Finding solutions in every crisis

Gstadt - The worldwide corona pandemic is also challenging many a personal fate at the local level, and for many people it means a serious crisis both privately and professionally. The Leibniz Institute for Resilience Research in Mainz warns that even quarantine could lead to stress, depress the mood and cause a feeling of loneliness. Psychologists fear that the current emergency is not only medical and economic, but also psychological, reports the health insurance company Barmer.

But there is help: the telephone counselling service is one example. The pastors of the local churches are also available for those seeking advice. Or people like Kristine Alex, who supports people in crisis situations with systemic constellation work.

The Gstadter is a tried and tested crisis and conflict person. She has worked for ten years in international project and crisis management in Europe and Africa.

Specialising in world food economy, she supervised local grain purchases in Uganda as a crisis manager for the International Red Cross, was responsible for the management of refugee camps in Congo and Tanzania and trained in crisis intervention by the World Health Organisation (WHO).  Today Kristine Alex works as an expert in systemic constellations.

"Crisis situations are a chance to learn more about yourself and your fellow human beings" Alex discovered early on. Lutheran pastor Dr. Sabrina Hoppe from Prien agrees with this: "Some people may be particularly aware of what they need in life and what is weighing on them. For them, the crisis could become an impulse to focus more on their own needs.  But she also points out the great uncertainty that the Corona pandemic is causing for many people. Neither scientists nor politicians can give us answers, on the contrary, they keep raising new questions. This makes us fragile inside: we become thinner-skinned, some more emotional, others more closed."

Kristine Alex is aware of how differently people react to crisis situations. Her experiences help her in her work with private individuals, companies and self-employed people right now. Simplified, in a systemic constellation the client works out a holistic solution for his personal conflict - a real or psychological problem or even an illness. For example, by having a group of volunteers, personality parts, colleagues from the company or family members represent the client. This group intuitively positions themselves in a room in such a way that they can empathize with the client`s relationship structures. In this way, or in individual work, the client can achieve clarity about his conflict, as if looking down from a mountain peak. "As if he would climb the Kampenwand and look down on the situation from above" is how Alex describes it. At the moment she cannot work live with groups. She has therefore found a method to make constellations online via telephone. The first concerned callers received her early when the first restrictive measures had to be implemented. People worry about the well-being of mentally ill family members, parents about family peace at home. Clients from the care sector felt burdened by new split shifts. Some expressed fear of infection, others were worried about themselves and their company or their future as self-employed. Like Alex - who was one of the first in the field in the mid-1990s to offer constellation work in companies and wrote a book about it ("The Order of Success") - Reverend Hoppe also understands that of all self-employed people, Corona is a particular threat: "When it comes to professional and financial existence, there is simply fear and helplessness.

But whether entrepreneurs, employees, parents or single people: According to Alex, everyone is now confronted with existential thoughts because circumstances such as curfew, school closure, short-time work, waiting for emergency aid and home office "throw many back on themselves". In addition, there is often the feeling that as an individual nothing can be done: "Yes," Alex confirms, "because everyone is part of the whole. But in this situation we often lose this feeling". In the constellation, the personal field of action can become apparent, and at the end of the transformation process one knows what one has to give to the world".

Elisabeth Sennhenn