Mental Health

What is family constellation therapy?

Sometimes despite all the healing we do on ourselves we are not able to shift an issue. The source of the issue could lie within the family system or be linked to transgenerational trauma.

We all have the need to belong and to be part of the system (even if it does not feel like it). To keep the balance within the family system we take on things that are not ours to own – unconsciously and from a place of love, entanglements are created which result in repeated behavioural patterns, addictions, illnesses or taking on debt or responsibilities of family members and ancestors. Family Constellations is the process that is used to move beyond these entanglements and back into the flow of one’s life.

Family constellations can be used for healing many different issues – from physical illnesses to mental, emotional and spiritual problems. The entanglement is revealed during the constellation. The acknowledgement of it, with healing sentences, lovingly releases it and the movement of healing is set in motion. In some cases, supportive therapy or energy healing is needed to assist you on the journey of healing.

What are Family Constellations?

Family Constellations (also referred to as Systemic Constellations) were developed by Bert Hellinger in the 1990s. It began as group work working with a group of people who are not related – referred to as a Group Family Constellations workshop. A person in the group is ‘constellated ’ and the other people in the group step in as ‘representatives’. You do not need any experience to attend – just an open heart, a desire for healing, and a willingness to trust and to allow yourself to sink into the magic of constellation work.

The role of the facilitator is to work with the Knowing Field to reveal and release the unknown/unconscious entanglements which have prevented the client (also called the seeker) from moving forward in life. Underpinning the constellations are the “Orders of Love”.

The Family Constellation Process

The process starts with a discussion between the facilitator and the client to get an outline of the issue requiring healing and information on the client’s family. People from the group are selected to represent family members for the client. These representatives are placed by the client or find their own place within the circle. As they do so they step into “The Field”, also known as the “Knowing Field”.

It is in this “Knowing Field” that the magic unfolds as the representatives tap into the feelings of the person that they are representing and how they relate to the other representatives in the field. In this process, the client can acknowledge what is. And then it allows the movement towards healing for the client. I say ‘movement towards healing’ as there are many factors influencing how long it takes for the effect of the Constellation to be felt. When a group is not present there is the option of a private one on one constellation.

When is family constellation indicated?

*in changing unwanted thoughts and habits: social phobias, eating disorders

*in persisting physical health unexplained concerns

*In changing the feeling of being “stuck” in one state of personal growth or health

* In changing the feeling of unhappiness, sadness, guilt, anger

*in changing the unwanted feeling of fear manifested as anxiety

*in changing the physical manifestation when the body turns against itself: cancer and autoimmune

*bereavement

From Laws of Healing by Bert Hellinger

“Our heart beats with the world as it is, and this includes what we do not wish to acknowledge. It beats in accord with our guilt and the guilt of those with whom we are angry and whom we fear. We give them a place in our heart. We surrender to this heartbeat and become one with it.

Suddenly our body relaxes. Everything finds its place. Everything beats in harmony together with us. We belong to our body and everything in our body belongs to us. We are there in it with everything fully present.

We leave everything up to a creative power- all that hurt us and also all that hurts others. We let it go and we sense deep peace. We have found our way back to love; to peace within ourselves and with others; to peace with our past; to peace with our wrong doing and its consequences; to peace with what harm others have done, whatever it demanded from us and still does- and we feel the healing effect of this surrender to everything as it is and was.

Here we belong. Everything may heal and become whole, to be taken along into life in its fullness-without guilt, without justice- into an eternal river, into an infinite ocean. Without good and bad, there with everything else, equally there –with love.”

Emotional and mental related symptoms found to be associated: