. Are there many different ways to apply it? How it works? Can anyone help me explaining a bit of it or with a good link? Thanks.

Aerin	01 Jun 2003
No, I don't know of him ... he seems to have done most work in Germany? Looking at his bio, he seems to use NLP and be fan of Milton Erikson which (according to me) is a Very Good Thing. There are a very large number of psychotherapeutic approaches, and one of the most important things is to find someone you trust and where the belief systems underlying the psychotherapy being used aligns with your beliefs and seems helpful for what you want to do. Also see what reputation they have for actually helping people with similar problems and getting results (as against having clients for years and years and years with the attendant costs). For example, my friend and her husband went to someone about their marriage, and he believed all issues take c. 15 years to 'work through', unhelpful to say the least as it left them without hope. Unless you actually enjoy hanging on to your problems, taking them out for walks, feeding them regularly and showing them to all your friends...... My friend is now divorced. Aerin ps this site talks about some different types of therapy http://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz/Atoz/dc/cen/ment/psychotypes.html cognitive therapies are the current In Thing. NLP type approaches would seem most at home within this category. Here's another article http://www.pip.com.au/~chenderson/types.htm pps the way it works in your country is worth finding out: there are different regulations in different countries

Inana	02 Jun 2003
Aerin, thanks a lot for those links. :) Seems that there are lot of things to look at before starting... Never thought there where all those differents types of psychoterapy. Hope his psychiatrician can help to decide wich kind fits best according to his problems. Anyways will look for regulations and how the system works here in Spain and talk it with my parents. I was a bit worried it could affect him negatively. Im sorry for your friend. Cant understand how can someone be so stupid to say that will need 15 years to solve something, and more when he is suposed to help! Bad thing there are out there doctors like that.

Aerin	03 Jun 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Inana Im sorry for your friend. Cant understand how can someone be so stupid to say that will need 15 years to solve something, and more when he is suposed to help! Bad thing there are out there doctors like that. The guy was very heavily influenced by Freudian psychoanalysis. Known for being lengthy and costly. I am sure that his beliefs made him a lot of money. The idea that the client is limited by the therapist's own limiting beliefs about that client are very true, I think. People have enough limiting beliefs of their very own without someone else imposing another set on them. I hope that your brother finds someone good. It is like choosing any service, in that you need to be a critical consumer and ask a lot of questions - also be prepared to say if something doesn't seem to be helping. A really good therapist can be very helpful, sometimes even just helping someone to understand what they want instead of what they have at the moment can be a big step forward. Good luck Aerin x

Inana	05 Jun 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Aerin I am sure that his beliefs made him a lot of money. The idea that the client is limited by the therapist's own limiting beliefs about that client are very true, I think. People have enough limiting beliefs of their very own without someone else imposing another set on them. You are right. And have to add, its a shame when on this kind of professions people only is there for money. Hope all works ok over here now, we will go with open eyes.

fairyhedgehog	05 Jun 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Aerin It is like choosing any service, in that you need to be a critical consumer and ask a lot of questions - also be prepared to say if something doesn't seem to be helping. I completely agree. It can be very hard, though, as you usually only get to be a client when you are at a vulnerable point in your life, so therapists ought to take more responsibility for letting people know that they can pick and choose. (I speak from having been both sides of this: as a client and as a counsellor.) There is a bit about choosing a counsellor on my website http://www.creativecounselling.org.uk but I'm afraid it probably only really helps in choosing an English counsellor :(

Inana	07 Jun 2003
Thanks for the link Fairyhedgehod. By the way, nice site :)

fairyhedgehog	07 Jun 2003
Thank you, Inana :)

SingingTarot	07 Jun 2003
Firemaiden, I have had a 2 years training in something called Sophologie, it is starting to be widely used in France, Belgium and Switzerland. It rests upon the principles of Phenomenology. It is used as therapy, preparation for athelete to face stress, reducing pain... Here is a link you might want to look at. http://www.sophrobelgique.org/acaycedo.html I apologize, the site is in french.... Alice

fairyhedgehog	08 Jun 2003
Quote: Originally posted by SingingTarot I have had a 2 years training in something called Sophologie ... I apologize, the site is in french I'm afraid my French is pretty rusty, but it seems to me that while the site talks a lot about sophrologie it doesn't exactly explain what it is. Can you tell us a bit more about it? It may help people whose French is even more rusty than mine is ;)

SingingTarot	08 Jun 2003
I didn't look at the site in depth. Could very well be. I'm going to try to explain, bear with me because my vocabulary in english might be pretty limited:D First of all you get in a very relaxed state, this is comparable to self hypnosis. Then once you have reached this state of beta brain waves, you get to do something that will "activate" your conscience. This is where sophrologie gets real fun. It can be anything. The basics that you learn during the first 2 years are, thinking of the past, visualizing the future, fighting phobias, streching some parts of the body, making some kind of movements, even singing a pitch or even going for a walk in this state of altered conscience. Then the interesting part gets in, you just sit back and observe what emerges. Just observe the phenomenon. No judgement should be made, or if you start an inner dialogue of judgement just observe it. That's the whole point, no matter what emerges to the surface, you just observe it without commenting. Then once finished you get to write it. This is a self discovery. The experience in sophrologie is not meant to be a "feel good" moment. What emerges to the conscience can be sometimes very unexpected. Once you master the whole thing you can tailor it to your needs and use it to reduce stres or induce more natural pain killers in the body, or visualize positive things coming forth in your life But the primary purpose is to observe one's conscience. I hope I am making sense here, done both of these as well, I can tell you that it is in fact quite different in purpose and content. Hope this helps a little to form an idea. Alice

fairyhedgehog	08 Jun 2003
Hi Alice, Thank you :) This sounds like a really interesting way of working. I was especially suprised by the idea of going for a walk in a state of altered consciousness - I'm not sure I could hold onto it while going for a walk but it seems like an interesting challenge.

The Bert Hellinger phenomenological approach to psychotherapy thread was originally posted on 16 May 2003 in the Spirituality board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Spirituality, or read more archived threads.