Ritual Counsellors’ Value Tensions in Profiling. A Pilot Study Using Organizational Constellations

Abstract

Ritual counsellors are self-employed entrepreneurs that mainly guide funeral rites. Literature suggests that ritual counsellors may experience tensions between values in profiling themselves to the media and funeral market. Assigned by the Dutch professional organization for ritual counsellors (LBVR), a qualitative case study was designed. Using the innovative method of organizational constellations, we investigate underlying tensions in a profiling situation. 10 Dutch ritual counsellors participated. Results indicate that they experience a tension between ‘money’ and ‘being there for other people’. Normatively, ‘money’ is valued less than ‘being there’. Ritual counsellors render multiple, sometimes contradicting meanings of ‘money’ that include mental, normative and felt elements. The tension is on a deeper level related to ‘acknowledgment’.