The healing power of Family and Systemic Constellation work

Why should one attend a Family Constellation:

Many of the issues that we  face in our lives today are related to our family of origin,  e.g.: Family or relationship issues, physical and/or psychological issues, such as heart disease, cancer, depression, anxiety, addiction, professional issues, and others.

Family Constellation is a gentle yet powerful technique that exposes and heals those relationships. Through role’playing’, intuition and the guidance of the facilitator, you get a different perspective and experience transformation.

In a single session, a family constellation can reveal a previously unrecognized systemic dynamic that spans multiple generations in a given family, and it can resolve the deleterious effects of that dynamic by encouraging you to accept the factual reality of the past.

What is Family Constellation:

Family Constellation diverges significantly from conventional forms of cognitive ,behavior and psychodynamic therapy. The method has been described as quantum quackery.  It incorporates the idea of morphic resonance (as described by Rupert Sheldrake) into the explanation of it.

Many present-day problems and difficulties may be influenced by traumas suffered in previous generations of the family, even if those affected now are unaware of the original event in the past. A theoretical foundation for this concept is called The Ancestor Syndrome in psychology. We refer to the relation between present and past problems that are not caused by direct personal experience as Systemic entanglements, said to occur when unresolved trauma has afflicted a family through an event such as murder, suicide, death of a mother in childbirth, early death of a parent or sibling, war, natural disaster, emigration, or abuse. The psychiatrist Ivan Boszormenye Nagy referred to this phenomenon as Invisible Loyalties.

How does it work:

Constellations can be done in an individual session as well as in a group setting. The greater benefit will  obviously be attained in a group setting as described below.

Members of the group can explore an urgent personal issue. Generally, several members will be given an opportunity to set up a Constellation in each session. After a brief interview,concerning the issue of the client,  the facilitator suggests who will be represented in the Constellation. These are usually a representative for the client, one or more family members, and sometimes abstract concepts such as “depression” or a country. The person presenting the issue (client) asks people from the group to stand in the Constellation as representatives. He or she arranges the representatives in relation to each other according to what feels right in the moment. The client then sits down and observes. Several minutes elapse with the representatives standing still and silent in their places. Unlike psychodrama, the representatives do not act, pose, dialogue or role play. Emphasis is placed on perceptive intuition in placing the representatives and in subsequent steps of the procedure. The facilitator may ask each representative to briefly report how they feel being placed in relation to the others. A healing resolution for the issue generally is supposedly achieved after re-positioning the representatives and adding key members of the system who have been forgotten or written out of the family history. When every representative feels right in his or her place and the other representatives agree, the facilitator may suggest one or two sentences to be spoken aloud. If the representatives do not feel at peace with their new position or sentences, they can move again or try a different sentence. This is claimed, in an abstract way, to represent a possible resolution of the issues faced by the client. Sometimes the process concludes without a full resolution being achieved.

Some life experiences such as trauma need additional attention and care to heal. In a group everyone’s presence and attention contributes to the healing of each individual. Not every participant has to reveal their personal stories in front of the group, the group itself is working as a healing field. You will participate in your own constellation and support others in theirs, and you will benefit from each constellation by being engaged in this field.

What will you get out of participation in Family Constellation:

You will gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics within your family of origin, your country, culture, religion, etc, that have unconsciously influenced who you have become. You will accept the past and come to peace with your origin. You will gain strength for living your life in the present. You will be at peace with who you are and who you have become.

Systemic Constellations can also be applied to issues concerning corporations or any other social system.