Welcome to Constellations!

Family Constellations, also called “Systemic Constellations,” is a powerful form of body, mind and spirit healing that reveals the hidden dynamics in family or other kinds of systems.

Sometimes difficult issues persist even though we’ve done a lot of inner work to heal. The source of the imbalance may or may not result from direct personal experience; it may also have its origins in prior generations. It could come from an individual ancestor’s trauma or it may be the result of a collective event fraught with suffering.

Sometimes to heal
A hidden key must be revealed.
The work of family constellations
Helps bring balance, resolution
To the system and the client,
Restoring natural alignment.

But how, you may ask, is it possible to identify and heal a hidden trauma from the past?

A knowing field of information
Helps to guide our navigation.
Through “representing” we can learn
What rational means might not discern.
A family secret, felt duress,
Ancestral karma causing stress
Affects the system’s healthiness.

In workshops or individual sessions, we recreate and explore a model of the family system called a constellation where we represent family members or other elements that are significant to the issue. For instance, we often find that the client has adopted certain behaviors that repeat or aim to compensate for something traumatic that occurred in the past.

In one constellation a client reported that she had often felt a heavy sadness she couldn’t move beyond. It became clear that this grief had its origins in the prior generation. The client’s mother had lost her mother when the child was in utero. The client, since childhood, had been carrying grief from this loss that her mother was unable to face. Resolution came when the mother’s representative accepted the grief that belonged to her. This lifted the excess weight of grief the daughter had been carrying.

“Invisible loyalties,” such as this, once identified, acknowledged and honored can bring a sense of relief to the client and all who are participating in the constellation.

And so by honoring what’s actual
And bowing to the factual
We disentangle as we see
The binds of hidden loyalty,

The desired outcome of a constellation is to find a resolution that is healing for the client and the system.

and finally…
We come to feel a relaxation
A felt sense that the constellation
Has realigned us with the flow.
So love can grow. So love can grow.

~ Catherine Williams

The client benefits by getting to observe dynamics and entanglements they may not have considered before. But there’s more! Often the client experiences a tangible feeling of ease and bodily relaxation when what was hidden is revealed and honored.

Origins….

Family Constellations work was founded by Bert Hellinger, a German psychotherapist and former Roman Catholic Priest. He combined the indigenous wisdom of the South African Zulus with the most modern insights of psychotherapy, creating this beautiful healing modality. It has helped countless people around the world. I am honored to facilitate it today.