SYSTEMIC Organisational and FAMILY CONSTELLATION

A technique that might give you insight into unconscious behaviours – a modern form of ‘right of passage’.

The systemic family constellation model is the original form of systemic constellations in a family and multi generational context and was originally developed by Bert Hellinger. To find out more about the history and process of systemic constellations, read this page or follow the links:

• What are systemic family constellations?
• Philosophical background of systemic family constellations
• How do systemic family constellations work?
• Is it a ritual then?
• Other aspects of life that can be investigated
• For workshop information please refer to our schedule.

Systemic family constellation is a process through which an individual reveals the hidden dynamics of his or her family, or any other human system, and finds a way towards a resolution by changing the inner picture of the situation. It is:

• A tool for communication
• Spatial representation of a system

Bert Hellinger, the founder of family constellation, explains systemic family therapy as an interest in discovering a client's entanglement in the fates of previous family members. By bringing these hidden dynamics out into the open, with the help of a family constellation, a resolution to the entanglement can be found more easily. Hellinger discovered, from experiences collected in family constellations, that a system has, as a governing authority, a common conscience, common soul or morphic field.
Family constellations have spread widely, particularly in Germany, over the past twenty years and have generated a great deal of interest in therapeutic circles. Hellinger's use of family constellations to restore or create order in a system, has caused vehement reactions in the German press, both positive and negative. This may give the impression that many Germans harbour a deep fear of controversial authorities and not-quite-explainable methodologies, possibly rooted in the experience of the third Reich. On the other hand, the same press articles state that, in Germany alone, there are some 2000+ practitioners and that the question 'Did you set up your family already?' is heard more and more frequently in conversations.
One of these practitioners, a registered psychologist, reports that Hellinger's work has helped her to work as a German with Jewish people in Israel, where many of the participants in her groups had lost members of their families in the holocaust. Family constellations explore the reconciliation of our deepest wounds, both in a personal and historical context.

The origins of systemic family therapy go back to the 1950s in Palo Alto where Gregory Bateson examined the possibility of connections between family processes and schizophrenic illnesses. They revealed the significance of the "system" for the individual.
Boszormenyi-Nagy provided further insight into the basic structures of systems therapy as he discovered that sometimes relationship patterns could be traced back across several generations. These patterns are not obvious and happen without the affected family member's awareness of them.
In practice, the family constellation method is related to psychodrama, introduced by Jacob Moreno, and family reconstruction, used by Virginia Satir.
In psychodrama, as developed by Moreno, emotional information is presented and acted out on a stage. Thoughts, feelings and perceptions are externalised and can be altered in the course of a session. It is assumed that these alterations have a continuing effect as an internal image which replaces the image of the problem situation. This ‘internal image replacement’ also happens in family constellations, where a deep understanding of belonging to the family system and in a larger context, the world, is created.
The family reconstruction, developed by Virginia Satir, is a method for making the family structure more visible. She had as many family members as possible attend sessions together to act out typical scenes from their daily life. Relationship patterns between the family members and their effect on individuals were revealed and could be modified.
Bert Hellinger himself, now in his eighties, sees influences on his work from: his parents, whose faith immunised him against accepting Hitler's National Socialism; his 20 years as a Catholic priest, particularly as a missionary in South Africa to the Zulu; and his participation in interracial, ecumenical training in group dynamics led by Anglican clergy. After leaving the priesthood, he studied psychoanalysis, Gestalt Therapy, Transactional Analysis and finally, very important in his work, family therapy.

A systemic family constellation session consists of six basic steps:

1- Definition of a good outcome for the systemic constellation

In an initial interview we discuss your request for the constellation to define a good outcome for the constellation. The conversation is very focused to find the intention close to your core and heart and ensures a powerful constellation process.

2- Decision about who and what is important for the constellation

After gathering information about who belongs to the social system relevant to your request, we decide about who or what is important for the constellation as a representative. Groups of people, such as a country or ethnic group can be summed up into one representative.

