After the workshop · Going further
If you want to work with people yourself
Please note: the workshops are currently held in German only. I plan to offer workshops in English at a later date. If you would like to learn this and organize a workshop in English yourself, you are welcome to send an inquiry to [email protected].
Whether you can do it and whether you can bear it are two different questions. Why your own footing comes before working with others, and how long the way can be.
After the workshop · going further
If you want to be there for others, you first need a footing that carries you yourself.
After a workshop, some people ask themselves whether they could work with people themselves. My answer begins with two questions that I deliberately keep apart.
Two questions I keep apart
In a workshop, a participant asked me whether she should learn to work with people, and in which direction. I looked at her energy field in front of the group and thought out loud so that everyone could see which questions I ask myself in doing so. Beforehand I told her: If it gets too much for you, just say stop.
First I separated two questions. Does she have the ability to help other people? Yes, very clearly. Does she also have the constitution, at the moment, to bear it? Not yet. If she wants it, she first has to find a firmer footing herself.
Ability
Can you do it? Do you perceive, can you distinguish and ask the right questions?
Constitution
Can you bear it? Do you stay with yourself when you are there for others, without wearing yourself out?
For working with others, I put the second question before the first.
The questions I ask myself
To the question of benefit, I answered her:
Rico’s words
What is the advantage for her if she helps people? She gets to know herself better. She can live out her competence.
Rico Brunner, workshop
For the way, I described two options to her: learning techniques, or finding out what her own strength is in this. For her I saw the second way: learning a little and above all building on what she already brings with her. She should begin slowly, with few people, and only slowly take on more.
Something that is often forgotten belongs to this: patience with others. People make the same mistakes again and again. If you work with them, you give them time and don’t put them under pressure, just as you shouldn’t put yourself under pressure.
How long it might take for her
At the end I worked it out for her. First about one or two years for her own footing. Then about another three or four years to learn how to deal with clients. Together six or seven years until the beginnings of everyday work in her own practice.
For you it can be shorter or longer. It is like a marathon. If you already bring a lot of stamina, you prepare for one summer. If you have little, you need years. The distance is the same for both.
I myself needed ten years until I had my perception under control, with at least eight hours a day. The numbers don’t contradict each other. My ten years were about perception. Her six or seven years were about her footing and about dealing with other people.
Why your own footing comes first
In the fire department the rule is: you only help if you don’t put yourself in danger doing it. The same applies to working with people.
Rico’s words
And helping people means that you yourself stay protected in doing so. That you yourself come to no harm while helping.
Rico Brunner, workshop
In my practice I have seen many people who harmed themselves with their own perception. They took on foreign energies and wore themselves out. They sensed for themselves and for others without distinguishing, and distorted a lot in the process. That is why I ask about footing first and only then about ability.
If you work with others, you pay attention above all to one thing: that you yourself become stronger in doing so, and not weaker.
I myself observed for a long time before I worked. I always only started working where I had understood what I was seeing.
How you recognize your limit
A limit begins where you become unsure how you should help someone. For working with energies a simple rule applies: Don’t start anything you can’t bring to an end.
Experience alone doesn’t protect you here. Someone who has worked for thirty years and doesn’t see their limits is, to me, as careless as someone on their first day. And if you feel you need to protect yourself, you should keep your hands off it. More on this under How you recognize your own limit.
Not everyone wants this path
Not everyone who comes to a workshop wants to work with others later. If you are going through a hard time right now, this page is not a task for you. Your own footing is the first step for you too, and it is enough on its own. If you want to hold your ground, the same rule applies in everyday life: being there for others without coming to harm yourself. If you want to move on, here is what it involves, and that it takes years.
Questions that come up often
- Can I work with others after the workshop?
- In the workshop you learn the basics. Whether you can work with others depends above all on whether you see your limits and whether you come to no harm yourself in doing so.
- How do I know whether I have the constitution for it?
- No documentation can answer this question for you. One pointer: Do you become stronger or weaker when you work with others?
- Should I learn techniques first?
- That is one possible way. The other is to find out what your own strength is and to build on it. Which one suits you is different for everyone.
- Do I have to protect myself when I work with others?
- Protection costs strength from your own system. If you feel you need to protect yourself, you have already gone too far. More under How you recognize your own limit.
- How much perception do I need for it?
- What matters are the questions you ask. More under A craft, not a gift.
Where to go next
What your own footing is built on is described under Solid ground instead of a swamp. How you keep practicing after the workshop is described under Keep practicing at home.