Trauma and Blockages in Coaching: Models, Methods, and Case Studies 365839398X, 9783658393984

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Alexander N. Riechers Radim Ress

Trauma and Blockages in Coaching Models, Methods, and Case Studies

Trauma and Blockages in Coaching

Alexander N. Riechers · Radim Ress

Trauma and Blockages in Coaching Models, Methods, and Case Studies

Alexander N. Riechers Munich, Germany

Radim Ress Prague, Czech Republic

ISBN 978-3-658-39398-4 ISBN 978-3-658-39399-1 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-39399-1 © Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2023 Translation from the German language edition: “Trauma und Blockaden im Coaching” by , © . Published by . All Rights Reserved. This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature. The registered company address is: Abraham-Lincoln-Str. 46, 65189 Wiesbaden, Germany

Prologue—What You Can Expect in This Book

The present book “Trauma and Blockages in Coaching” will decisively expand the now widely used coaching through body-oriented trauma work. Whether in the professional environment or with personal issues, the basic idea of this necessary addition is the following: Most people owe their advancement in life to a sometimes downright tremendous inner drive. It may seem paradoxical, but strength, power, and success are not seldom linked to weakness, powerlessness, and shortage. The unifying elements behind it are often the traumatic experiences of an individual or their family system. Through trauma, a splitting of the soul takes place, and the split soul protects itself against new wounds by building up a kind of armor protection—in the unconscious, the body, and especially, its nervous system. This, later, shapes a character showing assertiveness, perseverance, toughness, strength, and so forth—all qualities crucial for successful careers. However, the trauma remains stored in the body and the unconscious, from where it can become, over time, the most significant constriction of vitality and joy in life. The consequential topics of this show up as various symptoms, blockages, or hindering patterns with which coaches are confronted then. Coaching, which works with the client’s personality, can quickly reach a depth in which hardly any way leads past an individual’s trauma structures. Therefore, trauma work expands the scope of coaching to the field of the unconscious. It is about accessing and transforming repressed traumatic energy into a free-flowing vital force, empowering a stable center of personality. This book is designed to exercise a new way of seeing and thinking about the emergence and functioning of our personality in our personal and professional lives. What appear to be traits and characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses of a person, turn out, on closer examination through trauma work, in most cases

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Prologue—What You Can Expect in This Book

to be the result of experienced traumas affecting the unconscious. The constant and influential work of the unconscious also requires us to see our being and our idea of autonomy with entirely new eyes. The willingness to explore the depth and wideness of one’s soul is the necessary attitude to approach the presented topic, which is highly relevant for further professional and private development. However, anyone expecting a quick and easy-to-use instruction manual with “tips and tricks” may be disappointed. One should instead look at this book in the light of how C. G. Jung succinctly described his process of thesis formulation: It is not concerned with a clever system of thought, but with the formulation of complex psychic experiences which have never yet been the subject of scientific study (Jung 1993, pp. 135–136).

Since trauma work essentially aims at the impact of the soul in the unconscious, which follows other regularities than the conscious mind, some of the used terms reflecting these regularities and the way of thinking may initially seem strange. We, therefore, recommend that you familiarize yourself with the glossary of terms at the end of the book before and during reading. The way of thinking, which opens up through the clarification of the terms and models, determines the perception to a decisive degree. The real-life case studies will provide a sense of the nature of trauma work and lend themselves to reading at any time, even without explicit knowledge of the models and methods. The aforementioned clarification of terms should suffice as preparation for this. At this point, we would also like to acknowledge two people who were particˇ ularly helpful in creating this work. Thanks go to Tomáš Cervenka for the graphic realization of the illustrations and Klaus Skarabis for editing the original German version of the book. Munich, Germany Prague, Czech Republic February 2023

Alexander N. Riechers Radim Ress

Reference Jung, C. G. (1993). The basic writings of C G. Jung. Random House.

Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 Trauma Work in Coaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 Trauma as Existential Limit-Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3 How Can the Soul Be Experienced? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4 Trauma Work as a Path of Self-Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1 1 10 13 17 18

2 Splits in the Soul and Their Consequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 There Is No Such Thing as the Ideal Unity of the Soul . . . . . . . 2.2 Birth as the First Existential Limit-Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 Splitting of the Soul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4 Healthy Qualities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.1 The Vital Force of the Instincts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.2 The Relationship Level as the Basis of Healthy Qualities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.3 Healthy Qualities as a Healthy Potential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5 Levels of Splitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5.1 A Unity—Body, Mind, and Soul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5.2 Splitting at the Level of the Soft Tissue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5.3 Splitting in the Brain Centers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5.4 The Weighty Phrase as an Unconscious Leitmotif . . . . . 2.5.5 Compensatory Qualities of the Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.6 The Split Soul and Its Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.6.1 The Compulsion of Repetition as an Attempt to Heal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.6.2 The Drawing Force of the Unconscious Will . . . . . . . . . .

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2.6.3 The Split Takes Precedence—The Switchman in the Unconscious . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.6.4 “Away from” Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.6.5 Projections and Deficits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.6.6 The Wheel of Projections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.6.7 Resistance—Or the Rationale of Repression . . . . . . . . . . 2.6.8 Perpetrator-Victim Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.7 Transgenerational Implications of Existential Limit-Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.7.1 Trauma Chaining in the Family System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.7.2 Hereditary and Compulsive Fate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.7.3 COEX—System of Condensed Experience . . . . . . . . . . . 2.7.4 Transgenerational Existential Limit-Experience (T—E.L.E) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.7.5 Causes of Trauma Within the Family System . . . . . . . . . 2.7.6 The Force of Transgenerational Repression . . . . . . . . . . . 2.7.7 COEX Exemplified by the World Wars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.7.8 The Three Ranks of Survival Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.8 The Limits of Consciousness—The Buoy Parable . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.9 Hologram—Conservation of Momentum in the System . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Implications of the Existential Limit-Experience in Business . . . . . . 3.1 Three Levels of Trauma and Its Consequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 Psychic Discernment in Coaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3 Implications of the Consequences of Trauma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.1 Implications in Private Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.2 Implications in the Professional Environment . . . . . . . . . 3.4 Resistance and Its Implications in Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.5 Role and Identity as a Leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.6 Individual Creativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.7 The Stifling of Creativity in the Company—A Typified Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Trauma Work for a Stable Center in the Professional Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1 Trauma Work as a Path of Insight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2 Genesis of the Healthy Ego . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3 Trauma Work Is Resource Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Disentanglement from Hereditary and Compulsive Fate . . . . . . . New Qualities of a Leadership Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5.1 Authenticity and Charisma as a Fruit of Conscious Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5.2 Objectivity and Being in Touch with Reality . . . . . . . . . . 4.5.3 Discernment as Protection Against Manipulation . . . . . . 4.5.4 Healthy Use of Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.6 Coaching in Practice—Movement Has Precedence . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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5 Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1 Methods and Their Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2 Bodywork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3 EMI—Eye Movement Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.1 EMI—Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.2 EMI in the Context of Trauma Constellation Work . . . . 5.4 Body-Oriented Trauma Constellation Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4.1 Basics of Body-Oriented Trauma Constellation Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4.2 Phenomenological Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4.3 Way of Thinking Determines Perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4.4 Context of Origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4.5 Intervention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4.6 Double Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4.7 Disidentification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4.8 Excursus: Organizational Constellations as a Management Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.5 Voice Dialogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.5.1 The Inner Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.5.2 Voice Dialogue as a Differentiation Method . . . . . . . . . . 5.5.3 The Art of Dialogical Togetherness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.5.4 Resistance in Voice Dialogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.5.5 The Mirroring Quality of Dialogical Togetherness . . . . . 5.5.6 The Manifestation of Unconscious Main Tendencies of Inner Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.5.7 Voice Dialogue as a Modern Coaching Method . . . . . . . 5.6 Pontifex Oppositorum as Induction of Healthy Qualities . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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6 Practical Guidelines for Trauma Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1 Winning Clients for Trauma Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1.1 Appreciation of the Survival Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1.2 The Primacy of the Survival Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1.3 Taking up the Healing Impulse of the Traumatized Soul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1.4 Presenting Openly the Topic of Trauma Work . . . . . . . . . 6.1.5 Clearly Communicating the Benefits of the Work . . . . . . 6.1.6 Ten Practical Aspects of Trauma Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2 Pros and Cons of Trauma Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3 Responsibility and Aftercare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

141 141 141 142

7 Case Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1 Case Study: ‘The Common Thread Is Missing’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.2 Case Study: ‘It’s All Far Too Easy!’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.3 Case Study: ‘For the Sake of Peace’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.4 Case Study: ‘Clarity Before Harmony’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5 Case Study: ‘I’m Here Too!’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.6 Case Study: ‘Don’t Become an Ice-Cold Stone’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.7 Case Study: ‘I’m Not up for Sales’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.8 Case Study: ‘My Unwillingness’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.9 Case Study: ‘Committed to Higher Things’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.10 Case Study: ‘No Sex in Marriage’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

151 151 154 157 159 161 163 167 171 172 175 177

Glossary of Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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1

Introduction

1.1

Trauma Work in Coaching

Panta rhei – Everything flows. Heraclitus of Ephesus

When the philosopher Heraclitus speaks of the fact that we cannot step into the same river twice, his words can remind us of the continuity and dynamics of change. The flow of life always brings new and familiar situations we must face in our private or professional everyday life. Economic, technical, and social changes, as well as crises and strokes of fate, give our environment a new face at any time and demand new reactions. Especially in the economy, leaders and employees are challenged more than ever due to globalization, digitalization, and high workload. To avoid losing oneself in this flow as a driven person or even going under, a human being needs stability and firmness. At the same time, however, they must also remain adaptable to react flexibly to incoming situations. Thus, life runs within this polarity between stability and flexibility. Development Approach—The Stable Center Therefore, a person who does not lose themself needs a stable center in which they can rest as a personality and withstand the external pressures of the environment in inner balance. This center, at peace within itself, is at the same time also flexible and receptive to impulses from fellow human beings and can use these for its constant renewal and further development. Especially in the professional environment, the abilities to take criticism, give and receive feedback, and innovate are among the essential qualifications of a thriving leadership culture. Most of the topics we are confronted with as coaches can be traced back to a blockage or a substantial imbalance within the aforementioned field of tension between

© Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2023 A. N. Riechers and R. Ress, Trauma and Blockages in Coaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-39399-1_1

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stability and flexibility. Coaching is, therefore, less about the factually correct answer and more about addressing the causes that have created this imbalance. We recognize it by its symptoms when leaders or employees can no longer find peace and when the current of events constantly drives them on or forward. It becomes apparent when the positive flow of communication in the family comes to a standstill and the exchange with the partner no longer works well. The imbalance reveals itself when decisions can no longer be made, limitless flexibility is demanded or shown, and finally, when a company’s innovation flow falters. And often, this lack of balance manifests on the physical level when the organism restricts mobility with chronic symptoms. These are indications of the impaired function of a center that increasingly lacks sustainable answers to deal with the tension between stability and flexibility adequately. The acting person may still have their life under control on the outside but pays a high price for it because their vital force is consumed in many ways. This is often accompanied by a feeling of standing in one’s way, no matter what one does or how hard one tries to do something about it. This feeling even intensifies because the functioning mechanisms and behaviors of the past obviously no longer work. The motto “more of the same” then even has a counterproductive effect under certain circumstances and becomes the most powerful brake on professional success and further life. The changing company or the new life situation brings the person to their limits. The Limits of Consciousness The client, who has decided on coaching, is looking for a solution to an issue that burdens them in everyday life. Various events and situations reflect the places in their personality for which a solution has not yet been found or which now trigger resistance and unwillingness. Ideally, at the end of the coaching, the client would like to rest entirely in their center, without any blockage and instead in flow—and this in the truest sense of the word. This form of resolving blockages is an entirely different challenge than finding the correct technical answer or training skills. It is fundamentally about the use and control of the personality in the tension between flexibility and stability. The question that arises is what or who controls the personality. Although we often clearly recognize the symptoms and our part in them, logic, insight, and will—the essential aspects of our self-awareness—are nevertheless often insufficient to bring about lasting change. Experience shows us that there are simply attitudes and behaviors that are appropriate or even necessary for the situation at hand. Still, we can no longer advocate, carry out or adapt them, even if reason or common sense and its reflection demand it of us. The fact that we usually lack neither intelligence, will, nor experience points us all

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the more clearly to another guiding instance in our search for an explanation: the unconscious. In cases of the apparent inability to bring about a willed change, the resources of consciousness are obviously exhausted. It would be neither practical nor sustainable to continue to seek a solution in this situation only at the level of consciousness. At this point, the client’s companion must reach out to the whole soul and its unconscious layers, pursuing a different plan and acting on other principles than consciousness demands. But how can the unconscious be comprehended and grasped? Coaching and the Unconscious In the exploration of the unconscious, C.G. Jung recognized a long time ago: Fear and resistance are the signposts that stand at the via regia to the unconscious (2000, p. 195).

According to this, we often encounter the unconscious where we feel fear, i.e., the active inner experience of being afraid, usually without external reasons. Resistance arises in us to do something or to refrain from doing something, although the mind and the reaction of our environment give us a different direction. Sudden changes of sentiments, such as the tipping of the mood from one moment to the next, also give us an indication that there are other instances within us that have a say in the evaluation of reality, and there seems to be something like a second or even several masters in the house. By including the unconscious, we must step back from pure intentionality, that is, from the idea of the exclusively rational human being, and questioningly examine the unconscious. It is crucial for the development process to be able to differentiate with which parts of their personality the leader is currently working, i.e., which parts are sitting in the boss’s chair and directing the company’s fortunes. Since the unconscious has such a powerful effect on a person’s destiny, we would do well not to confuse causes with consequences. Unconscious causes can only be remedied at the level of the unconscious itself; they definitely cannot be accessed with the conscious mind. This is also why methods that work on the level of consciousness show so little sustainability in terms of personality development. The reason is simple: they do not reach the core but only deal with correcting the consequences that that personality core causes in its professional or private environment. Friedrich Nietzsche expresses it in a general but unmistakable way in his work “The Twilight of the Idols”: There is no more dangerous error than to confound the effect with the cause.

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Related to practice, this means, for example, that a lack of empathy cannot be corrected with behavioral teaching or communication training alone. Its source is, instead, a vague feeling about one’s psychological reality. Therefore, it is necessary to work here precisely with the part that prevents access to feel but is unconscious. Lack of trust in other colleagues or employees cannot be corrected with team building or general trust-building measures alone. Instead, the unconscious source of the mistrust must be worked with as a priority, as well as the pain, disappointment, and fear that caused that mistrust. Because whether we like it or not, people and the environment respond to our unconscious attitudes, fears, and worries. Only when this inner inhibition has been worked on can real trust be built up permanently on the outside. In our opinion, however, this ambitious goal cannot be achieved with the usual coaching tools. Trauma as the New Via Regia into the Unconscious For depth psychologists, above all Sigmund Freud, the royal road into the unconscious led via the dream and its symbols. On the other hand, current trauma work follows a methodologically more straightforward path. It does not stumble over Freudian slips of the tongue, dreams, and their interpretation but reaches the unconscious via the new “via regia,” via the trauma as an existential limit-experience. Traumatic experiences are not exclusive or even pathological special categories of human character but existential limit-experiences that go over and beyond the forces of the soul of a human being and especially those of a child. However, existential limit-experiences as phenomena of finiteness and vulnerability belong to the rule rather than the exception of human existence. Generally speaking, the healthy soul splits into three parts as a result of an existential limit-experience: – There remains a healthy but reduced part, in addition to which there exists – a survival part, which is supposed to protect against future traumatization, and – a traumatized and simultaneously repressed part (see Ruppert, 2011, pp. 23– 25). The splitting of the soul is in itself nothing pathological but a protective mechanism provided by nature, albeit completely unconscious and autonomous, even though the consequences of splitting can take on pathological forms under certain circumstances. Cause and effect must not be confused here, either. Seen from this point of view, the qualities that have helped a person to succeed, such as determination, toughness, perseverance, aloofness, intransigence, incredible resilience, but also successful manipulation or boundless flexibility,

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take on a completely different meaning. And if we look at the individual histories of the origins of the original success factors, we see that they had a dual function from the very beginning: on the one hand, they served to protect people from being hurt in their souls, but on the other hand, they also served to adapt to the respective environment in such a way that they could successfully exist in it. These protective qualities are thus inseparably linked to everything a child or young adult should be protected from: fragility, powerlessness, weakness, fear, etc., i.e., dangers to which a human being can be and often is existentially exposed at any time. In other words, protection always remains connected to its origin in the soul. This connection continues because the original traumatic experience of the threat to the soul has been repressed into the unconscious, from where it nevertheless continues to have its effect. In the survival structures, real qualities have been created, among other things, by the repression of childhood experiences, strokes of fate, or profound fear. By successfully overcoming existential limit-experiences, they also guarantee success in later (professional) life. However, the protection must remain constantly guaranteed and not be questioned under any circumstances because otherwise, one would have to face the traumatic pain again. This, however, now creates a compulsive character, and a kind of defensive armor is formed. This is another reason why the willingness to attribute deficits in (leadership) behavior to trauma is not initially present in most people. Instead, people react—behind the mask of invulnerability—with a high level of resistance. They trivialize, rationalize, evade, or even question the coach’s competence. At this point, the coach needs suitable means to reach the client to solve the blockage after all. These will be discussed in the following. Addressing and Guiding the Soul in the Coaching Process Therefore, to grasp and resolve the splits in the soul and their effects on a human being’s striving and experience, it is first and foremost necessary to have an insight into the existence of the soul. If we look at modern literature, it quickly becomes apparent that coaches and counselors have largely excluded the soul and the unconscious from their programs and methods. Fröhlich’s dictionary of psychology describes this in a telling phrase: Open remains the question of whether a term such as S.[oul], which is interesting because of its metaphoricity but otherwise non-operationalizable, should be used in psychology only because in the Greek version it gave the name to the whole discipline (Fröhlich, 2005, p. 431).

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Introduction

Regarding the soul, however, it is no different than in interpersonal communication. Without a direct address, we cannot establish actual contact with other human beings and not with their soul. But if the soul is neither present as a concept nor an experienceable reality in the coaching process, its address and guidance cannot succeed. If the soul is not implied from the beginning it will not appear at the end (Hillman, 1984, p. 45).

Systemic of the Soul Without the soul’s involvement, which symbolizes the most personal, the work will not be deep enough, which is necessary for sustainable changes toward a balanced center. The unconscious is the door we must pass through to find the soul (see Hillman, 1984, p. 50)—in trauma work, specifically in the form of the unconscious splits in the soul. The coaching approach presented in this book is intended to raise the consciousness of the reality, power, and force of the unconscious and to discern psychic causes from their consequences. If we really want to get serious about the sustainable development of our personality, we have to start directly in the unconscious and work with it. Since there is no distinction between personal and professional issues in the unconscious, it also shows how artificial the separation between business and personal coaching is. Figure 1.1 shows how our unconscious inner system (vertical axis) and the systems in which we consciously live and work (horizontal axis) form an inseparable systemic whole. They interact and thus shape and determine the being of the individual. This interaction affects the entire corporate structure through the leader, although usually entirely unconsciously. Trauma work relates the depth and scope of the splits in the soul to the family system and its consequences in the work environment and other areas of life. Therefore, trauma work in coaching is also a comprehensive systemic of the soul. Without the concept of the soul, it would hardly be possible to create a coherent picture of human life. The scope and dynamics of personal and, above all, transgenerational existential limit-experiences and their consequences in the individual’s life would, without a concept of the soul, disintegrate into incoherent individual symptoms that elude the overall view. Therefore, no genuinely effective coaching can succeed without the systemic of the soul. The term systemic stands for the general assumption that individuals in their lives always move within systems, whether in their inner system or systems of the outer world. Systems of the outer world include the family of origin, partner

1.1 Trauma Work in Coaching

Fig. 1.1 Organizational structure

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Introduction

relationships, work relationships, or business organizations. The inner system of a human being consists of largely unconscious subpersonalities and their dynamics. People always carry their ancestors’ unconscious conflicts and traumas (familial unconscious). At the organization’s top, the top leader unconsciously transfers their inner system to the company structure. The executive’s conflict issues, rules, and taboos thus become the resonance field of the company. In this way, conflicts, and themes from the vertical level of the family system, continue on the horizontal level of the company structure. Without the executive’s trauma integration, there can be no sustainable change in the organizational structure. In this context, creative potential is an aspect of the vital force flowing in the soul that cannot be separated from it. Its flow is inhibited as a result of the splitting of the soul. Thus, the creative force of an individual or a system connected with them also diminishes. Trauma Work Is Work with the Soul Trauma work is, therefore, not a new variant of coaching but a fundamental expansion of the scope of work and impact of coaching. In this context, it is about deepening, expanding, and refining methods that address and guide the soul in the development process. Through them, it should be possible to grasp the entire range and depth of psychic striving and experience in a model to change them sustainably then. While the mental conditionalities and processes of the unconscious were not clear for a long time, the model of the splitting of the soul now offers access points that can put human contradictions, inner compulsions, and fateful connections into an understandable context of meaning. They do not explain the inexhaustible totality of the soul, but they offer clues to the fundamental structures of the thoroughly complex organization of the soul, as we did not know it before. Only by utilizing the dynamics of trauma do we realize why the unconscious has such an immense impact on our psychological reality and everyday actions, both in our private and professional lives. Moreover, through trauma work, we gain a methodologically clearly describable path into the unconscious. What has previously been described as diffuse mental suffering, blockage, or inexplicable resistance can now be identified explicitly with innovative methods as the split-off contents of the soul in the unconscious and then be reintegrated into the conscious ego. In this way, symptoms, i.e., everything that becomes visible in the world or fails to appear, can be linked to their unconscious causes.

1.1 Trauma Work in Coaching

9

Integrative Approach The methods of trauma work claim to examine and differentially mirror all areas of human existence. They make it possible to distinguish between the different instances and forces of consciousness and the unconscious. At the same time, we should not get lost in the confusing complexity of the systemic of the soul but learn to deal with it. Seen in this way, it is about a “complexity-preserving complexity reduction” (Helm Stierlin). Since each method is limited and can only capture a partial aspect of the soul’s reality, we follow an integrative approach here. The goal of the integrative approach was already formulated very aptly by Norbert Elias: At the present stage in the development of ... theory, the way the different aspects of a person’s personality development interact and interlock is not clearly understood. The biological, psychological and sociological aspects of this development are the subject of different disciplines working independently. The specialists thus usually present them as existing separately. The real task of research, however, is to understand and explain how these aspects are interwoven in the process, and to represent their interlocking symbolically in a theoretical model with the aid of communicable concepts (1991, p. 186).

The methods presented in this book and their interaction lead to the integration of split-off parts after an existential limit-experience. They start with the body, the autonomic nervous system, brain structures, conscious thinking, and the unconscious inner experience. The work is based on the dialectical principle. From the compulsive survival part and the repressed trauma part, something third and new emerges through the trauma work, namely the healthy and conscious ego as a Pontifex oppositorum. What carries all pairs of opposites of the soul—like a mighty wheel with many axles—at its poles: that is your ego, the Pontifex oppositorum, the bridge builder of all polarities (Szondi, 1977, p. 81).

At this point, we come full circle and realize how trauma work in coaching can help us create a unifying center between stability and flexibility. The scope of the soul is enormous, including the range of its splits. Trauma work offers a way out of the narrowness of stuck rationality, mental and physical resistance, and being trapped in destructive behavior patterns. It is a practical approach to the soul so that the method can be clearly described and applied. It claims to provide practical ways of working with the unconscious, but these must be confirmed in practical results (see Jung, 1986, p. 29). Such results which have a lasting effect

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Introduction

due to their depth and thereby lead the human being to more meaningfulness, autonomy, and flowing vital force.

1.2

Trauma as Existential Limit-Experience

According to our understanding, the term trauma includes all phenomena in human existence that occur due to splitting (dissociation) in the psyche. Splitting, as a survival strategy of the psyche, happens automatically whenever coping with a situation exceeds the forces of the human being in general and of a child in particular. Trauma in Greek means “wound,” and so it leaves wounds in the psychic area, manifesting themselves in life in splits of the soul. Nowadays, trauma is relegated mainly to clinical psychology, where it is primarily classified as the emotional cause of mental disorders (see Fröhlich, 2005, p. 486). In this respect, trauma is usually associated with acts of violence, accidents, war, and other strong psychological shocks, after which people exhibit significant mental and physical symptoms. For better orientation, we could also group these forms of traumatic experiences under the term “visible and obvious trauma.” However, there is an increasing awareness and certainty that “the silent, less visible trauma” can also be just as causative for psychological wounds. In addition to numerous threats from outside, in wars, natural disasters, inhumane conditions, and strokes of fate (e.g., oppressions and expulsions), it is above all the stimuli, actions, and omissions of the “adult” world that affect the soul of the child, usually unintentionally, like a hurricane or a tidal wave. At the same time, active neglect is already far too much in obvious intensity. It can already go beyond the psychological forces of a (newborn) child when it is separated from its mother for a few hours, when the parents separate (even without a quarrel), when love, affection, and security are not sufficiently available, or when the child needs support and does not get it or does not get it in time, when the pressure to perform and expectations become unbearable or when silent rejection questions the value of existence. These examples show that even if our parents act with only the best intentions, we are still exposed to almost all situations of emotional overload at some point in our lives. This is because many situations and events just happen, are uncontrollable, and life throws us into them. Finitude, finiteness, and thus vulnerability are the cornerstones of human physical existence. The experience of going to the existential edge, to the area between life and death, or even to that which is unbearable, thus characterizes an essential quality of life itself. For this reason, in our view, trauma falls into the area of existential limit-experience. Through this consideration, we become much more

1.2 Trauma as Existential Limit-Experience

11

aware of how deeply human traumatic experiences are. They throw us back to the bottom of our existential needs; our core of being is touched, and we are thereby always connected to our very ground of existence. Especially in the phase of our absolute dependence as a newborn and in connection with the specific experience of our constant neediness as a child, we realize: The occurrence of existential limit-experiences is the rule rather than the exception in the life of every human being. In this respect, the concept of trauma definitely leaves the artificially narrow meaning given to it in the clinical area. The existential limit-experience naturally also implies that we have survived the situation. Often, it is only in this that we experience the gift of life, be it during and after birth, after a survived illness, after a survived accident, or many hardships, i.e., always when we have achieved our goals after a hard struggle after all. However, occasionally we also have precisely the opposite experience, when we do not feel that we have life, but that life has us, and then we may be left humiliated, beaten, unloved, or simply empty. Life is then no longer a gift but rather a burden, and some people even wish they had never been born. The only way, if suicide shall by no means become an option, is to freeze life to a tolerable level, which makes it more predictable and less painful to endure. On the other hand, trauma work sees itself as a “movement toward life.” Its goal is to work precisely on such existential limit-experiences through which we have become prisoners in life. This may have occurred through our biographical events or the destructive perpetuation of the deeds and atrocities of our ancestors. Figure 1.2 shows the connections between possible causes and their effects in ten essential areas of life. The topic of existential limit-experience concerns everyone because it is a crucial part of life. Trauma work as a methodical confrontation with these limit-experiences can become a movement toward life for everyone and even mean its rediscovery. The trauma tree symbolically stands for the connection between the conscious and unconscious parts of the soul of a human being. An existential limit-experience, be it biographical or transgenerational, has a causal effect on the entire inner system of a human being. Their ground of being, i.e., the root, is seized and formed by it in the unconscious. Since the root and crown cannot exist separately, the visible is always connected to the invisible. So, while we cannot see the root itself, the visible and perceptible areas of life (e.g., underlying sentiment) give us clues as to what is hidden in the depths. The depth of the unconscious is the cause of the consequences on the surface—this distinction of levels is essential for trauma work.

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Fig. 1.2 Trauma tree

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Introduction

1.3 How Can the Soul Be Experienced?

1.3

13

How Can the Soul Be Experienced?

If we speak of the soul extensively in this book, this corresponds to a deliberate expansion of the horizon of experience, which will also be continued consistently with methods. The soul is linked to its experience, and the reader will get to know this step by step in the book. The term “soul,” which is at least as old as the occidental culture itself, always includes in its meaning the mental-spiritual basis and scope of this culture. This is where we will continue if we want to think about the soul further and experience it anew again and again. It is necessary to think of the old anew to preserve it alive at the same time. In this sense, the approach in this book is traditional, in the most conservative definition of the word. Against the background of this tradition, theologians, philosophers, and poets have already expressed the phenomena of a living soul in their works, often much more clearly and accurately than today’s relatively narrow and (also) complicated technical terms from modern psychology can do. Paradoxically, the latter are often the least suitable for illustrating the laws of the soul’s processes. Psychology, as one of the “youngest sciences,” describes with its terms, thoroughly after the pattern of the natural sciences, rather statistically ascertainable detail aspects and peripheral phenomena. In contrast, it lacks central terms such as spirit and soul altogether. The soul probably does not care about our categories of reality. For it, it seems to be real in the first place what works. He, who wants to investigate the soul, must not confuse it with his consciousness; otherwise, he covers the object of the investigation to his own sight. On the contrary, one must still discover how different the soul is from consciousness to recognize it (Jung, 2000, S. 47).

Since modern science has separated itself for some decades to a large extent from the idea of the soul, the question may be asked again justifiably: How can one actually experience the existence of the soul? Even if one can hardly grasp the soul in the scope of its multi-layered nature, it is at the same time easy to observe. Where the symptom is, there is also the soul. The phenomena of movement and non-movement of the soul are also to be regarded as symptoms, and even more: these movements are life itself since they take place in life and not outside of it. The symptoms of the soul as a manifestation of the hidden are visible and point to the invisible (see Fig. 1.2 Trauma tree). The Soul Shows Itself in Things (in Rebus) Soul itself thus corresponds to a general, timeless, and not sensually perceptible idea, like the concepts of “good” and “evil” or “justice.” Hence, philosophers call

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Introduction

them universals. If a universal like the soul can be observed or perceived at all, it is because of its appearance in things (universalia in rebus). This philosophical concept of recognizing symbolic structures, which essentially goes back to Peter Abelard (1079–1142), can still help us today to comprehend the soul. According to this, the soul shows itself in things, specifically in the ten areas of the life of an always specific human being, as shown in Fig. 1.3. If the soul stands for our individual life, then we can recognize it by the particular way we deal with our life energy and vital force. Although we cannot grasp the soul itself in a specific way, we can see how it works in our lives by simply observing it. Do we reach our goal, or are we in an idle state? How and for which purposes do we invest our life energy? What do we get back in return, and in what form? What do we refrain from doing, or which topics do we avoid? We need neither a poetic imagination nor a belief in the soul for this observation and experience. As a prerequisite, however, a lively interest in life is necessary, which shows itself in the observation of symptoms, as well as the ability to be able and to want to think things through to the end. When we observe our soul this way, we also always ask, “And what does this have to do with me?” Without the concept of the soul, it would not come to our mind to bring what we observe into more comprehensive connections with ourselves. Movement and Non-movement of the Soul By observing in which paths our life energy moves, we learn a lot about our soul’s movement. Our life energy is our vital force (élan vital), which in the best case, can flow freely, i.e., without obstacles and blockages. The vital force and the soul are not thinkable without each other. The Latin version of this connection, “anima vitalis,” stands for the inseparable unity of vital force and the soul as its carrier and mover. An existentially threatening limit-experience, however, is reflected, as much as we can already say here, in the body, the nervous system, and the brain structures in the form of freezing. Since body and soul also form a unity, we can also recognize the soul’s specific (non-)movement by this frozen, and therefore missing, élan vital. There are four types of (non-)movement: repeating the same patterns again and again, blockage, being in an idle state (non-arrival), or a draw out of life. When we permanently stop at a point in life and don’t know how to move on or don’t want to move on, this is primarily a reaction of our soul to a significant event. If we constantly repeat a pattern that is not satisfactory, destructive, or even life-threatening, we are moving in a narrow unfinished movement of life, which is not without reason, symbolic of the history of our development. And if we never arrive where we are nevertheless drawn despite considerable but futile

1.3 How Can the Soul Be Experienced?

15

Fig. 1.3 Movements of the soul

striving, this unmistakably suggests deeper causes of our inner life, which do not yet give room for fulfillment. For even that which persistently fails to arrive is, strictly speaking, an event—a testimony to the non-movement of the soul. This movement can be very intense, even the only thing we perceive and where we

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Introduction

use all our vital force. But it remains only an apparent movement because we are spinning in circles. Whatever withdraws, refuses arrival. But—withdrawing is not nothing. Withdrawal is an event. In fact, what withdraws may even concern and claim man more essentially than anything present that strikes and touches him (Heidegger, 1993, p. 374).

The other averted side of these apparent movements is the freezing, the emptiness, and the unfulfillment. Since both phenomena are coupled to each other as consequences of trauma, they also occur together. The person concerned hardly notices this connection. Instead, they try to compensate for the lack of fulfillment by intensifying the apparent movement. This is also how being driven is created. If we systematically devote ourselves to the ten areas of life (see Fig. 1.3) with this thus-trained view, a picture of mental connections emerges from previously unrelated individual elements. Gradually we can recognize the main tendencies in life based on the movements, which crystallize almost as if by themselves for the observing eye. This does not mean that we already understand everything; instead, in the beginning, more questions will arise as we begin to see the undeniable tendencies without immediately recognizing their causes in the unconscious. For this, we need various methods of working with the unconscious, but these can only be the second step of the work. The Movements of the Family Soul What we can systematically discover on an individual level by simply looking and observing, we may and should, of course, continue in our family’s context. It is a matter of collecting data from the family system: biographical data, frequently occurring diseases, and all forms of strokes of fate. This work is similar to the creation of a family tree but differs in the fact that, in addition to data, stories from or about our ancestors, guesses, and hints may well be of interest. Gaps are also often a significant clue to something that should not be made public. Though sometimes decidedly tricky, this work can take on traits of a grand adventure that is increasingly about us. To the extent that we begin to make connections between the life movements and fate patterns of the ancestors, or even just to suspect them, this work becomes a journey of outer and inner discovery. The picture will show various connections, and the discernment of the soul’s movements will become more differentiated.

1.4 Trauma Work as a Path of Self-Knowledge

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The Soul in Our Dreams Another practical way to experience the soul is to write down dreams without interpreting them immediately. Writing down the dreams as a mirroring of the soul’s movements and hidden themes, which precisely do not arise from consciousness, will stimulate the unconscious. Thus, the exchange between the conscious and the unconscious will gain strength and scope. The dream itself is a symbol; that is, it joins in itself the conscious and the unconscious, bringing together incommensurables and opposites (Hillman, 1984, p. 57).

