Systemic work
Holistic
Systems thinking is an approach that seeks to maintain an overview of the whole, rather than concentrating on individual parts without considering the role these parts play in the greater whole. Systems thinking is based on holism, the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Holism (Greek: holon: the whole) is the idea that the properties of a system (physical, biological, technical, chemical, economic, ….) cannot be explained by taking the sum of its components alone. It is the tendency in nature to form wholes that are greater than the sum of their parts by creative evolution.
Systems thinking itself is not so much a theory amongst others, nor a technique or method of dealing with problems, but a way of understanding and mastering complex reality by examining patterns, connections, and relationships.
Systemic thinking as a holistic approach to thinking is an enduring way, dating back to the time of the Presocrats of Plato and Aristotle. Systems thinking as we know it today was developed in the second half of the 20th century by the work of Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Ervin Lazlo, Gregory Bateson, Paul Watzlawick, Bert Hellinger, ....
"System" has many overlaps with "context". The contextual approach, developed by Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy in the 1970s and inspired by Martin Buber and others, uses the word context as a reference to the dynamic connectedness of man through his profound relationship over different generations. Every human being is part of a family network of relationships, in which everyone is connected to everyone in a dynamic balance of give and take. In these human relationships, five dimensions can be distinguished: the facts, the psychology, the interactions, the relational ethics, and the ontic dimension of the relational reality. Key concepts in these last two dimensions are the balance between give and take and loyalty.
From the 1980s onwards, Bert Hellinger and his colleagues began to develop their version of systemic work in Germany, more specifically the method of the constellation. He was inspired by his own experience with his parents, his religious background as a priest, his experience with the Zulus in South Africa, psychoanalysis, group dynamics, primal therapy, body-oriented psychotherapy, phenomenology, gestalt therapy, transactional analysis, insights on loyalties of I. Nagy, family therapy, Virginia Satir, hypnotherapy, the NLP, Festhalt-therapy, his predilection for language and music, his philosophical companion M. Heidegger, ....
Constellation, as one of the many systemic methods, has, since its inception, been further developed in many directions and integrated into other forms of guidance work. Today we find applications all over the world and in all possible forms: consultancy, therapy, product development, marketing campaigns, conflict mediation, career development, corporate culture, ecology, politics, ....
My System Dynamics’ systemic work represents the integration I have made through different systemic schools and personal experiences. Inspired by the work of Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy and Bert Hellinger, I developed my versatile systemic competence through a number of teachers, amongst them Gunthard Weber for his teaching on organizational constellations for professional issues within companies, teams, and larger complex systems, Jan Jacob Stam and Wibe Veenbaas for their teaching on the dynamics in systems and their stratification, Albrecht Mahr for political constellations, Johannes Schmidt and Franz Ruppert for the combination of trauma and systemic work, and Franz Renggli and Ludwig Janus for the integration of the pre- and perinatal aspects, to name just a few of the most important.
Holism (Greek: holon: the whole) is the idea that the properties of a system (physical, biological, technical, chemical, economic, ….) cannot be explained by taking the sum of its components alone. It is the tendency in nature to form wholes that are greater than the sum of their parts by creative evolution.
Systems thinking itself is not so much a theory amongst others, nor a technique or method of dealing with problems, but a way of understanding and mastering complex reality by examining patterns, connections, and relationships.
Systemic thinking as a holistic approach to thinking is an enduring way, dating back to the time of the Presocrats of Plato and Aristotle. Systems thinking as we know it today was developed in the second half of the 20th century by the work of Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Ervin Lazlo, Gregory Bateson, Paul Watzlawick, Bert Hellinger, ....
"System" has many overlaps with "context". The contextual approach, developed by Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy in the 1970s and inspired by Martin Buber and others, uses the word context as a reference to the dynamic connectedness of man through his profound relationship over different generations. Every human being is part of a family network of relationships, in which everyone is connected to everyone in a dynamic balance of give and take. In these human relationships, five dimensions can be distinguished: the facts, the psychology, the interactions, the relational ethics, and the ontic dimension of the relational reality. Key concepts in these last two dimensions are the balance between give and take and loyalty.
From the 1980s onwards, Bert Hellinger and his colleagues began to develop their version of systemic work in Germany, more specifically the method of the constellation. He was inspired by his own experience with his parents, his religious background as a priest, his experience with the Zulus in South Africa, psychoanalysis, group dynamics, primal therapy, body-oriented psychotherapy, phenomenology, gestalt therapy, transactional analysis, insights on loyalties of I. Nagy, family therapy, Virginia Satir, hypnotherapy, the NLP, Festhalt-therapy, his predilection for language and music, his philosophical companion M. Heidegger, ....
Constellation, as one of the many systemic methods, has, since its inception, been further developed in many directions and integrated into other forms of guidance work. Today we find applications all over the world and in all possible forms: consultancy, therapy, product development, marketing campaigns, conflict mediation, career development, corporate culture, ecology, politics, ....
My System Dynamics’ systemic work represents the integration I have made through different systemic schools and personal experiences. Inspired by the work of Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy and Bert Hellinger, I developed my versatile systemic competence through a number of teachers, amongst them Gunthard Weber for his teaching on organizational constellations for professional issues within companies, teams, and larger complex systems, Jan Jacob Stam and Wibe Veenbaas for their teaching on the dynamics in systems and their stratification, Albrecht Mahr for political constellations, Johannes Schmidt and Franz Ruppert for the combination of trauma and systemic work, and Franz Renggli and Ludwig Janus for the integration of the pre- and perinatal aspects, to name just a few of the most important.