Family Constellations, also known as Systemic Constellations and Systemic Family Constellations, is a therapeutic method which draws on elements of

family systems therapy Family therapy (also referred to as family counseling, family systems therapy, marriage and family therapy, couple and family therapy) is a branch of psychology and clinical social work that works with families and couples in intimate relationsh ...

existential phenomenology Existential phenomenology encompasses a wide range of thinkers who take up the view that philosophy must begin from experience like phenomenology, but argues for the temporality of personal existence as the framework for analysis of the human cond ...

and

isiZulu Zulu (), or isiZulu as an endonym, is a Southern Bantu language of the Nguni branch spoken in Southern Africa. It is the language of the Zulu people, with about 12 million native speakers, who primarily inhabit the province of KwaZulu-Natal of ...

beliefs and attitudes to family. In a single session, a Family Constellation attempts to reveal an unrecognized dynamic that spans multiple generations in a given family and to resolve the deleterious effects of that dynamic by encouraging the subject, through representatives, to encounter and accept the factual reality of the past. Family Constellations diverges significantly from conventional forms of cognitive, behaviour and

psychodynamic psychotherapy Psychodynamic psychotherapy or psychoanalytic psychotherapy is a form of psychological therapy. Its primary focus is to reveal the unconscious content of a client's psyche in an effort to alleviate psychic tension, which is inner conflict wi ...

. The method has been described by physicists as

quantum mysticism Quantum mysticism, sometimes referred pejoratively to as quantum quackery or quantum woo, is a set of metaphysical beliefs and associated practices that seek to relate consciousness, intelligence, spirituality, or mystical worldviews to the ideas ...

, and its founder Bert Hellinger incorporated the speculative idea of

morphic resonance Alfred Rupert Sheldrake (born 28 June 1942) is an English author and parapsychology researcher who proposed the concept of morphic resonance, a conjecture which lacks mainstream acceptance and has been criticized as pseudoscience. He has worke ...

into his explanation of it. Positive outcomes from the therapy [for a systematic review, see
in English
o
in German
have been attributed by scepticists to conventional explanations such as suggestion and empathy. Practitioners claim that present-day problems and difficulties may be influenced by traumas suffered in previous generations of the family, even if those affected are unaware of the original event. Hellinger referred 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 Iván Böszörményi-Nagy referred to this phenomenon as "invisible loyalties".

Conceptual basis

The philosophical orientation of Family Constellations were derived through an integration of

, family systems therapy, and elements of indigenous mysticism. The phenomenological lineage can be traced through philosophers

Franz Brentano Franz Clemens Honoratus Hermann Josef Brentano (; ; 16 January 1838 – 17 March 1917) was an influential German philosopher, psychologist, and former Catholic priest (withdrawn in 1873 due to the definition of papal infallibility in matters ...

Edmund Husserl , thesis1_title = Beiträge zur Variationsrechnung (Contributions to the Calculus of Variations) , thesis1_url = https://fedora.phaidra.univie.ac.at/fedora/get/o:58535/bdef:Book/view , thesis1_year = 1883 , thesis2_title ...

and

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th ce ...

. This perspective stands in contrast to the positivist reductionist orientation of scientific psychology. Rather than understanding mind, emotion and consciousness in terms of its constituent parts, existential phenomenology opens perception to the full panorama of human experience and seeks to grasp a sense of meaning.Cohen, D. B. (2006). "Family Constellations": An innovative systemic phenomenological group process from Germany. ''The Family Journal: Counseling and Therapy for Couples and Families'', 14, 226-233. Family Constellations take their form from family systems psychology. Influential figures in this movement include

Jacob Moreno Jacob Levy Moreno (born Iacob Levy; May 18, 1889 – May 14, 1974) was a Romanian-American psychiatrist, psychosociologist, and educator, the founder of psychodrama, and the foremost pioneer of group psychotherapy. During his lifetime, he was rec ...

, the founder of

psychodrama Psychodrama is an action method, often used as a psychotherapy, in which clients use spontaneous dramatization, role playing, and dramatic self-presentation to investigate and gain insight into their lives. Developed by Jacob L. Moreno and h ...

; Iván Böszörményi-Nagy, the pioneer of transgenerational systemic thinking;

Milton Erickson Milton Hyland Erickson (5 December 1901 – 25 March 1980) was an American psychiatrist and psychologist specializing in medical hypnosis and family therapy. He was founding president of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis and a fellow ...

