HOW DOES IT WORK?

Family Constellation is one of the deepest and most far-reaching forms of therapy
ever devised. A single session can uncover previously unseen family and inter-generational
dynamics that are the roots of physical or emotional suffering, blocks or limitations in the
client’s life, thus bringing healing and radical changes to all relationships – including the one
with oneself.

Each Family Constellation is an energetic and moving portrait of the client’s family and is mostly carried out with a group of people, although individual sessions are also possible.

In a group session, the person presenting the issue (the ‘Issue Holder’) is brought together with a small group of people amongst whom will be other Issue Holders and people who are simply there for the purpose of finding out more about Family Constellation and who have agreed to serve as ‘resources’ or ‘representatives’ for the issue holders. (When we witness other people’s constellations, we too receive healing.)

The facilitator (or ‘constellator’) will first conduct an interview with the client to assess which elements are to be represented by the group in a Constellation. These interviews are based on factual information, not on opinions or personal interpretations from the client, and therefore the facilitator may stop the conversation at any point once s/he has enough material to set up the Constellation.

Events that have weight and are relevant in Family Constellations could include: early death in the family, including aborted children; accidents; major illnesses including addictions; separation of the parents or sibilings; adoption;  somebody leaving or being sent away; parents coming from two different country or forced to leave a country; wartime experiences; crimes of family members or victims of a crime.

The Issue Holder is then asked to intuitively chose from the group someone to represent one or more of his/her family members (sometimes abstract concepts such as a country or a specific illness are also brought into the constellation) and one person to represent his/her self. The Representatives are positioned by the client in relationship to each other as s/he perceives they stand in the family system, but they are not given any particular pose or gesture and they don’t say anything. Then the client sits down and simply observes what happens.

Although no instruction is given to the Representatives about how to move or how to behave towards each other, the stand-ins begin to feel as the original family member actually felt. This phenomenon, central to the work and obviously evading any rational understanding, is referred to as the ‘morphogenic field’, ‘informing field’ or ‘knowing field’.

The constellator may then ask the Representatives to say how they are feeling in relationship to each other, or change their position within the constellation to reveal unresolved dynamics affecting the presenting personal issue. As the process unfolds, a healing resolution begins to emerge. At times this may be initiated by the constellator helping one or more members of the constellation to find a more harmonious place within the system.

The client is usually brought into the constellation towards the end of the process, when the constellator may suggest to the client and the Representatives some simple sentences based on what Hellinger refers to as “the orders of love”. These spoken words acknowledge the new realisations/realities and honour whatever or whoever needs honouring.

In an individual session, only the therapist and the client are present. Symbolic objects such as cushions, chairs or pieces of paper are used and placed to represent the family system and then the process is similar to group work.

Family Constellation utilises a single session rather then a sequence of sessions. The evocative images that are created within a Family Constellation reach deeply into the client’s subconscious mind like seeds planted deep in the ground. It is best not to analyse one’s own experience, especially directly after a constellation, but rather to let the images work from within one’s subconscious mind and settle of their own accord.

The same client may want to address a different issue at a later date, but this also will stand alone as a single session.

Swan Treasure offers both group and individual sessions, as well as preparatory individual sessions to assess the need and readiness for a Family Constellation and to help to clarify any issue that a client wishes to present.