3- Constellation setup

Now you choose representatives for each person or element defined in the initial discussion and set up the constellation. In a collected state, you place the representatives in the space available. These representatives will now be in immediate contact with the larger field of your family system. Once the constellation is set up, you can sit down and watch.

4- Study of the presented picture

A picture is presented by the representatives standing in the room in a characteristic relationship to each other. This picture represents your inner image of the situation and can show unconscious elements or reveal hidden dynamics. One can feel where there is strength in the system and where not. For example it can be seen:
Who is respected in the system
Who might be excluded
Where there are points of disturbance

5- Development of a movement towards a solution

We then follow steps to bring the constellation to a place where movement towards a solution starts to happen. Representatives are rearranged and we suggest structured sentences (link to below) to be repeated by the representatives, to either create more clarity of the current situation or as a resolution for a new inner image for you. In this process, we are in constant contact with you and the representatives to receive feedback about the interventions and find information for the next step.

6- Completion of the constellation.

To complete the constellation, you might be placed directly into the constellation, replacing your representative to ‘feel’ the position in the resolved constellation. Then the constellation is dissolved. In the final conversation, some ideas and suggestions might come up as to how the solution just seen can be transferred into reality. However, it is very important to let the constellation do "its work" unconsciously. Analyses of what has happened might diminish its strength, as language used may not exactly match the experience – emotions are after all, extremely difficult to articulate.

Don’t worry – we will guide you through this process and nothing needs to be consciously remembered.

The original group setting of family constellations can be adapted to a one-on-one counselling setting, by using multiple forms of placeholders for the representative. (see also personal transformation)
For ways to apply systemic constellations to systemic organisational consulting, refer to tools and techniques and to Organisational Constellations.

Even though the practice of family constellations was originally referred to as psychotherapy, the originator Bert Hellinger now distances himself from this categorisation. He prefers to refer to this work as ‘applied philosophy’.
So what is this unexplainable method now? Perceiving systems in relationships. People are moved around in space. Ritualistic sentences are spoken. Talk about ancestors. Is it a ritual then?
There are similarities between shamanic rituals and systemic family constellations. Daan van Kampenhout entered into a correspondence with Hellinger to explore the relationship between shamanism and family constellations. In the book, Images of the Soul that followed, van Kampenhout describes the spiritual principles which form the basis of both shamanic practice and systemic family constellations.
Bert Hellinger’s 16 years as a missionary to the Zulu, deeply influenced his family constellation work. He learned the Zulu language and, with time, came to feel as much at home with the Zulus as is possible for a European. He saw that many Zulu rituals and customs had a structure and function similar to elements of the Catholic Mass, pointing to common human experiences, and he experimented with integrating Zulu music and ritual form into the Mass.
The process of leaving one culture to live in another sharpened Hellinger’s awareness of the relativity of many cultural values.
With religion and religious practice loosing its attraction in the modern world, people are loosing purpose and depth. It is clearly shown in the soulless shopping malls and the alienation of the nuclear family. At the same time we see miscommunication and war resulting from extreme religious self-righteousness from politicians all over the world.
Indigenous communities are getting lost in alcohol and domestic violence, desperately trying to find an external power having lost the internal richness and belonging, stripped away by colonial imperialism. It has been suggested that ritualistic initiations into manhood and womanhood can help bring back the strength that has been lost.
Such programs being offered are spreading from the indigenous people in Australia to trauma work with Vietnam war veterans in California. Family constellation can be one of the programs that can help in many different contexts.

It is notable that some health issues run as consistent themes in some families – and whilst it is very tempting to say that these issues must be genetic, it is quite clear that genetics do not lie at the root of all of these issues.

When looking at health issues, a constellation can be set up to try and establish what is going on. Usually, the constellation is started by setting up two representatives, one person for the client and another one for the diseased organ or illness. These constellations can either stay on the level of the illness and sometimes show the client a movement to a solution, or evolve into a family constellation and place the client with the illness into the larger family context.