In documenting these dreamed images, we learn more about our soul’s movements and issues that touch or even stir the soul. These themes can be a starting point for trauma work. At this point, at the latest, it becomes evident that neither special skills nor specific knowledge or training are necessary to recognize the existence of the soul. All that is needed is a serious interest in one’s life, which manifests in looking, observing, and systematically making connections. This interest is also shown by the depth to which we are willing to deal with our lives. Only later does the methodology come in as a framework for the deeper examination of the conscious and unconscious contents.

1.4

Trauma Work as a Path of Self-Knowledge

We are repeatedly asked by clients and by colleagues whether trauma work would not go beyond the scope of coaching. These concerns also seem to stem from the overly narrow definition of trauma. Trauma work, by its very nature and method, goes far beyond the scope of classical coaching, but this alone is no reason to think that it is in the clinical or even pathological field. If we consider once again that trauma is an existential limit-experience that, because of its depth and scope, forms the psychological basis of a human being or an entire family system, we realize that it is a more elementary part of life and, therefore, cannot be pathological. Within the processing of existential limit-experiences, survival structures are formed, which lead to the fact that life can continue. We can say that we are dealing here with the survival structure of nature itself. By being so closely connected to human existence per se, they also shape the personality core of a human being like no other structure. In dealing with the psychological basis of our personality, we tread the path of self-knowledge with trauma work. C. G. Jung consciously distinguished the self from the ego since the ego as a concept is no longer sufficient to describe what can emerge from becoming aware of

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Introduction

repressed psychic structures. For Jung, this is a process he called individuation. This is precisely what trauma work continuously strives for so that after integrating our unconscious trauma and survival parts, we arrive at the experience of self and of simply being (see Jung, 1954, p. 103). We advocate a holistic approach to coaching as the mirroring of the essence of life. If we are really interested in our life and do not want to give the responsibility for it out of our hands, we cannot bypass the existential limit-experience and its consequences but must deal with them. Although existential limit-experiences are omnipresent in life, the perception of their existence must first be trained. Then, however, their omnipresence in all areas of life can hardly be overseen anymore. The specific perception, however, is bound to particular methods, which are hardly known in classical coaching. The first step to getting involved in trauma work is to be ready for the inner adventure on the way to the self. It is an adventure as we explore the world of the unconscious. For the time being, this world appears to us as not adhering to the rules of logic, reason, or linear time. Much in this world seems irrational, symbolic, and not very clear, but this is because we can only enter it gradually. After a certain time of inner exploration, it happens ... that through the unconscious one also stumbles upon soul. Patterns emerge, meanings are discovered; one senses a vital connection to the past, one’s own past and that of one’s family and people (Hillman, 1984, p. 65).

Those who face trauma work should be able to temporarily endure the confusing, upsetting, and yet unexplainable aspects of the process. In doing so, however, critical thinking may and should be maintained at all costs because the new experiences gained with the unconscious must first be transferred into our conscious life by the inquiring mind. This interaction of openness for the new and its conscious critical processing leads us to our core of being, our self, out of which we can form a stable center.

References Elias, N. (1991). The society of individuals. Basil Blackwell. Fröhlich, W. D. (2005). Wörterbuch Psychologie. dtv. (German original text, translated by the authors.) Heidegger, M. (1993). What calls for thinking? Basic writings. HarperCollins Publishers. Hillman, J. (1984). Insearch. Spring Publications. Jung, C. G. (1954). The practice of psychotherapy. Pantheon Books.

References

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Jung, C. G. (1986). Das C.G. Jung Lesebuch, ausgewählt von Franz Alt. Ullstein. Jung, C. G. (2000). Grundfragen zur Praxis. Bechtermünz. (German original text, translated by the authors.) Ruppert, F. (2011). Splits in the soul. Green Balloon Publishing. Szondi, L. (1977). Freiheit und Zwang im Schicksal des Einzelnen. Ex Libris. (German original text, translated by the authors.)

2

Splits in the Soul and Their Consequences

To understand a model and its method, we must know under what conditions we can transfer and apply it to individual human reality. Thus, we should familiarize ourselves with the terminology and basic assumptions of the splitting model. A vital term and starting point is hereby only hinted: the unity of the soul. But what exactly does this term mean in the light of trauma work?

2.1

There Is No Such Thing as the Ideal Unity of the Soul

If we follow the laws of linearity, then chronologically correct, a unity of the soul would have to exist before the splitting process. A healthy soul that is in flow, entirely without any blockages. Often, we associate this state with newborn life, babies who have just come into the world. With them, everything is still beginning; they cannot yet be burdened or psychologically wounded. But is this so? Can life and also a soul really start at “zero”? Our answer is “no,” and this is for a simple reason, which is too often faded out with all obviousness: No individual exists without their ancestors, and no ancestors exist without their history. From the first moment, human beings are historical, even multi-generational beings (Franz Ruppert). Just as this person is thrown into their family system, this system works visibly or invisibly through them. Where we are thrown into is the first unfree decision in our life: into hostile territory, desolate landscapes, or also into cordial warmth. We cannot choose but must fit into what exists and acts upon us. Through this unfree choice, we are fatefully linked to our parents and relatives. Their issues and splits of the soul, their ability or inability to give love and trust, simply the entire ground of their souls, become our ground at that moment. This must not © Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2023 A. N. Riechers and R. Ress, Trauma and Blockages in Coaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-39399-1_2

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be confused with childlike spontaneity and vitality, which is different from the adult being in general. Since these are not yet individual traits. The individual personality can be formed only in the confrontation with the circumstances of the family system. Something else is simply not available.

2.2

Birth as the First Existential Limit-Experience

Another reason which contradicts the unity and wholeness of the soul at the time of birth is that birth itself is the first existential limit-experience in our life. It does not necessarily have to come to a splitting of the soul. However, since the birth pain—which also applies to the newborn’s mother- is so strongly connected with life and death, it is more suitable than any other to become the basis of a splitting of the soul. Since the event of birth falls into the preverbal phase, the adult consciousness has no memories of it later. What remains, however, are the “imprints,” the impressions in the nervous system and the associated muscle groups, as well as the brain structures that were already formed in the fetus. Arthur Janov, in his seminal work “Imprints,” correctly refers (by also mentioning the corresponding findings of Abraham Towbin) to birth as ... the most endangering experience to which most individuals are ever exposed. The birth process, even under optimal, controlled conditions, is a traumatic, potentially crippling event for the fetus (1984, p. 15).

Just because a great many people survive birth and there is no other way into the world does not mean that this makes the process “normal” or “not worth mentioning.” Janov aptly describes it this way: One cannot imagine what it is like to be squeezed for hours by massive contractions; to be blocked in an unyielding canal or pushed back up the canal by a nurse’s hands; to be suffocated by an overdose of anesthetic; to be drowned in viscous fluid; to be fighting for air; to be squeezed by a doctor’s metal forceps around the head and yanked out unceremoniously—and then to be held upside down in a cold room, spanked sharply by a stranger and removed from the only person a baby knows (1984, p. 14).

So, as far as the unity and wholeness of the soul as the starting point of the model of splitting is concerned, we can say this much: Our being thrown into the family system by birth is a first fateful existential limit-experience. With it, we enter the world, and it delivers the basis of our psychic structure. Already as newborns, we carry the history and heritage of our ancestors within us. We

2.3 Splitting of the Soul

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cannot realistically chalk up for ourselves that this inheritance and our arrival in the world are entirely free of splits of the soul and entanglements. This is often an imposition for the conscious ego because it recognizes a significant lack of freedom. But freedom also consists in recognizing its partial unfreedom. Thus, it can and should be the starting point of the voluntary confrontation with that which is imposed on us unfree. Because to do this or to refrain from it, in this, we are always free.

2.3

Splitting of the Soul

The splitting of the soul is the reaction to an event that cannot be coped with the forces available in the situation. The unbearable—fear, terror, powerlessness, threatening emptiness, or loneliness—becomes bearable only through its splitting off and subsequent repression. An existential limit-experience is often an experience at the edge between life and death. However, it does not depend on an objective consideration, namely whether the danger of death actually existed. The only decisive factor is the inner experience of the person who had the limitexperience. For a baby, being separated from its mother for only two hours is already an existential threat. On the other hand, a battle-hardened front-line soldier does not feel that he is on edge between life and death even after being moderately wounded. A woman who was pursued by a person in the dark might have suffered such an enormous fright that she felt threatened for her life, even if it turned out later that the situation was not threatening at all. It is solely a matter of the inner experience, which varies from person to person in each context. For later trauma work, it is essential to remember that every existential limit-experience must always be considered and treated in the historical, social, and family context in which it arose. Splitting is thus something very specific in the individual context that cannot be grasped with general psychological interpretations. After the splitting has occurred (Fig. 2.1) and the human soul has split into the trauma and survival structures, the trauma structures are unconsciously kept repressed by the survival structures. Thus, splitting is also maintained. The repression thereby follows the necessity and the compulsion of survival. This exists as long as the split in the soul exists. The originally healthy structures are caught up by the whole dynamics of the split and are losing substance. The survival structures encapsulate the trauma structures in their protective shell and, because of their rigidity, become the strongest structural element of the soul over time (Fig. 2.2).

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Splits in the Soul and Their Consequences

Fig. 2.1 Splitting of the soul

Since the cancellation of splitting is not foreseen by nature, it depends on the art of man to first make the unconscious conscious and, through the methods of trauma work, to integrate what has been split off and then restore the unity of the soul. Deep work with the split-off parts of the soul has been a cultural activity

2.3 Splitting of the Soul

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Fig. 2.2 Encapsulation of trauma

since immemorial. It is definitely not an act of nature, which has already done its thing, namely ensuring survival through splitting.

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2.4

Splits in the Soul and Their Consequences

Healthy Qualities

The model of splitting of the soul by Franz Ruppert (see 2011, pp. 23–25) generally assumes that after the traumatic experience, a healthy part remains as a residual quantity in addition to trauma and survival structures. In the context of a general model, this assumption makes sense. However, when we deal with human beings, we never deal with a general human being but always with a specific human existence. So, we must always check individually to what extent, and if at all, healthy qualities are present in a particular person. Before a deeper examination of the splitting mechanism and its dynamics, we want to take a closer look at the healthy parts of the soul. How do they develop, how do we recognize them, and how do they relate to the other structural elements of the soul?

2.4.1

The Vital Force of the Instincts

Healthy qualities cannot be thought of without the vital force of the soul as its source and origin. The “anima vitalis” stands for the unimpeded flow of a human being’s vital energies, which show themselves in the movements of life. However, healthy qualities such as trust, stability, one’s own will, which one can freely direct, joy about existence, readiness for life, empathy, creativity, and the ability to accept closeness and show understanding are not a priori existing characteristics or qualities in the soul. They are the result of healthy development and have their basis in the vital instincts, which are, so to speak, the carrier of the vital force of the soul. An infant or a toddler does not immediately possess mature, healthy qualities. First, instincts help them to enter a relationship with their parents to create their own space in life, with which they can protect themselves against danger. In this quality, the vital instincts form the necessary and fundamental framework of life in which healthy qualities can subsequently unfold. They create then the individual space to live. ▶

Suggested Reading Case Study 9: ‘Committed to Higher Things’ An organic retailer finds it difficult to get a grip on his finances.

2.4 Healthy Qualities

2.4.2

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The Relationship Level as the Basis of Healthy Qualities

Starting with the newborn or infant, we now quickly become aware of the extent to which it depends on the mother, and by extension, the family, for its survival. Thus, the attachment and relationship level, first given by the family system, is existentially responsible for the formation of the capacity for survival and healthy qualities. By confronting the expressed and unexpressed system of expectations, rules, and demands, it learns to use its vital instincts in such a way that they do not come into collision with its needs for self-expression, understanding, and so forth. The child may have to suppress its vital impulses or use them in ways that serve the maintenance of attachment as offered by adults. The offered form of attachment is for the child without alternative and essential for survival, becoming the existential basis par excellence. If the attachment and relationship level has been disturbed or deformed due to violence, disregard, manipulation, constant distortion of reality, mental emptiness, alienation, lack of understanding, or flooding, the child can also no longer healthily use its vital instincts. They are also deformed due to adaptation to the disturbing existential attachment. Thus, it is no longer possible to set boundaries in a healthy way or to defend oneself. The vital instincts are either suppressed or completely overstimulated. However, if the basis of one’s own space with healthy boundaries is missing, healthy qualities can hardly build on it either. Healthy qualities require for their unfolding a healthy, existing starting basis of defensive instincts.

2.4.3

Healthy Qualities as a Healthy Potential

It is crucial to keep in mind the nature and unfolding potential of healthy qualities. Because first of all, it is a potential in the human being derived from vital instincts. How much of this potential we can or are allowed to realize in life depends on many things that are out of our control: belonging to our family system, offers of relationships in our childhood, and being exposed to existential limit-experiences. From this perspective, the relation of healthy structures to trauma and survival structures is less like a residual than a superimposed capacity that, over time, becomes more and more appropriated by the survival parts. It does not exist in parallel with the other structures in pure form but always within the dynamics of the split to whose forces and effects it is exposed as a whole. Figure 1.2 also makes this clear when, with the help of the tree metaphor,

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it shows how an existential limit-experience can manifest itself in all areas of life as various symptoms and follow-up topics. Since trauma affects the whole human being, all their healthy qualities are also touched by it area-wide. In its character as potential, the healing impulse of the soul also belongs to the healthy qualities. It shows itself as a force and will to reflect the soul’s suffering, namely when we realize that we are not feeling well and have to take care of our soul. This impulse is, then, for a human being, possibly the prelude of the trauma work, with which they can further develop the potential of their healthy qualities.

2.5

Levels of Splitting

2.5.1

A Unity—Body, Mind, and Soul

Just as the soul is a multidimensional reality, its splitting takes place on several levels. In this process, the body, as the carrier of the soul, is affected in all its essential aspects and serves as the place of storage for both physical and psychological pain. To illustrate the splitting phenomenon on a physical level, we divide the affected body parts purely functionally into brain structures, the nervous system, soft tissues, and the remaining organs. However—and here we notice again how vital the concept of the soul is—the splitting and its consequences on the different levels form inseparable aspects of a unity. All single units are suspended in the dimension of the soul in which they function coherently and on which they also have a retroactive influence. The soul thus represents the existential framework without which the bodily and mental functions would stand without connection to our individual life (Fig. 2.3).

2.5.2

Splitting at the Level of the Soft Tissue

The survival structures are continued at the bodily level whereby the body, as an autonomous and intelligent control unit, stores the frozen traumatic shock energy of powerlessness, helpless rage, fear, terror, despair, pain, being threatened, etc., within itself. Trauma is thus displaced into the soft tissue and encapsulated. Little by little, the protective shell of the muscular armor (acc. Wilhelm Reich) is created, which makes the nonfeeling possible. This nonfeeling of the existentially threatening pain enables the further survival of the soul and the body. As compensation, the life energy now moves mainly on the cognitive level of consciousness (Fig. 2.4). By granting its qualities as a protective framework for the

2.5 Levels of Splitting

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Fig. 2.3 Dimensions of the soul

soul’s survival, the mind becomes the survival structure par excellence in its personal expression. The later chapters will detail how mental functions can erect an almost impenetrable energetic protective wall. Negative side effect: Such a repressed pain does not dissolve in the encapsulation but becomes a poison in the course of time, which poisons the whole organism. It manifests in impaired vital organs and muscular armoring in all body segments. In the nervous system, a traumatic reaction is manifested, namely as a cycle in the mode of overstimulation of the nervous system and, simultaneously, its freezing. That which most people think of as muscle tension or nervous tension is often pent-up shock and trauma energy, which sooner or later can lead to serious health complaints. That which had once saved pure life, that is, the repression of pain in the sense of nonfeeling, later paradoxically becomes the cause of the manifestation of pain in the body. These life-encompassing dynamics that operate within us are like a physical law. The energy in the form of the shock load of the existential limitexperience is not lost; it merely transforms. Water turns to ice or steam; it does not dissolve. So, too, does not the traumatic pain and its origin: the existential limit-experience.

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Fig. 2.4 Armoring

2.5.3

Splitting in the Brain Centers

The brain centers are presented here in a purely functional way, following the concept of the triune brain by Paul MacLean. In this context, the terms for the functional brain structures—rational center, emotional center, and vital center— were coined by the German computer scientist and psychotherapist Professor Wilhelm Steinmüller (Fig. 2.5). We have chosen this presentation because it gives a comprehensive functional description about trauma without presupposing a study of neurobiology.

2.5.3.1 Brain Stem (Vital Center) The brain stem, as the evolutionarily oldest part of the brain, is closely connected to the autonomic nervous system and instinctively serves life and survival with its three reaction patterns:

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Fig. 2.5 Brain structures

1. Fight—as a defense against existential threats and immediate danger. The fight is thus protective and serves the function of prevention, self-defense, and the instinct of self-preservation. Fighting is also a proactive form of the vital instincts to address the life impulse as such. It is claiming one’s own space to exist as a prerequisite for moving forward, self-expression, freedom of choice, setting healthy boundaries, derived self-worth, and dignity. 2. Flight—as a defense modality from existential threat, according to the motto, “Those who fight and run away will be alive to fight another day.” 3. Freeze—as a defense modality when neither fight nor flight is an option. Thus, freezing manifests as resignation, self-abandonment, despondency, sinking into hopelessness, the impossibility of tackling things, the mood of being finished, and paralyzing paralysis. Freezing, the brain stem’s third survival modality, is about the non-feeling and non-perception of the existentially threatening. Freezing allows us to escape the

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immediacy of direct experiencing, which would otherwise be almost impossible to survive. This escape is directed inward. At the same time, however, the vital forces come to a standstill in the shock and being split off. Here, the splitting also affects the brain’s memory structures: Panic and fear and their related circumstances are stored in the implicit memory as an unfinished process in a fragmented and frozen form. The transfer into the explicit memory, a chronologically arranged memory archive of life events in verbal-pictorial form, does not take place. Therefore, trauma is timeless and not subject to forgetting. Even a tiny hint of the traumatic experience (trigger) can evoke at any time the repressed again in fragmented form. This manifests as flooding of powerlessness, despair, shock, or as freezing. Steinmüller called the brain stem the vital center because here, as in no other area of the brain, immediate perception, direct experience, and immediate reactions are processed and generated. Thus, in this area, the consequences of an existential limit-experience show up as a flattened or thoroughly dampened feeling and experience of one’s vitality.

2.5.3.2 Limbic System (Emotional Center) Another brain structure that works completely unconsciously is the limbic system. Since it is predominantly involved in regulating affects and feelings, we can refer to it as the emotional center. As a result of a traumatic event associated with strong flooding and negative feelings, the threatening emotions and sensory impressions are suppressed to such an extent that they are no longer accessible to consciousness. The massive flood of information during an existential limitexperience often also leads to sensory overload, which manifests in dissociation and emotional shock. Thus, the reservoir of free-flowing emotionality is substantially limited. Due to repression, healthy emotionality becomes distorted and flattened as the extent of traumatization increases. The free-flowing vital force inherent in the soul (anima vitalis) moves the emotions in much the same way as the river creates and moves the waves on its surface—or fails to move them when the once-flowing soul itself has frozen. Parts of the soul that have been split off, deformed, and subsequently repressed show themselves primarily through their non-movement. Emotionality, or the popular term of "emotional intelligence," is nothing independent and nothing carrying itself or even to be learned, as it is nowadays erroneously very often suggested. The frozen emotionality, as a consequence of the traumas, can be revived only when the traumas themselves have been treated. Healthy emotionality also goes hand in hand with psychic discernment, which we only attain when we come to terms with the existential limit-experiences

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that limit us. The vital force, and consequently also emotionality, creativity, and authenticity, remain split off and repressed in the unconscious after the splitting in the affected parts of the soul. Therefore, they cannot be available to the adult consciousness and its will. In other words, in the repression, they remain inaccessible. The principles of splitting within the soul are not based on human desires but solely on their own laws. ▶

Suggested Reading Case Study 5: ‘I’m Here Too!’ A restaurant owner finds it challenging to feel emotions and express his point of view clearly.

2.5.3.3 Neocortex (Rational Center) The neocortex, the most evolutionarily recent part of the brain, is responsible for our verbal-cognitive abilities, including the higher mental functions of thinking, reflecting, and planning action. We, therefore, also call it the rational center. Its processes are primarily conscious. Consequences of existential limit-experiences are manifested here, for example, in negative worldviews, mental resistance, impairment of clear thinking, irrationality, inability or unwillingness to think things through, or compulsion to manipulative behavior. Since the neocortex interacts with all other brain structures, the consequences that become apparent are, strictly speaking, results of splitting consequences within the developmentally younger regions. If, for example, the emotional and the vital center are already so intensely traumatized, then the probability of building up a pessimistic worldview is almost inevitable. Empathic behavior may not be easy for a person who has been exposed to physical violence for a long time because they have had to suppress all feelings. Similarly, manipulative behavior is difficult to stop if it has been the only way to avoid assault or violence for a long time. It is associated with a positive experience in the limbic system. In this case, protective strategies are even encouraged.

2.5.4

The Weighty Phrase as an Unconscious Leitmotif

How the three brain structures work together and deal with the traumatic experience becomes particularly clear in the form of their linguistic imprint (Fig. 2.6). For in the existential limit-experience, the powerlessness, the despair, the fear of death, etc., are imprinted as a condensed phrase: “It’s over!”, “I give up on it!”,

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“I can’t survive this!”, “I’ll never let this happen again!” or “This must never happen again!” Through the load of the existential limit-experience, the phrase gets its existential weight and becomes a motif in the unconscious. Or, in other words: It is so weighty that it becomes the leitmotif of the soul. Consequently, the whole load of the existential limit-experience is also linked to this weighty phrase. The weighty phrase relates to the existential limit-experience, like the tip of the spear to the whole spear. Only its tip protrudes from the unconscious. The human being is unaware of the major part of its forming basis. As a condensed expression of the existential limit-experience, the weighty phrase also imprints itself in the implicit memory, from where it acts with the force of a whole spear. The weighty phrase has many faces and names that are more familiar: life motto, credo, belief system, rule, leitmotif, conviction, motivation, firm standpoint, principles, etc., but they have one thing in common: they are, whether consciously, partially consciously or unconsciously, compelling, driving, and are characteristically advocated with great vehemence. But they can also trigger the opposite when they hold a person with the same force in a spell, flooding, or hold in freeze. Either way, they represent an obstacle in the movement of life. This obstacle becomes our limit, our most significant limit. There are many examples of this: “I must win!”, “I must not lose!”, “I must be perfect!”, “I must submit!”, “I am worth nothing!”, “In the end, the others win anyway!”—the examples could be continued here at will. In summary, we can say: Limit-experiences that are existentially imprinted, such as war experiences, are imprinted biographically and on the next generations. They are internalized by taking on a shape within the human being—an inner shape that is also the imprint and bearer of the whole impact. In the weighty phrases, the force finds its condensed expression, which, however, often remains unconscious. The unconscious contents are then also not seldom responsible for the irrational, completely disproportionate, or unrealistic attitudes of a human being. Original anxiety can awaken in existence at any moment. It needs no unusual event to rouse it. Its sway is as thoroughgoing as its possible occasionings are trivial (Heidegger, 1993b, p. 106).

2.5 Levels of Splitting

Fig. 2.6 The weighty phrase

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2.5.5

Splits in the Soul and Their Consequences

Compensatory Qualities of the Mind

Based on the existential limit-experiences and their consequences through splitting, the rational center reacts to the mental, emotional, and vital reality that shows itself to it. This reality, mind you, is preformed by the splitting consequences. Emotional deficits, and vital blockages, in the form of nonfeeling, lack of vital energy, expressionlessness, or permanent tension, can be compensated by the mind with almost limitless mobility. As the central conscious part of the rational center, the mind is at the service of the soul wounded by existential limitexperience by taking it into its protection. It gives shape to the soul and shapes it by its qualities. The spirit of the mind shows itself in its penetrating, impersonal force, which in its archetypal quality is, therefore, also invulnerable. There is a precious sense of well-being in us when our inner life thus draws strength from what is its material, differentiates itself, and establishes truer inner relationships, and our mind gradually comes of age to bear arms (Hölderlin, 1990, p. 8).

By granting its qualities as a protective framework for the soul’s survival, the mind becomes the survival structure par excellence in its personal expression. The qualities and performances of the mind are not in themselves to be reduced only to the survival structures. At this point, we are dealing with the personal expression of the mental survival structure, which manifests itself as the character (from Greek “charassein”—to imprint, to draw in) of a person. Seen in this way, our character is, for the time being, only the result of adaptation to formative consequences of the splitting—biographical, as well as those of our ancestors, i.e., the family system itself. The mental qualities often show up in life as: – – – – – – – – –

Assertiveness Successful manipulation Hardness and perseverance Determination Aloofness and intransigence Great resilience Rigid boundaries and rigid structures combined with rigid thinking On the other hand: great adaptability, up to contourlessness Boundless flexibility (with or without showing backbone)

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In this individual expression, however, the mind freezes as the personalized survival structure and can later—paradoxically—often also become the main obstacle to the development of life. That which made life possible in the first place by ensuring survival can later also freeze it in its protective form that has become narrow and keep it frozen therein. The human being is concerned only with survival and avoids every change, thus also growth. The mental survival structure, however, does not necessarily appear uniform. Instead, it resembles a multi-level complex of shifting backdrops in which the front structures can be the opposite of the deeper structures. Thus, it results in extremely flexible personalities being hard and unyielding in other areas of life. In other words: Camouflage and deception is the motto of this highly thought-out system of the mind. As it adapts outwardly to the environment, it remains unchanged inside. In its qualities of indomitable resistance, fast transformability, camouflage, and deception, the mind inevitably also shows the features of a great player or illusion artist. In the end, it is always just a matter of avoiding the (re)encounter with the traumatic event. This is because the mental survival structures arise as a compensatory structure to the traumas and deficits of the soul. “If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change,” as aptly expressed by the young Tancredi in the novel “The Leopard” by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.

2.6

The Split Soul and Its Dynamics

As a result of splitting, the soul’s movement freezes, and thus parts of the soul that animate and sustain the body are split off and repressed into the unconscious. Therefore, it gains in volume and weight, whereas the consciousness becomes narrower and more compulsive because it is guided by the survival structure that must ensure survival. The consciousness driven by the survival structures slides, to remain in figurative language, only over the surface, as the depth becomes dangerous. Between the polarities of the unconscious trauma and survival structures, a powerful psychic dynamic emerges and shows up in a person’s symptoms and life movements.

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2.6.1

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Splits in the Soul and Their Consequences

The Compulsion of Repetition as an Attempt to Heal

Quite independently of the dynamics of repression, however, the human being is usually permeated by a longing to carry out and realize what was once impossible, injured, destroyed, or futile, i.e., an uncompleted life movement, whether in one’s own life or that of one’s descendants. However, this movement takes place unconsciously because what is to be realized is hidden in the unconscious. Thus, one is not free but subject to an unconscious compulsion. This compulsion becomes the unconscious leitmotif of the soul and has two contradictory poles: The once traumatizing should be avoided as much as possible for the sake of survival. Therefore, all forces are used to compensate (see Sect. 2.6.4). The striving of the human being is driven by the unconscious leitmotif to repress, balance, and compensate, or even better, to counteract preventively so that such a situation can never happen again. This is the one polarity of life. The second polarity consists in the constant reenactment of the repressed, that is, the repetition of the traumatic events and their inner experience. The repressed urges very strongly to become visible, similar to how a ball held underwater wants to float to the surface. What is repressed is not lost at all but paradoxically remains deeply connected to the survival structures through the split. Therefore, the soul irresistibly attracts those life circumstances in which it can mirror itself with its trauma wounds. It thus reenacts the trauma event again and again, and in its longing for wholeness, the soul does not miss any opportunity to make visible again what is split off in it. This is an autonomous process, which, by the way, happens without regard to how the supposed “owner” of the soul is doing, i.e., whether they are happy or even perish. The healing power of the soul shows itself in the becoming visible of the unhealed, and not immediately in its healing, as many imagine this too simply. The soul is not able to heal by itself. It depends on the human ability—be it that of a shaman from the pre-Christian age, a pastor of the Christian culture, or the trauma work of our time. Unfortunately, the soul’s splitting mechanism, which takes place automatically and autonomously, does not possess a “retroactive process of integration” of the once split-off contents. It is not “built-in” to it. The soul has no other possibility to restore the wholeness than just by the repeated making visible of that by which it was split. Thus, it shows itself in its polarities, which are again due to the trauma splits. Once the traumatized soul is involved in these unconscious dynamics, the whole human being is carried away by them (Fig. 2.7). Since the soul is multigenerational by its very nature, it also operates in this context of time. It embraces the lives of several generations and their destinies, which thus work in and through

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us. Thus, life becomes a constant balancing act between the uplifting forces of the repressed and the restraining forces of repression. Because of their repetition in patterns, the healthy structure realizes after a while that it is going around in circles with no prospect of meeting its needs. Incidentally, the client is usually only ready to decide whether to begin the trauma work when they have reached this point consciously. The soul’s compulsion to repeat is, at the same time, its healing impulse. It arises from its “being stretched” between the traumatized parts of the soul and the survival parts. While the traumatized parts hold out in longing expectation for love, meaning, and fullness, the survival parts repress the pain linked to emptiness and hopelessness with all kinds of substitute satisfactions. The healing impulse of the soul consists in the longing to escape from an unbearable situation of brokenness, spinning in circles or stagnation, and finding a center beyond this unhealthy dynamic. But reaching this inner center of one’s soul is only the result of a process. It cannot be achieved in any other way.

2.6.2

The Drawing Force of the Unconscious Will

Splitting creates an immense gap between the adult consciousness and the splitoff parts of the soul, which remain in the developmental stage of the moment of the splitting for the whole life. Probably everyone has already noticed this gap. Most likely with partners or colleagues at work, sometimes certainly with oneself. While under constant conditions, one can well keep the form of the adult survival structure, i.e., one’s public face, in stressful situations—and this is especially relevant for executives—the immature parts of the soul strike through and take over. They then stand in apparent contradiction to the otherwise intellectually mature personality. These contradictions and the associated strong disparity within the character are due to the existential limit-experiences. The “will” of the individual psychic parts which are split off or entangled in the ancestral field becomes perceptible as a drawing force. It draws the human being somewhere else than the will of the adult consciousness. It shows itself as being drawn toward something. This something, in turn, are unresolved issues in the depth of the unconscious, which are likewise connected to the existential limit-experience through the split. Thus, despite knowing better, victims are always drawn to perpetrators, others are inexplicably fascinated by danger, and still, others must always atone, help, or save. However, their forces are no longer sufficient for this.

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Fig. 2.7 Dynamics of repression

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Splits in the Soul and Their Consequences

2.6 The Split Soul and Its Dynamics

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The will of the adult consciousness is, at best, a corrector of the will of the unconscious, which is many times stronger. Since existential limit-experiences are often chained over several layers, their force is also considerably more potent than the will of an individual. This inevitably leads to the person being dragged back into the depths of what has been split off and repressed. And it becomes especially clear in family systems, where there is often no “escape” for the individual. No matter how determined one is not to become “like the others” or to preserve one’s independence, one feels the maelstrom or draw that pulls one along. What withdraws from us draws us along by its very withdrawal, whether or not we become aware of it immediately, or at all. Once we are drawn into the withdrawal, we are—albeit in a way quite different from that of migratory birds—caught in the draft of what draws, attracts us by its withdrawal. And once we, being so attracted, are drawing toward what draws us, our essential being already bears the stamp of that “draft.” As we are drawing toward what withdraws, we ourselves point toward it. We are who we are by pointing in that direction—not like an incidental adjunct but as follows: this “being in the draft of” is in itself an essential and therefore constant pointing toward what withdraws (Heidegger, 1993a, pp. 374–375).

2.6.3

The Split Takes Precedence—The Switchman in the Unconscious

The will of the adult consciousness does not have the force nor capacity to grasp the unconscious, so it does not have the means to integrate something that has remained repressed beyond its reach in a split of the soul. Let us not forget that freezing and splitting is that modality of survival that occurs when it is impossible to escape that which immediately threatens life. It fails to win by an attack, to persist by the effort of will, or to run away. Thus, this mechanism of survival has evolved evolutionarily—and has proven itself. When it comes to survival, one cannot engage in experiments, which is how it works in the oldest part of the brain, the brain stem, which has thus remained archaic. Since survival always takes precedence over everything else, so do the precedence of the brain stem and the laws of splitting. The consequences of splitting then act in the unconscious like a switchman. The switchman is the symbol of the splitting consequences of the existential limit-experience. In its function, it is, therefore, a switchman because, as we have seen, the implications of the existential limit-experience are reflected in the form of splitting at all levels of human existence. It thus sets the course for the entire life movements of a human being. In the soul,

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the tracks follow the leitmotif of the soul (Fig. 2.8) in its urge for reenactment as an attempt at healing. Linear time and forgetting, as well as will, thinking, and cognitive skills, do not affect it, especially since the split is stored in the implicit memory like an unfinished process. The existential limit-experience and its consequences remain suspended in the unconscious—a soul space without time. Because of these unconscious dynamics and their immunity to cognitive capabilities, we formulate the succinct phrase: The split takes precedence. Striving and Inner Experience Due to the polarizing counter-movements, there is also the drifting apart of two spheres of consciousness. While striving is primarily shaped and driven by survival structures, the inner experience and the underlying sentiment of a human being is “colored” by trauma structures. In linear time, the gaze as the focus of consciousness is directed toward realizing, utilizing, and achieving desires, needs, aspirations, and personal as well as professional goals. The conscious will is directional in life. It uses individual talents, gifts, and skills to achieve its goals. A person says, “I know what I want!”, “I have clear goals and objectives!”, “I want to be successful!”, “I want to be the best in my field!” This

Fig. 2.8 The switchman in the unconscious

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orientation, i.e., their striving, is carried by the consciousness and runs along the linear biographical timeline. However, the tracks are set in the unconscious for repetition (Fig. 2.9) so that the train is always moving in circles, sometimes in larger tracks, sometimes in smaller tracks, and often across generations. The external circumstances may change, but the inner experience remains the same. The consciousness may partly choose and change the outer circumstances of life, but what we feel inward, that is, the inner experience, remains reserved for the cycle of the unconscious and its leitmotif. The patterns imprinted in the unconscious cannot attract something they do not know, i.e., anything new. What contradicts the unconscious leitmotif can neither be attracted, accepted, nor internalized from the outside. In the constant being torn between the survival and trauma structures, life thus occurs in a great contradiction. Therefore, the mental survival structures follow the law of linearity and react with the motto “more or else” to achieve their goals. They strive in a planning way for a goal in time. For the traumatized parts of the soul, however, there is no beginning and no end between the polarities of their split. It is never enough, never arriving, never finishing, never stopping, etc.—circularity reigns the inner experience.

2.6.4

“Away from” Movement

Another aspect of the dynamics of the split soul is its being driven by the “away from” movement. Moving away from means—moving away from the trauma structures, i.e., moving away from what was once threatening, hurtful, perhaps even frightening, and what has since escaped adult consciousness as an occurrence because it has been repressed into the unconscious. It is moving away from unfulfilled needs, which means it is about gaining distance from traumatic injuries to not have to feel them anymore. In other words, this being driven is to avoid the emergence of old wounds and to compensate for unfulfilled needs. The survival structures are thus driven in the depth of the unconscious by the away-from movement. This away from is at the same time a “toward,” namely toward the compensating fulfillments, the substitute satisfactions. Through certain substitute satisfactions such as power, urge for control, and accumulation of material or even non-material things such as knowledge, the futile and painful longing can be kept somewhat repressed and, so to speak, redirected. However, this compensation cannot truly succeed because the soul’s compulsion to repeat, whether constantly or in occasional repetitions, confronts us with the trauma states. This

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Fig. 2.9 Effect and implications of the switchmen

unconscious moving away from trauma structures and toward substitute satisfactions constitutes the strong dynamics of survival structures, biographically and generationally. However, there are also people who have not succeeded in building up correspondingly strong survival structures and live out their existence in a state of constant flooding or paralysis on the fringes of society. This shows that

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the span between so-called normality and its opposite is defined to a large extent by more or less robust and socially adaptable survival structures.

2.6.5

Projections and Deficits

A particular form of “away from” movement and thus part of the dynamics of the soul are the life movements that compensate for one’s unfulfilled needs. Therefore, this is not so much a matter of escaping a threat from the outside but rather of fleeing the emptiness within. If infantile needs for security, positive symbiosis in the form of closeness and empathy, support, stability, and understanding are not or not sufficiently fulfilled, we speak of deficits. If these basic needs are not ensured by the inadequacy of the parents or the whole family system, a compensatory countermovement also arises in the child’s psyche: The child’s basic needs are repressed by the child and gradually replaced by survival strategies. As we have already seen, these are consistently characterized by nonfeeling and persevering. On the other hand, feeling and acting out one’s needs are replaced by projections, which can be so intense that they distort perception and are substituted for reality. By projection, we make other people or circumstances responsible for fulfilling our denied, usually childlike, desires. Often partners are then supposed to provide the understanding that parents never did. Our children are also supposed to give us the familiarity that we never got from our mother or father in this way. The position as a leader in the company is considered to give us the hold that was not provided to us in the form of primordial trust by our parents. The compulsive projection of unfulfilled needs into the outside world and their substitute satisfaction can be seen as the main motor of our contemporary consumer society. However, it is not infrequently also the motor for soaring highs in the professional environment. However, this motor paradoxically slows itself down after some time. Nonfeeling one’s needs and limits leads to stressful physical symptoms and great alienation. In addition, we (unconsciously) transfer responsibility for our well-being to circumstances or people who logically can never replace what we were once denied in childhood. Conflicts and disappointments are thus pre-programmed. Due to the distorted perception of projection, discussions in this context will always be associated with high frustration for all involved.

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The Wheel of Projections

Figure 2.10 shows how the switchmen, which have arisen due to existential limitexperiences, keep the wheel of projections constantly running in the unconscious. 1. The unconscious motivation of a person already shows itself on a deep level as a longing for a deeper meaning. We have a fundamental need to find meaning in our actions and existence. In the best case, one lifetime is enough for us to find out where our place is and what our calling is. We could describe this urge for self-knowledge as the soul’s entelechy, an inherent self-realization

Fig. 2.10 The wheel of projections

2.6 The Split Soul and Its Dynamics

2.

3.

4.

5.

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principle. Since this deep level of the soul is overlaid from the very beginning of existence due to deficits and traumas, its direct perception is also overlaid. The consequences of early existential limit-experiences are felt, among other things, as equally profound unfulfillment. Because of the lack of the ability to differentiate between these two psychic categories, both aspects (longing for purpose and a deep sense of unfulfillment) are perceived in a blended and relatively unconscious form. Thus, the unconscious motivation is representatively directed toward the achievement of so-called profitable and attractive goals—of a business or private nature. Being fulfilled and longing for purpose are projected into these equally unconsciously. The projection then becomes the motor of striving par excellence. At the same time, through this striving, all the negative and suffering, unfulfillment, lack, or worthlessness must be compensated, prevented, and repaired. The unconscious motivation becomes a compensatory away-from movement, away from the sorrowful experiences and the deep unfulfillment toward the compensatory substitute satisfactions of material, emotional, or even mental kind. The consequences of trauma and early deficits should no longer be felt this way. In the sense of striving for substitute satisfactions, the filter of perception is also adjusted. Everything disturbing, i.e., consequences of trauma and early deficits, is blanked out, while the desirable substitute satisfactions get full attention. Thus, the ability to discern is limited and usually not fully developed. The accompanying blindness to what is disturbing, i.e., to the traumas, simultaneously causes their repetition. The unconscious setting of the filter of perception creates a distorted perception, which is reflected, among other things, in the distorted expression, and distorted representation of the facts, emotions, and events. This creates, in sum, the perceived and experienced reality. The reality experienced in such a way is often accompanied or determined by communication disturbances, misunderstandings, bad moods, conflicts, and disappointments. The hidden, disturbing, and negative do not simply disappear but are projected into the environment on all levels with the full force of the unconscious. Finally, one unconsciously precisely attracts those reactions from the environment one wants to avoid. These undesirable reactions are evaluated in the light of unconscious motivation and confirm its content. The engine of reenactment is now in full swing. This way, the wheel turns again and again in the cycle of unfulfilled needs. The way out of the constant repetition of the same will only be brought about by working on the unconscious switchman itself. Through

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psychic discernment, a new space of autonomy is created. Self-determined life and action are only then really possible.

2.6.7

Resistance—Or the Rationale of Repression

When an unconscious survival structure is currently leading or even dominating our life, we feel it particularly clearly through resistance. Fear and resistance are the signposts that stand at the via regia to the unconscious (Jung, 2000, p. 195).

Survival structures fulfill their function by keeping the unbearable events constantly and reliably repressed. This also shows itself outwardly as resistance against everything that could endanger the maintenance of repression or question the rationale of the survival structures. The purpose of the survival structures consists precisely in the repression of that which once threatened life. In this way, the logic of survival structures is and remains bound to this purpose. The reason for survival, however, appears to us somewhat irrational or unreasonable in entirely different circumstances, e.g., decades or generations later. Instead of being life-affirming, it appears life-denying, paradoxically restricting life itself by the intended protection of life. Why is one driven, even when it obviously harms one and does not seem at all necessary? Why does one always have to “win,” even if it means putting one’s health or relationships at risk? Why is one always on guard, even though there is no threat from outside? The price once necessary to save pure survival is still paid much later and repeatedly. Continuously being entangled in the consequences of the existential limit-experience means the freezing of vital energy in the here and now. Resistance is a specific manifestation of this non-movement of the soul manifested in life. There is no question that it is by no means a logical behavior. ▶

Suggested Reading Case Study 8: ‘My Unwillingness’ A contractor stands in his way when it comes to change.

Resistance sometimes manifests in simply being unable to think certain things out and instead taking refuge in arbitrariness or general truths. These generalities about human behavior or social conditions are then not in the specific context of one’s family history and personality. By thinking about everything arbitrarily,

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i.e., not specifically, one also does not think existential matters consistently to the end. In this way, one successfully avoids the fear of recognizing a trauma wound. Not thinking things out prevents relating trauma to the things that show up in one’s life. Thus, a “trauma blindness” (see Ruppert, 2011, p. 132) develops, which goes hand in hand with arbitrariness in forming opinions in this regard. The trauma consequences themselves, however, are by no means arbitrary but have their clear regularities, which shape and deform human life decisively; one can also say fatefully and quite independently of any opinion. Trauma-induced splitting and its consequences within the soul belong to the category of specific circumstances and not arbitrariness. The confusion of factuality and arbitrariness is already a form of resistance, especially since it carries an ideology’s compulsive features.

2.6.8

Perpetrator-Victim Dynamics

Every existential limit-experience within a network of relationships, except in the case of natural disasters or impersonal misfortunes, necessarily generates a victim and a perpetrator. In the particular historical context, the victim and perpetrator remain bound to each other by the atrocity in a factual and psychic space. The misdeeds and events that underlie the perpetrator-victim dynamics are often repressed as taboo. Yet, from the unconscious, this dynamic has a powerful effect that becomes a maelstrom. Responsible for this is the twofold splitting connected to the existential limit-experience. Both perpetrator and victim must split to keep the guilt and the horror repressed. The splitting, of course, is not a free choice on either side and occurs as a consequence of the soul’s survival mechanism. The repressed atrocity thus becomes a switchman in the unconscious. The healing impulse of the soul shows itself when the entire destructive connection becomes visible. This consists precisely of all aspects of the perpetrator-victim dynamics. Thus, a leitmotif of the soul develops that strives for atonement, revenge, reparation, or justice. This motif captures life entirely, and one attracts relationships and circumstances in which the same chaos between perpetrator and victim is constantly reenacted. This motif is as timeless as the perpetrator-victim split and an unfinished process in the implicit memory, which continues to affect subsequent generations. The transmission and internalization occur unconsciously and automatically, as one is born into such a system and, thus, by necessity, absorbs these dynamics. These internalized dynamics then automatically take their course in life since what is repressed as taboo is not lost in the repression but continues to have an effect.

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Thus, one becomes unintentionally entangled in these dynamics, which can infrequently take on a Greek tragedy’s features. The symptoms of the atrocity then show up across the board, albeit extremely unevenly distributed, within many generations. One may identify more with the victims, the other more with the perpetrators. Both parts, however, can only exist through their relation to the atrocity. There is nothing healthy in this reference, so the totality of the atrocity continues to have an effect. There is simply no way out of the entanglement because the individual cannot place themself outside these dynamics. It rules in the familial unconscious, in which the individual’s soul is held. Only later, as an adult, can one become aware of one’s perpetrator and victim parts. They manifest themselves in some people as murderous rage, others are often overwhelmed by profound sadness, which they experience as depression or mood swings, and they constantly want to help the weaker or fight global injustice. They feel pity easily and quickly and tend to sacrifice themselves for others. In quite a few people, however, both parts show up in different life roles. One is more of a perpetrator, e.g., in a professional environment. The other is more the victim at home because they are held responsible for everything and sacrifice themselves for the good of all other family members. Many are angels and devils, lambs and wolfs at the same time, and everyone knows it in one or another manifestation from themselves or their fellow human beings. These dynamics, as well as the distribution of roles, are, in the rarest cases, situational; instead, they follow patterns of permanent repetition and constant inner experience. This or that person “always” feels like a victim in this or that situation. Others “have to” represent the motivator and tough businessman because “no one else” does it. They sacrifice their goodness and meekness for the good of the task that needs to be done. These and other examples show that there is virtually no sharp dividing line between the polarities of perpetrator and victim. The one implies the other, and they exist only in their mutual relation to the atrocity. Those parts of a person’s soul that have not detached themselves from the perpetrator-victim dynamics of the system cannot attract or foster any real life at all. Because their turned-away side always shows itself in freezing, whether as the emotional coldness of the perpetrator part or the frozen emotionality of the victim part. Life, the flowing, the living, the creative, precisely the vital, and that which causes life are incompatible with these destructive dynamics. No healthy life can be established in the zone of these dynamics, however strong the desire and longing for it may be (see Fig. 2.11).

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Perpetrator-Victim Dynamics—Scheme Explanation I. The former part of the perpetrator, which is often also deformed by violence: This part is often wholly split off, but in it also, the entire human capacity, feeling and perception, and moral feeling are suppressed. This is the prerequisite for later atrocities. II. The nonfeeling part of the perpetrator is driven either by purely beastly impulses of pleasure, satisfaction, and the like or occupied by the impersonal striving for power and destruction, which stops at nothing.

Fig. 2.11 Perpetrator-victim dynamics

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III. The atrocity is defined above all by violence, whereby the victim and perpetrator are bound to each other in a space without time. The being bound to each other by atrocity gives rise to the draw that draws the next generations into the maelstrom of the compulsion to repeat. The symptoms of the atrocity show up across the board in varying degrees within many generations. IV. The victim part, frozen in shock, humiliation, fear, speechless terror, or even in perimortal states of consciousness of the soul. The latter result from rapid, violent death, execution, combat, suicide, etc. V. The split-off victim part, in which a murderous rage (at the perpetrator), hatred, and longing for revenge are all the more present, the more impossible it was to show and live them out. Through the identification with the victim, there is also the identification with their suppressed aggression, which is unconsciously directed against oneself. The auto-aggression created in this way is often behind auto-immune diseases. The reason for many “accidents” is often the same unconscious dynamics. A. The longing and urge for redemption, salvation, atonement, feeling guilty and therefore punishing oneself, not allowing oneself happiness nor success, and wanting to make amends. B. The exhausting burden of identification shows itself as being drawn into the chaos of perpetrator-victim dynamics, as well as unleashing, and reenacting the same in the outside world, be it in relationships with partners or at work. Sometimes more as a victim, sometimes more as a perpetrator. A victim is often a perpetrator of themself and vice versa. A perpetrator is often such a driven person that inside they are a passive victim of their system’s inner dynamics. ▶

Suggested Reading Case Study 1: ‘The Common Thread Is Missing’ A self-employed management consultant complains about a lack of stability in his professional life.

2.7 Transgenerational Implications of Existential Limit-Experiences

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Transgenerational Implications of Existential Limit-Experiences

2.7.1

Trauma Chaining in the Family System

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The entanglement with ancestors and the flooding by their repressed traumatic states creates a predisposition in the unconscious, resulting in similar traumatizing experiences in one’s childhood or even later. Recent research findings in epigenetics also confirm this experiential knowledge. Animal studies at Emory University School of Medicine (see Dias & Ressler, 2014) demonstrated that traumatic experiences alter the epigenetic information of the parent generation and are thus passed on transgenerationally. As a result, we are dealing with an overlapping or even stacking of traumatic conditions. Figuratively speaking, it shows up as a kind of trauma chaining. The strongest and probably fundamental existential layer of this chaining arises from entanglement with the parental generation. This entanglement exerts a strong suction effect, which remains completely unconscious. It is often the only way of identity formation that seems to save the child from falling into sheer nothingness from its perspective. This applies especially if the parents are traumatized and therefore are psychologically not present for the child. The child cannot bear the pure emptiness (horror vacui). Unconsciously, the childlike parts, therefore, firmly hold on to this entanglement, regardless of whether it is supporting, restraining, or even destructive. The early childhood soul, which does not yet have a distinct, clearly separate, and conscious ego, absorbs the foreign psychic contents, unable to evaluate and discern them: those of the mother, father, and former ancestors. Thus, it automatically enters into entanglements with these foreign psychic contents and is deprived of its self in the flooding by them. In these entangled early childhood parts, there is no self, that is, nothing that would belong to the child itself. The early childhood psyche has no possibility at all to renounce entanglement because the necessary ability to discern is simply not yet present. In this respect, being entangled is something given from the beginning, which is immanent in “being thrown into existence” (acc. Martin Heidegger). It forms our foundation, which simultaneously eludes the grasp of consciousness and thereby exerts a powerful, often trance-like maelstrom. Either way, the family field is a shaping and deforming field. Valuable qualities are extracted from its content, which consists of the traumas, the survival strategies, and the healthy structures of each family member. In this sense, through the “inheritance of patterns and figures” (R. M. Rilke),

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patterns and qualities of the ancestral shapes are kept, preserved, and continued as a refined substance for further development.

2.7.2

Hereditary and Compulsive Fate

The scope of the soul, which can hardly be underestimated, thus goes far beyond the personal and biographical. Our souls are always also historical beings. Especially the entanglement or the unconscious being drawn into the powerful perpetrator-victim dynamics of the depth of the familial unconscious (a term coined by Leopold Szondi) shows up in repetitions of tragic fates. It is no coincidence that Szondi formulated his hereditary and compulsive fate as the unfree choice in love, friendship, profession, illness, and death. This is a truly tangible formulation, especially since the hereditary and compulsive fate stands in contrast to the freely chosen fate. Freedom reveals itself only in a psychic space outside of entanglement, where a free choice in life becomes possible. Personal destiny finally defines itself as the dialectical coexistence of both aforementioned fate categories. As postulated by Franz Ruppert, the border between both spheres runs like an invisible line between the foreign and the own psychic contents. It only becomes perceptible and visible in the differentiated and methodologically guided trauma work. Layer by layer, since the entanglements are multi-layered or even appear as trauma chaining.

2.7.3

COEX—System of Condensed Experience

The general theme in the family system, which always also represents an existential limit-experience, shows up in many variations across generations. It can be, for example, the inner experience of loss. Be it the loss of the homeland, property, a close person (loss trauma), or other forms of loss. Despite their different and outwardly also incomparable forms, they have a common denominator: the inner experience of the existential limit-experience. Consequently, loneliness, brokenness, and other forms of suffering can be related to this. Since we are multi-generational beings, this common denominator of condensed experience takes the form of a motif, according to which our later experiences also repetitively order themselves as if by themselves. Thus, it is not about single experiences isolated from each other but about their being stacked on top of each other or their chaining. Each layer appears as a variant of a basic theme that runs through the family system several times like a common thread.

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Since by identifying with the carriers from the family system, one has also created all of them in oneself. This is why we can speak with Stanislav Grof about a System of condensed experience (COEX). Figure 2.12 shows how the condensed experience acts as an unconscious leitmotif of the soul through inner experience and feeling. This leitmotif spans several generations and operates in the familial unconscious (Leopold Szondi). In this sense, we could say: We do not have the soul, but the soul has us. ▶

Suggested Reading Case Study 2: ‘It’s All Far Too Easy!’ An aspiring manager in the automotive industry compulsively seeks extremes in his life.

Since being entangled and split in the personal unconscious is, at the same time, closely intertwined with the trauma and taboo themes of the familial unconscious, they also resonate with the eternally human, archetypal themes of the collective unconscious (C.G. Jung). Conversely, the archetypal primordial themes would not be eternally human if they did not occur in constant new editions in the personal and family context. Figure 2.12 further shows the perinatal layer of the unconscious (Stanislav Grof), which is to be regarded as a gateway between the personal unconscious and the two following layers of the unconscious (which are summarized by Grof in the collective term “transpersonal”). This gateway consists of four birth phases (BPM—basic perinatal matrices) whose specific traumatizing imprints are reflected in later life, as well as a link to trauma chaining with the ancestors and contents of the collective unconscious with their archetypal images.

2.7.4

Transgenerational Existential Limit-Experience (T—E.L.E)

At this point, it is necessary to present both the distinction and the interlocking of the transgenerational and the personal-biographical existential limit-experiences. In the following, T—E.L.E. and B—E.L.E. will also be used as abbreviations here. The T—E.L.E., e.g., in the historical context of the Second World War, and the leitmotif of the soul arising from it have the same strong effect in the third or fourth generation afterward. However, the political-social circumstances have changed fundamentally. Being born into a family system where these existential limit-experiences occur several times, one unconsciously absorbs them as a multi-generational being. Through unconscious internalization, they become one’s

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Fig. 2.12 System of condensed experience (COEX)

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leitmotif of the soul, which also unfolds its effect on one’s life. This unconscious impulse brings about further existential limit-experiences of a similar kind, which now have their personal-biographical character. This creates another layer of the same leitmotif, and it again acquires a new impact on the individual’s life. The T—E.L.E. exist in the familial unconscious, which is like a psychic space without time. From there, they influence the linear time of later generations. The common thread that runs through the ages and connects the timelessness of the familial unconscious with the linear time of the individual in later generations is the leitmotif of the soul. The motif has its source in the T—E.L.E., but they are constantly updated as a flow through the B—E.L.E. ▶

Suggested Reading Case Study 10: ‘No Sex in Marriage’ A man can only experience his sexuality outside of marriage.

2.7.5

Causes of Trauma Within the Family System

Figure 2.13 shows how the 12 different categories of existential limit-experiences within the system can be the causes of many other symptoms. Many symptoms (e.g., alcoholism or violence) are subsequent symptoms, but in their expression, weighting, and effect, they become the cause of later existential limit-experiences of the descendants. Thus, it is more precisely a matter of trauma chaining. The latest research results on epigenetics also support this experiential knowledge. 1. Disease patterns—include multiple sclerosis, infarction, cancer, diabetes, thyroid diseases, skin diseases, autoimmune diseases, and heart diseases. 2. Causes of death—are, e.g., cancer, infarction, or fatal accidents. 3. Mental disorders—can be, e.g., schizophrenia, depression, or anger outbursts. 4. Alcoholism—in all its variants, as well as the absolute refusal of alcohol. 5. Suicide—is often taboo in the system. 6. Violence—shown as acts of violence within the system, or violence in the historical context inflicted on family members by others, such as war, flight, or expulsion. Or the reverse case, when they violated others during executions of civilians in World War II and the like. In the broadest sense, this case captures perpetrator-victim dynamics. The whole complex around violence is often taboo in the system. 7. Abortions—are often taboo in the system.

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Fig. 2.13 Causes of trauma in the family system

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8. Deformities and disabilities—concern both children and adults. 9. Children who died early—like even until the mid-twentieth century, children were dying of diseases at an early age. 10. Those killed or seriously wounded in war—suffered severe fates, the perimortal states of consciousness of an agonizing, slow death (e.g., gunshot to the stomach) or freezing from a quick, violent death (e.g., explosions). 11. Rape or abuse—e.g., mass rape during war or abuse within the family system, which are often taboo. 12. Blows of fate—are, e.g., natural disasters, loss of homeland, expulsions, dispossessions, and fates resulting from continuously tricky life circumstances. While the latter are not fatal in themselves, by their nature, they, too, operate at the edges of what is tolerable. Other forms of fate are uprooting, loneliness, heaviness, slaying work, betrayal, or the loss of close persons. Also, living next to a person with whom one cannot normally live—i.e., living next to a violent person, an alcoholic, or a severely traumatized person is in itself an existential limit-experience that leads to the splitting of the soul. The same applies to the constant need to give birth without the possibility of being able to provide the children with existential-material security. Regarding taboo, it must be said that it is not in itself an independent category in the sense of this listing. Taboo has no content, but it is the term for what has been suppressed and concealed because of its unreasonableness or even inconceivability. However, this is precisely why it is repeated in the consequences. Inconsistencies in the statements of the ancestors about certain events or a conspicuous silence about them can indicate a taboo in the system. A taboo is always associated with great resistance. Not infrequently within the whole system. Another indication of a taboo is the underlying sentiment in the family system, characterized by heaviness, speechlessness, and freezing, as well as phobias and other mental disorders of individual system members.

2.7.6

The Force of Transgenerational Repression

Since the family soul is kept split for generations by the T—E.L.E., there is also a transgenerational survival structure. It emerges as a supra-personal survival entity within the system, precisely as the averted side of perpetrator-victim dynamics. It acts like a dam that holds back the destructive tide of perpetrator-victim entanglement to some extent. The force of transgenerational repression operates within

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the system as an unconscious controlling authority by which everyone in the system is equally unconsciously occupied. At the same time, the perpetrator-victim dynamics seep through everywhere and begin to manifest. This determines an individual’s outer and inner experience and possibly also that of a family or group. While the individual does not consciously exercise control, they are held in check by a powerful controlling force. It served, like all survival structures, originally pure survival by enabling the survival of the victim in difficult circumstances or by protecting the conscience of the perpetrator from unbearably heavy, lifelong guilt. Later—after generations—this very entity established in the system to safeguard survival becomes the most potent brake and restriction on life itself. It is survival on a small island, life on the back burner, with no broad flow. ▶

Suggested Reading Case Study 6: ‘Not Becoming an Ice-Cold Stone’ The successor of a family business does not want to become as cold and hard as her mother.

2.7.7

COEX Exemplified by the World Wars

In the context of trauma work, detailed historical knowledge, especially regarding the historical events of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, has proven to be indispensable. Traumas and conditions of the ancestors often become understandable only against the background of both world wars, the social circumstances, and the narrow traditions of the time, and the consequences of these traumas, which reach like a domino effect to the present day. Historical knowledge is necessary more as a supporting ability to sharpen the view of what occurs in the constellation work and makes sense only against the background of historical events. We must not forget that we live in a very different world than our ancestors did decades ago. The rapid development of the last 100 years has catapulted us into a new world. “The World of Yesterday” (Stefan Zweig), which shaped the lives of our ancestors, is difficult to comprehend without historical knowledge and awareness on our part. This is not just about individual historical events but the entire historical-social framework. For example, knowing how abortions were performed a hundred years ago is crucial. On the one hand, abortions were punishable by law at the time. Still, on the other hand, only historical knowledge allows a picture to unfold of what women experienced at the time and what they may have remained deeply scarred by.

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The horrors of the First World War, which were deeply imprinted on the souls of the soldiers, also permanently altered the bonds of the family system. In the following generation, we find emotionless relationships that settled on the system after the explosion of violence in the war. With this drastic event, vitality and emotionality were virtually lost because they were no longer lived out. From one generation to the next, these missing qualities were not reflected or passed on. The atmosphere of unrelatedness that can then surface in subsequent generations—and may not even be noticed—is like an echo of the unimaginable battles of the First World War. If a man, it may be our grandfather or great-grandfather, returned from the battles of World War I, he was not infrequently existentially traumatized. To survive the war, his personality had to split, and a brutalized survival part of himself returned home. More precisely, the splitting-off of the frozen shock energy and its repression into the unconscious took place automatically and fully unconsciously. Participation of the human consciousness and the effort of the will were not needed at all. This also shows the natural survival mechanism implanted in us, without which the human species would probably have been extinct long ago. Let us continue within the above-mentioned family system with the soldier who returned home from war: For his wife, that is, for the wife of the man who returned from the First World War, let us call her the grandmother in this generational sequence, another person has undoubtedly returned from the war because whoever returned at all was always another than the one who had gone to war. As a result of the experienced strangeness toward her husband, she withdrew her feelings. Her husband was also no longer able to open up to her, especially since pure survival was the top priority in the economically challenging interwar period. If there were children in the family, they were perhaps also directly exposed to the violence of their father, who had returned from war, or at least to the emotional inaccessibility of both parents. In this situation, they could hardly help but become symbiotically entangled with their repressed, traumatized parts. This was the only possibility to create some kind of relationship within the attachmentlessness, even if it was a negative one. They kept their needs for closeness and emotional care repressed because the pain of their non-fulfillment or even rejection is unbearable for a child in the long run. Outwardly, they imitated the survival structures of their parents, and thus a deep split in the soul also developed in them, which became characteristic of their psychological structure. In turn, these children were marked in adulthood by the Second World War, possible flight after the war, and many threats or mass rapes. It was probably

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not by chance that they later married similarly marked partners since traumatized human beings attract each other because of their traumatized parts. Leopold Szondi describes it this way, “Two people who carry analogous, returning hereditary traits hidden in their genetic material attract each other” (1977, p. 41). Thus, an entire family system is created in which attachments are disturbed. Franz Ruppert speaks in this case of a bonding system trauma (see 2011, pp. 107– 117). Figure 2.14 shows such a family system, which, even after 60 or 80 years of peace and relative prosperity, remains the cause of existential limit-experiences in the grandchildren or great-grandchildren generation. Grandchildren of war are virtually flooded by the repressed trauma structures of their ancestors. They do not know where this comes from since, in the family system, the topics were often tabooed or kept under the seal of silence. Thus, this flood of traumatic conditions from the hidden has a confusing effect. As a rule, the grandchild generation has no psychic discernment since it has not yet broken free from the entanglement that exists a priori. Thus, it is exposed to the inner high tide of confusing states. Some are identified with the existential limit-experience and keep it repressed with the help of all their vital force. One does not want to become like one’s father, mother, or grandparents. These persons manage to live or present a more or less acceptable civic existence, at least outwardly. On the other hand, some become black sheep of the system by unconsciously living out and wearing the repressed to the fullest. They follow, equally unconsciously, their ancestors and fail in life because of it. Because these connections are not clear, people of the postwar generation are not infrequently given labels from the sphere of psychoses and neuroses by psychiatry and are preferably treated with psychotropic drugs. Psychotropic drugs, however valuable for acute cases, in the long run, “stabilize” the confused soul by solidifying survival structures and what it has repressed. The upward-pushing trauma structures from the ancestral life are thus kept reasonably safely repressed on the psychic level. On the physical level, however, the consequences of the existential limit-experience continue unhindered, and the older one gets, the less they can be stopped. The somatization of the effects of trauma manifests in its diversity, from inexplicable pain to fatal illnesses.

2.7.8

The Three Ranks of Survival Structures

In light of the force and scope of the existential limit-experiences and their chaining within the family system, we can differentiate three different forms of survival structures.

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Fig. 2.14 Transgenerational dynamics of trauma

From this point of view, within the family system, we are dealing with survival structures of the first rank, which prevail within the whole system—and they can be described as trans-generational and thus also “super-personal” in their scope. They are super-personal in the sense that they stand above the individual in the system. The whole system imprints its stamp on the individual without the individual really being aware of it. The force of transgenerational repression is a particular manifestation of these transgenerational survival structures as an averted side of the perpetrator-victim dynamics in the family system. Apart from this, and in constant interaction, the survival structures of the second rank exist within each individual. Separate from the transgenerational,

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they represent a personal adaptation to the environment of the parents and the society that exists in each case. This often accounts for the striking difference between the nature and behavior of siblings who have been exposed to the same family influences. Superficially, it is a matter of individuality. One differs from the other in being different. However, on a closer look, it is only the personal variant of the same psychic leitmotif of the family system. Over time, the survival structures often become the most significant blockage in life. Due to the precedence of survival, they have a compulsive effect from the unconscious on a human being’s actions and experiences. Figuratively speaking, they protrude from the unconscious. Only through the integration within the soul can they lose their compulsive nature, and their negative consequences and symptoms disappear. If no suitable method or no suitable facilitator is available, the person has to look for other stabilization sooner or later. They cannot keep themselves in balance in the long term on their own. Thus, structures from outside are called in to support the unstable system with an auxiliary system and prevent it from collapsing. These survival structures of the third rank can be: – – – –

Therapies and treatments that do not aim to resolve the root cause Psychotropic drugs Regular use of drugs and addictive substances as an escape from reality Extremely tight social networks as substitute families with rigid structures, e.g., cults

To recognize these three survival structures, which are functionally at the same time repression mechanisms, to keep them apart, and to be able to relate them within the scope of the family system, requires much experience on the part of the facilitator.

2.8

The Limits of Consciousness—The Buoy Parable

[T]he individual signifies nothing in comparison with the universal, and the universal signifies nothing in comparison with the individual (Jung, 1954, p. 5).

The entire landscape of the soul, depicted in a general model of the conscious and the unconscious, never presents itself in a general way in the case of a specific human being but always in an individually different way. The line between the conscious and the unconscious does not run according to a general norm but quite specifically within each spirit-soul unit (a term from Jochen Kirchhoff),

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which each of us is, and which finds its specific manifestation in the trauma and related survival structure. The split is, as a consequence of the existential limitexperience, at the same time, the strongest connection between both parts. Thus, the trauma and the survival structures form a referential system. What at first may seem slightly paradoxical, however, has an inner logic: The connection lies precisely in the split in the soul. There is no trauma structure without a survival structure and vice versa. Thus, these trauma and survival structures form an interrelated entity, which is held together by the split as an invisible chain and binds the respective human being in its spell. Figure 2.15 expresses this relationship pictorially: A buoy protrudes from the water’s surface. We could say it shows up as the top of the survival structure, which is attached by a chain to the sea ground, the trauma structure. The chain and the sea ground are not seen, not even the whole buoy, but only its tip. The border between the conscious and the unconscious thus runs along the split within a part of the soul. Since it is always a matter of chaining, it can never be a general border between conscious and unconscious, but many. Thus, the line between conscious and unconscious is placed in the specific context of an existential limit-experience. Every human being consists of a chaining of such systems, which in their sum, make up the landscape of their soul. Thus, concerning a particular psychic part, it is always a matter of more or less consciousness or partial consciousness, which has a specific effect in life (the level of the follow-up topics of the split soul), being the actual life-theme carrier. Life topics are chained with parts of the soul and show up accordingly in the form of leitmotifs of the soul, e.g., as not being seen, not being acknowledged, having to fight for everything, having to suffer lack, constantly moving on the existential edge, not being able to move ahead, etc. In retrospect, these themes spring from ancestral existential limit-experiences that we repeat because we have internalized them by being born into a family system. They are the sea ground within us, and some biographical traumas will surely be added. Let’s return to the buoy because the image gives us the following: The visible is always connected to the invisible. Without the ground, the surface is unthinkable. Because the surface is relatively changeable, but the ground is only shapeable to a minimal extent, the underlying sentiment always remains the same, no matter how much is changed on the surface. The water, its color, and its clarity correspond to the underlying sentiment, the basic mood of existence. It can be bright and friendly but also dark, threatening, and unfathomable. In this respect, what is at the sea ground also always atmospherically determines the water’s surface. In this picture, the reach of the soul becomes perceptible.

