Quadrant IV Quadrant IV is based in a client's genealogy and ancestory. Quadrant IV asks the question 'Are there ancestral, or pre-morbid expressions of the symptoms you carry?'. From whom does the symptomology originate? Often the symptomology is not biographical to the client's lifetime but rather originates from out of their lineage. A traumatic experience that took place generations and/or cultures before the life of the client can be passed on through the generations to manifest in the client's life, and then it continues to be passed on in one way or another by them. More conventional modes of therapy would miss this possibility which can be found to be quite a common occurrence.
- Two basic questions used are pulling back questions that deal with either time or space:
- Time: 'And what happens just before ... ?'
Space: 'And where did that ... come from?'
- 'And is there anything else (about ...)?'
'And what kind of ...?'
- Features of Quadrant IV:Quadrant IV is the historical realm of information. (Remember T-1 is biographical to the client's life so it resides in Quadrant II.)
T-2 is the first bit of information you get in Quadrant IV i.e. the information about the person's childhood before T-1. Before the 'cold wintry night', there was a warm fire.
T-3 is ancestral information relating to mother, father, grandparents and great-grandparents.
T-4 gives cultural and race information.
T-5 is back to the land and immigration.
T-6 is cosmology, religion, and the nature of the universe.
In Quadrant IV we are looking for the healing down the ancestral line to heal the T-1 situation. In Quadrant II, in working with trauma, we are working with just the one experience. If it is only one event then it is possible to heal the one memory. But some memories have extensive roots and we have to get at the whole thing before it can heal. So we need to look at what might be constellated around the one experience. If we don't, then quite often what we have is what seems to be a great piece of work but there won't be much change in the client's behavior. In Quadrant II we get one memory and one event whereas in Quadrant IV we may get 10 or 20 events that lead to the current problematic experience. We need to clean up the whole lot.
The redemptive metaphor is discovered by pulling time back from T-1 through T-6. This powerful healing metaphor exists prior to the history of the trauma that began in a particular problem domain. In this respect the healing process is analogous to the 9-dot problem:
- To connect all of the dots with four straight lines without raising your pencil, one must go outside the problem to solve the problem:
Once discovered and developed the redemptive metaphor is invited to go to T-1 to bring about a healing (and movement to T+1). The product of this interaction is a new metaphor which will then be 'washed through' all the T- experiences in the lineage to heal each one of them. This will cause the 'expression of the history' to change. In other words, the client will no longer 'carry the baggage' of that experience. A healing has taken place. An annotated transcript Paul's Fear - A Quadrant IV Intervention illustrates the process.
OUTLINE OF BASIC INTERGENERATIONAL HEALING PROCESS
- The client locates self and the therapist in the room (or outdoors). The conversation then begins by the client talking. (Quadrant I)
- As the client describes their symptoms, likely from T-1, (QII)
- Eye movements, gestures, etc. are observed and a question such as, "Where are you going with your eyes?" is asked to locate sources of information in space. (QIII)
- Then questions that define that space and develop information are asked such as, "What's it like?, "What kind of ____?", and "anything else about _____?". (QIII)
- For the first 2-3 sessions the client develops their 'map' of their 'perceptual space'. As their eyes source out of different directions or locations (perhaps in the same direction) each location is developed. There may be connections between some locations. The 'map' becomes the 'co-therapist'. (QIII)
- A key word, phrase, feeling, gesture is 'pulled back' in time to T-2 with a question such as "And where did _____come from?" or "What happened just before_____?" (QIV)
- Then something about that source of causation is developed downward until it reveals its information.
- The subject of this source is now pulled back in time, again with a question such as, "And where did _____ come from?" This process continues all the way back through T-6. Remember 'pulling back' is hard work for the therapist and the client.
- A 'redemptive metaphor' is discovered outside of the 'problem domain' before T-6 occurred. It is found when there are no more traumatic information sources.
- The 'redemptive metaphor' is developed in order to discover all of its resources with the same developing questions.
- The 'redemptive metaphor' is invited to go to T-1 (in QII) to heal the client's symptoms (and the result is matured to T+1)
- The product of the T+1 healing is now 'washed through' each T- experience in turn and then back again (and again if necessary) to heal the entire 'expression of history' that has been problematic. This 'problem domain' now no longer exists. The client's (original QIII) space has been healed (cleared).