Family Constellations for Individuals or Groups
I came across this method 13 years ago and was amazed when I stood in a group of relative strangers with the facilitator, John Harris, (who I still respect and learn from), explaining how different members of the group were representing myself, my mother, my grandmother, my great grandmother and two more ancestors from this Irish lineage. I had never met any of these women (apart from my mother), in real life and it was a powerful and humbling experience seeing where I had come from and embodying this information while witnessed by my ‘ancestors’.
After this particular constellation, the next time I saw my mother our relationship had softened and in fact she ended up standing up for me in front of my father. This was a very unusual characteristic and of course I cannot definitely attribute it to the constellation BUT I have continued to be affected profoundly in my real life after participating in other constellation workshops.
The idea of Family Constellations is that we are helped to look at our whole family system, including people who have died, any abortions or miscarriages that have happened, any disruption of the land our ancestors inhabited, as well as other specific stresses and traumas with the view to allow everything to have it’s correct place. Once the parts of a system are in the correct place the energy or love can flow freely, a little like how acupuncture points allow energy or chi to flow, or Feng Shui allows a home’s energy to flow and not get blocked.
I have found it to be one of the most helpful methods of unsticking any psychological or emotional difficulties that we struggle with. The word constellation does confuse people as it is linked with astronomy and astrology. They are actually separate processes, BUT because I have also found astrology to be so helpful for understanding the human condition I do also use astrology during my workshops.
I trained as a psychotherapist 20 years ago and a lot of constellation facilitators are also psychotherapists, although this isn’t a requirement.
Family constellations is a one off process as opposed to the traditional method of psychotherapy where it is recommended to attend weekly for several years.
The world has of course changed since Freud and Jung’s time and the time when the planet Pluto (representing the unconscious), was discovered. The introduction of psychotherapy and the realisation of an individual consciousness and an idea of self, as well as a collective group consciousness, was given a lot of attention in individual therapy.
Bert Hellinger, who was born in 1925 and trained as a priest, a psychotherapist and a philosopher. His work with the Zulu tribes taught him a lot about the importance of the collective consciousness. He incorporated all his learnings into the system now known as Family Constellations, bringing the importance of the individual as well as the importance of where we have come from, (parents, ancestors and the lands of our birth), into healing circles to create fields where the energy or love can be helped to flow. Rupert Sheldrake describes the process in detail and calls it Morphic Resonance.
I have now trained as a constellation facilitator with the CSC- Centre for Systemic Constellations and continue to learn from John Harris as well as many other ‘Elders’ of the Family Constellation Field. These teachers include Jutta ten Herkel , Liz Sleeper, Barbara Morgan, Bill Mannle, Stephan Hausner, Brendan O’Brien, Eileen O’Brien, Sheila McCarthy-Dodd and Gaye Donaldson.
And most recently I had another amazing experience with family constellations during a workshop with Pam Carruthers. Who I would also like to thank for more insights into myself and my mother and our ancestry as well as helping to design my new website for me.
Individual Family Constellation Sessions are available in person or using Zoom, Skype, or Telegram.
I also run group workshops. Please let me know if you are interested in attending a group Family Constellation.