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Fig. 2.15 Symptoms as buoys

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2.9 Hologram—Conservation of Momentum in the System

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Hologram—Conservation of Momentum in the System

The hologram is the theoretical model underlying and literally pervading all the schemes (Fig. 2.16). Its mode of action and nature can be described as follows: Imagine a large jar made of glass that is not round but has five walls. This jar is filled with water; now imagine a small stone being thrown into the middle of it. Immediately, wavy circles appear on the surface of the water, which quickly expand. This phenomenon is familiar to anyone who has ever thrown a stone into shallow water. Since the water is in a glass jar, the circles on the water’s surface bump against the jar’s walls. When the circular waves hit the pentagon walls, they are reflected by the five walls, creating an image of overlapping waves. The originally circular waves take on a pentagon shape when thrown back, which is the jar’s inner shape, consisting of five equal walls. The newly formed shape or image on the surface of the water is thus created by overlapping the circular waves with the waves that are no longer circular but have the shape of a pentagon. We now assume that that little stone is an impulse that continues and that the glass has no bottom. In our imagination, however, the water remains in it. Under the pentagonal jar without a base, there is a square jar. The little stone—the impulse—goes on, falls into it, and because of the overlapping of the waves this time, a different picture is created. It is determined by the four walls of the quadrilateral. Under the square jar without a bottom, there is another triangular one. The impulse continues again, and a triangular image is created. To summarize: The impulse contains in itself almost infinite possibilities of development and design, but always depends on the shape of the jar with water, in the middle of which the stone falls. The glass jar and its form stand as an image for five-, four- or three-dimensionality. However, the impulse that passes through all dimensions manifests differently in each dimensional form. It always takes shape and form of the particular dimension in which it manifests. Just as the waves, depending on the structure of the jar, always show themselves as an image of just this form on the surface of the water. The overlapping of the waves always creates a new, specific image. After the image in the respective dimensional form has come into being as a result of the impulse, it already acts autonomously, independent of the impulse, which was the cause of the formation of the image. In other words, that which manifested itself in one or the other dimensional form—although as a result of the same impulse—is no longer the same and not even the same, but something completely autonomous—its own reality that acts. It works in the field of action of the dimensional form and according to its nature. The three-dimensionality is suspended in the four-dimensionality, while both are

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Fig. 2.16 Hologram model

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suspended in the five-dimensionality and thus stand in simultaneous resonance with each other. The Hologram Parable Based on an Exemplary Case The existential limit-experience of a grandfather in the war (transgenerational existential limit-experience) goes as an impulse through the whole system and is unconsciously taken up by the later generations. Its consequences are also unconsciously carried on under very different circumstances. Each generation can stand for a different dimension, symbolized by the COEX tower in Fig. 2.16. In the chronological hierarchy, the larger ones (earlier ones) are decisive for smaller ones (later ones) insofar as the impulse emanates from them, which is unconsciously taken up by the later generations. They are under the influence of these unconsciously absorbed impulses, which in their sum, make up the hereditary and compulsive fate of the individual. The whole family system, and therefore also the familial unconscious, is many times more extensive, more potent, and weightier than the fragile consciousness of a child born into this system. It has no choice but to let the unconsciously absorbed impulse come into life through itself. It thus works through the human being from birth. The jar may have changed, and therefore the impulse consequences look different. However, the original impulse is still the same. The family system, with its unconscious impulses, is not selectable, as the human being was already born into a family system. Thus, the extent and nature of the familial unconscious with its existential limit-experiences is a given, an a priori determinant. However, the individual’s freedom consists in becoming aware of these unconscious impulses, precisely, in becoming aware of unconscious leitmotifs of the soul and effectuating their transformation. Thereby, a psychic free space of the individual arises, in which their freely chosen fate can unfold—a space for a soul that has become individual. Without the release from the patterns of the familial unconscious, one remains as a human being suspended in the collective and entangled in the patterns of the family system—with all the fate consequences it has for life.

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References Dias, B., & Ressler, K. (2014). Parental olfactory experience influences behavior and neural structure in subsequent generations. Nature Neuroscience, 17, 89–96. https://doi.org/10. 1038/nn.3594 Heidegger, M. (1993a). What calls for thinking? Basic writings. HarperCollins Publishers. Heidegger, M. (1993b). What is metaphysics? Basic writings. HarperCollins Publishers. Hölderlin, F. (1990). Hyperion and selected poems. Continuum Publishing. Janov, A. (1984). Imprints. Perigee Books. Jung, C. G. (1954). The practice of psychotherapy. Pantheon Books. Jung, C. G. (2000). Grundfragen zur Praxis. Bechtermünz. (German original text, translated by the authors.) Ruppert, F. (2011). Splits in the soul. Green Balloon Publishing. Szondi, L. (1977). Freiheit und Zwang im Schicksal des Einzelnen. Ex Libris. (German original text, translated by the authors.)

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3.1

Three Levels of Trauma and Its Consequences

As we have seen, the consequences of existential limit-experiences can be seen in all ten areas of life. Since the dynamics of the split encompass the entirety of a human being’s existence, the implications of trauma are clearly felt in the business area as well. They open up to us on at least three levels and show themselves as: I. Causes in the unconscious of a person: Existential limit-experiences are fundamental human experiences and affect executives in the company just as much as a child in school. The causes remain unconscious and can only be discovered using appropriate methods. II. Consequences of splitting, i.e., directly perceptible trauma symptoms from the splitting process in the soul: They cannot be perceived by consciousness immediately, but they can be recognized after specific training. Their dynamics can be traced back to the existential limit-experience. III. Follow-up topics of the split soul, i.e., far-reaching and indirect consequences of the effects of splitting: They can be well grasped with consciousness and are usually considered real issues. They must be solved on the practical level (III.), but if the cause (I.) of the follow-up topics is not treated within the process, the consequences of the unresolved unconscious causes (II.) will constantly be projected into the outside world and persons and will thus keep reappearing. Often, substantive solutions are not actually implemented in business until the unconscious causes have been brought to light and integrated by the decision-makers. This way, all levels relate to each other like communicating tubes.

© Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2023 A. N. Riechers and R. Ress, Trauma and Blockages in Coaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-39399-1_3

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An example should help us to learn to discern these three levels from each other: Causes Let us assume that a person grows up in an entrepreneurial family. Their ancestors were also entrepreneurs, and the company is one big success story. They and their siblings are trimmed by their parents, by all means, to take over the company. Envy and resentment prevail between the siblings, which the parents do not actively prevent. On the contrary, “love” and attention are given only to those who perform flawlessly in the manner of the family spirit. In this family environment, the child’s soul must split to bear the deficits and emotional deprivations. The leitmotifs, meaning the strong survival patterns of the family, are adopted, and firm survival structures develop in the child itself that correspond to the leitmotif of the family system. The immediate feeling and original childlike needs for own space and limits, closeness, trust, understanding, and own expression are split off as being hurt and unfulfilled and kept repressed in the unconscious. Consequences of Splitting The adult consciousness may later join the family spirit and follow it or even oppose it, but the consequences of splitting already work independently as a switchman in the unconscious. What works in the person is the filter of perception in the brain structures, which declares worthwhile goals which lead as far as possible away from the traumatic pain. The striving is directed toward desires and goals that serve as substitute programs for the unfulfilled. The away-fromtrauma movement becomes a strong drive in the life of the psychically split human being. At the level of the consequences of splitting, it is less a matter of specific content than general dynamics of the life movements disturbed by the split in the soul. Follow-up Topics of the Split Soul In the business area, this “engine” enables impressive flights of fancy. The company successor, entrepreneur, or top manager shows high activity, strong will, and great endurance. They use their available resources to the maximum. However, the ascent reaches its maximum when the innovative power of the person decreases or even turns into the repressed trauma structures. That is when the motto “more of the same” is no longer sufficient to cope with the complex problems and challenges of the time. At this point, the person needs new qualities and higher flexibility, which they have not (yet) activated in themself because they have remained frozen in the trauma consequences. Since they cannot yet recognize this due to the unconscious motivations of their survival structures,

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they will enter the first crisis after the innovation block. They will try to find new ways to reach their goal, nevertheless. But the possibility of their conscious behavior change is bound to the narrowness of the survival strategies. In this respect, there are no really new possibilities. Regarding personal progress, the survival structures show up in their compulsion and one-sided purpose to keep the traumas repressed. The former qualities of success now show up as the most significant brake, specifically often as communication disturbances, setting of unrealistic goals and false estimations of the market, and innovation backlog with the consequences such as loss of sales, loss of customers, complaints, increased fluctuation in the staff and the like. The person not infrequently recognizes the same behavioral patterns that have been prevalent in the family since childhood.

3.2

Psychic Discernment in Coaching

As shown in Fig. 3.1, the three levels scheme is the basis for taking a client’s case history in the coaching process. When working with people on their blockages or interpersonal problems, we need to recognize and distinguish between the different levels of their issues. If we look at them individually and in isolation, they do not yet reveal the entire psychic scope that lies behind them. Only through their chaining does it become recognizable. From this follows, similar to a law of nature, the following maxim: The topics of the consequences of splitting are not to be remedied on the same level on which they appear, but necessarily on the level of their unconscious causes, which, however, elude the grasp of consciousness. This connection within the soul is decisive for the different coaching methods that will be used later on. However, we can already establish one common denominator: Coaching must work with the unconscious so that the level of causes can be addressed at all. With level I (level of causes of trauma), we touch an existential axis which, metaphorically speaking, rises as a vertical from the unconscious and largely shapes the conscious life, often against the will of the consciousness. This is nothing new, but the possibilities of working along this axis, which leads deep down into the layers of the unconscious, very much are. These possibilities should not be reserved for depth psychologists. After all, there is no reason to grant them this exclusivity. On the contrary, trauma work is not about psychological interpretations but about working with the existential limit-experiences that impact the soul, body, and brain structures. Trauma work does not need psychological interpretations because they do not leave an impression on the brain stem. Modern

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Fig. 3.1 Three levels scheme

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methods of working with the brain stem, which have been developed in the USA only in the last decades, and the trauma constellation work that has emerged in Germany open up the possibilities of transforming deadlocked destiny paths in a careful and proven way. This concerns each of us as it is essentially related to existence (Kierkegaard). Until now, coaching has mainly dealt with the level of follow-up topics of the split soul (level III). In classical coaching, these issues are described in a differentiated way, and various “success solutions” and “XYZ principles” are derived from them in a mechanically reversed pattern, which in turn are to be implemented on the same level where they show up: – Trust-building measures there, where distrust prevails – Creativity development there, where all creativity is frozen – Communication seminars where communication is stifled in a suffocating cloak of an oppressive atmosphere and behind which there is a taboo – Slave-like mechanical introduction or adoption of “clear structures” where chaotic confusion reigns without aligned roles and responsibilities Calling a symptom a “problem” and treating it that way is just as common as the constant search for a solution to that symptom. No question, the follow-up topics of the split soul naturally lend themselves to being perceived as actual problems as well. What is problematic in the first place is the behavior that sets in after they have been named: the automatic search for a solution to this “problem” at the same level where the problem manifests itself—that is, in one of the ten areas of life (see Fig. 3.1). The problem becomes severe because of the lack of discernment of the levels. Without this discernment, it cannot bring a lasting and profound structural solution, but only variants of temporary, illusory solutions. The search for a solution where there can be no solution becomes an unsolvable problem, putting additional strain, creating frustration, and costing energy and money. Thus, the feeling of spinning in circles arises in many variations. On the other hand, the phenomenological approach of trauma work prefers to grasp the follow-up topics of the split soul as phenomena that point to causes at a deeper level. Thus, they are not primarily problems but valuable—though often unpleasant—clues to an underlying origin. In the methodological framework of deep work with the existential limit-experiences, we can grasp the deeper causes and create fundamental structural solutions. The “problem aspect” regarding the symptoms and the soul has been expressed by James Hillman in his unmistakable clarity:

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Because symptoms lead to soul, the cure of symptoms may also cure away soul, get rid of just what is beginning to show .... The right reaction to a symptom may as well be a welcoming rather than laments and demands for remedies, for the symptom is the first herald of an awakening psyche which will not tolerate any more abuse (1984, pp. 55–56).

Thus, the truly innovative aspect of trauma work lies, on the one hand, in the discernment between causes and consequences and, on the other hand, in the methodological experiential knowledge (cast in a theoretical model) that one can only remedy the effects of trauma-induced splitting at the level of its causes. In this sense, the traumatic freezing is to be solved only where it was also repressed—in the unconscious. The released vital force, which always reaches the whole soul, then has a positive effect in all areas of life.

3.3

Implications of the Consequences of Trauma

Let us now take a closer look at specific phenomena in life. These are examples that should familiarize us with thinking in terms of the three-level scheme (Fig. 3.1). For the sake of presentation, we have separated the areas “business” and “private,” even though this separation does not exist from the perspective of the soul. The causes of the symptoms are always existential limit-experiences that affect the whole human being.

3.3.1

Implications in Private Life

Repressing the traumas in the unconscious (level II) costs much energy that is lacking in other areas of life (level III). The traumatic shock load is stored in the body (level II) and pushes, over time, to the surface in the form of symptoms (level III). Physical disorders, chronic illnesses, and a weak immune system show up in varying degrees (level III). The away-from-trauma movement (level II) leads to constant inner turmoil and the permanent overstimulation of the autonomic nervous system (level III). This also permanently weakens the immune system (level III). The freezing and flattening of emotions as a consequence of splitting (level II) lead shortly over long to unfulfilling relationships with partners (level III). The children grow up in an atmosphere of unrelatedness, feel inadequate, provoke their parents with rebellious behavior, or withdraw (level III).

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The pain, frozen in shock and split off into the soft tissue (level II), becomes the basis of the nonfeeling of oneself and one’s own needs (level III). As a result of a sexual assault (level I), the vital force of a human being freezes in shock (level II) and manifests as a diminished lust for life (level III). As a result of the freezing of the vital force in the man or woman (level II), there can be no movement toward life. The traumatic shock load (level I) remains in the soft tissues so that, as a result, there is a permanent tension (level II), which can make pregnancy—by natural means—difficult (level III). As a result of a series of strokes of fate (level I), the entire family system is gripped by an underlying sentiment of heaviness or paralysis (level II). Although life objectively proceeds without significant difficulties (level III), the feeling of futility and meaninglessness does not let go.

3.3.2

Implications in the Professional Environment

A lack of creativity (level II) leads to an innovation backlog, which is reflected in declining customer numbers or a drop in sales (level III). An important position is filled by someone who is supposed to compensate for their lack of creativity (level II) by being very driven. Still, this causes more damage in the long run than improvement (level III). Manipulation (level II) emanating from the management level poisons the working climate in the long term (level III). This is directly reflected in staff turnover, especially with good employees, and declining productivity (largely level III). Blindness to manipulation (level II), i.e., lack of ability to discern, is reflected in misjudgment of business partners (level III), which tends to have far-reaching consequences (in a broad sense, level III). Careless underestimation of the market situation (level III) and of one’s potential, i.e., lack of realism (level II), can quickly lead to bitter losses or insolvency (level III). From the lack of charisma of a leader—because of freezing and constriction of the vital force (level II) in body, mind, and soul—their impact and authenticity suffer (level III). A traumatic event (level I) results in a trauma encapsulation and one’s center is occupied by the survival structures. Then the drive is lost or becomes mechanical without rest or resting. Conflicts (Level III) because of being drawn into underlying perpetrator-victim dynamics (Level II). These conflicts can arise as a consequence of the unjustified preferential treatment or disadvantage of a person. Conceivable examples are

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consideration or non-consideration in promotions or job appointments, as well as the unjustified pronouncement of praise and blame (level III). Resistance (level II) to change or as a result of antipathy toward colleagues or business partners leads to innovation blockages, internal power struggles, and inefficiency (level III). Figure 3.2 shows further typical symptoms and blockages in business.

Fig. 3.2 Symptoms and follow-up topics in business

3.4 Resistance and Its Implications in Business

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Resistance and Its Implications in Business

As we have already noted, survival structures fulfill their function by keeping a bad event repressed. They manifest externally as resistance to anything that might jeopardize the repression or challenge the rationale of survival. This rationale shows its purpose and justification in the moment of the existential limitexperience. Here we can comprehend and understand the actions of the survival structures, especially in the context of their emergence. Probably we can then accept and tolerate them, i.e., we can have understanding for our fellow human beings who do not want to experience the traumatic pain again. However, understanding a person’s resistance is more difficult or even completely out of our reach if we can no longer establish or comprehend the connection with the existential limit-experience or an immediate threat. We often lack biographical information about our fellow human beings because we do not know each other well enough. And since the essence of trauma is repression, most people are unaware of their existential limit-experiences in their biography. Not to mention the perinatal traumas that have been stored in the body entirely pre-verbally. In addition, there are entanglements in the family system. Thus, the human being remains continually entangled in the biographical and transgenerational consequences of the existential limit-experiences and unconsciously acts based on them (see Fig. 3.3: Resistances (R) and trauma symptoms (S) in the ten areas of life are two sides of the same coin, namely the split in the soul). This resistance without obvious, or, more precisely, without conscious relatedness, appears arbitrary, irrational, antisocial, mean, devious, etc. It can simply take all forms and blows the breeze of avoidance. We recognize it generally by its immoderateness, which is shown by the fact that a reaction has no comprehensible relation to the current event. Although there are also forms of resistance that are very difficult to identify, one thing is the same in all types: Resistance always has an intensity of 100%. There is no half or easy resistance, just as there are no half measures in the struggle for survival. Surviving or dying—there are no options in between, and let’s not forget that these decisions are made at the level of the brain stem and thus are not subject to the categories of the balancing mind. This alone shows the archaic force of resistance. That which triggers the resistance are the so-called “triggers,” which in the unconscious establish the connection to the existential limit-experience. If the trigger contradicts the leitmotif of the survival structure of the soul, then resistance shows itself—actively or also passively. If the leitmotif of a superior’s soul is “I have to control everything!” then the trigger is, for example, an employee who makes decisions independently and does not consult with the boss. Whether

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Fig. 3.3 Resistances and trauma symptoms

these are important or unimportant decisions is no longer important because the demand for control is total. If the psychic leitmotif of an employee is “I finally want to be seen!” the trigger can be the ordered desk change from an open place to a slightly hidden corner. Resistance stirs up fiercely, regardless of all the rational and pragmatic arguments in favor of the new workplace. To effectively maintain repression, the survival structure uses the qualities of the mind. Equipped with them, it can dispose of a person’s entire intelligence and subject it to the compelling logic of survival. Therefore, intelligent colleagues and employees will know how to clothe their resistance with the highest logic and

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rationality. Many become simply unassailable as a result. But the fact that they are in resistance can still be clearly seen, despite everything, in the consequences and what does not happen. Here it helps us to focus on the essentials of the many forms of resistance because, despite all its versatility and changeability, we can basically describe ten typified scenarios of resistance (R-Buoys in Fig. 3.3): 1. Open resistance: is easily recognizable because it does not want to hide. The energetic effort of the counterpart is noticeable, and the verbal expression is also usually unambiguous. The person says, “NO!” 2. Hidden resistance: Often shows as a “Yes, but ...” phrase. “Yes, you are right on the one hand, but ….” Ultimately, it all boils down to this “but,” which is simply a hidden form of resistance and a no. Because of this no, everything reliably fails in the end. 3. Deception as resistance: In the beginning, there is an enthusiastic yes, many questions about the content and great interest. But in the end, for some reason, and usually because of a small thing due to external circumstances, everything is canceled at the last minute. As a variant, “one thinks it over,” of course, also at the last minute. 4. Escape as resistance: Without attracting attention to oneself, the person ducks out. Under some pretext or even entirely without pretext, they do not appear or do not return. 5. Active disinterest as resistance: The person informs themself, finds everything logical and conclusive, is quite interested, and not even a “but” appears. The active implementation, however, remains absent. The opportunity to do the work is not picked up, and things are just left to run their course. The person does not use energy to give things an active impulse, although this would be objectively required. 6. Non-thinking as resistance: The person generally allows logical connections and examples and finds everything quite interesting. They also consider the facts or the problem to be accurate, but it does not occur to them that the current specific situation could just as well have something to do with them and their actions. This simple train of thought is prevented. Analogies to one’s personality and activities are not drawn, even or especially when they formally impose themselves. 7. Arbitrariness as resistance: The person thinks without adhering to the given reality (especially social, economic, ethical, and factual reality) and its principles. “Since I am free, I can also think everything freely and not let anything dictate me.” This fallacy is resistance to not having to deal with the given reality. Here freedom is confused with arbitrariness. One refuses to think

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about the consequences of this arbitrariness to the end. Thus, this type of resistance is closely related to non-thinking and active disinterest. 8. Rationalizing as resistance: After an irrational step comes rationalizing the irrational so that the irrational is explained away. The person shows resistance by refusing to confront their irrationality. Instead, they try to cloak irrationality with a mantle of rationality. 9. Non-tangibility as resistance: One is not tangible to others or oneself. Many subjunctives and options of possibility characterize the contents offered to the environment. In the end, however, one grabs into the void with this person. This kind of resistance is already very “effective” because it can hardly be grasped as resistance. 10. Non-feeling as resistance: Strictly speaking, the body’s immanent survival structure shows itself as resistance in the form of non-feeling. For this reason alone, many contents do not reach a non-feeling person at all. Some things simply flow right by them. However, the affected person is hardly aware of this. Although all kinds of resistance look pretty different and would not even be suspected behind many of its appearances, the 100% dose of resistance is contained in all forms. Because in the end, nothing will happen, there will be no movement, and the strategies of repression will be maintained. The manifestations vary but are always obvious, even when they occur in intelligent combinations. It is critical for leaders in dealing with resistance not to classify it merely as a general category of human behavior to which one responds with general measures. Instead, it must be seen as a survival structure that has emerged in a historical-social context. However, a leader does not have to go into the depths of the trauma work to recognize it. The attitude and dealing with resistance as an existential circumstance of the employee will improve communication and behavior under guarantee and help the employee to deal with their “true intentions.” If you don’t want to work against resistance, with all its negative consequences, there is no other choice. Top leaders should become aware of their resistances and see their successful clearing as motivation for trauma work. The negative effects for the company are simply too high to allow resistance to go unnoticed and unaddressed.

3.5 Role and Identity as a Leader

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Role and Identity as a Leader

To bring more understanding to the concepts of survival and trauma structures in the field of coaching, it makes sense to compare them with two widely known terms: role and identity. The role of a leader or top executive is relatively clearly defined by society and the position of the person holding it. For this purpose, there is a clear image that gives measure and direction to all those involved in business operations. Through the role, social behavior and the associated views are defined. In this predefined field, the survival structure can masterfully develop its qualities. Leadership newcomers quickly learn to do the right thing. The rules for this can be learned, at MBA schools, in trainee programs, by mentors, and, of course, through own experiences. The role and the associated character traits, the appearance, the language, the status symbols, and simply every detail may be predetermined. And in a way, this also provides a reassuring and supporting structure at the beginning, which is very important for the first attempts at walking as a leader. Identity, however, is a thematic heading of what defines the person in themself and is their most deeply own; it goes far beyond the area defined by the role in its sphere of action. Identity gives us a foothold in ourselves, the world, and the community with our fellow human beings. With our identity, we define the border between our roles, which we perform several times differently in our lives, and our core. This core is, therefore, not a role but what we feel belongs only to us; it is our self. While the role is a facet, identity is that which only distinguishes us personally. From this comparison of terms, we can conclude—admittedly a little strikingly—that roles are fulfilled by the qualities of survival. Though, identity, as the center of the soul, is fed by the healthy self. One’s identity becomes clearer when the repressed or split-off vital parts of the soul, i.e., the trauma structures, are integrated. Then, both stability and vitality characterize this integrated core of being. The integrated soul is simultaneously the carrier of the life movement, as well as the refuge of psychic autonomy and identity. If the integration fails, there is a danger of adopting the role of a substitute identity. Because without an integrated center of the soul, “only” the survival structures remain, which are then, to a certain extent, congruent with the social role. In this sense, the role becomes an imposed mask, which in the Hellenistic tradition was called persona. In ancient Greek theater, the persona represented the role of the actor. Perfect acting is a true art, and not everyone is equally good in this field. All the more a reason to recognize the strength of the individual that

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invested in it. This is especially true if one has been successful in it. Good acting indicates a high level of professionalism and mastery acquired over the years with discipline and diligence. In this respect, it is also a lifetime achievement that should not be diminished at any point. The price, however, is the diminution of our individuality. Because without the core of our being, there can be no autonomy in the determination of self-expression. This then means self-sacrifice in the truest sense of the word. However, a permanent alienation from one’s individuality cannot remain without further consequences. Life confirms this experience to us again and again.

3.6

Individual Creativity

The implications of existential limit-experiences are naturally reflected in the area of a human being’s creativity. Creativity is the basis of any innovative power and therefore belongs to the classical canon of business coaching. Creativity, as the ability to create something new, cannot be separated from the overall vitality of a human being (see Fig. 3.4). It is about opening up new paths and expanding a person’s sphere of action and impact. The force used to maintain the existing system is explicitly not meant by this. Even though it is precisely for this purpose that the mechanisms of repression, especially in the form of resistance, are usually used in a highly creative way. However, creativity kept in the narrow channels of survival structures cannot attract or allow anything essentially new to emerge in life. Thus, creativity is, first of all, not located on the level of the cortex but experiences its limitations already on the level of the brain stem, the center of vitality par excellence. If the whole movement of life is frozen, creativity is not excluded. From this, it follows that there is no “creativity” in a general abstract sense. Consequently, one can also not presuppose it as a general given and make a generally learnable subject out of it. But this is precisely what happens in all the countless seminars on the development of creativity. Individual creativity can only be fostered and developed if we work on specific blockages and obstacles that hinder creativity. According to our experience, these particular blocks and hindrances can be found in the consequences of trauma in the body, the brain, and the soul’s inner experience. But how would this be dealt with in general in a seminar—of whatever kind—to support creativity? Working with trauma offers the possibility to open and expand the personal field of the narrowness of survival structures. As a result of trauma work, the inner space of the individual expands so that creativity can unfold more freely.

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Fig. 3.4 Restriction of the vital force

3.7

The Stifling of Creativity in the Company—A Typified Scenario

Understanding the systemic implications of the constriction of vital force in a corporate structure helps to be aware of the classic tension between control and autonomy. Every leader of an organization or group faces the general question, “When do I intervene, and when do I better let go to ensure success?” As a basis for evaluating success, we agree in this typified presentation on establishing a sustainable culture of innovation in the company. To avoid getting lost in definitions, we first illuminate the area of polarities: So, what is the difference between a strategic intervention and mere interfering?

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Having separated the terms, the scenario describes what typically happens when the leader interferes operationally on a permanent basis. Strategic Intervention or Interfering A CEO or top manager has a prominent role, as they have absolute responsibility for the company or areas of it. Either this responsibility has been delegated to them, or they have chosen it by themselves as the founder or successor of the company. They sign as the person ultimately responsible and not infrequently stands in business dealings liable to themself. From this responsible position, they rightly determine the company’s guidelines, goals, and strategies. They are the captain on deck; course, speed, and all decisive maneuvers are her responsibility. In its balanced form, the executive may and should therefore intervene in a regulating manner. Although the chief executive cannot be an expert in all operational fields, they have the eagle’s eye like no one else at the organization’s top. The latter ultimately also justifies them to be able to intervene in all areas. Employee A may then be an expert in area B, but since they usually lack the general overview, they are not in a position for the ultimate final assessment. This creates a general clause for interventions—a lex generalis versus an actio specialis. In team and staff meetings, the boss must address concerns about individual actions. They are then the basis for the exchange and further development of the employees in their areas and help to get a better view and more refined sense of the overall organism. In terms of the innovative power of a company, balanced intervention is thus an absolute must, since otherwise, developments that are difficult to correct could take their course. Often, these actions by employees are well-intentioned and, from their point of view, logical and correct. It is, therefore, all the more critical that the leader repeatedly communicates the purpose and goal of the strategies. However, mere interference at the operational level without reference to goals and strategy cannot be sustainable leadership. Leadership means setting the direction; everything else means merely stopping without creating knowledge. This is where the difference between intervention and interfering comes in. Intervention refers to deviations from the goal and strategy. Interfering is, first and foremost, the annexation of responsibilities at the level of personal taste or working style. Executive Authority Versus Operative Presence So, while making corrections at the target and strategy level is one of the essential management tasks, interfering in operational business is to be considered with different intentions. In the latter case, the top executive makes meddling in individual operations a leadership task. Referring to our three-level scheme, constant

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interference (level III) is the result of dominant survival structures (level II). In the past, the executive has become successful through their courageous actions and high activity level and has now arrived at a top management position. Many reasons on the level I (existential limit-experiences) may come into question, such as a lack of basic trust denied in childhood or forced premature acceptance of responsibility due to the loss of a parent. However, the consequences of splitting (Level II) show up as a weighty phrase in the expression, “It doesn’t work without my control!” In all-day business, this means: The boss must have a say everywhere. The head of the organization shows themself to be a jack-of-all-trades who not only knows about all processes but also wants to contribute a clear opinion on all processes. Especially in small and medium-sized companies, the structures are still so transparent that their conscious attention essentially covers all areas of the company. In this respect, nothing escapes the attention of the top manager, and they have the “matter under control.” The gateways of operational interference are manifold, but they can be typified. Thus, the special significance of this or that specific action is often pointed out. The extraordinary impact of an action or the unique customer relationship is referred to. Often, this or that action has grown historically and must be handled with special care and, of course, with the executive’s cooperation. And in the end, of course, the lex generalis of the lack of overview remains. Ready at any time and yet not effective, such is the culture of micro-management. For the (new) employee, this leadership culture reveals an erratic terrain and creates an “always be on guard” mood, which uses preventive justification strategies in the first place. This is not to deny the employee’s duty to justify their actions. However, being constantly alarmed prevents creative phases that primarily live from the absence of coercion and limitation. However, the frequent interference of the boss signals precisely that “not so.” The more frequently an interference occurs on an operational basis, the more the employee will internalize “it probably won’t work that way anyway.” By interfering on an operational level, the manager dictates their will and style and simply cuts off the creative potential that would be available through the different qualities of the employees. Repeated interference at the level of specific actions is then, in the end, nothing more than the conditioning of the employees. The potential of diversity is not utilized. As it affects everyone within the executive’s subordinates, they all end up being the same. They all conform to the will and ideas of the boss. It is less about the specific results of their work than the general cautious attitude: approach, ask for permission, and don’t be too bold. What’s left behind is an insecure employee and a culture of yes-men. But

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behind their “yes” lies resistance or resignation. The consequence: “Don’t make any big leaps! Take precautions, both forward and backward!” The great caution at least leads to the fact that not much can go wrong. However, self-securing requires much energy—energy lacking for innovations. The Courage and Will to Innovate Are Missing In this respect, staccato behavior results from a maxim of prudence that wants to escape the frustration of “Not like this!”—approach it, sound it out, and see what works. Genuine innovations, instead, take shape and receive their driving force from the specific vision of the goal. Innovations are ventures that can only be tackled with courage. Logically, a culture of a cautious approach has difficulties in generating new perspectives. Interfering in the employee’s area of responsibility removes their commitment. Responsibility is lived as the will and duty to achieve goals independently. Of course, then accountability must be taken for the result. Due to the operative interference, a natural withdrawal movement sets in, and a disconnect between the work area and the area of responsibility occurs. The employee hands over responsibility to the boss since it seems pointless to them to maintain it. What remains is the mere fulfillment of duties arising from the relationship of dependency. The will to act responsibly disappears or is abandoned. The realization of duty is primarily preventive, to protect oneself from reproaches and to avoid harm. The will, however, would need an allowance to be proactive in its character and to be the gateway to developing new ideas. But at this point, the blockage is fully developed—the culture of innovation is stifled by acting cautiously, anticipating justifications, not being allowed to think through new paths, waiting for what the boss says, being discouraged, and giving up responsibility. The boss is frustrated by the lack of initiative of their employees and misses committed action and new ideas. In the end, only he or she can fix it. Conclusion This typified scenario is intended to make us aware of the extent to which survival structures, and not external constraints, can be the causes of creativity and innovation blocks in companies. Structural corrections can undoubtedly provide relief and defuse the problem. However, the causes of innovation blockages often lie in the personality structure of the organization’s leadership. Driven by the wheel of projections, a self-fulfilling prophecy occurs at the leader’s level, who is unaware of their unconscious switchman. In the end, only they can fix it. Due to their prominent position in the system, they shape the underlying sentiment of the organization like no one else, which shows itself specifically on the inside and outside as corporate culture. Here, the vertical axis of the formative family

Reference

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system connects with the horizontal axis of the company structure. It makes a big difference whether the entrepreneur experiences the company as a playing field or a battlefield, whether their primary concern is creativity or fame and glory. Only by referring to level I (existential limit-experience) does it become clear that it is a systemic of the soul. This systemic works in the individual, in the family, in companies, in politics, as well as in society as a whole. If coaching really wants to have a lasting effect and change something, then there is no way around working with the unconscious causes.

Reference Hillman, J. (1984). Insearch. Spring Publications.

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Trauma Work for a Stable Center in the Professional Environment

4.1

Trauma Work as a Path of Insight

To come closer to the goal of a stable center, the first thing to do is to deal with what prevents it, weakens it, or triggers chaos in it. In trauma work, the first access to the center is through the symptoms. They are the gateway to the soul, and we can succeed in finding ourselves through them. It is not a matter of curing symptoms but recognizing what is hidden behind them. “Through the symptom the psyche demands attention” (Hillman, 1984, p. 56). In this respect, trauma work is first a journey of discovering one’s psychic landscape. It examines body, mind, and soul, as all these aspects are encompassed by the existential limit-experience. What previously appeared as a disturbing event or unrelated symptom is placed by the methods of trauma work into the soul’s frame of reference concerning the existential limit-experience. The relating of (frequently recurring) events to experiences of the soul allows a psychic discernment to mature in the client. Only in this way does the significance of affairs, which the mind may have already classified as significant, become apparent to the soul. Only now does the inner experience connect with the power of cognition to a complete complex of meaning and understanding. An awareness of one’s existence, destiny, and entanglements in the family system arises. Emotions are touched, and the soul gains space. The integration of trauma structures can begin. ►

Suggested Reading Case Study 3: ‘For the Sake of Peace’ An entrepreneur is bothered by his hesitant attitude in business negotiations.

© Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2023 A. N. Riechers and R. Ress, Trauma and Blockages in Coaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-39399-1_4

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Trauma work mirrors the client’s psychic experiences. Specifically, this is done by applying methods that work with the unconscious. It creates an inner connection within the client to their own or ancestors’ existential limit-experiences. Without this work, reaching a depth that touches the soul is difficult. Then there is a great danger that it remains with “objective” explanations or interpretations. However, these do not attain inwardness since they cannot be attributed to the particular inner experience but, at best, to a mentally comprehensible, general category. That is why general training, team building, communication, or conflict resolution workshops have low sustainability (Fig. 4.1).

4.2

Genesis of the Healthy Ego

The reflection of the consciousness is first brought in from the outside, mirrored through trauma work. This is how the self-reflection of the entangled, unresolved parts of the soul begins. These must first come to a self-awareness before they can find integratively to each other. So, the healthy ego is foremost the quality of reflection of the trauma and survival structures. Reflection here is the light of the discerning consciousness. It is like a sun that makes the seed of healthy qualities grow (see Fig. 4.2). Phase I: At first, one cannot assume to discern the trauma and survival structures on one’s own. Here one is dependent on a facilitator from the outside. They must be able to distinguish the trauma and survival structures. This is done within the context of a method or set of methods that effectively transform trauma and survival structures into healthy qualities. Phase II: The impulse of reflection becomes the seed of one’s self-reflection. Thus, psychic discernment regarding one’s survival and trauma structures emerges. The qualities of the healthy ego establish themselves in one’s soul. The healthy ego is, in a sense, being outside of trauma and survival structures and being inside of one’s soul. Phase III: As one’s psychic discernment grows inside, the same ability extends to the outside. One can grasp reality more accurately and is more resistant to manipulation and entanglements. Opening the formerly closed spaces of the soul (encapsulated trauma structures) releases a new vital force, which is now more available to the individual than ever before. Having reached this point, the natural desire to deepen the process develops due to the new vitality. This is true even if the trauma work is undoubtedly not an easy path. The healthy ego thus emerges through the transformation of survival and trauma structures: Survival structures are everything that holds us tight and keeps

4.2 Genesis of the Healthy Ego

Fig. 4.1 Potential of the soul I

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Fig. 4.2 Genesis of healthy qualities

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us under control through compulsive repression. Trauma structures consist of that which draws us by withdrawing. Each entanglement of the part of the soul has its draw and its own “will.” This will is a non-consciousness until it is released from the split. Once this is done, the traumas can remain as conscious scars. The healthy ego is, therefore, always a conscious ego. It does not emerge as something new outside the trauma and survival structures. Both the trauma and survival elements have become, in their nature, the essential structural elements of the soul. These basic structural elements are utilized as raw materials so that something new can emerge from them through deep work. Other essential structural elements simply do not exist.

4.3

Trauma Work Is Resource Work

A central question and task in coaching is the development of resources, i.e., the inner potential of stability, strengths, and abilities, which should meet business or private life demands. Trauma work is resource work in two respects: On the one hand, psychic integration releases the trauma structures from their involuntary encapsulation. The life energy frozen and held back in them is now made available to the healthy structures as a resource of vital force. On the other hand, the switchmen now relinquish their autonomous function to the healthy ego. Only now does the human being become the forger of their destiny, as the repetition compulsion of the traumatized soul comes to a standstill. The qualities of the survival structures, however, remain entirely intact. They are now incumbent as “new” resources on the control of the stable center, i.e., the conscious part in the person who has bridged their psychic contradictions within themself and integrated them into a conscious ego (see Fig. 4.3). Since the existential limit-experience touches all areas of human experience, trauma integration also enables the release of vital force as a resource in all these areas. Its primary essence is flowing as the opposite of blockage—a flow of energy, ideas, and communication that is congruent in itself. It is coherent and sustainable because it comes from within. This uninhibited flow of vital force can absorb impulses from outside without getting lost. It has the inner wideness to find innovative solutions on the outside. Its inner experience becomes more substantial; the soul gains touch with reality. As a result, one needs fewer events. Kicks and thrills and the chase for them lose their appeal (see Hillman, 1984, p. 64). Genuine relaxation can now flow through the person.

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Fig. 4.3 Potential of the soul II

4.4

Disentanglement from Hereditary and Compulsive Fate

The awareness of the trauma and survival structures can grow more and more because of what is mirrored to us in the ten areas of life. This way, psychic

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connections of life events and a consciousness that recognizes their implications emerge. Depending on the perspective, we now see the individual survival and trauma structures in their interrelated chaining or being stacked on top of each other. Trauma and survival structures are corresponding basic structural elements of the soul. Thus, they form a frame of reference. Trauma and survival structures are the dominant carriers of unconscious motivation. The unconscious will is the basis of the unfree choice and, thus, in sum, the hereditary and compulsive fate. By reflecting the historical-social-family context of the existential limit-experience, the leitmotif of the soul, which descends from it, can free itself from the predetermined paths. The hereditary and compulsive fate can thus take a new turn through the gained psychic discernment. Through the psychic ability to discern, which is gradually internalized through the trauma work, one’s qualities of insight emerge, becoming more and more independent of external reflection. The ability to distinguish between one’s motives and those of others enables the correct assessment, weighing, and evaluation of the respective life situation. Thus, we can make a decision appropriate to the circumstances out of a healthy ego. This is the free choice, the orientation of the freely chosen fate (see Figs. 4.4 and 4.5). Pontifex Oppositorum I To resolve the tension of the polarity between trauma and survival structures, a power in the soul is needed to build a bridge and unite the repressed and acquired qualities. Leopold Szondi has called this power distributor and organizer between the psychic polarities and conscious and unconscious parts of the soul “Pontifex oppositorum” (see 1977, p. 80). Because of trauma chaining, the emergence of the Pontifex oppositorum corresponds to a multi-stage process. There are several existential limit-experiences and, thus, several splits that map different sets of thematic complexes. One may be more dominant than the other or simply more evident in appearance. The healthy structures as carriers of vital force are not found in an ideal abstract center between the trauma and survival structures. There is simply no balance between them, but only a being torn in turmoil between the polarities. Trauma and survival structures hold us back, i.e., away from the center, or something that holds us down, i.e., in a spell, and prevent any movement toward the center. Thus, they are the most immediate blockages to the center. So, when we are not with ourselves, we are with them. Through the back and forth between trauma and survival structures, a human being gets out of control, cannot rest with themself, loses the fixed point, and thus also quickly the orientation, first

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Fig. 4.4 Pontifex oppositorum I

4.4 Disentanglement from Hereditary and Compulsive Fate

Fig. 4.5 Pontifex oppositorum II

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on the inside, then on the outside. Confusion, insecurity, impulsive actions, and masquerade follow to cover all this. Healthy structures as carriers of the vital force with all its positive aspects only emerge through the work with the traumas and their integration. In the initial situation, as Fig. 4.4—“Pontifex oppositorum I” shows, they are first of all only a potential, instead of an à priori given. Pontifex Oppositorum II The methods of trauma work result in the release of entanglement from the unconscious identifications in the family system or in the making conscious of a repressed trauma wound that has biographically arisen in this context (COEX). Each entangled part of the soul has its draw and its own “will.” This phase is specifically a matter of recognizing the soul’s life movements, fathoming unconscious desires, and perceiving the consciousness gap between the split-off trauma structures and the dominant survival structures. The most significant leverage of the work is thus becoming more conscious of one’s psychic landscape, as shown in Fig. 4.5—Pontifex oppositorum II. Pontifex Oppositorum III The work creates a new center of the soul in which the healthy qualities are preserved (see Fig. 4.6—Pontifex oppositorum III). They are enriched with abilities gained from the trauma structures (e.g., high sensitivity) or the survival structures (e.g., assertiveness, leadership qualities, etc.). The mental survival structures that have become rigid can regain their original vitality and agility. Thus, the gift of the mind can again be used flexibly and with the ability to discern. The new psychic center emerges. By integrating the consequences of splitting, the bridging of opposing polarities succeeds. In this sense, Pontifex oppositorum means—bridge builder of opposites. It is about a conscious and balancing ego that feeds and builds upon the healthy qualities of the new and integrated center of the soul: What carries all pairs of opposites of the soul—like a mighty wheel with many axles—at its poles: that is your ego, the Pontifex oppositorum, the bridge builder of all polarities (Szondi, 1977, p. 81).

The work is often not finished by solving one topic because further, even deeper issues can show up now. Therefore, the Pontifex oppositorum is shown as a process in Figs. 4.5 and 4.6. Only such a center, which gradually emerges through correspondingly deep work on one’s traumas, is characterized by sustainability. Everything else behaves only as a more or less stable intermediate state

4.4 Disentanglement from Hereditary and Compulsive Fate

Fig. 4.6 Pontifex oppositorum III

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of repression of the traumas. Traumas do not disappear with time; they are not subject to linear time. On the contrary, they intensify in their consequences. Their emergence, somatization, and accompanying destabilization are only a question of time.

4.5

New Qualities of a Leadership Culture

Both stability and dynamism characterize the integrated core of being. The integrated soul is, at the same time, the carrier of the life movement and the shelter of the autonomy and identity of the soul. The fruits of trauma work are especially beneficial for executives and their environment in several aspects.

4.5.1

Authenticity and Charisma as a Fruit of Conscious Identity

We have already recognized the topic of role and identity as a field of tension between healthy structures and trauma and survival parts in ► Sect. 3.4. Those who permanently play a role must put on the mask of a survival strategy. The mask then becomes a substitute personality. If the person filling the role were limited exclusively to their masquerade, we would be dealing with a professional in this respect. However, what leaders need more than pure professionalism and more than, for example, a clerk in the office, is the gift of being able to inspire and convince other people through their authenticity, i.e., their genuineness. If this authenticity is strongly pronounced, the leader is likely to be experienced as charismatic, which leads to strong followership and high commitment from employees. However, this authenticity is already the result of a high degree of congruence between role and identity. The environment quickly recognizes, and usually, completely unconsciously, whether this authenticity is given. Is someone just pretending, or are they really like that? At the same moment, the following questions arise: “Is he or she genuine?”, “Can I trust him or her?” Based on these questions, it is now a trivial observation that the authenticity of a person does not depend so much on the degree of identification with the role. This is indeed often enough claimed and persistently “trained.” Authenticity instead relies on the integration of the repressed psychic parts. Through integration, the center of the soul grows, which gives the outer appearance of the persona an unmistakable individuality. In this respect, this center is the director who does not lose itself in the respective role and fills its requirements with its

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uniqueness. Thus, that person obtains a discernment that leads to a conscious use of professionalism and personality. In the best possible case, we see here a charismatic leader who does not pretend anything but, through their authenticity, experiences a high degree of loyalty and following by the employees. Thus, the work of soul integration does not serve a noble purpose but is rather foundational work on forming an authentic leadership personality. In brief, it can be stated that authenticity is based on professionalism, that is, on knowledge and skills to fill the role. However, authenticity goes beyond professionalism to the extent that the role is shaped by personality. This means that authenticity arises where a relative and interchangeable role is shaped absolutely and thus uniquely by personal identity. Authenticity in all aspects—persuasiveness, vitality, discernment, and enthusiasm—cannot be put on like a mask, and such an attempt would certainly not lead to lasting success.

4.5.2

Objectivity and Being in Touch with Reality

For everyday professional life in top management, a stable inner center is a quality of inner leadership that cannot be replaced by anything else. It is the source of coherent decisions and congruent behavior. The Pontifex oppositorum can remain entirely with him- or herself, even in exceptional situations without a process or procedure that has not yet been defined. Only with the help of the fixed fulcrum of the center can we weigh, similar to how the scales need a fulcrum to balance. Thus, the inner center becomes an authority of weighing. Only when we have found it can we weigh different things against each other without inhibition or preference, pros and cons, weight and overweight, significance and insignificance. This unclouded discernment is the basis of an impartial relation to reality. The result of weighing is thereby a mirror of our depth and breadth of experience. We can only weigh and estimate as much as we can recognize and consequently only put into balance what we find in ourselves. Objectivity, therefore, depends on the degree and breadth of our own inner experience. Working on the switchman increases the degree and range of inner experience as the filter of perception in the unconscious loses strength. Since perception affects our inner and outer world, trauma work makes the view clearer and more precise. With this clarity, which is primarily not an intellectual achievement, reality-based weighing can succeed better and better. Objectivity, as the fruit of reality-based weighing, is an essential quality for leaders. The higher a leader is positioned in management, the more objectivity they require because this quality is needed to make objective decisions and develop a just leadership culture. For this very

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purpose, leaders must already have a stable center. Trauma-induced distortions of reality mean bad investments in people and technology, leading to insolvency or, at least, bitter setbacks and losses. Not only wanting to succeed but wanting to succeed and being able to realistically assess its opportunities and risks are sufficient prerequisites for successful business leadership. To assess strengths and weaknesses realistically and objectively, the leader must have peace of mind and be able to put their finger on the wound without fear. Having a pronounced away-from-movement in them leads to the consistent fading out of the decisive blockages that stand in the way of sustainable success. Therefore, the leader’s performance is not necessarily a purely academic performance consisting of identifying the weaknesses and strengths of the entrepreneurial goal. Instead, it consists of the willingness and ability to turn the magnifying glass on oneself and admit to mistakes and deficits without losing faith in oneself and one’s value. Of course, this is only possible when the inner axis is so solidified in oneself that one no longer has to fear a loss of identity. The Pontifex oppositorum must already have arisen within the person. Personnel decisions are similar to factual decisions. Only the unclouded inner experience can resist projections, identifications, and entanglements into perpetrator-victim dynamics. A just and reasonable personnel decision must first be able to see the person in question as they are. This also involves weighing up qualities, strengths as well as weaknesses. This can only succeed if what the employee mirrors to the leader is not threatening them. Only through a firm inner center can the leader remain with themself and is armed against losing themself in projections and identifications.

4.5.3

Discernment as Protection Against Manipulation

If this inner center is not present in a leader or exists only as a seedling, they lack authenticity and cognition. They are less immune to manipulation from the outside as manipulation uses three things: unfulfilled needs, desires arising from them, and fears. It promises salvation or builds a threatening backdrop intending to exploit the lack of touch with reality. Only the resting in the inner center can withstand attempts of manipulation as an unshakable bulwark. We encounter manipulation every day, but in top management, it sets powerful leverage effects that can have fatal consequences for many people. As the center of power, top management casts a magical spell over many people. Many want to belong to it, participate in power, or even take it over. Reality shows that the means to achieve power are not always the most honest. The subtle gateway to manipulation in management is the acquisition of trust. Nothing is more critical in

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top management, as in politics, than loyalty and integrity. Because of the nature of top management, executives must precisely possess this ability, namely, to recognize whom they can and may trust. This ability is not taught to them at any university or course but must be developed in the personality or mature through painful experience. The ability to trust the right person is a weighing decision, which, however, always remains associated with a residual risk due to the imperfection of human nature. It, therefore, depends on weighing things up as objectively as possible, and it is precisely about trust that we notice how important the ability to assess other people correctly is. However, this ability is not a random result, nor a game of chance, but the result of a developed ability to discern. Strictly speaking, one becomes a victim of manipulation when one falls prey to one’s lack of discernment concerning outside manipulation. The deficiency of insight is often due to the repression of trauma. This is because something that has been repressed can never see the full picture out of its narrow perspective. These are the “blind spots” of our perception and judgment. It is at this point that manipulation is most likely to reach us. In addition to profound general knowledge, leaders and entrepreneurs need deep knowledge about their inner experience, enabling them to assess behavior, motives, and attitudes realistically. This knowledge, which is the result of mirroring one’s inner experience, can form the basis of a solid granting of trust that is largely immune to the attacks of manipulation. It creates a cleared perception in the center of the Pontifex oppositorum—uncolored and free of constraints and distortions of reality.

4.5.4

Healthy Use of Power

Top executives are usually endowed with power and influence. It is part of their job to use this power in the company’s interests, to enable opportunities, or prevent risks. The execution of power, like the question of “Who can I trust?” is one of the aspects of day-to-day management that a leader must deal with on their own and can no longer be delegated. How power is used, therefore, also reflects the leader’s personality: Whether “laissez-faire” or “absolute control”—the use of power is a mirror of a person’s inner system and thus also a reflection of their character. How power is instrumentalized depends crucially on its development in a person. Healthy power with which every human being comes into the world in the form of their vital instincts can defend its space to live from abuse of power or flee from superior power in time. It can stop aggression from the outside. Powerlessness, however, falls prey to the abuse of power.

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If the healthy power has been disturbed in its development or even made impossible due to existential limit-experiences, this has influenced its later handling. Because the abuse of power by the child’s environment and the associated powerlessness require compensation. In the sense of “away from” trauma, this can take different forms: from the power-obsessed despot to the rejection or simple non-use of power. The common denominator of this usage is its disturbed vital force. Healthy power is instead defined by realism, vigilance, and hortatory remembrance. Powerlessness and increased (also psychic) readiness for violence are, however, states that point to the split-off reality of human beings and which they thus also constantly reenact. Power is a vital force, and the healthy ego, i.e., the Pontifex oppositorum, is the result of the integration of superior power and powerlessness, the perpetratorand victim-identification. It is always said that those who have power have responsibility. Concerning a leader, this also means exploring the foundations of one’s use of power. How does my power serve me, and what was it originally intended to enable? Or also: What inhibits my use of power, and what is this inhibition to power suitable for? Filling these questions with consciousness is the task of the Pontifex oppositorum as a process of trauma work. It is to prevent power and powerlessness from being unconsciously reenacted in the business environment. The damages and losses that can result are simply too enormous due to the immense leverage of the top executive. ►

4.6

Suggested Reading Case Study 7: ‘I’m Not up for Sales!’ The sales director of a company often gets lost in small things instead of tackling the big tasks.

Coaching in Practice—Movement Has Precedence

Coaching often likes to define itself as a solution-oriented approach. The solution and not the problem is the focus of the work. In this, one wants to distinguish oneself from the therapeutic forms of consulting and position oneself as a rather pragmatic form of support. But what does this mean in all consequences? Solution-oriented work, as it is often called in coaching, means regarding the three-level scheme (Fig. 3.1), setting goals at the level of follow-up topics of the split soul (level III), and also looking for solutions there. However, since the consequences of trauma and their further effects cannot be solved in the long term at the level at which they appear, but only at the level of the causes of

4.6 Coaching in Practice—Movement Has Precedence

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trauma, the successes of such solution approaches are not long-lasting. As soon as a problem is solved, the issue that was thought to have been overcome shifts elsewhere. As it is in the nature of trauma, it is reenacted again and again on the horizontal level of the ten areas of life. So, when we become aware of the repetition of the theme in the different areas of life, should the decision mature in us to look at the causes of the recurrence on the vertical axis. This intention now has an entirely different scope and is, in this case, the basis for a lasting change. The crucial difference between classical coaching and the approach advocated here thus lies in the setting of the focus. If the focus is set on the individual areas of the horizontal level and the partial solutions within the same level, the solutionoriented approach can hardly be characterized by sustainability. The narrowly set focus on the level of consequences and intended sustainability exclude each other in the context of a human being in the long run. This is not to say that thoroughly good and successful concepts for the generally known problems in work processes cannot be found here. But the universal hardly exists in reality. Even with a high degree of automation and defined processes, “the human factor” plays an irreplaceable role. And if it may still work without the human being in production, it certainly does not work in personnel decisions or strategy development. While classical coaching often focuses on improving or optimizing survival structures, trauma structures are pushed into the background. By consistently hiding them, they are only going deeper into the unconscious and, over time, unfold from there an even more destructive effect. In general, such an approach would even promote the tendency of survival structures to keep the trauma structures as completely repressed as possible. Those who choose this approach end up reinforcing or promoting this tendency in their clients, which is disastrous in the long run. Any coaching measure that does not address levels I and II runs the risk of promoting the establishment of a second or third-rank survival structure. The attraction of creating or solidifying this in the client is undoubtedly the illusion of quick effectiveness. The survival structures gladly accept the new structures, principles, methods, tricks, etc., as a welcomed help. Here, no resistance arises. On the contrary, clients are quickly delighted because the “new thing” suits them so well, and the coach “brought that very thing to make it go on quickly.” How small that is, with which we wrestle, what wrestles with us, how immense; ... What we triumph over is the Small, and the success itself makes us petty (Rilke, 1994, p. 211).

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But the strengthening of survival qualities, which is the next paradox, contains a danger that can hardly be underestimated. On the surface, the flexible survival structure puts on the mask of a socially and emotionally competent leader. On the inside, however, the rigid attitude is reinforced all the more. It merely becomes less visible on the outside. The result is not a real transformation of the personality structure but a greater tension in the psyche in the long run, which learns to camouflage its survival structures even better. Camouflage and deception is then the motto according to which such a rapid “improvement” takes place. Thus, should the fundamental work with the causes of trauma bring to light the reason for repeating the same behavioral patterns and blockages, trauma integration can finally break the habitual cycle of repetition in the unconscious. Only the movement on the level of the causes, i.e., on the vertical axis, leads out of the narrowness and rigidity of the survival patterns. In the long run, this creates a new basis for new solutions on the horizontal axis. Working in this order also makes sense since it saves one from fighting windmills. Therefore, we state the following motto for the approach to trauma work in the coaching process: Movement takes precedence. Because without substantial movement in the depth of the soul, the switchman’s priority in the unconscious remains (see Sect. 2.6.3). ►

Suggested Reading Case Study 4: ‘Clarity Before Harmony’ A 40-year-old executive in the leisure industry finds it difficult to make clear and “tough” announcements in business.

The methodology of trauma work, however, is now quite different from that of classic coaching. Since the consequences of trauma are found not only in the soul but also in the brain and body, it is logical that such working methods are needed, which start here as well. Therefore, integrative trauma work ranges from the relatively new, brainstem-oriented approaches, such as EMI (Eye Movement Integration), to the long-standing practices of bodywork, according to Wilhelm Reich and Alexander Lowen.

References

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References Hillman, J. (1984). Insearch. Spring Publications. Rilke, R. M. (1994). The book of images. North Point Press. Szondi, L. (1977). Freiheit und Zwang im Schicksal des Einzelnen. Ex Libris. (German original text, translated by the authors.)

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Methods

5.1

Methods and Their Interaction

The methods presented here serve to address and guide the soul in the context of trauma work. Thus, on the one hand, it is a matter of reaching the client’s soul and entering into a conscious or unconscious dialogue with it. On the other hand, this is the prerequisite for the second step: to embrace the healing impulse of the split soul and guide it in a supportive way through the process of trauma work. The methods work with the unconscious and enable experiences of the soul that would only be possible to a limited extent or not at all without them. They refer to the structural elements of the split soul, the trauma and survival structures, and the healthy structures. These experiences are then cast into a model that summarily mirrors those very experiences for consciousness. In this sense, the method, the experience gained through it, and the resulting model form a whole. Without the model of a soul, many made experiences would remain disconnected appearances. Without the methods, in turn, it would be impossible to fill the concepts of the model with content, and we would stay in the area of the speculative. In this respect, the working model of the trauma work represented here follows the epistemology of Immanuel Kant, elaborated in his Critique of Pure Reason: Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.

As we have seen in the previous chapters, many clients’ intentions and problems cannot be solved at the level where they appear externally. Their causes lie on a deeper level. This depth corresponds to the unconscious in work with human beings. From this understanding, in trauma work, the deepening of methods takes

© Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2023 A. N. Riechers and R. Ress, Trauma and Blockages in Coaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-39399-1_5

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precedence over the broadening of methods. Trauma work aims not to fight the symptom but to grasp its unconscious cause and transform it sustainably. Thus, it is a matter of a substantial expansion of the objectives. However, an expansion of the goals and the effect is hardly conceivable without an expansion of the means. The means, in this sense, are the methods by which we unlock the unconscious. Let us not forget, however, that there is no such thing as a holistic method in this respect. Each approach reaches a particular layer of the soul, and others do not. People who declare a specific method to be holistic explain their reduction of reality. The soul is a multidimensional reality rather than just a concept (James Hillman). Therefore, the need for a combined approach of working methods with the unconscious necessarily arises: The unconscious then is the door through which we pass to find the soul. ... Yet to look for the soul in the unconscious requires that we first find the unconscious (Hillman, 1984, p. 50). (Fig. 5.1)

The four methods presented form a whole in their integrative application, although each of them stands and must stand on its own. It is not a question here of an arbitrary method mush but corresponds figuratively rather to an antique temple, as Fig. 5.1 shows. Each method must first stand on its own like a pillar so we can build a roof on them afterward. Through this roofing, the temple achieves its functional completion. Roofing stands for the integration of the methods. And a roof—as this picture also shows—cannot be built on the ground, as is well known. Despite the necessary reduction of reality, methods are irreplaceable in dealing with the psyche, and there is no reason why we should relinquish them. Instead, it is a question of their meaningful connection so that their effect in integrative use experiences a deepening, which simultaneously equals an enlargement of their range. In the link, the uniqueness of individual methods is not canceled out but enhanced. This valorization through linkage is the newly created synergy that follows the wideness of the soul instead of reducing it to a method. The interlocking and flowing wheel of methods in Fig. 5.2 symbolizes the flexibility with which we can move within the unknown landscape of the soul. It allows almost unlimited individual adaptability. Not the individual and its highly personal subject matter are committed to a method and its framework, but the methods are used integratively in their interaction to meet the multi-layered nature of the soul. The individuality and the individual are in the foreground.

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Fig. 5.1 Method temple

5.2

Bodywork

It is one of Wilhelm Reich’s most remarkable achievements to have discovered the functional unity between psychological and physical blockages and to have

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Fig. 5.2 Wheel of methods

actively integrated it into treatment. The background is that the splits in the soul do not cancel themselves out, either in the psyche or in the body. Therefore, an impulse from the outside is needed. On the body level, the rigid, hard, and tough muscular armors correspond to the protective survival structures in the client’s soul. They are the resistance manifested in the body against the re-experience

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of the traumatic events. Even more, they are the preventive shell against reexperiencing. The opposite, no body tension, can also achieve this goal. In this way, life does not arrive in the body at all. For example, a superficiality of character and a stiff, immobile body are only two sides of the same coin. The client neither comes into deep contact with others nor do they feel themself. The stiffness of their body does not seem very inviting. And since they do not feel themself, they cannot give any information about emotions and what moves them—the “perfect” armor inside and outside. The corresponding counterpart to the armor is the encapsulation of trauma. As a survival structure, the body stores the trauma structures as physical and emotional pain within itself. The individual pain threshold is thereby procured and maintained by the body so that, at best, the traumatic pain is no longer touched. It often manifests as a conspicuous hypersensitivity or insensitivity to pain. In the context of bodywork, the individual pain threshold thus determines the degree and intensity of the bodily impulses necessary for the trauma structures to be gradually released in the body. In the modern European context, Wilhelm Reich pioneered therapeutic practice that abandoned the artificial division of human life into different realms in favor of a holistic-humanistic approach. In this respect, it is a renaissance of ancient traditions that always had the wholeness of human existence as the focus of their research. Reich rediscovered the entirety of human life through the phenomenology of the life movements of the organism. He summarized it already in 1933 in this way: In other words, if we are really serious about the unitary concept of the organism, i.e., one with practical implications, then it is altogether out of the question to break up a living organism into character traits here, muscles there, and plasma functions elsewhere. ... As we gradually learn to comprehend and influence the living organism, the purely psychological and physiological functions are automatically included in our work. Schematic specialization is no longer possible (Reich, 1990, pp. 357–358).

The work method consists of giving impulses on the physical level to achieve a solution there in the form of abreaction and liberation of the vital force. The bodywork is, to all other methods, a complementary non-verbal dialogue between companion and client, without which a successful entry into the work on deeper layers of consciousness would often be hardly possible or at least rather lengthy. Especially the works of Arthur Janov and Stanislav Grof have made an important contribution to making the emergence of trauma in the preverbal phase understandable. Traumas of the pre-, peri- and postnatal stages embed themselves as an “imprint” in the autonomic nervous system and thus continue to

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have an effect throughout life. Logically, we cannot reach these preconscious events with verbal methods. Since psychic pain is always stored in the body and brain structures, the organism becomes the workspace and information field for trauma work. The split-off soul parts can only be integrated inside the body, not outside of it. Logically, the body can hardly give itself the impulse on the physical level, so it must come from outside. More specifically, this happens through pressure impulses on the muscular armor and other soft tissue structures. Through guided eye movements (EMI, see below), an impulse is given at the level of the brain stem, which in turn affects the body via the autonomic nervous system. The close coordination of methods that affect the body with the rest of the practices of trauma work is deliberately intended in this profound work with the soul— especially since the autonomic nervous system, and the brain stem, just like the muscular armoring itself, are beyond the will of consciousness. At least the latter fact is meanwhile an assured knowledge from body therapy. Body and Soul in the Context of Body-Oriented Trauma Constellation Work Since body and soul form a functional unity, working with trauma and survival structures almost organically results in a need for impulses for the body to release the vital force and thus bring the soul into movement through the body. The soul’s movement then becomes visible within the constellations in space, is taken up with the means of the trauma constellation work, and is continued. The mere mirroring of the psychic pain stored in the client’s body by representatives is not sufficient for a movement of the soul. The verbal and nonverbal performance of the representatives in a constellation cannot leave an impression on the client’s body and autonomic nervous system. The psychic and physical pain stored in the body will and should be felt again, especially in deep work with trauma. Only that which is brought to the surface can subsequently transform. That which remains stored deep in the tissue cannot be converted and released by a pure surface treatment. Approaches like “wash me, but don’t get me wet” have never proven sustainable solutions, even if they like to call themselves non-invasive methods. In therapeutic jargon, the client is “stabilized” in this way. The ideological coating alone, however, does not produce any effect. Quite the opposite: By leaving out the physical level, the client is helped to keep the traumatic states better repressed in the long run. In the worst case, they somatize as chronic disorders or even diseases. Since the body and the autonomic nervous system only understand their own language, the physical impulse must correspond to the depth to which the pain is stored in the body. The stored main information of the split in the soul is connected to the intensity level of the split-off pain. Thus, logically, the impulse

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from the outside should be neither less nor more intense but should energetically correspond to the degree of the existential limit-experience. This is not to say that tender touches do not have their effect. They do have an impact—but at other stages of the process, for example, when it is a matter of reawakening the trust of a wounded childlike part. There are two different purposes and phases to be distinguished here: The strong impulse has a releasing effect, releases the pain, and the frozen vital force. Tender touching and contact, on the other hand, can convey those qualities that have been hurt or not given to the child. Neither the tender nor the strong impulses are problematic, only their non-differentiation in function and effect. It may be recalled again that nature did not intend to remove the splitting process—neither in the soul nor the body. Even in the transgenerational context, this regularity continues to apply. Because what is released through the bodywork is often the pain of the ancestors, which we carry within us indirectly as underlying sentiment, e.g., as irritability, numbness, lack of emotion, coldness, shame, or as a family taboo. By relating the physical reaction with the existential limitexperience in the context of integrative trauma work, the psychic discernment of these inner states grows. We now know for whom we have representatively carried this pain or sensation. With this discernment, the potential of the healthy ego then grows. Therefore, the limitations of bodywork, when practiced alone, are also easy to understand: The work on the body and the muscular armor will, at best, create short-term abreaction if the soul is not addressed simultaneously. Only in this way will the release of vital force in the body become a new and sustainable movement of the soul, which is what it is all about in the end. So, care must be taken to ensure that the bodywork flows smoothly into the trauma work. Specifically, the split-off parts of the soul that show up in constellation work or the Voice Dialogue method should also be reintegrated on a physical level.

5.3

EMI—Eye Movement Integration

5.3.1

EMI—Basics

The method EMI—Eye Movement Integration—was developed in 1989 by the American couple Connirae and Steve Andreas. The methodological and theoretical foundations of EMI go back to Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and Gestalt therapy. Steve Andreas worked, among others, with Fritz Perls, the originator of Gestalt therapy. During his studies, he became increasingly aware that

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the separation between body and mind is artificial. On this arbitrary separation, the also artificial limitation of many forms of therapy is based. NLP assumes that all mental processes have a neurological basis. Any experience results from all the information the nervous system takes in. In this process, all experiences are processed and stored by our nervous systems and brain structures in a multisensory way. The linguistic expression of these neurological experiences can only ever be an abbreviated translation of this holistic experience of all sensory modalities (sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell). Relying only on linguistic representation would mean leaving out the bulk of sensory information in therapy. Since words are rarely sufficient to describe the traumatic experience, frustration is more likely to set in over the medium or long term. By following various eye movements, the client can instead activate repressed and split-off sensory modalities and associated memories and emotions in their consciousness. The eye movements lead to new connections with the totality of the senses. Thus, the content of EMI always comes from the client themself. Therefore, EMI is, strictly speaking, self-healing through neurotherapy. The facilitator induces no content. Meanwhile, a set consists of 24 slowly guided eye movements, the series which form an EMI sequence. The movements run horizontally, vertically, diagonally, and circularly. By following the eyes, the client accesses information, emotions, and thoughts stored outside the consciousness through their visual field. The psychic material released through EMI is fundamentally associated with intense psychological and emotional reactions due to its trauma connection. Clients react physically and mentally with all the patterns that belong to the initial traumatic situation. EMI supports the client’s self-healing process by accessing trauma-associated memory networks. The information available helps the implicit memory escape the endless loop of unfinished processes. Based on the model of the three brain levels—the rational center, emotional center, and especially vital center— in which the frozen shock energy is stored in a fragmented form of all sensory modalities, the eye movements help to bring the frozen, the fragmented and the repressed back to the surface of consciousness. The shock load held in freezing is gradually diluted or even dissolved with the method’s help, so the fragmented also finds itself together again. Thus, the always unfinished movement in the soul can be completed. The shock, which is also stored in the autonomic nervous system and the body, has held back the vital force in this complex manner. Just there, and only there, where the flow of vital force was once frozen, it can be set in motion again: in the body, the autonomic nervous system, and the brain structures.

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Essential characteristics of EMI: – It is a primarily non-verbal method; therefore, for many clients, like bodywork, it is a relatively unfamiliar intervention in the psychological field. – It leads to re-experiencing a traumatic event with all the associated sensory memories. – EMI achieves rapid reactions in the client, usually after only a few series of eye movements. – It works with the traumatic event and thus adds repressed sensory information to the consciousness. – EMI is a neurotherapy; it completes incompletely processed processes of the implicit memory. Experiences can then pass into the explicit memory and are consciously stored there as past events. – It is not to be confused with EMDR, which works with rapid eye movements. – EMI does not teach skills, e.g., communication skills, but helps the organism to heal itself.

5.3.2

EMI in the Context of Trauma Constellation Work

EMI was designed as a stand-alone method for individual sessions, but its use within the constellation work further enhances its impact. Within the context of constellations, the use of EMI turns out to be much more flexible. Here, a few series of eye movements are usually used to release temporary freezing. The constellations thereby receive a vital impulse, leading to new insights and movements in the soul. Through the simultaneous application of bodywork in the context of constellation work, we inevitably also encounter those weighty phrases that have become imprinted through the existential limit-experience. This is hardly surprising if we consider that the weighty phrases are linked to the shock load stored in the autonomic nervous system and the body. The traumatic structure and its retained shock energy behave metaphorically like communicating tubes. No matter at which corner, or to stay with the image, at which tube one starts or begins, gradually or all at once, the whole trauma complex comes to the surface of the consciousness and the body. With the release of the shock load in the body, which happens through targeted pressure impulses, the weighty phrases also come back to the client’s consciousness. They then often come to immediate expression with great force and vehemence.

