Family constellations was initially developed by Bert Hellinger, a psychotherapist as a way of seeing the hidden dynamics within our whole family system, that are influencing our current lives. After an initial conversation, the client is asked to choose representatives for different people or elements of their family system. So this may be close relatives or it may be elements such as a country, war, a religion, colonialism.

Once the constellation is set up, it will begin to move and take a shape and to reveal the dynamics at work within that system.

Working with these dynamics and acknowledging what is there, can bring the system back into balance, loosening ancestral ties and burdens and letting life and love flow more freely.

All systems have their own conscience or rules in order to preserve belonging and survival. Often, in the drive to belong and survive, the natural orders of love become imbalanced. Secrets, excluded people, traumatic events, unexpressed grief, all create blocks in the system, like boulders in a river. Love and energy cannot then fully flow through the system.

Setting up a constellation shows us where these blocks are and gives us an opportunity to bring the system back into balance.

Sometimes healing sentences or rituals are used to acknowledge deeper truths and to restore order.

There is no formula for these move and the constellation is very much led by what is happening in the moment.

At a workshop, we will sit together in the circle that creates a holding space for the constellation. We will talk about what you are bringing and what you are looking for from the constellation. I might ask some questions about your family, but this is to get simple facts rather than to understand the whole story.

Then I will ask you to choose representatives for the people and themes relevant to your issue. The constellation will then begin and representatives may move, look in different directions, express feelings.

Representation is a process of taking part in a constellation as a member of the family or an element of that family system. If you are chosen to represent, you will be asked if you are willing to do so and you can say no if you don’t feel comfortable. Then the client will place you and you will ‘tune-in’ to what is going on for you. It is not a rational process but a practice of sensing what is happening for you in that moment and trusting that whatever is happening is part of the system. It is mainly felt in the body and feelings and thoughts may also arise, particularly in relation to others in the constellation..

Not very much. Any major events are helpful but a constellation can work with very little known information.

Generally family constellations can help with stuckness, or not being able to thrive in a particular area of life.

Specifically it can help with:

• Relationship issues

• Health and illnesses

• Financial struggles

• Feelings of loneliness and isolation

• Addiction issues and repeating patterns

• Low moods and anxiety

• Family constellations is less about talking and more of an embodied experience that focuses on the present moment.

• Where therapy works with the individual in the context of their family, constellations works with the system as a whole. In that way constellations sees the individual as part of a whole, not separate from it.

• Therapy is usually long-term with weekly sessions, whereas constellations need more time between in order to integrate what has happened.

• Constellations can provide a very different perspective for issues that have been talked about many times. Seeing things from a systemic perspective can create a shift for issues that we cannot seem to shift by traditional means.

• A constellation can reveal a painful truth very quickly, rather than over time in therapy. This can be difficult and it can also be very liberating.