Intensive Schedule

Details are subject to change.

3. Morning and Afternoon Sessions: Cohort Groups

Workshop Descriptions

Old Age: From Doing to Being
Led by Sneh Victoria Schnabel

Growing old happens by itself. But how we move with it is totally up to us.

It certainly will have a lot to do with how the old ones in our culture and in our family were treated, what ideas have therefore grown inside of us and what our lives as adults have taught us about the growing old business.

We might belong to the old ones ourselves by now, or are pretty near the threshold, where we consider ourselves belonging to the old ones. That will most accurately form our ideas about it.

To find the way of becoming a wise elder is up to us. Together we can explore how to reach there.  With rituals and constellations we can encounter the wise old being inside of us, that one day we will be, and get advice and encouragement from our future old and wise ones.

Nature Constellations
Led by Francesca Mason Boring

Nature & our animals have a voice and a power. We will gather to experience that power together.  A round will determine the interest of the group, and a specific constellation will be determined by consensus. For instance, we might constellate something with our pets; a specific issue regarding one’s neighborhood ecological system; a group nature constellation; dyads which allow each person to experience their own aspect of nature that resources them most; or other options.

Whatever we choose, nature will teach and heal us…

The Space Between Us and the Silence Between the Notes: Exploring the Couples Journey with Family Constellations
Led by Bill Mannle

Love is a dance—one that is shaped not just by our partner but by the invisible ties we carry from our past. Our families of origin, early conditioning, and childhood wounds often shape how we love, connect, and sometimes resist surrendering fully to our beloved.

In this workshop we will explore:

• Invisible Loyalties – The unconscious bonds to our family of origin that shape our expectations, patterns, and conflicts.
• Early Conditioning – How the beliefs we formed in childhood shape our ability to trust, receive, and surrender in love.
• Healing the Barriers to Love – Recognizing and releasing the burdens we unknowingly carry, so we can meet our partner with openness and presence.
• Practicing Stillness-Not running when the wounds of childhood swirl, begging you to run and hide.

Time allowing, we will unpack the question, How Do You Want To Be Loved? And perhaps learn a few new dance moves!

Support & Rest: Constellations for Professional Caregivers, Therapists, Coaches, Alternative Healing Practitioners, Social Activists & Others
Led by Leslie Nipps

“Helping is good for others and for the helper…” – Bert Hellinger, The Orders of Helping

As care-givers, we have our own childhood and ancestral trauma, which can influence our work in subtle ways:

• Are we trying to retroactively save ourselves or our families through our client work?
• Are we seeking to find love, comfort, reassurance, safety or worthiness?
• Are we unconsciously trying to “make it all alright” so that we can finally let go of the burdens of guilt or fear that we still carry from the past?

Caregivers need support and rest, and they also need to have their vulnerabilities acknowledged in the context of their work. Let’s gather to get that support, share what’s hard, and find some healing for ourselves and our family systems so we can be strengthened and in right balance in the work.

Exploring the Essential
Led by Sneh Victoria Schnabel

The essential — that what really counts — lives at the heart of our deepest yearning. We might call it god or mother earth, the universe or simply love. It is like the never ending flow of water, that runs below the earth and nourishes all life.

In order to experience it in its totality we need to open ourselves again to the magic we were able to experience as children, where every raindrop we could catch with our tongue tasted like a promise and every puddle of water with its mud was to our bare feet a revelation of surprising sensations.

If we come back to the wonders that can be experienced when we stop judging things or happenings as good or bad, we can get in touch again with the inner knowing that we are one.  And that, at the end, is what really counts.

We will do constellations in little groups of three or four in formats fitting to our needs, and then come back in the big group to share what has come to us as that what really counts.

Facilitating Social Systems
Led by Francesca Mason Boring

Working with social systems — like schools, communities, substance abuse counselors, parents, social workers, etc. – can be a powerful tool for understanding and healing. We will constellate one or more of these vital social systems that are central to our common life. They will allow individuals to experience the ‘system’ of social ills and other social structures.

The group will determine the focus, and will construct the ‘system’ of an identified social ill or issue. For instance, a constellation might be modeled with an actual case if there is someone who is working with a client or an institution which serves to address a particular social ill. Representatives will enlighten the Circle regarding interconnections and factors that construct the ‘system’ of which ever issue has been selected.

The constellation first reveals the dimensions of the ‘disorder’ and then drops into the field of ‘solutions.’ Finally, the constellation morphs into the reconstruction of the components of the system which would be healing. This ends up having a powerful impact on all of us, regardless of our relationship to the system, as we realize the larger forces at work and perceive what true healing interventions are in complex systems.

This workshop is for anyone interested or involved in these types of social systems, or who would like to more about facilitating these types of constellations.

The Dust of Abandonment
Led by Bill Mannle

“Where there is separation and loss, there is great pain. If one allows oneself to feel this grief, one may ease this pain and this loss. Experience has proven that when one fully confronts the pain, she can make peace with it.” Bert Hellinger, No Waves without the Ocean

In the hidden corners of our lives, abandonment leaves its mark—unseen yet deeply felt. Whether it originates in childhood, past generations, or unspoken family stories, its weight lingers like dust, settling into the patterns we live out unconsciously.

The impacts of abandonment and loss can be obvious, like the premature death or leaving of a parent. But it can show up in other ways, too, like if your mother’s mother died when she was five, you might grow up with your mother always looking for her mother, and unable to give attention to you.

Did You Grow Up With:

• The experience of not being seen?
• With the “fear” of abandonment? This fear leads to clinging, scrapping, and holding on to untenable relationships.
• Anger and resentment? Anger and resentment can become the primary ways of dealing with the pain.
• Is the “fear of abandonment” still driving the bus, or have you become intimate with the fear, mining its depths for new insights?
• What story did you create around your abandonment that was once necessary but no longer serves you today?
• Do you search for your mother/father and primal connection in your intimate relationships?

In this workshop, we will explore the echoes of abandonment that shape our relationships, choices, and sense of belonging. Through guided exploration and Constellation work, we will begin to clear what has been left behind, making space for healing, connection, and a renewed sense of self.

Say Yes Today: The Desert Can Touch Your Hurt Now
Led by Leslie Nipps

What healing does your soul need, so that it instinctively chose to come to the desert for…something?

Our souls cry out in pain sometimes: where is help now? What if we could connect with the mesas, skies, trees, and animals of Abiquiú, New Mexico, and find some healing now? For ages, the wise have gone into the desert to seek insight and growth. It presents us with the paradox of abundance in the midst of scarcity, and a kind of beauty that usefully upends our rational mind. New Mexico is called “The Land of Enchantment.” People find themselves puzzlingly drawn to this landscape for…they are not sure what, but they come.

We will gather to step with intentionality into intimacy with the desert landscape, using constellations to further that intimacy, ask healing questions (“prayers”), and hear the voice of an infinite and unsentimental love in response.