How to correctly formulate a client request for an arrangement? Clients often ask about this. Some of them even ask for preliminary consultation “help me figure it out and formulate a request, I’m confused.” Let’s figure it out :-) Historically, there have been several approaches to the correct constellation request. This is due to the way constellations as a method have developed, along with other areas of psychotherapy and traditions of spiritual practice. When constellations had just come into practice (in the late 70s - early 80s of the last century), the so-called methods were at the peak of popularity. "short-term solution-oriented therapy." In contrast to long psychotherapeutic work (including psychoanalysis), therapists began to develop methods of quick, specific assistance to the client. Such assistance required a clear request. The criteria for achieving this request must be clearly understood by both the client and the therapist. “I want to get a higher salary, but if I go to my boss to ask for a raise, I get cold, sweaty and my legs give out.” Task: go to your boss for a promotion, ask him and get what you want. We will work on this task for, for example, 10 sessions. At the end, the client will be asked how much more confident he feels (at least). Successful therapy: promotion received. Since constellations are, of course, short-term work, they began to “by analogy” be classified as a group of short-term therapy methods and apply to it the same requirements for request and effectiveness that are accepted in these methods. This was also facilitated by the interest in the constellations of famous short-term therapy specialists (Matthias Varga von Kiebed and Inze Sparrer). And, I think, implicitly this was also facilitated by Hellinger's enthusiasm and his tendency to talk about constellations in terms such as “a solution has been found.” In his early works, he often spoke about “eliminating symptoms,” “solving the problem of alcoholism,” etc. You can still find “old” constellations who ask the client for a specific formulation of the desired result. I’ve even met colleagues (for example, Thomas Hafer) who write down the client’s request on a piece of paper and at the end of the arrangement check that this particular request has been fulfilled, i.e. the state of the substitutes corresponds to the desired state of the client. Along with these historical reasons, there is a not always conscious desire of the client to formulate something specific, simply because there will be only one arrangement now, it is expensive, and perhaps it has been awaited for a long time and “you need to use your chance.” However, there is another, almost opposite approach to the request. It consists in the fact that the request is not needed at all. There are also historical reasons for this, primarily related to Bert Hellinger’s working style. In early constellations, Hellinger always placed the client’s current and/or parental family. Hellinger would ask what the client's problem was, but no matter what he answered, the arrangement always came down to working with family members. A fair question arises: why ask? Later, when Hellinger formulated that the work was with the system as a whole (and not with the client as such), the request began to lose its meaning of “find out what the client wants” and acquired a different meaning. The request is needed in order to establish contact in a dialogue with the arranger. Those who are familiar with Hellinger's work can certainly cite many examples of how Hellinger refused to do an arrangement after barely listening to two or three phrases from a client. “You don’t respect me, I can’t work with you.” Hellinger often worked without exchanging a single word regarding the client’s request. How can an ordinary client understand all this diversity? The main thing I would like to convey to [my] clients is that any confusion (as well as any clarity) regarding a request is completely normal. Your inner process is expressed in a way that is familiar and natural to you. And from the method side there are no restrictions on the ways of expression"