, a pioneer of brief therapy and hypnotherapy; Eric Berne who conceived the concept of ''life scripts''; and

Virginia Satir Virginia Satir (26 June 1916 – 10 September 1988) was an American author and psychotherapist,http://www.psychologistanywhereanytime.com/famous_psychologist_and_psychologists/psychologist_famous_virginia_satir.htm recognized for her approach to ...

, who developed family sculpture, the precursor of Systemic Constellations. In the past decade, further advancements in the use of the process have been innovated by practitioners throughout the world. The process draws from indigenous spiritual mysticism to contribute towards releasing tensions, lightening emotional burdens, and resolving real-world problems. Hellinger lived as a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

priest in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

for 16 years in the 1950s and 1960s. During these years, he became fluent in the Zulu language, participated in Zulu rituals, and gained an appreciation for the Zulu worldview. Of particular importance is the difference between traditional Zulu attitudes toward parents and ancestors and those typically held by Europeans. Heidegger postulated that to be human is to find oneself thrown into a world with no clear logical, ontological, or moral structure. In Zulu culture, Hellinger found a certitude and equanimity that were the hallmarks of Heidegger's elusive authentic Self. The traditional Zulu people lived and acted in a religious world in which the central focal point was the ancestors. They are regarded as positive, constructive, and creative presences. The connection with ancestors is a central feature of the Constellation process. The term "Family Constellations" was first used by

Alfred Adler Alfred Adler ( , ; 7 February 1870 – 28 May 1937) was an Austrian medical doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of the school of individual psychology. His emphasis on the importance of feelings of belonging, family constellation and birth orde ...

in a somewhat different context to refer to the phenomenon that each individual belongs to and is bonded in relationship to other members of his or her family system. One premise of his work is that one can inherit trauma.

The method

This description is the prototype group Family Constellation as developed by Bert Hellinger in the 1990s. Many practitioners have blended Constellation work with psychological aspects of healing. Others have kept the classic form as taught by Hellinger, such as the Constellation Approach. The Constellation Approach merges concepts of Family Constellations, energy medicine, and

consciousness studies Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

to complement the understanding of classic Constellation methodology. * A group (workshop) is led by a facilitator. In turn, 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, the facilitator suggests who will be represented in the Constellation. These are usually a representative for the seeker, one or more family members, and sometimes abstract concepts such as "depression" or a country. * The person presenting the issue (seeker or client) asks people from the group to stand in the Constellation as representatives. He or she arranges the representatives according to what feels right in the moment. The seeker then sits down and observes. * Several minutes elapse with the representatives standing still and silent. Initially, unlike

, 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 aim is supposedly to tune into what the psychiatrist Albrecht Mahr describes as the ''Knowing Field'' and former biologist

Rupert Sheldrake Alfred Rupert Sheldrake (born 28 June 1942) is an English author and parapsychology researcher who proposed the concept of morphic resonance, a conjecture which lacks mainstream acceptance and has been criticized as pseudoscience. He has worke ...

has suggested is

.Sheldrake, R. (1988). The presence of the past: Morphic resonance and the habits of nature. Rochester, VT: Park Street. The ''Knowing Field'' is claimed to guide participants to perceive and articulate feelings and sensation that mirror those of the real family members they represent; however, ''representative perception'' (

) is not a concept with any scientific basis. The representatives have little or no factual knowledge about those they represent. Nevertheless, the representatives usually experience feelings or physical sensations that are thought to inform the process. * The facilitator may ask each representative to briefly report how they feel being placed in relation to the others. The facilitator, seeker, and group members may believe they perceive an underlying dynamic in the spatial arrangement and feelings held by the representatives that influence the pertinent personal issue. Often, configuring multiple generations in a family is thought to reveal that traumas continue to unconsciously affect the living long after the original victims or perpetrators have died. * A healing resolution for the issue generally is supposedly achieved after repositioning 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 seeker. Sometimes the process concludes without a full resolution being achieved. *When the facilitator feels that the healing resolution has taken hold among the representatives, the seeker is invited to "replace his/her representative in the Constellation". This supposedly allows the seeker to perceive how it feels to be part of a reconfigured system. When everyone feels comfortable in their place, the Constellation concludes.

Conceptual basis

The method

References

Further reading