Systemic Constellations

Genetics and property are not the only things handed down through generations. Patterns of relationships and communication styles, addictions, illnesses and disorders, the effects of untimely or tragic deaths may all be passed down to descendants. Symptoms of systemic disorder or entanglement are as various as the family’s experience and managing of the original event.

World renowned German psychotherapist, Bert Hellinger, developed this way of seeing and working from his experiences as a POW, Catholic missionary priest to the Zulus, Primal Scream body worker and family therapist.

Prior to a family constellation workshop you are asked to review and complete the Questionnaire which is a family event history. It is a search for relationship between the past and present, between hidden or unconscious patterns of relationship, physical and mental health, and other issues with significant occurrences. The constellation also may point the way towards effectively clearing and resolving these patterns.

Family constellations use the immediate and urgent symptoms of the body and mind to access the underlying attachments that have kept us stuck or in pain.  When these bonds are brought to light they may transcend life and death, that is, they often are inter-generational. Facilitators of this work are looking beyond the stories and personalities of the family towards someone who was missing or excluded yet remains a family member.

Because this work is phenomenological it really cannot be described adequately, it must be experienced as either a working client or workshop observer. It is a phenomenological – “what is”- way to understand oneself and life events. When a client comes with a particular issue to address, s/he chooses workshop participants to stand in for or represent family members and then silently and slowly places them in relationship to one another. There are no set patterns or guidelines, just that the movements be slow and according to an internal felt sense. The client is seated; the representatives begin to allow sensations, feelings and movements to be enacted. The facilitator notices the smallest gesture or facial expression, a change in breathing or shift in position attending to them all, asking the representatives “What is going on?”

Little by little the dynamics unfold and proceed. Without exception the intentions, bonds and dynamics exist out of love. This may be “blind” love or the love of a child who cannot know what it means for adults to love. Blind love separates me from the flow of life in a family and unites my life force with events that have nothing to do with me and may be making me sick. By restoring my place within the “orders of love” I may be revived by being in a good position to receive the life and love that flows from my parents, grandparents and ancestors.

At any time the client may end the constellation. The workshop participants are requested to keep the contents of the constellations confidential. There is no homework and clients are encouraged to remember, breath and live the feelings and sensations of the resolution, should there be one.