Client Curveball No. 321 -- how would you do it? and a perspe ctive and two offers

[Doersam, Laurel]

Chris,

Thankyou for sharing your beautiful story and your wisdom.

Laurel.

-----Original Message-----
From: Rhett Hudson/Chris Weaver [mailto:rhett&chris at main.nc.us]
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2000 5:32 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Client Curveball No. 321 -- how would you do it? and a
perspective and two offers


Chris, Birgitt, Michelle, Others,

This thread has explored ethical questions about opening space for a group
of victims of violence.  In one of the entries in this thread, Chris
Corrigan wrote:

Just how much responsibility *I* am supposed to take for their healing is an
open
question in my mind...

I have been pondering this for several days and would like to share my
perspective.  My story takes us pretty far from the logistics of meeting
facilitation, but I feel it is important to offer it.

My perspective has been shaped by an experience of being in an open space
with others.  It was not an Open Space Technology meeting, but a gathering
for spiritual practice.  I was among people whom I did not know well, when
extremely painful memories/experiences from the past came flooding into my
being in the present, triggered in an indirect and mysterious way.  In that
moment I did not feel safe in the sense of having any ground to stand on; I
was completely consumed in the experience.

As the situation unfolded, my own trauma was met by people in the circle
whose gifts for healing became manifest.  We were out of the realm of words.
In fact, I was lying on the floor on my back, shivering, with a sensation of
waves of cold pulsing through my body and entering the floor.

Another person present was equally consumed with energy.  She also lay down
on her back on the floor.  After a long time of being in my state, I
realized that I had no way out on my own.  I made a clear conscious choice
to reach out and take her hand.  An enormous energy of warmth moved from her
body into mine.  Another person in the circle spontaneously began to speak a
prayer/meditation.  At the moment he finished, the flow of energy was
complete, and in my mind and body I felt like I was waking up in the
sunshine after a fierce, strange storm.

Please forgive the esoteric nature of this story.  Neither I nor anyone else
in the group expected anything like this to take place, but it did.  It
happened so swiftly that I didn't even have a chance to be embarrassed.  I
have learned many things from this experience, but here is my offering to
this discussion:

I believe, beyond doubting, that the Spirit has an agenda of healing.  At
the time of this meeting I was in need of healing of which I had no
conscious awareness.  My experience of pain would never have taken place if
the group around me did not have the capacity to hold the space for healing
to occur.

I do not think that any Open Space facilitator needs to fear that some kind
of healing gift that he/she does not possess will be required by the
situation, before, during, or after.  Whoever comes are the right people.
If someone is going to experience trauma as a result of the space being
opened, then the people needed to heal the trauma will be there.  The Spirit
knows the capacities and needs of all.  If no one is there with the healing
gifts, then the trauma will remain safely nested for a later experience of
healing.

But we do, as facilitators, need to be prepared to be surprised, and ready
to trust the Spirit and hold the space to the best of our abilities when the
unexpected appears.

Chris Weaver

*
*
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