Request for Proposals  & Online Submission Process

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Our Online Submission Process has closed

Welcome to our 2017 Request for Proposals.  
Do entanglements from the past unknowingly hinder us? Can we, as advocates of a systemic approach, foster insight, reconciliation and development at the levels of the individual, family, work group or society? We believe the answer is a bold “yes.” Systemic constellations have a role to play in the process of healing and growth across the spectrum of our society. This conference is the place to bring your best thoughts, methods, passions and experiences to help us all be more consciously inclusive and skillful in facilitating the systemic approach to address the urgent challenges so many people face.  Your proposed session will help build awareness of the systemic approach and establish its efficacy. Here is our conference vision:

 “Bridging the Divide: Healing the Personal and Collective Soul”

Together we’ll draw on the core principles and innovative approaches in the field of systemic constellations to reveal and explore the hidden dynamics that underlie the pressing issues affecting us individually and collectively.  Our working hypothesis is that the unconscious and ancestral dynamics within the collective field are ripe for exploration. If we reveal and facilitate these dynamics in a conscious manner, without being entangled by polarization, it’s possible to mitigate the drive to unconsciously reenact past traumas, individually, in families, and collectively in our relationship to nature,  organizations and society.  

Conference Tracks
Four tracks provide the structure and focus for exploring the above vision. Drawing upon the core principles of constellation work and innovative approaches that continue to emerge, please submit a proposal that reflects one or more of these tracks.

The four tracks include:

• Family Constellations that explore the core principles and/or innovative approaches for resolving individual trauma, multi-generational entanglements and fostering personal wholeness and family healing

• Organizational Constellations that explore the role of the systemic constellations approach in leadership, teamwork, change, coaching and other aspects of organizational life in for profit or not for profit organizations across different sectors
• Constellations that explore collective healing for social justice (for ex. freedom, inclusion, and equity), innovative approaches for recognizing and addressing the impact of collective social trauma (i.e. forced immigration, slavery, genocide, war), and tools for facilitators to hold such a space
• Nature or Traditional Wisdom Constellations that deal with nature, indigenous traditions, energy work, ritual, the environment or epigenetics
• Proposals that are outside of these four tracks will be considered as well ​

Conference Themes Background Information ​
Here is additional information about the conference tracks. We recommend that each session be interactive and experiential and include at least one constellation. We warmly invite proposals from presenters on one or more of the following:

Family Constellations Track
... explore the core principles of family constellations and/or introduce innovative approaches to resolve trauma and address entanglements.  We welcome proposals that deepen traditional and emerging forms as well as those that focus on personal aspirations or create a desired future.  Proposals may focus on resolving  problems of any kind such as relationship issues, psychological or physical problems, finances, depression / anxiety, unexplained fears, etc.  We also invite proposals that integrate constellations with other methods such as EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems, and other related therapies.  It is expected that each session include at least one family constellation and may include other experiential activities.

We also seek to open the eyes of the therapy world to the value of constellations.  It is increasingly clear that trauma is at the core of most issues that clients bring to psychotherapy and a new paradigm is needed that goes beyond personal psychopathology or bad parenting.  We welcome proposals from those who are integrating constellations with brief or ongoing therapies or support groups. We also encourage sessions that demonstrate the use of constellations in settings such as psychiatric hospitals, jails, adoption agencies,  substance abuse programs, etc.

Organizational Development Track
... demonstrate the use of organizational and management constellations in for profit and not for profit organizations across one or more sectors. While this branch of constellation work holds great promise, especially in the areas of leadership development, conflict resolution, high impact decision making, executive coaching and managing change, to name a few, its adoption in North America, is still a work in progress. Participants will benefit from recent case studies, new models and experiential exercises that demonstrate the methods used by organizational/leadership development and coaching professionals who work systemically with their clients. 

Please make the distinction between facilitating constellations with intact teams versus groups that are formed by open enrollment. For example, is your presentation about  organizational work that can take place within the context of a family constellation session, or are you incorporating systemic constellations and their relevant principles as part of the practice of organizational development in a workplace system, or both? All options are welcome.

Collective Healing for Social Change Track
... seek to bring systemic insights and healing to our collective consciousness, and our shared “collective family soul.” Diversity, tolerance, inclusion, acceptance and equity are oft stated goals, but the systemic shadows of collective trauma and oppression persist and prevent them from being realized. The urgent question is how do we facilitate the systemic approach in a constellation for social change and collective healing? 

Many issues observed in family constellations, unresolved feelings, excluded members and entanglements, are linked to one or more historical activities or events that affected subsequent generations. We know that surfacing and bearing witness to these trans-generational events, such as, genocide, slavery, segregation, discrimination or war, during a family constellation fosters personal healing if we do it in a way that avoids re-traumatization.

Our collective entanglements perpetuate oppression and antagonism through the constructs of race, gender, class, sexual orientation, power, privilege, country of origin, ethnicity, ability, and more. The resulting polarization along political, social and economic lines limits our capacity to engage in dialogue around these constructs. Authentic dialogue is often stymied  because of the painful emotions evoked by these entanglements.

We welcome proposals that will bring to awareness the impact of the collective traumas and/or advance the practice of applying constellations to healing the collective family soul. Proposals that offer tools to navigate the complexities discussed above, that enable the systemic constellation facilitator to “hold the space” and maintain a safe and inclusive working environment, are also desired. 

Nature/Traditional Wisdom Track
... investigate systematically the interconnectedness between human systems and the larger natural or physical world.  Constellations using this approach often include elements of indigenous peoples' insight into nature, shamanism, ecology, future generations and the use of ritual for individual and community healing. They can include global environmental issues, individual relationships with nature, dynamics with animals and plants, and insights and wisdom from being in nature that support a deeper understanding of family systems. 

We encourage proposals that explore systematically spiritual traditions such as: mysticism, the nature of consciousness and nonduality, as well as the influence of sacred places, dreams, prayers, totems, future generations, and cultural archetypes.  We also welcome approaches that have a basis in the physical world such as reflex or autonomic nerve responses, energy work approaches such as reiki and reflexology, and epigenetics and physical models based on quantum mechanics.  ​