Aikido and Systemic Sculpture Work in Groups and Organizations
by David Sikora

We often start Aikido training with the following exercise: Either standing or kneeling, we hold our hands in front of our bellies, shoulders relaxed, palms facing inwards. With a long, slow inhale we let the hands and arms rise up and apart, imaging that the movement is happening by itself. The image can be of strings attached to the backs of the hands, and the hands being pulled like those of a marionette. Or, and I prefer this image, a ball of energy, like an expanding balloon, is pushing the hands and arms apart. If you try this four our five times, and then intentionally raise and lower your arms using muscle power, you will probably notice a difference. In the first case most people experience their arms as light and the motion as practically effortless. In the second, the arms are felt as being more solid and heavy, the experience is more one of working or exertion.

Actually in this simple exercise demonstrates two basic principles of Taoism.

The first is that everything comes out of nothing.

The second is that the universe happens without our trying. (Ref. Laura Perls' "Don't Push the River.")

Related to principle number one, atomic physics showed us that most of material existence consists at least at the atomic level as empty space. Solidity is an illusion. Everything is moving all the time.

To point two: Life happens, worlds evolve and disappear. We are just a part of this huge movement. Our little beings don't have much influence on the big plan. So why worry so much, everything is happening anyway.

This doesn't mean we shouldn't participate; of course we need to be involved with our lives. It's just that more we try, effort and struggle to make things go the way we think they should, the more we block life's energy and the less can happen. When we trust the flow we allow space, the state of being that comes out of nothingness, and then things can happen on their own. When the melodic voice of our new found love calls us from across the street, we turn our heads, our whole bodies, without thinking or trying. It just happens.

I compare this difference between stuck-ness and flowing-ness, to stone and water. Water doesn't fight with the resistance it meets along its way; it just flows around the boulders. And with time the boulders wear down.

As a preparation for sculpture work I will often ask participants to take a few minutes and get the feeling of flowing through the exercise above. Starting out of this feeling of empowered lightness, they become quite sensitized to the blocked energy, struggle and tension that characteristically emerge in sculpture work as a problem situation is given a physical form.

In another example, a social worker was trying to help a single mother deal with her wayward and precocious 14 year old daughter. The girl was cutting classes in school, staying out past her curfew to hang out with a group of older teens of whom the mother did not approve, and basically ignoring and/or resisting her mother's efforts to set limits. The social worker said the mother acted helpless and depressed when she would tell of her troubles with her daughter. She said, "I feel so sorry for her, I wish I could help her." The social worker said her efforts to influence the daughter to be more considerate and obedient had up to that point produced minimal results. We asked the social worker to make a model of her relationship to this family and the sculpture looked like this:

(Fig. 3)

The "mother" has her arms folded across her belly and is looking at the floor;

The "daughter" is standing across from her "mother", her arms are folded across her chest, her body turned somewhat away, and she is looking away over her shoulder;

The "social worker" is standing next to the "mother", looking at the "daughter", with one arm on the "mothers'" shoulder, the other arm outstretched with the palm up in the direction of the "daughter". Her upper body is also leaning slightly in the "daughter's" direction.

The "daughter" said her defiance was even increased when she saw this woman ganging up with her mother against her;

The "mother" said she didn't notice much, the hand on her shoulder was indeed nice, but otherwise she was too preoccupied with her worries.

Interestingly, when I asked the colleague playing the social worker how she felt, she complained of lower back pains and said the whole situation felt burdensome. However, her colleague, the woman who was actually working with the family, reported feeling fine when she stepped into her position! I asked her what she meant and she said she "felt" she needed to be there, that she "should" help the poor woman. It took a while to get her to differentiate between what she thought was right and what her body was actually feeling, (Just like the author at the feet of the master!) When she did start tuning in to what her body was telling her, she had to admit she felt somewhat uncomfortable. She didn't know where or how she "should" stand (another symptom of trying to solve problems with the head alone) so I suggested she move around the room and pay attention to her body, and to any changes or reactions she notices in the other two participants. When she got to place a little back from and between the "mother" and "daughter", she said, "I can stay here, this is OK".

(Fig. 4)	(Fig. 5)

We all noticed that the "daughter" was no longer looking away, but sneaking peeks at the SW(social worker) out of the corner of her eye. Her shoulders also had moved somewhat in the direction of her "mother" and the SW. She said she still felt resistant, but was also a little interested in what would happen next. The "mother" had raised her head slightly and was looking back and forth between the SW and her "daughter". She said she felt a little more alive, and was vacillating between a budding curiosity and remaining sceptical.

(Fig. 6)	(Fig. 7)

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About the author:
David Sikora was born in NYC, attended the City University of New York, (BA 1973) and Goddard College in conjunction with the San Diego Institute for Transactional Analysis (M.A. Counselling Psychology 1978.) He has lived in Germany since 1984, and his postgraduate training includes Gestalt therapy, NLP, systemic family therapy, Lomi Body Work, and Ericksonian clinical hypnosis.

In addition to a private practice for psychotherapy and family counselling, he also works as a psychological supervisor and trainer in various private and public health and educational institutions.

Practicing Aikido since 1986, he is a 2nd Dan (Nidan) black belt and teaches in his own dojo in Limburg, Germany.