Hosted by Chara Caruthers (Australia)

We may be living through a subtle but profound reorganization of meaning. As new technologies emerge and long-held assumptions are challenged, our sense of identity and reality itself can feel fluid. What does holding space look like in a moment like this?

What does it ask of us individually and collectively? Drawing parallels with non-ordinary state work, this talk invites reflection on how we support others, and ourselves, when the stories that shape our world begin to shift.

Your host, Chara Caruthers, MSc, is a skilled space holder with decades of personal and professional practice as an educator, therapist and lifestyle medicine practitioner. Her life and work are grounded in eastern spiritual traditions, ancient and indigenous wisdom and modern science and philosophy. She holds a Masters Degree in Transpersonal Psychology and professional certifications in psychedelics and transpersonal coaching psychology. She is a certified Holding Space practitioner and her work and research centres around holding space for psychedelic experiences. As a
Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT), Ayurvedic practitioner (CAP) she is passionately dedicated to exploring the intersections between ancient lifestyle traditions and modern western approaches to mental health and wellbeing. She is co-founder of IMPRINT Collective, a community-centered psychedelic preparation and integration initiative, and a Program Director and  Learning Facilitator for the Synthesis Institute’s Psychedelic Practitioner
Core Training program.

Chara believes that a loving and supportive community is the vital and often missing piece of the picture of wellbeing for so many. She recognizes that her work in the psychedelic space is that of building and empowering community as a container for embodying our wholeness.

Holding Space for Hidden Dynamics

Exploring the connection between Systemic Work and Holding Space

Beneath what we see and name, hidden dynamics are always at work; shaping how we lead, relate, and take our place within families, teams, and organisations, each of which we can describe as a “System”. Through Systemic Work, we learn to notice and engage with these dynamics with greater awareness and presence. The practice of Holding Space offers a meaningful and supportive foundation for exploring what lies beneath the surface. It is not only about what we explore, but how we do so.

At its core, Systemic Work is grounded in the understanding that individuals are inseparable from the systems they belong to and that those systems carry memory, loyalty and overarching themes. And also that lasting change often emerges when the wider System is acknowledged and included.

Systemic Work has its roots in several streams of thought and practice, including Family Systems Theory, Phenomenology, and many ancestral and indigenous wisdom traditions. It became more widely known through the work of Bert Hellinger who developed Family Constellations in the late 20th century. Drawing on his experience as a psychotherapist, his knowledge of group dynamics, and insights from working with local African communities, Hellinger uncovered core systemic principles such as belonging, order, and balance within systems. At the same time, Systemic Work has been shaped by a wider field of systemic thinkers and practitioners, and continues to evolve, integrating perspectives from organizational development, leadership, trauma-informed work, and embodied practices. Rather than offering fixed explanations or solutions, Systemic Work invites a phenomenological stance: slowing down, observing what shows itself, and allowing insight and movement to arise from the System itself.

The practice of Holding Space offers a meaningful and supportive foundation for Systemic Work. It is about creating the right conditions like safety, attentiveness, openness, non-judgement, so that dynamics can reveal themselves without force or fixture. In this way, Holding Space can be deeply interwoven with how we perceive, facilitate, and relate to what emerges.

In this first session of the CFHS Speaker Series “Voices of Holding Space”, we invite you into an exploration of Systemic principles and their connection to Holding Space.

About the Session

In this 90-minute interactive online workshop, you will be introduced to the basics of Systemic Work and explore how systems carry patterns, loyalties, and histories that influence the way you show up in relationship with others. You will be invited to:

• Deepen your understanding of key Systemic principles
• Explore how hidden dynamics play out in everyday interactions
• Reflect on your own place, role, and recurring patterns within the systems you belong

This session is experiential and reflective. No prior experience with Systemic Work is required.

Hosts

Pasha Elstak & Lienke Pet

Based in the Netherlands, Pasha and Lienke work with individuals, leaders, and teams who seek more depth and awareness in their work and lives. They have a solid foundation in Systemic Work and organisational development. They combine this with body-based awareness into an approach they call Embodied (Systemic) Leadership. Their work is characterized by slowing down, careful observation, and creating a clear and safe space to explore patterns that often originate in our systems of origin. Pasha is a Certified Holding Space Practitioner and Lienke is currently following the Holding Space Certification Programme.

Together, they are Bureau Neerland, where they guide leaders into leadership that is rooted in presence and holding space for what wants to emerge.