About systemic constellations
Systemic constellations are a generic term for working with representatives to spatially represent systems of relationships. Bert Hellinger developed and popularised this work from various therapeutic approaches as Family Constellations or Family Constellation Therapy. My teachers Wilfried Nelles and Heinrich Breuer studied with him and later parted ways with him. They developed his working methods further, as I do as part of the third generation of constellators.
Systemic constellations bring to light unconscious connections and loyalties that influence our conflicts, crises and illnesses. When we look at this unconscious reality with an open heart, deep inner healing processes can begin. When we accept what is, we gain access to old pain as well as to our own sources of strength. We do this with love, without wanting to do anything or take anything away.
Systemic constellations work in the resonance field of the soul. At the same time they have to do with the physical and emotional memory of those involved, with their generational memory, with belonging, attachment and balance, i.e. with completely unconscious processes. They make our connection to life as a whole visible and tangible. In constellations people find a place for what has been excluded from their souls. This brings peace and inner growth.
A few examples of the power of this work: On the path of observation, appreciation and acceptance, my parents become exactly the right people for me. After all, they brought me into this world, whatever weaknesses I may see in them. The exhausting struggle with them comes to an end and makes room for my own actions as a man and a woman.
On the path of seeing, appreciating and accepting, my childhood becomes the only right one. It allowed me to grow and gave me a start, however painful and difficult it may have been in my experience. The incessant cries of childhood patterns and needs are quieted when I am no longer so identified with the pain, demands and patterns of childhood. There is space for new, different experiences, for an adult life.
On the path of observation, appreciation and acceptance, even severe trauma can be transformed in a mindful way. It can literally become a source of new life. In the end, it is OK for things to have been the way they were. The energy trapped in the trauma and its survival mechanisms is released and becomes available to us again.
The person seeking help and the systemic constellation facilitator are guided together to the next possible and necessary step. This often requires inner farewells and contact with previously unfelt emotions. In the process, those who were previously incompatible come together in a way that brings them into harmony – children and parents, crises and their hidden solutions, illness and unconscious love, perpetrators and victims, life and death.