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The advantage of this combinatorial approach, i.e., the combination of bodywork and constellations, is that one does not need to invent the weighty phrases if they show themselves directly in the process. The great advantage of EMI then consists in the immediate work with such phrases to which the whole shock load is connected. The eye movements with the simultaneous loud, repeated pronunciation of this weighty phrase dilute the effect it has within the unconscious. The shock load gradually dissolves during the application. Thus, these weighty existential phrases can be dissolved in the context of origin, e.g., war context or family context. The advantage of this combinatorial procedure is the more exact grasping and dissolving of cross-generational motifs, which had imprinted themselves as leitmotifs in the unconscious in later generations. Motifs that are shaped by weighty phrases such as “This is the end!”, “I won’t make it!” or “This is futile!” often later constitute the whole underlying sentiment of existence. As we already know from Chap. 2, the weighty phrase is a condensed verbal expression of an existential limit-experience. This limit-experience may have arisen in the context of war, flight, atrocities, blows of fate, or mass rapes during the war, mirrored in the context of constellations. The motives of violence are imprinted across generations, despite their repression. Combining constellations, EMI, and bodywork can dissolve them more effectively than a single method. Each of the mentioned methods addresses a different aspect of the traumatic event. It is precisely their integrative use that can capture in a differentiated way the various layers in the human being where the consequences of the existential limit-experience also had a traumatic impact. At the same time, the whole process becomes more complex. The limitation of EMI now also becomes visible: Without accompanying bodywork, the eye movements often glide on the surface of the frozen survival structures. They cannot then go into depth, for we must not forget that physical freezing cannot be released by consciousness. The autonomic nervous system works independently of consciousness. Secondly, the eye movements cannot mirror the complexity of an imprinted existential limit-experience along with the whole historical context and of any perpetrator-victim dynamics. For this, the context of constellations is indispensable. This complex subject matter cannot be processed exclusively through its sensory imprint in the brain structures.

5.4 Body-Oriented Trauma Constellation Work

5.4

Body-Oriented Trauma Constellation Work

5.4.1

Basics of Body-Oriented Trauma Constellation Work

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Constellation work is, to put it simply, the phenomenon of mirroring the psychic states of a human being through representatives and what a constellation facilitator sees in them and thereby brings about. This happens as a spatial externalization, which is a visible representation of psychic parts. Hence the name constellation: It is an image of the inner constellation of systems, of the individual, or also of groups and organizations, which is spatially presented, precisely constellated in physical space. The constellations show as much as a constellation facilitator can see in it and how they know how to deal with it. In the context of trauma constellation work, the added value of discernment between trauma and survival structures, between one’s own psychic content and that of others, is of primary importance. This discernment must, of course, first and foremost be present in the constellation facilitator themself. It is the basis for the emergence of a new psychic center from the elements of trauma and survival structures in the client. We can distinguish two aspects of constellation work: I. The mirroring first promotes the “psychic raw material,” that is, the elements destined for discernment, recovery, and subsequent transformation. Only by distinguishing the trauma structures from the survival structures and the personal from the transgenerational context the real work begins. But already, the externalization and mirroring of psychic states of a human being through representatives are to be seen as two extraordinary means that offer a high added value. A much higher complexity can even be grasped and differentiated within a constellation group. Something that would hardly be possible in this way in an individual approach, i.e., without representatives. II. The actual work takes place on all levels where the consequences of the existential limit-experience have taken hold. This includes the brain stem level (EMI) and bodywork. These are two effective ways of addressing the autonomic nervous system. In constellation work, the resonance phenomenon of the same or similar themes and states within the group occurs regularly. Regarding group dynamics, this

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is especially important to note when traumas float to the surface of consciousness. The resonance, no matter how strong, is not a re-traumatization. Often, however, due to a lack of experience with the essence of trauma, this is hardly distinguished. Apart from this, the constellation work is already as such—like any other practice—a specific structure of perception. Each method, through the experiences it conveys, sets up a particular optic through which a specific image of the soul or one of its dimensions becomes visible. This image, in turn, is also reflected in the model in which the method is embedded. A different image of the soul emerges through another approach (e.g., Voice Dialogue, EMI, or bodywork). Thus, a broader spectrum of phenomena can be addressed by combining methods—both psychological and physical phenomena, which is the basic idea of psychosomatics. We could say that trauma constellation work brings, from the depths of the unconscious, psychic connections to the surface that are initially unfamiliar to the adult consciousness. These are not new beliefs but possibilities for expanding consciousness.

5.4.2

Phenomenological Approach

A crucial question about constellations is always what to make out of what is shown in and through them. Does the reflection show reality? Or are we being presented with the image of something else entirely? How objective are constellations? All these questions are asked again and again, and the most revealing answer to them was already given by C. G. Jung many decades ago: The question of the substance of what is observed is only possible in natural science, where an Archimedean point is found outside. For the psyche, such a point of view outside is missing because only the psyche can observe the psyche (1957, p. 92).

Therefore, in the context of the study of individual psychic processes, only a phenomenological approach results for the observer. The phenomenological approach means approaching the observed phenomenon with an unbiased eye and standing before its mystery in a disciplined manner without succumbing to the temptation to try to grasp or interpret it by preconceived opinions. It also means being able to endure a temporary not-knowing. In this way, we are caught by the phenomenon itself, and only through this does an intuitive understanding of the psychic reality of the client emerge from within. Thus, impartiality here does not mean supposed objectivity. Even if we proceed without bias, the theoretical foundations

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from which we start, and above all, the discernment of the constellation facilitator, are not thereby suspended but continue to have an effect. We, therefore, refrain from using our knowledge in a general or anticipatory way. In this way, we abstain from judgment, creating a glade in our minds. The phenomenon in a constellation can thus unfold in its full range without immediately falling prey to a conceptual limitation. In this way, something that is not yet known can emerge and reveal itself.

5.4.3

Way of Thinking Determines Perception

But at the same time, Aristotle coined the phrase, “What man finds last in his thinking is first present in the world outside.” Some constellation facilitators claim that they proceed in the constellations with a pure heart, without bias and judgment. However, even such statements should make us suspicious. For it is merely stated that its author is not aware of their theoretical foundations, according to which they interpret, classify, and contextualize the phenomena that appear in a constellation. Indeed, constellation work depends to the extent that can hardly be overestimated on the theoretical foundations from which the constellation facilitator starts. This means, among other things, that we find precisely those results predefined in the system from which we spring. The system also means the scope in which the system moves, e.g., individual or transgenerational approach. Even if a constellation facilitator is open-minded and proceeds unbiasedly, they see in the constellations only what is allowed by the method they use. Because this method also determines the way of thinking. The way of thinking, in turn, determines the perception and thus also the procedure and the results. The constellation facilitator and the client should always be aware of this and work with the results with this kind of awareness.

5.4.3.1 The Paradoxical Reality of the Psyche Constellations, which by their very nature are more concerned with the unconscious than the conscious, are particularly good at capturing the contradictory reality of the psyche. The dynamics of the soul often exist only because of the simultaneous activity of opposing forces in it. Therefore, this reality can hardly be experienced, thought of, and grasped in any other way than contradictory, i.e., paradoxical. Paradoxical thinking means maintaining contradictory thoughts and approaches in creative tension within oneself. The mystery of the paradox, that

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is, what is hidden behind it as a psychic experience, then reveals itself in this creative tension. If we sustain this tension long enough, we sink deeper into a more profound reality. However, if we limit ourselves to only one pole of the contradictory reality, it is rather a sign that we have remained on the surface. During the constellations, this tension of paradoxes is mirrored by the representatives, and the constellation facilitator can use it for a transformation in the sense of a solution or development.

5.4.3.2 Constellation Work with a Clear Intention (According to Franz Ruppert) Like every coaching session, a constellation should have a precisely formulated goal. The client’s consciousness should be able to describe the intention of the constellations in a well-formulated way so that it can be shot directly at the target like an arrow. However, this inner maturity, the willingness to open up, the full attention, and the necessary motivation are not always present in the client to the full extent. From the perspective of the constellation facilitator, the client helps them by the precision of the formulation of their intention—or not. The force, energy, and willingness inherent in formulating it are essential in determining the progress of the constellation work. Through the formulation of the intention, a non-linear organizing principle in the soul is addressed. It is reflected in the fact that in the representative of the intention, all those obstacles are mirrored, which stand in the way of fulfilling it. Its representative becomes a vessel through which, depending on the course of the constellation work, the traumatic states of both the client and their ancestors, with whom they are entangled, flow through. The remaining representatives mirror the entire relationship dynamics, and thus, comprehensively, the whole group becomes a reflective field of the client. This alone can be taken as an indication of the comprehensive mirroring quality of the soul. Incidentally, the same quality is behind mirroring the deep and multi-layered trauma themes in dream symbols and events.

5.4.4

Context of Origin

In a trauma constellation, the whole context of the origin of the psychic blockage is always included. However, it is not always sufficient to merely point out the blockage itself. Especially in the transgenerational context, it is about entanglements with the psychic parts of the ancestors. Therefore, it is often necessary to constellate the split-off parts of the ancestors involved therein. Furthermore, these split-off parts of the ancestors cannot be thought of without the historical

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and attachment context in which the traumatization happened and where the chain of entanglement had taken its course. The historical knowledge and the knowledge of the social circumstances in which our ancestors lived are irreplaceable at this point.

5.4.5

Intervention

Every now and then, we come to a critical point during a constellation that requires intervention. The childlike parts of the client, entangled with the ancestors and their traumas, consider this entanglement to be their own identity, to which they cling. They hold on to it even when that identity should mean selfdestruction or expending all their forces. At that time, when the entanglement happened for lack of another alternative, they had no other choice. Since then, nothing has changed for these parts, being split off and entangled. By themselves, they continue to remain in the entanglement. The entanglement has a well-known “odor” for them; it is the well-known normality. Everything else is associated with the devouring nothingness, which appears far more threatening than any identification, however destructive. So, if the constellation facilitator gives free rein to these parts (the representatives in the constellations), they naturally remain further in the entanglement and remain rock-solidly convinced that there and nowhere else is their proper place. What matters here is the constellation facilitator’s discernment of the traumatic content and how it is used while working in physical space. The entangled part can often only perceive its entanglement from a distance. The entanglement naturally continues to exist if there is no intervention that works within physical space. Thus, an intervention is by no means the insertion of one’s preconceived concepts into the events of the constellations. However, the insertion of the facilitator’s discernment is necessary if a constellation is to do more than just mirror. It is the added value of constellation work.

5.4.6

Double Focus

Pointing out entanglements and identifications does not automatically remove the associated split in one’s soul. This often seems to be underestimated. The focus should and would have to keep both in view; visualization and psychic integration should go hand in hand. If the constellations only deal with identifications from the family system, without at the same time paying attention to the splits in

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the client’s soul, they are hardly able to release the identifications with foreign psychic contents. They cannot integrate the split-off contents in themself as they do not yet have a healthy, discerning center. And what is their very own is simply not yet discoverable to them. During the constellations, the facilitator can and should become a point of orientation for the client through their perception and discernment. This strengthens the client’s perception and orientation. Forming one’s new healthy ego is thus simultaneously accompanied by detachment from foreign psychic contents. That which until then had been foreign and subsequently life-inhibiting, life-denying, and even life-destructive can now be seen as such and dissolve. In the dissolution of the previously identity-forming survival structures, therefore, as already mentioned, a not insignificant resistance is to be expected. After all, it is about the dissolution of the previous personality structure in favor of the new one, which is only in the making.

5.4.7

Disidentification

Constellations with trauma reference are not about a new psychological approach. It is ultimately a continuous disidentification of the psychological structure due to the influence of the family system. The individual’s psychological configuration consists, in particular, of the unconscious identification with the ancestors’ fates, which, in turn, were significantly shaped by the consequences of trauma. Thus, the effects of trauma are to be regarded as building blocks of that unconscious structure which, in its entirety, forms a foundation in the individual’s unconscious. This foundation is, at the same time, to be seen as a predisposition on which the personal unconscious is built. In other words, this predisposition is continued on the biographical level of one’s experiences. This is precisely why Leopold Szondi spoke of a hereditary and compulsive fate. To consider this thus acquired psychological structure as one’s own is obvious already because, apparently, there is no other one that could be regarded as one’s own. Moreover, the whole society we live in is built on this consensus. Thus, we naturally strive to improve and optimize this psychological structure. Or, more precisely, the adaptive consciousness, guided by survival structures, seeks to optimize and improve itself. However, the unconscious basis, which consists of the consequences of the ancestors’ traumas, remains untouched by these attempts. An improvement or optimization of something based on the effects of trauma is an absurd endeavor in the long run. Nonetheless, few are dissuaded from the absurdity of these endeavors. The majority are eager to improve their survival

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strategies, especially since they feel confirmed in it by the whole society and the collective compulsion. Trauma work detaches the person step by step from their identifications. Only through this detachment does the free psychic space emerge. The real possibility of a freely chosen fate arises, where only a free choice is possible—a choice beyond the identifications and entanglements that previously guided and determined us. The positive results of the constellation work, such as a better, more relaxed, and freed relationship with parents, siblings, and partners, are to be seen as a side effect. They can but do not necessarily have to occur. An increasing detachment from the family structures can also be seen as a positive side effect under certain circumstances. Especially in body-oriented trauma constellation work, freedom is always understood as a freedom “from and to.” Freedom to one’s own presupposes the disentanglement from entanglements, i.e., freedom from something predetermined in the system. Essentially, it is about the dissolution of entanglements and identifications and eliminating the associated repression. This takes place out of deeper understanding, gradually allowing a new identity-forming consciousness to emerge. The new that emerges from trauma work does not require psychological instructions and other normative approaches, either in advance or afterward. The new is a new territory we enter step by step, leaving the old. Constellations also have limitations: Through mirroring, it is not possible to capture resistances accurately, which can always become a significant obstacle when working with people. However, this is all the more successful with the Voice Dialogue method. Access to the autonomic nervous system is also very limited by mirroring alone.

5.4.8

Excursus: Organizational Constellations as a Management Tool

Organizational constellations can capture an organizational structure and its dynamics by mirroring in great depth, guiding strategic decisions, staffing, and critical negotiations. It is, therefore, a special constellation format that can illuminate the motives behind a counterpart’s obvious or less apparent attitudes and one’s own. This is insofar important as the conscious and unconscious motives can significantly influence the factual level. By mirroring the company’s top management, one can also see the organization’s orientation, which also includes the company’s culture. Thus, the internal movement of the management level indicates its external effect on the organization. In the same way, non-movement,

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non-reaction, and movements on the wayward can be evaluated as an orientation. Especially the latter direction is co-determined by the top management’s trauma and survival structures. Thus, an organizational constellation can become the starting point of individual work with the leader. After all, every organizational unit, in this case, a company, consists of diverse positions occupied by specific individuals. Without them, it would remain only an abstract form and label. On the practical level, i.e., within the scope of the systemic model on the horizontal level of personnel and material decisions, the work with organizational constellations has already proven itself in practice. Although leaders usually have no therapeutic training, let alone training in trauma work, they must constantly deal with the consequences of trauma. Every day they are confronted with resistance, manipulation, lack of creativity, and stress on the part of their employees and business partners. Apart from the factual level, dealing with the consequences of trauma makes up a large part of their work without being aware that these are consequences of trauma. The particular organizational constellation work can therefore bring them more clarity. If they are trained and sensitized accordingly, it should become clear to the management level that it is not possible to negotiate objectively with the trauma structures of a person and that this is also only possible to a minimal extent with the survival structures. We think we are moving on a purely factual level, but this becomes an illusion upon closer analysis. This better insight is made possible by the specific format of organizational constellations, which can certainly be used without representatives in an individual context. The motivations and motives behind decisions can already be mirrored here. With the help of organizational constellations, making decisions based on a much broader field of information is possible. For example, it quickly becomes apparent which things are essential and which are unimportant in negotiations. The mirroring also captures overlaps of a company’s formal and non-formal power structure. Knowing who or what is the actual power lever during a negotiation is crucial. All of this can be seen in organizational constellations. Through them, we become aware and visible how much the inner system (vertical axis—inner world of the human being) is connected to the outer system (horizontal axis—outer world incl. company structure) (see Fig. 1.1).

5.5

Voice Dialogue

Voice Dialogue can be traced back to the work of Hal and Sidra Stone, who have always taught their method as an open system.

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In our travels, teachings, and writings we have steadfastly refused to provide any kind of certification process for training in Voice Dialogue (Stone & Stone, 1989, p. ix).

With this in mind, their method is now used by many therapists or facilitators and continues to evolve. The Voice Dialogue process can also be combined and complemented with other approaches. As its name suggests, Voice Dialogue is a dialogical togetherness with voices in two senses: firstly, between the client and the facilitator and, even more importantly, a dialogue of “voices” within the client. These voices are subpersonalities (according to Pierre Janet) in the psyche of a human being, which can be addressed directly with the Voice Dialogue method.

5.5.1

The Inner Shapes

The consequence of the existential limit-experience lies in the splitting, which divides the soul into two parts: on the one hand, into a trauma part and, on the other hand, into a survival part. These parts also take on specific forms or shapes which are so autonomous that one speaks of “inner shapes.” They possess personlike characteristics, which can be recognized from the depth of the unconscious mostly only in their outlines, character tendencies, and distinctive traits. Since trauma and survival structures are represented in the personal system of a human being as an inner shape, the entire inner shape is also a unity in which the trauma and survival structures, together with the psychic split, are suspended. Since both are related to each other despite and because of the split, they form a frame of reference within the inner shape. However, it is a reference system of opposites, polarities, or conflicting tendencies, as shown in Fig. 5.3. While the central purpose of the trauma structure is to allow what has been repressed to become visible again through reenactment, the compulsion of the survival structure is to prevent this reenactment or to develop protective strategies to prevent the reoccurrence of the traumas. The repressing and keeping repressed manifests simultaneously as a strong resistance against making the traumatic experiences of powerlessness, weakness, fear, despair, abandonment, etc., visible. These strong, contradictory dynamics move the inner shape, and so it becomes itself the personified mover of these dynamics, which dominates the consciousness from the unconscious. Thus, the main tendencies of an individual that show up in all areas of life point to their carriers and movers: the inner shapes.

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Fig. 5.3 Inner shape

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Strictly speaking, then, the ego is only a collective term corresponding to a linguistic convention that serves its practical purpose in life. In no way, however, does this collective term reflect the complexity of psychic experience. Every human being is a small society, as the German writer and philosopher Novalis already said. Moreover, the inner shapes are a reflection of the outer family system in the inner system of the individual. In this sense, they can be seen as patterns of fate and perpetrator-victim dynamics that have taken shape. They are representations of the trauma and survival structures that have emerged as consequences of the existential limit-experiences of the ancestors. These are tied to their historical-social-family context. As such a complex, they are contained in the familial unconscious. And so, in turn, the familial unconscious (L. Szondi) consists of these patterns of fate, which we unconsciously internalize via birth and just as unconsciously continue in the present. Inner shapes can be of different natures. For example, as a protective power, childlike part, sometimes more perpetrator, sometimes more victim, but also as fields that have become shape, which represent the underlying sentiment of the whole system in a human being. Such an inner shape consists of several layers. The outer layer is in resistance, while the underlying layers bear complex traits of perpetrator and victim dynamics. Recognizing this, differentiating it, and reflecting it in dialogical togetherness requires years of practice, as one can certainly imagine.

5.5.2

Voice Dialogue as a Differentiation Method

Voice Dialogue is essentially about differentiating the psychic parts of the client’s inner system. The client should succeed in becoming aware of identifications and family entanglements, which they unconsciously carry on. The voices of the inner shapes are conscious, partially conscious, or even unconscious to the human being. The degree of awareness itself says nothing about the power of this voice in the person to whom it belongs. The inner voice is rather like the tip of the iceberg and is the expression of an attitude. Even the attitude itself is not yet the origin of the inner voice. For it is, in turn, due to the weight of one or more existential limit-experiences (COEX—System of condensed experience), which act in and through the voice. Since a person’s inner experience—like their family system—is entirely individual, we must always refrain from labeling the inner shapes. Otherwise, we will not succeed in fathoming the inner truth of the client. There is simply not “the inner child” or “the inner critic.” These are labels from the outside, which already project content into the inner shapes.

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The Art of Dialogical Togetherness

Let’s take a closer look at what dialogical togetherness means precisely. Voice Dialogue, like constellation work, works with physical space. The client is asked to give the inner shape its place in the room by taking this place themself. The location is different from the client’s starting position, usually a chair in the room representing the adult consciousness. As soon as they “arrive” in the inner shape, the facilitator swings into the same energy level to meet the shape appropriately. Thus begins the dialogue between the facilitator and the client, who from then on speaks only out of the inner shape. Voice Dialogue is a balancing act of dialogical togetherness. The inner shapes react extremely sensitively to their counterpart. Survival structures, by the way, are not only the rigid, immovable, strict, and inflexible attitudes of the inner shapes but also their apparent opposite: supple characters, which radiate kindness and tolerance to the outside but conceal all the greater resistance within them. Therefore, it is crucial to be in the same resonance as the inner shape. This resonance has, first of all, an energy component, which is a supporting connection like a riverbed. It is the source of information about the inner shape par excellence. All other communication elements are also carried in the riverbed—i.e., verbal expression, emotions, body language, inner images, and symbols. So, it is important to stay within the riverbed with attention. In the best case, this results in strong resonance and rapport with the client’s inner shape—the dialogical togetherness. This kind of mirroring and dialogical contact is necessary to initiate a transformation of the inner shape.

5.5.4

Resistance in Voice Dialogue

The central aspects of survival structures are resistance and fear. The function of the survival structures is the protective function of repression. Thus, this survival structure prevents any possibility of overriding this function. Just as in private and professional everyday life, resistance is also found in the deep work with Voice Dialogue. The inner shapes are finally the internalized image of biographical or transgenerational existential limit-experiences. To protect and keep the trauma in repression is their rehearsed role, which they continue to play. Therefore, the dialogue with the inner shapes does not always have to be harmonious but can also be full of resistance and contradictions. After all, encountering resistance is the rule rather than the exception. Open resistance is

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still the most harmless form since it is easy to recognize. It is precisely in dialogical togetherness that the uncanny changeability of the inner shapes becomes clear—camouflage and deception are the strategies of survival structures that are often difficult to recognize. Thereby these tactics are perfected in such a way that the consciousness of the person concerned does not even notice it. At this point, only exact observation and recognition of logical contradictions and energetic inconsistencies (voice, body language, etc.) help to identify the inner shape’s central tendency behind. In the immediate Voice Dialogue, one first realizes that resistance has a single unconscious purpose: resistance. Resistance has the function of repressing the contents of trauma. Thus, resistance is a purpose in itself.

5.5.5

The Mirroring Quality of Dialogical Togetherness

What has been said before shows that emphatic listening in Voice Dialogue would be too little. It must be supported first and foremost by the differentiated discernment of psychic contents and dynamics. This is offered in dialogical togetherness as a mirror surface on which the client can experience their main unconscious tendencies as inner shapes, unvarnished. An attitude that “accepts everything as it is” would be out of place here since it offers no added value of discernment. The diversity in the client, i.e., the variety of their inner shapes, must be met by the facilitator with a similarly broad range of qualities in which the inner shapes of the client can be reflected in a nuanced and differentiated way. If, for example, one encounters a childlike part in the client during the dialogue, it is not primarily a matter of making an offer of a relationship right away and doing what the parents failed to do but of reflecting how the strict, cold, constantly criticizing or punishing attitude of the parents was reflected in the client. The mirroring and awareness can succeed here only by opposing the parents’ severity to the childlike part, which has the most significant power over it. Thus, even after thirty or forty years, it reliably and strictly drives the client to better and better achievements. Thanks to these achievements, they climb the career ladder, but the hurt, needy, self-willed, and perhaps hiddenly vengeful childlike part represents the “greatest danger” in their system. It shows itself sooner or later through its uncontrolled reactions, which the survival structure can no longer suppress. In business and private life, this can lead to “incomprehensible reactions and wrong decisions,” which, in the end, can shake the entire personal system. It becomes evident that the complex inner structure of the human being, which consists of survival and trauma parts, requires an equally

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complex approach. In practical work, the methodological framework must therefore reflect the complexity of the diversity in the inner system of the human being to comprehend its implications on the outside fully.

5.5.6

The Manifestation of Unconscious Main Tendencies of Inner Shapes

During Voice Dialogue, the facilitator’s mind can be as razor-sharp as supple, if necessary. Only in this way can they address the other party existentially and set them in motion. The dialogical togetherness takes place on a content level, but the content is deliberately not in the foreground. In the contents, however, the main tendencies appear as an entrance door to the inner shapes. This is the focus of the method. In addition to content, other elements can serve as entrance doors, such as images, symbols, emotions, body language, or energetic qualities. For example, a vehemence with which something is asserted is a door to the prevailing tendencies in the client’s life. The question then arises: What shape is behind this energetic vehemence and vigor? What are its goals? The motives of the survival structures are often based on existential limit-experiences, which, however, suggest the opposite of the outwardly vehemently represented attitude. Here, a polarity often shows up as a dynamic of the inner shape: On the one hand, the repetition of the traumatic experience is to be avoided. For this purpose, preventive strategies are developed that create a “safety zone.” On the other hand, a compensatory experience, or substitute satisfaction, is sought with all force. All good and plausible reasons for doing one thing while refraining from the other are questioned in dialogical togetherness. This is not necessarily done directly or even verbally. Voice Dialogue is a nuanced art of dialogical togetherness, not the mechanical interrogation of various points. For traumatic experiences, which show themselves as underlying sentiments, atmospheres of deep sadness, futility, or freezing, are also reflected in the inner shapes. The surface of the discerning consciousness of the facilitator becomes an exact mirror surface for the doing, letting, and atmospheric effect of the inner shapes, whose presence nobody had questioned until now. Least of all, it was examined by their supposed owner because we can hardly create a distance to ourselves within ourselves.

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5.5.7

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Voice Dialogue as a Modern Coaching Method

Here, Voice Dialogue and coaching meet each other, only to separate immediately. The first essential difference is that in classical coaching, the client and their inner shapes are hardly ever considered separately from each other, which is not even possible with the current coaching methods. However, it depends on whether you are dealing with the client’s unconscious resistance, childlike part, adult consciousness, or inner shape that constantly drives or criticizes them. All of them have different motives, rationale, different maturity, etc. We cannot lump this together; else, the results will be undifferentiated and inefficient. Otherwise, it can easily happen that—metaphorically speaking—one consults with the porter instead of the boss in the company about an essential matter. The boss is not necessarily guided by the adult consciousness, which is limited in reach and power competence. There may be quite other unconscious inner shapes present that hold the reins. Among those, who enter the stage of consciousness from the shadows of the unconscious, there is a power hierarchy, evident in important life decisions and everyday work. Accordingly, Voice Dialogue is a method that precisely distinguishes and considers the psychic diversity in the human being. Through it, classical coaching receives further essential development and an otherwise unattainable added value. This is directly reflected in the efficiency of Voice Dialogue. A coach trained in this way is not satisfied—to continue with the image—with the company’s porter but examines who is the actual decision-maker in the client. They are also not happy with limited factual solutions, however much they may be necessary at the moment. From a comprehensive systemic perspective, they first examine who is the decision-maker behind the backdrop of the factual level. With this shape and no other, they then enter a direct dialogical togetherness. The unconscious motives are questioned first, and solutions are not sought hastily. The quick search for answers within a problematic pattern in a person does not lead out of its unhealthy circle. Decisive is the carrier of momentous motivation in the human being, which reliably shows itself in wrong factual or personnel decisions. In Voice Dialogue, we are concerned with the unconscious reasons that move these inner shapes and thus drive the person as their owner before them. If this person is a top manager or another executive, they can drive the entire department or company before them without really knowing where to go. The multifaceted inner system of the individual thus interferes with the outer system of a company structure. Voice Dialogue is a systemic method in the strict sense. It examines an intention on the horizontal level of directed consciousness and questions the inner shapes of the vertical level of the unconscious. This is the

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full scope of the systemic of the soul. Only when the unconscious motives of the decision-makers, and thus their inner shapes, come to light do they gradually become aware of them in the reflection instead of continuing to be dominated and driven by them. In this way, a decision-maker can make an appropriate and truly competent objective decision and prove to be an adequate navigator. To give a driven person a hand and help them even to perfect their compulsive being driven is not the business of Voice Dialogue. We cannot work with only the half that is limited to current factual solutions within the external company structure and leaves out the strategically far more critical internal system of decision-makers. Half-finished systemic approaches do not even bring half solutions but rather problematic pseudo-solutions. The limitation of Voice Dialogue: Since the inner shapes or parts that are worked with are the trauma and survival structures in the individual’s soul that have turned into shape, Voice Dialogue is hardly conceivable in the long run without body-centered trauma work. We cannot work with consequences without directly addressing the causes. Likewise, we cannot work, for example, with the imprint of a transgenerational existential limit-experience without mirroring the overall historical context of perpetrator-victim dynamics through a constellation. For it is precisely in this context that the imprint, that is, the inner shape, is entangled and confused.

5.6

Pontifex Oppositorum as Induction of Healthy Qualities

Why the methods of trauma work should be used integratively is clear from a closer look at their goal: Pontifex oppositorum, the bridge builder between polarities. As we have already seen in Sect. 4.4, the Pontifex oppositorum is a reflection that allows a new center of the soul to emerge. Through reflection—methodologically mediated in the process—healthy qualities are induced simultaneously, and the survival structures are freed from compulsiveness. The methodological grasp of the psychic structures plays a significant role in this process since the influence of the trauma and survival parts is reflected and acts in multiple layers. The methods must be able to mirror one or the other layer and, in this sense, be used integratively. The process of the Pontifex oppositorum also stands for the mirroring of symptoms from the ten areas of life (Fig. 5.4, A-areas), as well as the mirroring of the various trauma causes in the family system (Fig. 5.4, B-areas, in connection with Fig. 2.13). The symptom complexes point to the causes, which we can grasp

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either through Voice Dialogue as inner shapes in detail or through constellation work as existential limit-experiences and their direct consequences: trauma and survival structures. Against the background of what has to be accomplished in the process toward a new center, the strength comes from the combination of Voice Dialogue and constellation work. In the truest sense, it is about practices of externalized introspection that serve the reflection. We will only briefly outline this here to create a first sense of the complexity and variability of the methods: Trauma constellation work is ideally suited for working with the entanglements in the family system, as it can mirror the multi-layered nature of the family system due to its complexity and possibilities for differentiation. On the other hand, the unique potential of Voice Dialogue consists in the direct dialogue with the inner shapes of the individual, which are the reflection and thus also the direct carrier of the influences and entanglements from the family system. Therefore, both methods intertwine, especially since they also start from the same theoretical basis: existential limit-experience, splitting, trauma and survival structures, etc. However, each method’s specific character and merits are largely retained in the spirit of the method temple. Therein lies the synergy and efficiency in the application of these methods. EMI and bodywork are excellently suited to give accompanying impulses to the process on a physical level. Here the wheel of methods closes again.

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Fig. 5.4 Reflection and integration of trauma structures through methods

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References

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References Hillman, J. (1984). Insearch. Spring Publications. Jung, C. G. (1957). Bewußtes und Unbewußtes. Fischer Bücherei. (German original text, translated by the authors.) Reich, W. (1990). Character analysis. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Stone, H., & Stone, S. (1989). Embracing our selves. Nataraj Publishing.

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Practical Guidelines for Trauma Work

6.1

Winning Clients for Trauma Work

After all that has been said, the question remains about how executives and private individuals can be won over for trauma work. At this point, we will give fewer sales tips but more an indication of the attitude and preparation with which coaches should approach their potential clients. Trauma work is work with the soul; therefore, listening and responding to the unconscious parts of the soul plays a decisive role in deciding whether coaching will take place or not.

6.1.1

Appreciation of the Survival Structure

For the survival structure, trauma and the associated existential limit-experience are the most painful events to hide from consciousness. Keeping them hidden is always a protective mechanism, not an attack mechanism, although this could often be interpreted as such by the outside world. After all, aggressive behavior, boundless creative power, or extreme stamina are often the best defense against attacks against the soul, especially for a strong survival structure. In this respect, for a successful collaboration with the client, first of all, “… the survival parts must allow the healthy parts to turn towards the traumatised parts” (Ruppert, 2011, p. 173). This principle applies to trauma work in general and is independent of the person being treated. If the survival parts get in the way, no moving toward the traumatized parts is possible. Then the work cannot succeed, or, in the worst case, it leads to a superficial optimization of the survival structures, which will try to manipulate the work in their sense, solidifying the inner split.

© Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2023 A. N. Riechers and R. Ress, Trauma and Blockages in Coaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-39399-1_6

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To win the trust of the survival parts, we must again clarify their nature. They have ensured the soul’s survival and want to protect us from renewed pain. Thus, a great task falls to them: nothing less than “everything and the whole.” Therefore, it is not some personal quirk, trait, or the like but an original part of our soul without which we could not exist. Survival structures are thus existential structures of the soul. In this awareness, we must approach them in an attitude that they feel taken seriously and reflects their existential force. This attitude focuses on the tension between traumatized parts that long for healing and survival structures that want to preserve the pain of the trauma in the split soul. However, the dynamics between them take place largely unconsciously. Depending on their predominant strength, these adversarial impulses are translated into a yes or a no to conscious work. The soul’s impulse to say “yes” can be favored by the coach primarily through the attitude toward the survival structures. The soul, especially in the form of its survival parts, tests the coach for their ability to hold the topic, and this is what matters in the truest sense of the word (Middle High German “haltan” for “to guard”). Can they guard the soul against harm? Can the survival structure afford to transfer the protective function to the coach for the time of the trauma work? Can they really do the job and endure the unendurable? Is the coach manipulating me? Are they honest? Do they want power over me? Is this coach self-aware, or does their survival structure want to instrumentalize me for its purposes?

6.1.2

The Primacy of the Survival Structure

Top managers and business owners, in particular, have usually come a long way in their professional lives. Many of them have achieved success with great effort and sacrifice. Most have started businesses and created jobs that did not exist before. From an everyday perspective, these things alone could be considered respectable and commendable. Another different view is taken from the perspective of the survival structure, which has ensured that the person has come this far. It has turned psychic hardship into mental virtues that have catapulted the executive to great heights. In this respect, this person owes a great deal to the survival structure. Not only have they survived, but they are now living very well. The survival structure can refer to these facts, creating an outstanding position for its inner status as the supremacy par excellence. In the methodological framework of Voice Dialogue, this power of the soul usually shows itself as a robust inner shape, which can only be met in the same rank order. There is no way around the survival structures. They

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manifest themselves as the unconscious existential attitudes of the client, which take precedence. Since they have ensured survival for a long time, they are the only inner path for the moment, which also determines the outer relationships and behaviors. The coach must see this and be able to accept it for the time being. Questioning the old familiar patterns too hastily can, therefore, quickly lead to resistance or withdrawal from the client.

