Natural trance

Natural trance helps in constellation work and counselling to relax and break down tunnel vision of the problem. Trance broadens awareness. It makes it easier to open up to one’s own bodily sensations. It supports empathy by allowing the work to take place gradually, as if in a shared cocoon. It also makes it possible to look at stressful feelings in the imagination, for example, so that they can be integrated.

Trance is a form of awareness. It is less outward and more inward. It is less goal-oriented or associated with tension and action, and more with introspection, relaxation and a more undefined focus. This brings inner states, images and deeper layers of consciousness into your field of vision.
Our bodies go into brief states of trance every day. Have you ever almost missed your bus stop because you were daydreaming? Then you know what a trance is. Children are particularly good at it, as are artists and people who work in borderline areas. The conscious induction of trance is called hypnosis and is often associated with the ‘swinging pocket watch’. That’s cinema. In reality, trance is something you can only do with yourself, not with someone else. Other people can accompany and support you when you go into a trance. I do this through language. A light trance occurs almost automatically in any intensive counselling situation, even with myself.

In trance, all sensory channels can be addressed separately or temporarily inhibited. This is important when dealing with traumatic material, i.e. the unresolved feelings from a previous, possibly life-threatening situation. In a deeper trance you can learn to develop your own resources, such as safe inner places and inner regulatory abilities. These are extremely useful when working with ‘trauma’ because they allow you to gradually approach the distressing feelings and images on your own terms, without being overwhelmed by them. When these can gently release their energy, it becomes available as inner strength.

In constellation work, the natural light trance helps to discover perspectives and realities that could not find a place in the usual focus on the problem. The tunnel vision widens. Surprising solutions often emerge simply because one’s perspective changes. Entire constellations can be carried out precisely and powerfully in guided imagery. In their effect they are equivalent to constellations with physical representatives.