Family Constellations
What are Systemic and Family Constellations?
Systemic and Family Constellations are a powerful process to repair the hidden patterns and dynamics impacting your life from your family of origin, ancestors and other systems you are connected to. These elements can have a profound impact on our lives, influencing our beliefs, behaviors, and relationships. Family Constellations offer a lens into the often invisible and hidden connections or entanglements that may be causing disruptions in our lives including our relationship with our self and others and areas like our sense of belonging, agency worthiness and even our health and finances.
In this work we ask: Is there a connection between the challenges I have in my present day life and my family history? Are there unshakable patterns and beliefs that keep blocking me from having the freedom to be who I want to be? Is there a strong need to acknowledge and heal invisible or ignored wounds?
By revealing and resolving these hidden patterns and traumas, Family & Systemic Constellation work can help clients find freedom and a deeper sense of wholeness. These sessions are offered in a supported and respectful way that embraces each person as they are, and their unique background and history.
What happens in a Constellation?
Family Constellations are a somatic and experiential process, that allows all the elements of any issues, problem or pattern to be represented in physical space to be seen, acknowledged and experienced.
During a family constellation session, the client works with a trained facilitator to identify and explore their personal and family system. This may involve using physical objects or other participants to represent family members or ancestors. Through this process, the client gains insights into the dynamics and traumas within their family system, and how these may be impacting their own life.
Family constellation work can provide clarity and understanding about past experiences and patterns of behavior, allowing clients to break free from unhelpful cycles and move towards more meaningful relationships and life goals. It can also help clients heal from ancestral trauma and heal burdens that have been passed down through generations. By addressing these hidden dynmaics, clients can experience a greater sense of agency, authenticity and wholeness.
A Constellation can be performed by a group or one-to-one, with a facilitator for moderation. The facilitator begins by asking some questions related to the issues that the participant wants to address. Then individuals are chosen to represent the family constellation. Fellow participants will be asked to stand and represent the different aspects or people of your life, based on your intention and needs. Depending on the issue you’re experiencing, participants may be chosen to represent things such as specific individuals, family members, symptoms, illnesses or situations. A representative is also chosen for you. Then the representatives are positioned or asked to find their place (whatever position feels right in relation to each other) within the space.
Burdens and blockages are handed back to whom they belong to or let go of. Perceptions are shifted, wounds healed. Blessings are given and apologies and acceptance may be exchanged via guidance by the facilitator. You can then step into your emerging future with a new, healed image of your story and a changed relationship with life.
Representatives also receive healing for the same type of issues they are representing. One of the gifts of these group processes is that regardless of being an “issue holder” or “representative” you still receive great healing.
While Constellations are often done to explore deeply embedded problems, they can also help people who are feeling confused and needing clarity in the midst of making difficult choices. There may be issues around relationships, career options, self development ect. In this case Constellations can help with decision-making by giving you the unique chance to have the choices in question represented. This can provide insight and clarity at an important crossroad in your life.
Family and Systemic Constellations can address things such as:
Adoption
Death
Loss
Worthiness
Spirituality
Career/Finances
Relationships
Anxiety
Depression
Health
Trauma
Divorce
A few intentions of this work:
Create a safe space for you and the history you bring
Uncover some of the root causes of the challenges you’re experiencing
Allow your challenges to be seen and heard with loving awareness
Recreate a new vision and story allowing you to end the unhelpful cycles and patterns of the past
Allow your family system to shift in a way that will restore the natural flow of love
More about Family Constellation Therapy
Bert Hellinger studied philosophy, theology and education. He worked for 16 years as a missionary for a Catholic order among the Zulus in South Africa. There he was intensively engaged with the influence of group dynamics. Afterwards Bert Hellinger became a psychoanalyst and completed various trainings in Primary Therapy, Transactional Analysis, Ericksonian Hypnotherapy and Neuro-linguistic Programming.
Over the years he finally developed his own method: Family Constellation (Familien-Stellen: translated Family Posts or Positions) according to Bert Hellinger was born.
Today it is known worldwide and is used in many different areas. In psychotherapy, organizational and management consulting, education, medicine, justice, life and educational counseling and life assistance in the broadest sense. It a training for Life.
These constellation rituals and processes reveal that our life challenges often stem from critical life events that were part of not only our childhood and upbringing, but also that of our parents, grand parents and beyond. Through Constellations we can bring to light what is missing for healing to happen for us, our ancestors and future generations. Healing happens for all attendees whether or not they have their own constellation. By being a witness to, or a representative in a constellation that touches your family’s story, you receive healing. Many participants come frequently to workshops and only attend as witnesses or representatives, as they prefer not to have focus directly on them. In this way workshops are suited for people who are more introverted as well as extroverted.