6.1.3

Taking up the Healing Impulse of the Traumatized Soul

We have already discussed above that the healing impulse of the soul arises from its being strung up between the traumatized parts of the soul and the survival parts. Based on their repetition in always the same patterns, the healthy ego realizes after a certain time that it is going in circles and that there is no positive prospect of fulfilling its needs. In the healthy ego, a small gate “toward trauma structures” opens at this moment. The force of repression is, for a short time, less powerful than the conscious impulse to make visible what is hidden. The coach can use this gate. So that it does not close again immediately, they should consider the following in their attitude and communication: – The survival structure has served the client well in terms of individual progress, and its qualities will be there for the client even after the work is done. – The trauma structure shows up at the level of symptoms, but these are only the surface of a deeper injury of the soul or a deficit. In trauma work, symptoms are, in this respect, valuable signposts and not primarily negative things to be eliminated. Those who fight symptoms hastily and independently from the soul fight the impulses to reveal what the soul wants to show. – The motivation of consciousness must carry the impulse for change, transformation, and healing. This is evident in the naming of the intention by the client and the will to make it visible—the toward-movement, i.e., toward the trauma consequences. – The presence of the healing impulse is indispensable for the work and cannot be wrested from the client by the coach. – The coach helps the client to gain awareness of the inner depth and range of the qualities of their soul. Through the toward-movement of the trauma work, the souls’ potentials that have been overlaid by the consequences of trauma are made visible and available again.

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– In this way, trauma work achieves one of its primary goals: more autonomy for the client. For it is the work with what has been repressed into the unconscious that creates the basis for a much broader freedom than the unreflected consciousness can ever make possible; because the latter stands only again in the service of the survival structures, which grant it just a pseudo-autonomy. Through the integration of the split, more space and unknown possibilities of choice arise for the client outside of the traumatic blockages.

6.1.4

Presenting Openly the Topic of Trauma Work

From the specific objectives of trauma work and the systemic of the soul, all other standards for this particular form of coaching also arise. When we talk about trauma work, we should not be too cautious but create a trusting basis with openness and transparency if possible. The survival parts know whom they are dealing with, and thus it is usually apparent to the coach, at the latest after the initial conversation, whether the work will be accepted or not. Even if the client cannot grasp all the theoretical aspects with their conscious mind, at least the unconscious parts are aware of the scope of the future work. The trained coach also primarily addresses these parts in the client through their attitude. If the survival structures recognize the “holding abilities” of the coach, the traumatized parts of the soul can adjust themselves to becoming visible, and the conscious mind can direct this inner readiness toward specific work with the coach. Here, too, trauma work changes the conventional principles of classical coaching.

6.1.5

Clearly Communicating the Benefits of the Work

The more the benefits or fruits of the work are communicated to the healthy structures, the higher the probability that the work will be accepted profitably. Entrepreneurs and executives pay great attention to the benefits and the outcome of a venture or investment. This cost–benefit consideration is an act of consciousness and, at the same time, an essential element in the presentation of the work. For it is at this point that the healing impulse of the soul can gain force through consciousness. In this process, familiarization with trauma work proceeds in two directions: Consciousness must become the carrier of the work. Without the Pontifex oppositorum, the inner opposites cannot be combined into a new order. The risk

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is calculable if the coach, through their professionalism and attitude, can credibly convey to the survival structures the long-term meaningfulness of this work. The coach then takes their place, and they withdraw, at least temporarily. New offers can only be accepted if it is ensured that the future (inner) order will not lead to deterioration. Therefore, the survival parts will only partially give up their power. Only after a consolidation phase and the certainty that the existing abilities are sufficient to secure survival the next step can be taken. In this respect, the survival structures must first gain confidence in the process. The impulse to work on trauma gains strength through the process and its results, and psychic discernment can unfold. The benefit is access to qualities that were previously inaccessible to consciousness due to the trauma consequences. Integrating these vital qualities into the conscious mind makes the flow of the client’s vital forces stronger than before the work. The survival structures can yield to the compulsion to survive and protect since the client can now do this on their own, thanks to their newly gained consciousness. They see the dangers consciously and can react to them consciously—in this, they are now autonomous, and the inner system can relax. Body and soul take this relaxation into their specific sphere of action and experience. The human being and their effect on their environment relax in their entirety, and concerning a company, this effect unfolds on the entire organizational culture. Thus, the added parts of the soul become a source of new creativity and innovative power.

6.1.6

Ten Practical Aspects of Trauma Work

From what has been said, the most important ten points for the practice of trauma work emerge. They serve as a guideline that has proven extremely helpful in many years of practical testing. 1. Working with trauma is not a work detached from the soul on a particular area of the psyche. It moves, starting from the symptoms, toward deeper interconnections of the inner life of the soul. 2. The general attitude and the knowledge of the systemic of the soul must be powerfully present in the coach because they have only a little time to convince the soul. The client’s soul chooses them, not the other way around. Ideally, at the moment of meeting, there should already be a resonance of the soul. The client reacts to what is there, not what will develop in the coach at some point.

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3. There must be no secret about trauma work because the survival structure would (rightly) expose this “tactic” as a danger of appropriation and abuse of power and would fight it resolutely. 4. The appearance, whether in person or through other communication channels, must already adequately announce the work and explain it clearly and without circumlocution. 5. Clarity is the best salesperson; especially in business coaching, coaches are recommended. Through the way of recommendation, the client already feels whether the coach is the correct one for their intention or not. A convinced soul convinces another soul. 6. Unlike personal coaching, the initial interview in business coaching will generally be conducted in the office or virtual space of the coachee. It is, therefore, the interview that the survival structure has with the coach. They must convince it to give up some of its protection to them in the context of the trauma work. It is not a matter of persuasion, especially since the impulse to work is already there. The goal is to be recognized as a serious and trustworthy partner in the development process. As highly intimate and sensitive work, the trauma work is rarely carried out in the client’s office, unlike in classical coaching. 7. Trauma integration takes precedence over psychological interpretation. Executives are trained to recognize causalities and processual connections. On the client’s part, this can lead to wanting to understand everything immediately. In fact, the contents of the unconscious often reveal themselves only in bits and pieces, so the coach must prepare their client well for enduring not knowing during the trauma work. The focus is on the visualization and integration of split-off parts of the soul. Through them, connections of meaning in one’s life can subsequently become clear. Psychological interpretation and understanding are thus a fruit of trauma work, not its primary goal. 8. Even slight insecurities of the coach should be openly addressed. Overplaying them would be perceived by the client’s unconscious as lacking authenticity. Addressing insecurities may even contribute to a crucial connection with the client’s soul, opening up new spaces. The logic of the survival structure interprets this in a sense that the coach has recognized and even sensed the explosive nature of the issue. However, if the uncertainties are so significant that the coach does not feel up to work, they should not take the case. 9. The coach who is not 100% convinced of trauma work or does it without a firm inner axis cannot succeed with it. They must become the partner of the soul during the companionship. Therefore, before working with trauma,

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it is essential to have completed many of one’s own processes of inner clarification. 10. Duration of the process: The trauma chaining model shows that becoming aware and disentanglement will undoubtedly take some time. In the words of James Hillman, “The soul not only has secrets but is itself a secret …. Secrets shared build trust and trust tames the flight-or-fight problem of distance. No wonder that there is no such thing as short psychotherapy where the soul is fully involved” (Hillman, 1984, pp. 32–33).

6.2

Pros and Cons of Trauma Work

It is part of the nature of the systemic of the soul to consider the soul’s reality as well as its external connections in relationships and organizational structures in their entire scope. It is thus a methodological approach that consistently thinks things through to the end. The question is justified, what would actually happen if we did not decide to work with trauma because there might be reasons against working through traumatic events? Therefore, it should not be concealed that the way to the Pontifex oppositorum is not always easy. In general, we can say that when working with trauma, phases of unaccustomed destabilization are to be expected. Through the confrontation with the existential limit-experience, the repressed is stirred up again and seeps through to the surface of consciousness. Therefore, new reactions may appear in the family or other relationships due to trauma work. For example, what until now only one’s children have lived in an identification now falls back on oneself and thus becomes an issue in the partnership. Structural deficits can become visible in the work environment, and the basis of the prior doing becomes clearer. This can also lead to a sobering question about the venture’s meaningfulness or the certainty of having frequently made the wrong personnel decisions due to unconscious motives. Conversely, it can thus also offer advantages to not engaging in trauma work, which should also be stated quite clearly. One reason for this is that in this way, we are saved from significant changes for a while, especially since it will also “somehow go on” without having to go under right away. In addition, we then do not lose control, which can certainly be lost during trauma work. Especially within the family context, we save ourselves many energy-consuming confrontations. Everything remains more or less under control, i.e., as it has been until now, albeit on a small scale. At the professional level, the usual course of things continues and can, so we think, roll on for a few more years without significant

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changes. Incidentally, leaders do not have to deal with a coach, even with the sometimes (and unfortunately) still prevalent social stigma of being dependent on external help. After all, stability can be supported by other external measures, at least temporarily. But if the encapsulation of the trauma structures by the survival parts then becomes stronger and stronger, and this is the case with advancing time, there are also considerable disadvantages. In detail, they show themselves as drying up energy flow and through negative physical symptoms, which is not primarily a consequence of aging but must be attributed to the increasing armoring of the organism. The immune system, in particular, suffers from the permanent internal stress caused by repression. Life continues its usual course, as do the reenactments of the traumatic events, and the inner experience does not change. The familial unconscious remains untouched and unfolds an even greater force from the depths. This can especially be seen in the children’s actions and inner experiences as they are the carriers of symptoms of the entire family system. The same is valid with the company structure, which by its very nature is rarely questioned. Thus, one continues to attract the same employees and business partners, and the survival structure that characterizes the company logically prevents any real innovation because of its rigidity. However, those who muster energy, courage, and trust toward the coach and set out with them on the path to becoming Pontifex oppositorum will be rewarded. Through integrative work, the switchmen in the unconscious lose their directive function, namely the trauma and survival structures. As a result, the individual can see more, feel more, and experience more. The person can reorient themselves, and it becomes easier for them to leave the old and the outdated. Through the increasing psychic discernment, the range of the healthy ego and its ability to set boundaries with the outside world grows, and the vital force increases again. In the family context, the taboo subjects are no longer concealed, and because one person changes, according to systemic laws, the other system members also react. This brings more closeness, or the paths may also be radically separated. In any case, the unsatisfactory status quo does not remain, but a new space for action is created. In any case, this will be a relief for the children of the family who have unconsciously gone along with it until then. For them, a new space emerges where they can live out more individuality and freedom. The professional environment will also react naturally to the inner movement of the person. New areas of friction, as well as new alliances, show up, which can lead to creative solutions. The changes that have only been thought of up to now will actually be implemented, as the inner room for maneuver has increased significantly and noticeably. The leader’s authenticity grows to the same extent as their ability to

6.3 Responsibility and Aftercare

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set realistic goals and delegate work increases. Finally, due to structural and personnel changes, the corporate culture also changes, and the power of innovation grows significantly. Since the unconscious cause of the blockage is eliminated, the result of the trauma work is impressive in its sustainability.

6.3

Responsibility and Aftercare

Clients and colleagues rightly keep bringing up the issue of aftercare following trauma work. Integrative work can, without question, cause violent emotional swings and emotional outbursts. After all, working with trauma structures brings up from the depths of the unconscious that which has long been hidden or actively fought against. And so it is only now, through the dissolution of encapsulation, that anger, grief, pain, shame, fear, and panic can come to the surface after having been kept repressed in the familial unconscious for years, indeed often for generations. However, their impact out of the repression has then shown up years later in the ten life areas as consequential themes of the splitting. At this point, we are repeating ourselves, but this repetition is necessary because the client must know about this compelling logic of the soul. In turn, this is part of the systemic of the soul, that no energy is lost but only stored in other states, the brain structures, the nervous system, and the muscular armor. Whoever wants to remove the switchman function of the survival structures, whoever is interested in the anima vitalis, must be aware that the integration releases what has been repressed. This may be unpleasant for the client and their environment for a short time because they may even develop resistance to the process during this integration. However, all this cannot be avoided in trauma work because the survival structures and their consequences cannot be integrated outside themselves. Although various therapies and methods pursue this approach, the lack of sustainability of such procedures speaks a clear language. From what has been said, the coach who offers trauma work is responsible for thoroughly informing the client about the possible consequences of integrative work. In turn, the client must actively contact the coach should they feel unable to deal with the emotional fluctuations. A scenario will illustrate how the care of a client can proceed: Client A informs him- or herself about trauma work on coach B’s homepage. There they learn about the principles of trauma work: – Trauma work is based on voluntariness. – The client is responsible for the process. – During the sessions, the coach takes responsibility for the trauma work.

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– If there are vigorous emotional outbursts, it is the client’s responsibility to contact the coach and arrange a follow-up appointment.

References Hillman, J. (1984). Insearch. Spring Publications. Ruppert, F. (2011). Splits in the soul. Green Balloon Publishing.

7

Case Studies

7.1

Case Study: ‘The Common Thread Is Missing’

A self-employed management consultant complained about the lack of stability in his professional and private life. He had come to this conclusion because customers and business partners had been asking him more and more about this lately. Statements like, “What kind of cell phone number do you have now? It’s hard to keep up with you, the way you change it so often!” or “Where do you actually live now?” got him thinking a bit. When he did the math, he came up with 27 moves at the age of 32, and that would be one move every 14 months. Initially, he found the changes and the new places very invigorating and inspiring. In the meantime, however, he realizes that after a certain amount of time, he can’t help but must leave. It now seems to him more like an inner turmoil or restlessness, but he doesn’t know where it comes from. Now that customers and business partners also recognize this, still friendly but with proper background, he is afraid that this could be interpreted negatively as unsteadiness. As a businessman, he also has to show a certain consistency, which his customers expect and look for in him. When asked about his unsteadiness, he also remarked that he had always found it challenging to commit to one topic. He tried many things but abandoned most of them after initial enthusiasm. This applied to professional ventures as well as personal relationships. One of his former bosses once told him, “You’re a good man, but somehow there’s no common thread.” This sentence has stuck in his memory, and somehow it has not changed until today. Above all, he would like to finally find his field of professional activity to mature there with all his abilities to stable greatness, personally and economically. However, he fears that he will

© Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2023 A. N. Riechers and R. Ress, Trauma and Blockages in Coaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-39399-1_7

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soon drop everything again to start the next thing. Then, however, he would start from scratch again, and meanwhile, he felt that time was running out for him. In a constellation, the whole unconscious scope of the case became apparent. The client’s mother left his African father when he was six weeks old. Since then, he has never seen his father again. The father’s genealogy revealed scenes and images of violence and rejection. After the first trauma constellation, the client searched for his father and found him in Spain; after more than 33 years, the father and son saw each other for the first time. The father was able to confirm all the images of the constellation and give further background information. He was from Equatorial Guinea, and he and his entire family were displaced from there during the civil war. He had to watch the tragedy from afar as a young student in Madrid and could not help. His father and uncle lost their lives. The family’s considerable land holdings were annexed. His mother had died of a broken heart far from home. All of the father’s siblings live scattered around the globe. After further constellations and Voice Dialogue sessions, it turned out that the client was connected to his African grandfather through his biological father and his entangled parts. The “being on the run” was mirrored in clear images. Therefore, the client could not find peace and followed the principle of “quickly move on again before they get you.” This flight, which ended fatally for the grandfather and his brother, was suspended in timelessness and shows now up as the basic pattern in almost all areas of life. In this case, unsteadiness was the soul’s survival pattern because standing still at that time would have led to certain death. Transferred to the client’s life, constancy could not be an accepted inner quality because in the reality of the soul, i.e., for his survival parts, it meant danger in itself. The flight reactions had penetrated the nervous system in such a way that they meant something like a pre-programming (imprint, according to Arthur Janov) in the client because, after all, the client had carried the shock loads of his grandfather and father. The whole body tissue was affected, so several sessions with bodywork and EMI were necessary to bring the neuronal networks back into balance. Almost simultaneously, the client felt a significant relaxation and was more comfortable with what he was doing and where he was doing it. He could now concentrate better and more persistently on solving problems in his current projects. In addition, many ideas and skills he had collected in the past are now coming together. This helps him greatly in his current job, where he now also sees a much longer perspective.

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Case Reflection and Consequences Autonomy 27 Moves are a recognizable pattern related to 32 years of life. A compulsion can already be discovered in the frequency. Phenomenologically, we are at level II— the splitting consequences, repeated as a pattern: the client cannot do differently. The patterns repeat themselves in love, choice of partner, profession, circle of friends, etc. So, there is a constant reenactment of the traumatic event. What is missing is also a pattern: The client permanently does not find his vocation, and the common thread is missing. In all this, the client is not autonomous. The movement “away from” is compulsive, and the client cannot use his very qualities to create his domain. Through arriving at a certain point, the escape pattern activates itself again, as arriving is equated by the soul with being unable to get away. Transgenerational Trauma The case shows that trauma is multigenerational. Due to the entanglement with the parents, they can remain present in the family system for several generations. As this case demonstrates very impressively, imprinting through upbringing does not matter. Perpetrator-Victim Dynamics The client himself had already abruptly left some of his former business partners. A similar situation had occurred with relationships with women whom he left overnight. The causal trauma caused victims (the grandfather, the great uncle, the father, etc.) and ended in chaotic situations for the father’s family of origin. The client’s mother fled from the parental home experienced as “narrow and bourgeois,” which left her with “no air to breathe.” However, by abruptly withdrawing the child from the father, she became a perpetrator. The client also carried these perpetrator-victim dynamics within himself throughout his life. Thus, his victim part sought salvation and redemption in professional and private relationships, while his perpetrator part abruptly ended these relationships in each case. Resources The resources to achieve his goal of “Finding my domain and achieving consistency” could never have come from outside but are timelessly bound to the original traumatic experience. The qualities, knowledge, and skills, therefore, primarily serve the survival structure. Only the integration and meaningful resolution of the trauma create the space for one’s autonomous activities, and in this

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respect, only now can one find one’s domain. Advice and courses like “Finding your inner center” or “Finally coming to rest” would be dangerous distractions for the survival structure, which would have been cleverly bypassed. The space for one’s center is never abstract, but it takes place within the lines of the soul. Here, the client’s room was at most possible in the constantly occurring movement “away from” so that his consciousness translated it into, “This is just how I am.” The Survival Structure and Its Professional Qualities The client’s professional strengths were oriented solely to his survival structure. His strengths consisted of “troubleshooting,” which required speed and activism. Since he did not permanently perform any activity or subject, he had excellent general knowledge, but it did not go into depth. For the “firefighting,” it was enough to complete 80% of the task, but it was difficult for the client to complete the jobs. So, before clarifying the details, he had already started new projects and finished the old ones. This is another situation where project management seminars or cognitiveimaginative approaches would not have brought any improvement. The inability to complete work 100% is unconsciously tied to the traumatic event as a trauma consequence. Only its integration into the conscious ego slowly releases the qualities necessary to bring things calmly to the end. Sustainability and Innovation At the end of this case study, we can now easily see how much trauma work has to do with sustainability and innovativeness. Without the common thread, that is, one’s own domain, consistency in the sense of sustainability is not possible. Innovative strength is to be understood as an individual ability to leave old paths to tread new ones consciously. In this respect, innovative strength is not an abstract concept. It is an active toward-movement without away-from dynamics. It is thus a visible part of the newly won autonomy, personified in conscious, non-traumatized parts of the self. Innovative power is, therefore, bound to the healthy ego and, thus, part of the vital force of the soul.

7.2

Case Study: ‘It’s All Far Too Easy!’

In an individual session, an up-and-coming manager in the automotive industry introduced himself. He reported that his life was successful on the outside. He was already leading a privileged life in his mid-thirties and had quickly moved up

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the career ladder. While other colleagues, who have double or triple the professional experience, still face insurmountable problems with many tasks, everything comes very easily to him. In the following sentence, he corrects himself, “Everything is much too easy. And that can’t be normal, can it?” Looking back, he also notices that he almost always proved himself in nearly hopeless situations. “It was somehow always extreme. In production abroad with bad machines and untrained personnel, riding a racing motorcycle, in the army as part of a special unit,” he says. “It was just always a little wilder than normal.” As he says this, he smiles proudly and mischievously. In his private life, he has had only brief relationships since his divorce a few years ago. Most relationships with the ladies did not go beyond an affair. He seems very attractive to others but has noticed that he gets bored more quickly and ends the relationship disinterestedly. The desire to have a family is already there, but the job and the associated travels around the world do not allow this at the moment. He could not and did not want to get out of this jet-set life now. However, he searched for coaching because these extremes were beginning to seem scary, and he was also gradually falling prey to professional boredom. Together with the client, the intention was formulated as, “I would like to look at the part that compulsively seeks the extreme.” Since the inner voice that finds extremes attractive and worth mentioning was already very present, we first started with a Voice Dialogue. The corresponding inner shape showed up immediately without any ado and with striking nonchalance, chalking up all the client’s extreme achievements as it did. When asked about its limits, it reacted extremely evasively and often illogically. After a short time of dialogical togetherness, it was clear that this inner part knew no boundaries. It was all about playing. Everything was a game: work, leisure, people. This part was also energetically room-filling and charismatic, the latter in a quite charmingly manipulative way. Back in the starting position, the client was visibly impressed and slightly confused by the gambler mentality of his inner part. In the second position, the absolute opposite was revealed. A gentle and very sedate voice spoke. Extremes were foreign to it. According to its statements, it had started the first marriage, but the first voice had ended it. Its spatial quality was present but far from being comparable to the first voice. It seemed to be entirely behind at the moment. It showed itself in flaring up feelings for women, mainly for those who have a difficult fate. In this, it was pretty serious, but before it could come to a more profound encounter, the first voice always “takes over.” The Voice Dialogue was followed by a constellation work that led to the historical context of the first voice. The client’s grandfather lost his sight to a Russian sniper during World War II. As the eldest son with three other siblings, he would

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have been entitled to the parental sawmill as an inheritance, but as a “returned cripple,” the estate was distributed to the “able-bodied” younger brothers. It was evident that the client had taken over the split-off part of the grandfather, who had split off the grief for the lost “duel” and all its consequences. From this emerged an extreme survival structure that compensatorily defeated everything that stood in its way. The client’s body presented itself with a solid head, neck, back, and chest armor that could be released with bodywork. Until the moment of recognition of the grandfather’s suffering, it took long physical interventions indicative of the dimension of split-off pain and grief. The client reports that since his teenage years, he increasingly sought games and duels from which he always emerged as the winner. He says that even work is such a permanent game with colleagues, clients, auditors, etc. He simply mastered this game without having to think much about it. And he is still very popular with everyone, almost idolized. Several family members have already noticed the outward resemblance to his grandfather. He now looks more and more like him; even the eyes and hairstyle resemble each other. However, he had never really noticed this before. In addition, his grandfather had already died when he was one year old. The final picture of the constellation work showed the client very impressively that he wanted to win every possible duel on behalf of his grandfather. It could never be lost again because otherwise, you lose everything! The inner voice that emerged from this had increasingly taken on a life of its own, constantly seeking opportunities to reenact the traumatizing event in the pacified world. The gentle qualities necessary for interpersonal relationships of any kind no longer had a chance to show themselves. Charm was only superficial and was put in the service of winning. As a result, it was hardly possible for profound relationships to mature. At the same time, the deep attachment to the grandfather even showed up in the client’s physiognomy. His two brothers, in fact, tend to “go to the other side of the family.” Just a few weeks later, the client reported an utterly new balance in his professional and private life. Many colleagues at work had already asked him if something was different about him because he seemed so balanced. He is now also better able to reach his employees and colleagues, who find working with him much more pleasant. Case Reflection and Consequences Survival structures follow only one logic—the purpose of survival. Here, the leitmotif is based on the experiences the soul has had in the existential limitexperience. In this case: “Victory at any price!”, “Everything is a duel!”, and

7.3 Case Study: ‘For the Sake of Peace’

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“One must never lose the duel!” The entire intelligence and interpersonal qualities are put in the service of the survival structure. In this way, a character is formed, which does not belong to the client, but the client belongs to it. Only the detachment from the identification with the grandfather paves the way for a self of one’s own and a life concept beyond the rigid patterns of the survival parts. The horrors of the Second World War continue to hold the following generations in their spell.

7.3

Case Study: ‘For the Sake of Peace’

An entrepreneur complained about his hesitant attitude in business negotiations. He was quite eloquent and self-confident, but when it came to money, he lost his patience too quickly and became afraid and panicked that he would lose the contract. Then he always agrees far too soon to the conditions of the contractual partner and is later annoyed about the poor conditions he “negotiated.” During these “negotiations,” physical reactions and extreme doom scenarios flood him. The client wishes for the future to be able to represent his points of view without fear but with self-confidence to create value. He could no longer afford to sell himself short in this way. He believes that this behavior has something to do with his mother. She is also too quick to do favors for everyone and then gets angry afterward. During the first Voice Dialogue session, the symbiotic part of the mother was worked with. The inner shape connected with it confirmed the vehemence and the priority of the motto, “Always be friendly and courteous, say please and thank you. If you are like that, you will get through life well. Quarrels should be avoided; it is better to give in, not to contradict.” The inner shape doesn’t really know why this is so, “It is just the way it is.” And yes, it only knows it that way, “If you do it long enough and often enough, people will like you. That’s the way it must be!” At the beginning of the second session, the client reported that he was very impressed by the immediacy that his mother’s voice had in him. He had not been aware of this until then. It triggered a deeper reflection on his family system. He now recalled the sentences of his grandfather, from whom he also knew these beliefs. This was followed by a report about the young grandfather’s war experiences: At the end of the war, the young soldier of the Wehrmacht was arrested by the Russian troops and locked up in a prison camp. Death was going around there every day. The captured soldiers died of malnutrition, diseases, and the sadistic games of the guards. But the grandfather had a gift for making friends. Unlike

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others, he could always keep a straight face even under these conditions. This earned him the friendship of the camp doctor. He made it possible to escape from the camp, hidden among the corpses on the transport carriage. In his later life, too, he was always a correct and courteous person for whom respect from those around him was essential. In conflict situations, he would say, “You must always swim along in the current somehow, say yes there and yes here, and do not stand out so much, then you can do what you want at home. For the sake of peace, say yes once more than no.” Seemingly as a side symptom, the grandfather has built the highest fence in the neighborhood. While the others had the usual 1.20-m-high fence, the one made by the grandfather rose to the proud height of 2.50 m. But that was not all; behind the fence stood six-meter-high thuja trees planted opaque. It was his retreat, in both the direct and figurative sense of the word: a paradise of encapsulation, where all activities were shifted to the inside. After this description, the Voice Dialogue with the client revealed the part connected with the grandfather. Sitting huddled on the floor, he spoke with a blank look about the experiences of his imprisonment that had matured in him. Only here did the sentences take on an immediate meaning, “If you look someone askance or even unkindly in the eye just once here, you will get nothing or even garbage to eat the next day. And that will be your end. Just one wrong tone or failed greeting seals your fate!” In the consolidation, the whole load was, “I must not disagree!” Starting from this weighty phrase, EMI was performed with the client, and after three rounds, the shock load was significantly reduced. The bodywork revealed muscular cramps in the lower limbs, which could be released by a strong pressure impulse, and thus the frozen vital force began to flow. It made itself visible to the client, especially by hot solid flushes and sweating. The shock energy, which after over 70 years was now released representatively in the grandson, could be added again to the healthy ego. It could be freed from the pre-formedness of the grandfather’s existential limit-experience. The friendliness of the client remained as a quality but was now supported by a newly won impartiality and sovereignty. Negotiations since then have gone completely differently and to the client’s benefit. Case Reflection and Consequences The existential limit-experience, i.e., the experience at the edge between life and death, is imprinted over generations and leaves its mark on the body and nervous system of the children and children’s children. Without relating the symptoms to the existential limit-experience and its historical context, we can neither sustainably solve the shock load nor integrate the split. This case shows that trauma

7.4 Case Study: ‘Clarity Before Harmony’

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integration can only take place in the body itself, not outside of it. It is also a case that shows how the Second World War affects people’s aspirations and experiences in the present day, as consequential topics of the splitting of the soul. Its transgenerational force is unbroken.

7.4

Case Study: ‘Clarity Before Harmony’

A 40-year-old executive in the leisure industry wants to work on his leadership qualities in a business coaching session. According to his concerns, he finds it challenging to make clear announcements. He is primarily concerned that the atmosphere in the team is right. If everyone feels good, then the results are also good. However, since the organization is constantly growing, more process and structural decisions must be made. According to the client, business is becoming more impersonal. The specific blockage was that he was avoiding these decisions or delaying them for a long time, which led to complications with the management and also to displeasure among the employees. This displeasure puts him under additional stress since harmony in the team is very important to him, and he does not want to play the “ice-cold manager.” There must be another way. It has also become clear to him that clarity must come before harmony. After a constellation work, it became apparent that the client’s mother had basically never argued. She had not been accepted by the client’s grandmother but was given to her sister as a one-year-old baby. To this day, the client’s mother is rejected by her biological mother. The client showed strong pelvic distortions and high sensitivity in the tissues of the inner thigh. After releasing the blockages in these tissue structures, the mother’s fate was experienced from her perspective for the first time. How much must the mother have suffered from not being accepted? How great must have been the longing for the mother’s attention? How great is the pain held back in the body? The client could perceive the mother’s inner experience, her despair, and the feeling of being rejected as an entangled part. After that, the dialogical togetherness was conducted in Voice Dialogue with the following leading voices: the carrier of harmony, the part that gets under stress, the part that is symbiotically entangled with the mother, and two other secondary voices. It turned out that the own (compulsive) harmony was a reparation for the mother’s experiences, “Look, it works! It can all be so beautiful if you only want it to be!” To break with harmony would then mean breaking with the mother and rejecting her again. The client grew up with this concept of the soul. Due to her childhood deficits, his thoroughly loving mother could not pass on qualities of healthy self-assertion and enduring dissent. Unconsciously,

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behaviors of this kind were answered with the victim role of the mother, for which the environment then had to take on the part of the perpetrator involuntarily. This condition found its compensation in harmony. Thus, harmony gained priority over clarity. The essential attitude of the client’s soul, “harmony before clarity,” condensed into belief systems, could be integrated with two EMI cycles. The increased awareness of his entanglement in the mother’s fate led to the ability of the soul to discern between harmony as a quality and the wounding of the mother’s soul by the failed acceptance of the grandmother. Only now could the obsessive character of harmony become a controlled quality. In the final Voice Dialogue round, the voice of clarity finally showed itself “as if awakened from sleep.” This dialogue aimed to integrate the parts of the soul and the psychic discernment more firmly into the consciousness and to make them accessible as resources. Case Reflection and Consequences Movement-Oriented Coaching Before the trauma work, the client had no real alternative to his previous management behavior, which shied away from conflicts and “hard decisions.” There was only the pair of opposites shaped by the existential limit-experience “harmony or ice-cold manager.” The ice-cold managers are thereby projections of the ice-cold grandmother who gave away her child and has not acknowledged it to this day. The supposed goal, “It should go well with the team!” is already preformed by the switchman, which is the mother’s trauma experience. The movement-oriented trauma work explored the foundation of the soul for the specific leadership behavior and released the qualities of clarity that were held frozen by the survival structures. Solution-Oriented Coaching Solution-oriented coaching can now build on this inner movement to address specific challenges in everyday business life. Since the transgenerational existential limit-experience is now integrated, the goals and specific behaviors can adapt more and more to the actual circumstances in the sense of objectivity. In this way, a sustainable and transparent leadership style emerges, which can use the qualities of “harmony” and “clarity” for its goals in a balanced way. Both are now no longer mutually exclusive in the inner experience. As a result, the team’s satisfaction and performance increase because the leader shapes the corporate culture from top to bottom. The case demonstrates the effects that the systemic of the soul can have in business coaching.

7.5 Case Study: ‘I’m Here Too!’

7.5

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Case Study: ‘I’m Here Too!’

