What is a Family Constellation?
A Family Constellation is a process that allows discovering the invisible underlying dynamics of relationships and patterns from our family of origin. This may involve our original family, present family and our ancestral past. It is experiential, a brief solution-focused intervention that utilizes body sensing in tapping into the dynamics of the individual’s family, relational or systemic issues.
A Family Constellation or Business Constellation workshop or seminar consists of a group of people who agree to meet in a confidential and safe space.
There are many benefits of doing a Family Constellation or Business Constellation compared to the traditional methods such as counselling, extensive psychotherapy, coaching or personal development or motivational seminars.
What’s behind Family Constellations or how do they work?
This is the phenomenological method of perception. Phenomenology is simply a method of deep, clear and present perception. Working phenomenologically means consciously allowing the self a direct sensory experience of the world and ‘what is’ that comes up directly in one’s consciousness.
This way of working allows the consciousness to be without the limits of judgements or preconceptions and allow for direct perception. Often a deeper reality remains hidden under layers of assumption, story and judgement – what truly is, is unable to reveal itself.
Bert Hellinger, the originator of Family Constellations (inspired by the work of the pioneer of systemic family therapy, Virginia Satir) gave an alternative name for Family Constellations “Movements of the Soul.”This is an exciting and effective new method that is an alternative to traditional counselling and cognitive therapy. It is very powerful and effective at uncovering the situation and providing a solution.
This is a process where a person can put out the inner image of their dilemma, problem or issue to be seen and felt. The elements of the process can be observed through the spatial arrangement of the elements involved. Through the process, emotions may be acknowledged or released and a healthier order found so that new perspectives may be taken in.
Exactly how Family Constellations works is still something that has not yet been determined fully. It is a very common occurrence that fellow family members often feel the effects of a Family Constellation even though they are not aware of a family member doing this process. For this reason, people don’t have to bring the family together in order to do a constellation for. The changes in one member in finding a better place in the system often provide a shift that may be felt by others in the system. Any shifts in one person often result in changes in the family energy and the next time they meet someone from the family, they may observe changes in the connection. Even if this does not take place and others are not more receptive, the process enables the individual to find a better place resulting in more resilience and harmony.
Family Constellations are attempted to be explained by Epigenetics which is a relatively new science that has been revolutionising the study of genetics. It has shown that while we inherit physical characteristics and traits through DNA, we also inherit behaviour, emotional and social patterns or disruptions such as trauma, through the subtle connections between one generation to the next in family systems. Scientific studies are finding that these factors have much more power than we thought of switching genes on or off. The psycho-social effects of epigenetic have been found to be powerful in controlling the genes (DNA) in human beings. More studies provide evidence that resolving systemic, ancestral family entanglements and personal relationship issues can have a very positive effect on mental and physical wellbeing for ourselves and our children.
Virginia Satir and Family RECONSTRUCTION
Virginia Satir (1916 – 1988), was a founder of family therapy. Already in 1942 Satir began working with the client and actual family members. She explored emotions, moods, the patterns of functioning and the ways families have of communicating and interacting with each other. She felt that each individual piece of behaviour made sense if seen within the reality of the family context.
In the 1960s she began working with clients and their families together in workshops that ran over several days. This way of working Satir called Family Reconstruction. The participants were asked to find out as much as they could about the preceding generations in their family. At the workshop she would draw up a family tree (much like a genogram), going back three generations. Exploring the roots of a family like this facilitated a process of being able to see the family history and stories with new eyes.
Family sculpting
In 1962 a new form of working emerged with her clients, that of family sculpting, also in a workshop setting. And instead of the actual family members, participants from the workshop would represent them, forming literally a human sculpture of the family. By doing this she was able to reveal the communication patterns within the family. They would then work out more useful ways of interacting. She was a humanist and looked at the individual in terms of their potential to develop, grow and change.
Bert Hellinger and Natural Order in Family Constellations
According to Hellinger, family systems are composed of energy that connects members of a group. Primitive groups are well aware of the order in their systems in a way that most modern societies and families have forgotten.
Such order helps to provide health and resilience to all of its members and the group as a whole.
Natural Order means:
- Each of the members of a group has an equal right to belong to the system.
- Each member of the system has a place in the natural order of the family system.
- If inclusion and order are in place love flows easily through the system to the benefit of all in the system.
The purpose of the therapy process is to reinstate those of the system that have been excluded and restore the natural order, hence allowing love to flow more easily and provide a healthy place for the client in particular.
Maria Gomori and Family Reconstruction Process
Maria Gomori, M.S.W., Dip.C., PhD (born May 25, 1920) is a pioneer in the field of systems family therapy. A Sorbonne graduate, she has made significant contributions to the fields of psychiatric and social work training, having designed numerous successful training programs. She is the foremost living proponent of the Satir Method for Family Therapy in the world. She co-authored with Virginia Satir et al. The Satir Approach to Communication and The Satir Model: Family Therapy and Beyond; the latter book was chosen by the AAMFT Foundation for the 1994 Satir Education and Research Prize.
Maria has been teaching the Family Reconstruction process internationally, which represents a combination of Sculpting and Family Mapping in a group of people representing issues and resources, as well as family members of a family of a star (rather than an ‘issue-holder’). This process is closer to the coaching constellations (systemic coaching approach).
For more information about the trainings visit www.virginiasatir.co.uk.