The boss and owner of a well-running restaurant wants to make his communicative blockages a topic for coaching. He finds it difficult to communicate his point of view and emotions in business and private. This is also significant in his personal life, as he runs the restaurant with his Brazilian wife. He could hardly separate private and business matters since he made the most important agreements with her anyway. He finds it particularly difficult to articulate his points of view clearly in disputes and conflict situations. He then always needs much time before he can show a reaction. Concerning business partners, he also finds it difficult to announce “tough decisions.” He can formulate them, but after a short time, self-doubt sets in, and in the end, he again places the blame on himself. His Brazilian wife, in particular, in whose culture emotions play an essential role, finds it very difficult to deal with his behavior and slowness in emotional reactions. As a result, the disputes increased because she put him under so much pressure that he no longer said anything. The debates then smoldered for several days, which, of course, also influenced the restaurant’s atmosphere and the leadership of the staff. For his wife, it was clear that “the case” must have something to do with the relationship with his father. The client himself had two much older brothers and an older sister. He had been the “straggler.” When he was nine, his mother died in the garage due to carbon monoxide poisoning. The father portrayed the event as an accident, although all indications had pointed to suicide. The mother had gone through long periods of depression before her death, and there had been terrible fights between her, the pubescent children, and the father almost every day. The mother was definitely “no angel” during the conflicts. Today, the siblings would completely ignore this by blaming the father alone. The contact between him and the older brothers and sisters had broken entirely off. In the meantime, the father has a new wife, with whom, in his own words, “he has been living together longer than with any other wife.” The client’s mother came from a small town in Austria. Her mother abandoned her at the age of two. Her father had then found a new wife and “loving substitute mother” for her. The client’s father, in turn, came from an old-established family in Austria. He was also the youngest in the “clan.” He had been a bit of a favorite of his grandfather, who had always chauffeured him in his “new car.” At 15, he left the parental farm, which included a sawmill and a large agricultural area, to pursue an education in the nearby town. Being a very fun-loving person, he soon had a relationship with a girl “of the lower class.” The non-public union resulted in an illegitimate child. Since the father did not want to marry the girl,

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this led to a heavy conflict with the parental home. This “scandal” literally broke the grandfather’s heart. Later, the client’s father spoke only badly about his family of origin. He was also severely disadvantaged in terms of inheritance. While the sawmill and the land went to the older siblings, he received only a tiny house. From the very beginning, the father did not approve of the client’s relationship with his Brazilian wife. The client should decide, “Either the Brazilian family or us!” If he chose the former, he would not have to return. Although there was no rupture, family meetings were always tense because the father repeatedly made derogatory remarks about Latin American culture. The wife had then wished for more support from her husband, but he had hardly succeeded in standing up to the father. He often felt dizzy and found it difficult to concentrate. The client had already been a member of a constellation group for several months before the coaching session and explained that he could now clearly see his family system in front of him and could at least intellectually distinguish the different areas from one another. The intention of the first session, however, was to “get back into the feeling” since he had no direct access to emotions in the form of emotional reactions. He was, therefore, occasionally entirely beside himself. Since, as a result of the constellation work, he understood the scope of his intention, at least “intellectually,” we first decided on bodywork as the supporting method. Muscular tensions were clenching in the lower lumbar region. The heart region was heavily armored over the chest and laterally over the arms and back. With each session of bodywork, more and more sensations and memories came back to him. The client kept having severe hot flashes during the bodywork and was usually wet with sweat by the end of the session. In the following session, he described the pattern of arguments and the course of everyday conversations with his father. He monologues a lot, and it always seems to him “as if there is a wall between them.” He would then like to answer or counter something, but the dizziness and flooding with feelings would not let him find words. In the meantime, the father also talks much more about the fact that he may have made mistakes. However, it had not yet come to an honest discussion. It turned out that the client could remember almost no details from the time immediately after the death of his mother. The complete inner experience of this period was as if erased. Another round of bodywork on the muscles under the scapula and the periosteum on the upper ribs to the side led to a recovery of memories. He was mainly home alone with his father at the time. The older siblings had either already moved out or visited only sporadically. He had behaved rather inconspicuously during this time and had withdrawn to his

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room, e.g., to “record cassettes.” The father had liked that after all the difficult times, he had not caused him grief but had been problem-free in this respect. The client now realized that out of loyalty and for the good of the father, he had renounced his own needs for mourning and living out his incomprehension about the death of the mother. He had not dared to be a burden to his father in addition to his siblings. However, it had been the same then as it is now, and even then, he could not say this one sentence to his father, no matter how much he wanted to, “I’m still here, too!” In a final EMI session, the client’s split-off inner experience was reintegrated with this phrase. He could then see the full extent of his involuntary emotional abandonment. Since then, he has been able to feel access to his own needs, although his wife initially reacted with irritation to his direct emotional reactions. In the restaurant, he senses an improvement in the working atmosphere. Above all, there is no longer any self-doubt about the correctness of his points of view. This had always been very energy-consuming in the past. Case Reflection and Consequences The case demonstrates well the advantages of the body-oriented approach in trauma work. The client had already been in a constellation group for several months, but still, he could not get into his feeling. Alexander Lowen, a student of Wilhelm Reich and founder of Bioenergetics, writes in this context: “To suppress a feeling, one has to dampen or restrict the aliveness or motility of the body. Thus, the effort of suppressing one feeling is to diminish all feeling” (Lowen & Lowen, 1977, p. 104). In this respect, the non-feeling is primarily a bodily function enforced by muscular armoring. Survival structures map functionally identically into body, mind, and soul. Integration must happen at the level where the trauma consequences have manifested—in this case, at the physical level. Especially in family businesses, the separation between private and business is hardly possible. Business coaching without private topics can primarily refer to optimizing survival structures. However, sustainable changes cannot occur if this artificial separation is maintained.

7.6

Case Study: ‘Don’t Become an Ice-Cold Stone’

The client recently took over her parents’ well-running delicatessen business. Even before and during the handover process, there were repeated heated disagreements, especially between her and her mother, about how the company should be run. These disputes escalated during the succession process, making it

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almost impossible to work together in the office. Escalations could break out at any time over any little thing, and factual disputes became very personal after a little while. It was always the same pattern: The daughter did not appreciate what the parents had done for her; she was ungrateful. And the mother presented this with “shocking malice.” When the client did something well or wanted to please her mother, she could not even be heartily pleased. Also, the father would regularly get “his just deserts.” There are then always mischievous jibes, which the father, however, periodically acknowledges with silence. In the office, where the parents still help part-time, these parental disputes also lead again and again to discord between daughter and mother. For the daughter, her mother’s spitefulness is unbearable. She then no longer pays attention to the arguments but reacts to the “bossy loud tone.” Afterward, however, she can hardly remember the content of the discussions. She already has a deep-seated fear of reacting similarly toward her coworkers. The first signs were that employees had already pointed out her “brusque and cool manner” in stressful situations. She is then no longer accessible to arguments and keeps her distance. The client formulated her goal as wanting to get along better with her mother. Ultimately, she wanted to avoid ending up as an “ice-cold stone” herself. Such a pattern was already evident in her personal relationships, and men could not cope with her “strong nature.” In the first constellation work, the field of malice appeared in the form of the grandmother “Frida.” She was the mother’s mother and had always been the grandma who “didn’t let anything get by.” While the grandfather had always been funny, the grandmother only stood out because of her severity. The client now remembers that a cardboard wall in her grandparents’ bedroom was placed in the middle of the marital bed. As a teenager, she had already asked her mother what such a thing was good for. From the very cryptic answers, she concluded for herself that the wedding night, during which her aunt was conceived, must have been a “cruel and brutal” experience for her grandmother. Subsequent bodywork revealed severe back and neck armoring. Furthermore, the client found it difficult to see clearly. After briefly innervating the affected zones through bodywork, the entire inner experience of the grandmother was present in the client and condensed into the phrase, “Let me out of here!” This weighty phrase was then integrated during two EMI series. The client’s tension eased significantly, and the phrase changed to, “I’m out.” To strengthen the client’s psychic ability to discern, the following Voice Dialogue session looked at malice as an inner shape. It showed up as a sullen and taciturn shape who felt misunderstood all in all. It arose from the historical context of the grandmother and was a protective power. To preserve one’s

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own will and never again allow the choice of others to be imposed on it was its goal, which it has successfully pursued ever since. Its fundamental belief is, “Nobody wants anything good for me!” It doesn’t take that client in the chair seriously. She just wants to get rid of her but does not understand that it is there for her protection. The client would have gone under long ago if it were not there. The client was shocked by the attitude of this inner shape. Since she was now visibly upset, we decided to do an EMI series with the load of the phrase, “No one wants to do me any good!” The client realized she had inherited this phrase from her female ancestors, first and foremost her mother, who suspected calculation or manipulation behind every action, especially in business. The client often encounters this phrase, especially when employees make suggestions to her. Then she also quickly doubts their intentions, which could be behind it. In principle, it was clear to her that they only had good intentions, but she quickly “shuts down” on this point, especially in stressful situations. After the EMI series, the client still had physical blockages, making it difficult for her to see clearly and breathe freely. However, a few physical interventions could release the neck and upper chest blockage. During the bodywork, compulsive thoughts kept setting in for the client. These thoughts would virtually shut down the physical flooding she described as her helplessness. Her mind would shout then, “You must go through this now!” The same inner voice then became the subject of another Voice Dialogue. The corresponding inner shape showed up as the force of transgenerational repression, which had no connection to malice. Forgetting always sets in exactly when flooding begins. Forgetting simply erases the memories of it. If it did not do this, the client would not have had a beautiful and carefree childhood, nor would she have been able to maintain her lightheartedness. In dialogical togetherness, this protectiveness was explicitly praised. However, the facilitator told the shape that the client’s lightheartedness was already tarnished. By forgetting, she could not reflect thoroughly on a situation. Since what was to be reflected on had been erased, no lessons could be learned from the experience. Finally, it, i.e., the inner shape, is unintentionally the motor of the “downfall of lightness.” For the client increasingly falls into brooding and “can’t get things together in her head.” With this newfound awareness, the inner force of repression could persuade itself to limit its activities to everyday things. It had no interest in the client losing her ease. The client reported slight improvements in her work environment in the following session. She could work until about three o’clock in the afternoon, but from then on, brooding and not thinking set in again. Both occur alternately,

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with the consequence that she can no longer concentrate. Sometimes she “catches” herself playing on her cell phone; in these moments, she gets very angry with herself and feels guilty. She just kind of escapes from reality and can’t stop it herself. In the Voice Dialogue, the force of repression showed up again, this time very close with the hands on the client’s shoulders. It had to protect her, which was best achieved by switching off the thoughts; it saved her from flooding, an even greater force that could put everything “in danger.” The client herself now spoke for the first time of the previous force as “my protector.” She had known it for a long time but was less and less in agreement with the consequences of its actions. She now finally wanted to know what it was protecting her from. She knew “we hadn’t gotten to the core yet.” With this motivation, the client placed herself in the field behind the protective shape. She could hardly stand in this field, it felt heavy, and in principle, she felt only indifference here. She could not feel her body at all. After a few impulses on the physical level, the client reacts with solid resistance. Angrily she shouts, “I don’t want to be a victim anymore!” This weighty phrase, which belonged to the transgenerational field, was integrated with EMI and bodywork. During the process, the client also said, “Now I see them all, the perpetrators and victims in my family. It’s been going on forever, even in business. Sometimes I dish it out and don’t feel anything anymore. Then I can’t help it either. But now I don’t want it anymore!” At the end of the Voice Dialogue, “the protector” showed itself with more distance and composure. It now trusted the client much more. The client became aware of how much the chaos and coldness of feeling due to the ancestral experiences had taken hold of her. She could now imagine listening more to her inner voice. Her “fear of the core” had now disappeared. Case Reflection and Consequences Voice Dialogue was the leading method for promoting the client’s ability of psychic discernment. The case demonstrates the importance of knowing one’s landscape of the soul during the integration of trauma. It is an internal system with a clear power hierarchy, i.e., there are influential and less influential inner shapes, but they all relate to each other within this power complex. Some shapes are already the consequence of existential limit-experiences and are thus associated with them. We do not get to the core without connecting to the existential limit-experience. The adopted attitudes and weighty phrases of the ancestors were already consequences of the consequences of existential limit-experiences of the ancestors. The client was entangled by birth in the family system and formed this way

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with these leitmotifs of the soul. Initially, however, perpetrator-victim dynamics already permeated the entire system. The powerful force of transgenerational repression is the protective wall against flooding by these destructive dynamics. It is a force in the unconscious that, by virtue of repression, is also the source of equally powerful resistance. The resistance here showed itself in the shutting down of thinking and feeling. In this respect, the complementary bodywork was the means of overcoming non-feeling, which is functionally identical to resistance. Things were not supposed to become perceptible and visible. Having arrived at her feeling again, the client could break through to the “true core”—the perpetrator-victim dynamics.

7.7

Case Study: ‘I’m Not up for Sales’

A manager in the telecommunications industry was encouraged by his boss to undergo business coaching. He was recommended to get more leadership skills and learn to delegate more. The boss was afraid, he said, that he would lose too much energy trying to “take things over.” Instead, he said, he needs to learn to delegate and be willing to set up a structure “under him.” During the first interview, the client confirmed his boss’s development goals. He would be happy to have less involvement in operations because more tasks have been added so far. After a short time, the manager, who was currently the company’s official head of sales, stated that he actually “wasn’t up for sales.” The fact that he was in this position developed somewhat historically, he said, because he was good at the job. He is good at dealing with customers and negotiating on behalf of the company. In the meantime, however, he is more interested in working more strategically. He wants to be more of an entrepreneur. What has prevented him from doing so up to now is a lack of focus. He finds it difficult to take the time to make the big decisions or to tackle them. He often gets caught up in small things and expressly agrees with his boss. He can handle the fast business of everyday sales perfectly. However, he fails to do the big things, they are postponed, and somehow, he shifts them around in front of himself. He also keeps finding good excuses not to tackle these strategic things. In the first regular session, the client reports that he also found it difficult at first to describe his “big” ideas to the head of the company without mincing words. In the meantime, he had gotten the hang of it, but it was never straightforward, but it had to be shaped in such a way that the boss believed that the ideas came from him. There is also a general insecurity in him since he does not know where the boss wants to lead the company. Although he is in a key

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position, the boss, as the company’s owner, naturally holds the reins. Although he dominates the operational business, he does not want to abuse his power to achieve his goals. Since the client’s uncertainty about the boss’s motives seemed to be the strongest blockage regarding his development goal, we first conducted a constellation. The client’s intention referred to “the difficult conversations with the boss.” It turned out that the client had perceived the boss as a “superior power.” This superior power, in turn, was already evident in the client’s family system in the form of his father. It had emerged as a debilitating threat in the historical context of the client, where he was about three years old, watching his father physically abusing his mother. The client had repressed this event but could recall the scenes during the constellation and confirm the experience of the representative. The traumatized childlike part was visibly frozen and tense. This split-off part was subsequently reintegrated with an EMI session, as the client could formulate his situation in the weighty phrase, “It’s too much!” In the following session, we worked again on the part that was “getting in the way.” Since this part had already taken a clear and dominant shape in the client’s life, Voice Dialogue was the most appropriate method. The corresponding inner shape showed up as a personified superior power—congruent with the experiences from the constellation. There was neither space nor recognition for the client. In principle, it made fun of the client’s aspirations. After some dialogical togetherness, it even pointed to a second force with which it was “successfully” cooperating. This second inner shape introduced itself as the fear in the client. It receives signals from the superior power when the client wants to move on his tracks and paints them with fear. This shape doesn’t have any clue what’s behind these pictures, but it can fill the images so that the client is paralyzed at the end and abandons his plan. That is all it does, and it has always worked brilliantly so far. Returning to the initial chair, the client was very impressed with the “paralyzing dynamic” he could perceive within himself through Voice Dialogue. After about two weeks, the client reported severe fatigue, which made him fall asleep between 8 and 9 pm. He was then as if switched off. By attempting to address the shape of fatigue, it became apparent that it was only a purely physical condition without a personal character. However, starting from it, a new aspect became visible in the client, which showed itself as the inner shape of clarity. It was of an energetic quality that the client had not noticed before: calm, serene, and at the same time, very self-confident. After minutes of dialogical togetherness, it turned out that this shape had just awoken from its sleep. It would support the client in important decisions. However, it was up to him to listen to it. It does not speak in a loud voice, but one has to come and listen.

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However, another voice is louder and shriller and to which the client currently listens more. The “opponent” of calm clarity is personified impatience. It is fast and always has practical ideas to solve things quickly. It is responsible for the operational stuff. It drives the client because he could not survive the daily sales routine without it. It has no problems with clarity as long as things get done. There are only problems with people who are not interested in solutions and slow them down. It was pleasant for the client to realize that he had this quality. However, it became even more apparent to him that providing a healthy mix of calmness and activity was up to him. The parts consistently fulfill only one function, but he is responsible for creating the balance. As a check—in comparison to the initial situation—we again questioned the inner shape that stood in the way as a superior power. However, it now no longer appeared as standing in the way but more transformed as a calm force. It was the starting point before important decisions. With it, the client reads a book and spends time only with himself, without a goal or purpose. The shape remembers that a long time ago, it had already recharged its batteries with energy and inspiration in this way. During the final session, the client presented his plan for a job as a managing director. In an organizational constellation, we checked his organizational chart and the roles to be filled for compatibility and blockages. Later, the boss accepted the results of this session and initiated all the actions to create the new position. Case Reflection and Consequences The case impressively shows how important it is for the coach to know whom we are dealing with when coaching. Without Voice Dialogue, we cannot recognize that it is an unconscious survival structure facing us. This inner shape is more than immune to reflections, advice, and tips regarding leadership, strategy, management, etc. It enters resistance as soon as it comes to the “big things.” This is because it is still under the spell of the existential limit-experience from the client’s childhood. The vital force, as creativity and problem-solving skills, was overlaid with the underlying sentiment of the existential limit-experience, “Don’t move! It’s too big and powerful for you.” So, what got in the way was the shape of the shock load of the traumatic experience. The inner experience was triggered by the boss, who, in turn, celebrated his power for other reasons. Survival Structure as Motor and Brake The client was a master at solving everyday problems. However, these qualities are already consequences of the existential limit-experience. Access to the “big challenges” happened only through the resolution of the superimposed trauma

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consequences, which illustrate the narrowness of the survival structures well. His problem-solving skills were the greatest engine of his professional success. Once in management, however, new qualities of a strategic nature are needed. Now the “survival quality” becomes the most significant brake because it acts compulsively and powerfully without an alternative in the client. Strategic competence cannot simply be added from the outside. It is not a technique of thinking but the ability to freely dispose of the vital force of life in the form of innovative power and inner peace. Pontifex Oppositorum Pontifex oppositorum is a mediator of the pairs of opposites. The mediator function is clearly shown here by the polarity between calm clarity and impatience. The conscious, healthy ego can integrate and balance these qualities. Thus, balance is also a consequence of a healthy ego; it happens out of it and cannot come from outside or pragmatic insight. Without consciousness of the inner experience of the healthy ego, one’s one-sidedness is hidden from the human being. They know only one side and consequently cannot notice any difference. Abuse of Power and Renunciation of Power Free acceptance and execution of power are impossible if abuse of power is the central theme of an existential limit-experience. Here there can only be two extremes that spring from the perpetrator-victim split. Becoming a perpetrator and abusing power or identifying with the victim and renouncing power, which can go as far as self-punishment. However, the conscious renunciation of power is a covert behavior that is usually still socially rewarded from the outside as a selfless act. The fact is, however, that top executives should and must use their power to achieve strategic goals. Power vacuum, as a consequence of a non-use of power, is a fundamental source of conflict in the company, as it always creates much insecurity among the staff.

7.8 Case Study: ‘My Unwillingness’

7.8

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Case Study: ‘My Unwillingness’

The 45-year-old boss of a construction company complains about his workload. He is drowning in work at the moment. He could not go on like this because otherwise, it would sooner or later “tear him apart.” He has already developed several specific ideas to remedy the situation and organize his work better, but he is encountering a familiar problem: his unwillingness. Whenever he has set his sights on a specific project, an unwillingness appears in him after only a short time that he cannot do anything about. He then quickly loses his motivation to carry the idea to the end. Thus, things are inevitably delayed or do not even come to fruition. After the family anamnesis, Voice Dialogue was chosen as the leading method of the work. The unwillingness showed itself directly behind the chair as an angry, furious inner shape of the client. Its hands pressed on the client’s shoulders and did not allow him any evasive movement. The shape did not speak a single word during the Voice Dialogue. However, its gestures and facial expressions were unmistakable: This one is mine! Sitting back in the chair, the client recalled various scenes of his life that corresponded to the behavior of the inner shape. For the client, this showed up in his family history as a lack of backing. He knew the experience of being stabbed in the back instead of being given support. A key event, he said, was an encounter with the police when he was 13. At that time, he had been accused of provoking a bicycle accident involving a girl. At the police station, he was able to explain his innocence credibly. He would have remained quite “cool” and “performed his show.” At that moment, however, his father interrupted him with the words, “Don’t be so cheeky!” Thereupon everything collapsed within him. He felt betrayed and abandoned. In principle, however, this was representative of the whole male line. It was a kind of masculine energy that was holding him back. It was almost like saying, “He’s not going to get what we didn’t have either!” In the following constellation work, the client’s intention presented itself as an angry representative who apparently wanted to go immediately into the duel “man against man.” The historical context showed up as a sports competition or fistfight between teenagers. The representative felt simultaneously in his position near present time and the pre-war period. The part carrying the anger continued to show itself ready to fight, but without images or memories. After brief bodywork in the neck and back area, the client said, “I don’t feel like fighting anymore!” He now recalled various scenes of his life and was angry at the lack of support he had felt so often. In the end, however, he said, the entire line of men had felt this way for generations. The client spoke against his ancestors angrily, “You

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are no backing!” With an EMI sequence, the load of the phrase was defused. The client realized he was always the weakest in the “clan.” The phrase “I was always the weakest” was integrated with another EMI sequence. Blockages of the eye and mouth segments that had occurred were released with bodywork. Toward the end, the client could breathe freely and stand relaxed. The feeling of weakness had turned into calmness. The session ended at the starting point of the Voice Dialogue. The initially angry inner shape now appeared much more relaxed. Its hands were now no longer on the client’s shoulders. When asked if it had withdrawn, the inner shape replied, “Yes, he can now take care of himself.” Case Reflection and Consequences Through the trauma work, both symbolically and actually, the competence of the survival structure, which ranked above the conscious mind, was transferred to the client himself. The weight of competencies shifted in favor of the client, that is, in favor of his healthy ego. The center of his soul had thus gained space and authority. The leitmotif of the soul, in this case, “I don’t get any backing!”, usually does not belong to us directly but is carried on through generations in the inner experience. We recognize our own space only after the disentanglement of the foreign. Before that, however, there was nothing of our own except the individual adaptation to the family system. The inner experience is all too often determined by the “inheritance of patterns and figures” (R. M. Rilke) of the ancestors. The first powerful and angry shape behind the client represents the force of transgenerational repression. Lack of backing is a deep-seated pattern throughout the male lineage and has created powerful perpetrator-victim dynamics. Restraining the client from the perspective of this inner shape is the best protection against future disappointment. Out of the functional purpose of survival, even resistance to “well-intentioned” plans shows up. The risk of failure due to lack of backing is simply too great for this authority of the soul. Without the inner movement of this survival structure, there can be no sustainable solution on the factual level, no matter how sensible and well-thought-out the plans may be. The switchman in the unconscious takes precedence.

7.9

Case Study: ‘Committed to Higher Things’

An organic food retailer of about 40 years is in a severe financial crisis. Due to too little income from his current business, high running costs, and liabilities from the past, he can “hardly breathe.” He feels that he is literally “drowning,” that he sees

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no more land and that the burden of debts is crushing him. He remarks that he would prefer to completely fade out and ignore the topic of money and finances. He says he is a good salesman, some of his organic products are unique, and customers hold him in high esteem. What he finds difficult, however, is raising prices and conducting tough negotiations with suppliers. In the end, he says, both aspects are lacking. He had always believed that things would work out with enough customers, but now he must realize that he is somehow a dreamer, i.e., anything but a successful businessman. However, he cannot explain why, despite all his intelligence, he cannot get a grip on his finances. He formulates his intention like this, “I would like to look at the part which would like to fade the finances out most gladly.” During a constellation work, his intention showed up as a lost part. It lacked a connection to the world and was wandering in disorientation. Thus, it fixated on the client, and everything else faded out, with no farsightedness nor perspective, rather a rigid fixation that could not or would not recognize the space around it. The carrier of this disorientation showed itself in another representative as a strong naiveté: “The world is good!” Everything seemed good, beautiful, and fascinating: flowers, water, animals, and people. Something evil did not exist in this “world of wonders.” The client recognized in the representative his Mexican grandfather, who had worked in the tropics as an epidemiologist. He had dedicated his whole life to research and wanted to help people with his discoveries against serious diseases. The historical context of this attitude of the grandfather showed an atmosphere of chastisement in the form of whistles and blows on the outstretched hands. The client now remembered that the grandfather of indigenous descent would have gone to a Jesuit boarding school. However, he had always talked very proudly about this time and emphasized the extensive knowledge of his spiritual teachers. He never reported any beatings or punitive measures. The childlike part of the grandfather, which the constellation facilitator set up, behaved like a vivacious child who could hardly be restrained. Neither aggressive nor hyperactive, it corresponded to a boy with sparkling vitality. The representative of the grandfather was now very agitated and did not agree with this “wildness.” He did not want to accept this part; indeed, he was downright ashamed of it. To behave in such a way would not be in the sense of a civilized spirit, nor would it correspond to a cultivated human being. At this point, physical impulses were simultaneously given to the client and the representative of the grandfather. Strong muscle armoring in the calf, as well as neck area, appeared. More and more, the grandfather’s representative could feel the teachers’ blows, and with each hit, the force of the spirit grew in him. One that neither feels pain nor is bound to this earthly world. Thus, the spirit became

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more and more willing, while the “weak flesh” no longer felt pain. The representative, from whom all these statements came, was as if in a trance—committed to something higher. The intention, meanwhile, became more and more rigid. After some time of bodywork, the representative of the grandfather came back more and more into his body. His outstretched arms and hands ached, and he could slowly but surely look at and recognize his childlike part. Finally, he could turn entirely toward it again in a long embrace. The representative, however, described this reunion not as a relapse but as a gain: “I recognize that money is not the highest thing in life, but I recognize that it is the foundation in this world.” After drawing a line between the entangled parts of the grandfather and the client’s system, the intention relaxed noticeably. The space was now clearly perceptible. The client himself felt the grandfather’s regained unity and how it also touched his soul as a connection of spirit and naturalness. Idealism and higher goals were no longer contradictory to recognizing and dealing with the “mundane and profane” things. The client—as well as the representative of the grandfather—now felt a great drive and vital force to tackle things here on earth, exploratory and yet in actual contact with people and the environment. Case Reflection and Consequences The case shows how the mind, as a consequence of an existential limitexperience, can become the all-crucial and determining survival structure of a human being. In its impersonal spiritual form, the mind feels no pain nor is bound by physical limits. For the grandfather, encouraged by the spiritual environment of the boarding school, it was the protective entity that, in time, replaced his original vital and world-oriented personality. It helped the young grandfather to become an excellent student and researcher. The accumulation of knowledge and the idealistic aspiration were, in this case, at the same time, an “away from” the beatings and the chastisement with which the original healthy part of the grandfather protected itself from repeated violence. In the trauma work, which methodologically is always a “toward” movement, the mental survival structure was able to turn back to the original and vital childlike part. The rejection of this “wild” and impetuous side sprang from the identification with the perpetrators, which was preventively directed against himself. What better way to escape from the punishing superior power than to make their values and views his own? He no longer wanted to be a “savage.” The vital instincts for self-assertion, expression of feelings, and creating one’s own space and boundaries had to submit to the rigid forms of education in the boarding school. In this respect, the potential of healthy structures had already

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been considerably restricted at the instinctual level. Healthy structures, which include a clear view of things in the world, could thus only develop within a narrow framework. Thus, in the grandfather, a transfigured-naive and idealistic worldview prevailed, which hardly wanted to and could deal with the material conditions and the necessary worldly things—including finances. The client, himself a convinced organic trader, unconsciously followed this pattern of his grandfather. His qualities helped him to find unique products and meet the high idealistic demands of his customers. However, he had little access to a realistic approach to money. In the trauma constellation work, this entangled part with the grandfather could be reintegrated, and the split-off vital force in the client could thus flow again. The case shows that healthy structures are not pre-determined structures in humans but are first based on healthy vital instincts. If trauma structures already overlay the instinct level, the potential of the healthy structures is also limited.

7.10

Case Study: ‘No Sex in Marriage’

A successful entrepreneur in his mid-fifties finds himself in a very stuck situation. While sexuality with his wife has come to a standstill over the past three years, he has found a certain way out in the discreet alternative offered by the oldest trade in the world. His marriage is anything but harmonious, but for the sake of the children, he does not want to jeopardize this “functional partnership of convenience.” If he is honest, he must admit that a polarity has set in his sexual vitality. While he can no longer live out his sexuality in a relationship, he experiences an unexpected upswing in a context without relationship and love. Ultimately, however, he is not satisfied with this state either and wants to get to the bottom of the causes of this contradiction. In the following session, the two opposing parts of the client were set up in a constellation work: the part that could not experience its vital force in sexuality in the relationship context and the second part that experienced an upswing of its libido in an impersonal context. The representative of the first part showed up as a shape that literally worked itself to death. It corresponded to a farmer’s wife who knew nothing but hard work and whose thoughts constantly circled pure survival. The husband of the farmer’s wife, who was put into the constellation for this purpose, looked soberingly at his tired, exhausted wife, who did not seem at all vital, not to mention sexually attractive. The only way out allowed by the strict Catholic milieu of the time was to visit prostitutes, who, despite all moral misgivings, could at least provide the experience and rekindling of vital force.

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The client now reported that his family was indeed from a rural region and that he could undoubtedly recall tales of his grandfather, who always spoke of the “hard old days.” He had also more or less openly admitted his penchant for prostitutes. These complicated life circumstances were mirrored in the client’s muscle tensions, which could be released by several bodywork sessions. During the process, images of grueling work and desolation repeatedly emerged, consuming all energy. Over time, the client’s underlying sentiment changed in favor of flowing vitality in his life movements. Later, the client’s wife presented herself in an individual session independently of her husband. The intention of the work was, first of all, to look at her non-functioning business, which did not want to become a success despite her tremendous diligence and pronounced talent. During further work, this time a combination of constellations and Voice Dialogue, the part of the woman’s soul responsible for the lack of progress was revealed as deep freezing. She was not allowed to move; otherwise, her life would be at stake. She sees her father beating her mother black and blue. She hears nothing, although she sees the mother screaming. The father seems to want her to watch. At least she never dared to leave the place during the assaults. She does not know why, but it was “such a feeling.” The client’s traumatic shock load was significantly reduced with some EMI sequences. Afterward, the client expressed relief by saying, “It’s over!” For a long time, she had not known whom she would despise more, her mother, since she never fought back, or her father, who beat her mother regularly. In the end, she said, no one protected her in this situation. She secretly hated both parents for it. Subliminally, her husband also felt this hatred again and again. Rarely directly, but rather in the form of a poisoned atmosphere, which she spread at home without an external cause. For him, he had also told her again and again that it was the case that she conjured up various irrational occasions to “justify her tension and irritability.” Case Reflection and Consequences The splitting of the soul as a result of an existential limit-experience shows itself in the freezing of the vital force. The causes of freezing can be of different natures. In the case of the man, the basis is a transgenerational existential limit-experience, which, like a leitmotif of the soul, also affects the following generations and shapes their life themes. In the woman’s case, the repression of powerful perpetrator-victim dynamics led to the absorption of most of her vital force. In both cases, it behaves almost in indirect proportionality: The more energy is used for repressing the destructive dynamics from the ancestral field, the

References

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less vital force is available in other—personal—areas. Thus, the woman cannot give any of it to the man, nor can the man open up and approach the woman. Especially the case of the man demonstrates how the familial unconscious, even over generations, determines the always same life themes of the family members. Leopold Szondi has described it this way: The ancestors brought along in the hereditary material all strive for manifestation. Psychologically one expresses this urge for manifestation as an «ancestral claim.» Since these ancestral claims are dynamic but completely unconscious, one speaks—in terms of depth psychology—of a «familial unconscious.» This is the seat and waiting room of those ancestral figures who strive for a return to our own fate (1977, p. 20).

That one then attracts, of all things, partners, and life circumstances that promote the aforementioned return, is, in light of the healing impulse of the soul (see Fig. 2.9), a compelling logic in the unconscious. In this specific case, the woman’s hard work triggered the man’s transgenerational pattern.

References Lowen, A., & Lowen, L. (1977). The way to vibrant health. Harper & Row. Szondi, L. (1977). Freiheit und Zwang im Schicksal des Einzelnen. Ex Libris. (German original text, translated by the authors.)

Glossary of Terms

Existential limit-experience After an experience at the limits of human possibilities, which cannot be overcome by regular human forces, the shock, fear, despair, or the unacceptable is split off and repressed in the unconscious. An existential limit-experience is often an experience at the edge between life and death. This can refer to a front-line soldier’s experiences or birth trauma. Therefore, any existential limit-experience must always be considered and treated within its historical, social, and familial context. It cannot be the subject of a psychological interpretation. Leitmotif The condensed existential experiences with a similar common denominator run like a common thread in numerous variations through the family system. They act like a leitmotif in the individual’s personal life and are reenacted in all areas of life, depending on circumstances and persons. The inner and outer world alternately form the backdrop of this reenactment. A leitmotif in this sense is related in principle to Stanislav Grof’s concept of COEX (System of condensed experience), and both terms are used here almost synonymously. Differences exist mainly in the applied methodology. Underlying sentiment A mood of existence, whether of sadness, meaninglessness, emptiness, despair, numbness and the like, arises from the system’s existential limit-experiences and overlays the feelings and sensations of the individual. Since it is present as an underlying sentiment in the whole system, it is unconsciously taken up and felt as one’s own, while the really own is no longer perceived as one’s own or not perceived at all. Splitting Through splitting, the psychic unity splits into trauma and survival structures (see Ruppert, 2011, pp. 23–25). Splitting is an automatism of survival, with its own characteristics in the unconscious. It takes place without the influence of any cognitive consciousness. Therefore, the consequences of splitting and splitting itself are not removable by consciousness, especially since © Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2023 A. N. Riechers and R. Ress, Trauma and Blockages in Coaching, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-39399-1

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they are also beyond its reach. The resulting split is simultaneously and paradoxically the strongest link between the trauma and survival structures since there are no survival structures without trauma structures—and vice versa. Trauma structures Trauma structures are vital forces of the soul frozen by existential limit-experiences and in which the shock loads are stored. They are also those parts in us that are that much identified with traumatized parts of our parents that they see their own identity in the identification. Survival structures Survival structures form the adaptation to the environment, with simultaneous repression and maintaining the repression of trauma structures. Thus, trauma and survival structures are one of the basic building blocks of the architecture of the unconscious. Healthy structures That which was initially healthy, if still substantially present after the splitting of the soul, can be called a healthy structure. Healthy structures show up as the potential for reflection of the split in the soul through its consequential symptoms in life. Repression That which has been split off is kept repressed by the survival structures so that existence can continue and life can be sustained. Thus, it becomes the content of the unconscious, which is defined by it. Repressed in this way, however, it is not lost but continues to have an effect out of the repression without the person concerned being aware of it. Freezing The vital force, which can neither fight nor take flight or cannot advance in the birth canal, must resort to the third possibility: it freezes. Shock, terror, powerlessness, despair, hopelessness, futility, humiliation, pain, or heartbreaking grief—all these existential limit-experiences get frozen. The complex of the frozen vital force is split off as a piece of the soul. This takes place in parallel also in the body, since the soul and the body form a unity. Hereditary and compulsive fate Hereditary and compulsive fate is defined by unfree choice in love, friendship, profession, illness, and death (L. Szondi). It is given by the unconscious identifications with the ancestors’ existential limit-experiences, deeds, and atrocities. Freely chosen fate Only by becoming aware of and transforming the hereditary and compulsive fate does space for a free choice, the freely chosen fate, emerge. Personal destiny is defined as the dialectical coexistence of the two previously mentioned fate categories. Vital force It is the carrier of the potential of creativity—and, much more comprehensively, of movement in life itself. Its flow is substantially impaired by the consequences of trauma in the brain stem, autonomic nervous system, and body.

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Soul and body The soul is a multidimensional reality and can never be fully captured in one term. It takes place as a movement in life, driven by the vital force that flows through it. The Latin word combination “anima vitalis” points to this inseparable unity of the vital force and the soul as its carrier and mover. Thus, the autonomic nervous system, the brain stem, and the body cannot be separated from the complex of the soul.

Reference Ruppert, F. (2011). Splits in the soul. Green Balloon Publishing.