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Family Constellation Work
[See Excerpts from Dr. Klinghardt about Family Dynamics.]
Family Constellations
By Mary Rentschler, M.Ed.
Our
deepest wish is that we and our loved ones thrive and that our families be
filled with love and joy. When instead we experience illness, failure and
conflict, we want to know why. Might it be due to heavy metal toxicity?
Allergies? Dysfunctional family? German
psychoanalyst Bert Hellinger gives us an expanded view when looking for answers
that help the complex process of healing. His Family Constellations begin with
the idea that instead of originating in an individual’s life history from
birth to the present, dysfunction and suffering often relate to painful events
in the family’s past. One of the most profound therapies in Europe today,
Family Constellation work is now available in the U.S.
Why Is The Past So
Important?
Nothing is more important
to a child than belonging.
However,
sometimes our way of belonging is to suffer like those who came before us. A child
may become “entangled” in the difficult fate of a past family member, and
unconsciously draw unhappiness, failure, addiction or illness into his own life.
The purpose of a family constellation is to reveal that hidden dynamic and point
the way toward resolution.
How Do Constellations Relate
To Life Issues?
Individuals with severe
challenges
know all too well how the issues they confront daily constitute a particularly
difficult fate for themselves and their families. According to Dr. Dietrich
Klinghardt, both illness and healing occur at all five levels (physical,
energetic, mental-emotional, intuitive and spiritual) of his model of health. Any
disturbance in the physical realm manifests also, in another form, on the other
four levels. Family Constellations address the fourth
(intuitive) level, an area previously ignored by more familiar interventions.
Many practitioners acknowledge
this and incorporate constellation work into their practices.
Symptoms
that are secondary to mercury toxicity often co-exist with a heightened
sensitivity to energetic phenomena. In such cases the presence of unhealed
trans-generational issues in the family energy field can compound any illness.
Dr. Klinghardt recommends two or three sessions of Family Constellation work to
free up the system to release more toxins. Then suddenly other interventions may
become more effective.
How Do Family Constellations
Work?
Family
Constellations usually take place in groups. After a brief
interview with the facilitator, an individual with a concern chooses
representatives for members of his/her family from the circle of participants.
S/he positions them in a way that seems right and sits down to watch.
In a
short time the representatives begin to experience physical sensations, emotions
or urges belonging not to themselves, but to the family members they represent.
It is as though they have become antennae, receiving information from a
“family soul” mysteriously present in the room. Facilitators refer to this
as the “knowing field.”
Through
observations, questions, trial statements and movements, the facilitator and
client come to see the issue in a new way. A resolution may emerge that enables
the client to break his/her connection with difficulties in the family’s past.
A constellation lasts from 10 or 15 minutes to over an hour. As
hidden dynamics become clear and movements of reconciliation and peace arise,
the genuine love and strength in a family can begin to flow in a healthy way.
Families who have participated in constellations speak of them as
beautiful and life changing.
An Example
The
family history of a boy with autism was full of turmoil and pain on both sides.
His father was preoccupied with his own mother’s tragic story. The boy’s
mother, an immigrant whose family had experienced political exile, felt rootless
in America. In addition, their decision to abort a previous child lacked healthy
closure.
As
the constellation unfolded, the body language of the boy’s representative
showed his ties to those issues. His intense eye contact with the representative
of the aborted child was striking. To lighten the burden on their son, the
father needed to become less involved with his mother and more present in his
current family. The mother needed to develop respect for and roots in her new
country, and together they needed to honor the soul of the aborted child by
creating a place for it in their hearts. When they accomplished this with
ritualized words and gestures, the boy’s representative breathed an audible
sigh of relief.
Conclusion
Trans-generational
trauma predisposes us to illness. Misfortune or unresolved conflict in our
ancestry can create disturbances in the family field, which filter down into the
psyche, nervous system and metabolic functioning.
Often therapy and biomedical interventions succeed only after a healing
family constellation with an experienced facilitator. Fortunately it is never
too late to heal wounds from the past. Constellation work is unique in that any
living family member can do this intervention for the benefit of all.
The Systemic Constellations Group, LLC,
offers
monthly workshops at National Integrated Health Associates in Washington, DC.
Its members are graduates of The Hellinger Institute USA and have advanced
training in the constellation methodology. Contact one of them for more
information or to register for a workshop.
Carol Heil, LCSW-C (301)
899-4841
Diane Hetherington, M.S., MCC
(301) 215-6793
Betsy Hostetler, Ph.D.
(202) 362-8672
Mary Rentschler, M.Ed.
(202) 244-8280 or <wren@pipeline.com>
Some quotes from a workshop flyer:
1. Family Constellations expose the hidden dynamics within families that are behind the traumas and misfortunes we experience in our lives. The innocence of a child wants only to love its family and the child often sacrifices its own best interests in the blind belief that this suffering will ensure its 'belonging' to the family.
2. According to the groundbreaking family systems work of Bert Hellinger, each of us lives within an invisible familial force field. The forces in this field are determined by how well we have cared for our most significant familial relationships, and how our ancestors have cared for theirs. Join Hellinger, and his colleague and student, Dietrich Klinghardt, for a remarkable workshop that explores the legacies left in our particular field, and reveals how these relationships can be either life- and health-enhancing, or illness- and trauma-producing.
Hellinger's profound Family Constellation work and Klinghardt's applied psycho-neurobiology are the foundations of this workshop. By participating in and witnessing the constellation process, and through lectures and discussions, journal writing, singing, and more, we carefully explore these family dynamics and gain a deeper understanding of ourselves.
We leave the workshop knowing that without this understanding of our family of origin, their achievements as well as their failed dreams and longings, disappointments and losses, and even victimizations by other family members, there is no peace in the soul.
Hellinger is a philosopher, poet, psychoanalyst, writer, and healer. Author of more than 20 books, he is considered the most influential contemporary psychotherapist and philosopher in central Europe. Board-certified in neurologic and orthopedic medicine, and founder and president of the American Academy of Neural Therapy, Klinghardt has been synthesizing traditional and alternative medicine for more than 25 years.
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Family of Origin: Includes parents, siblings, uncles, aunts, grandparents and in some cases where they met a dramatic fate, great-grandparents. Also included are premarital partners of your parents and grandparents. |
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Present Family: Includes partners and children from former relationships as well. |
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What happened in your family that was tragic or unusual? Did anyone: l Die during childbirth? l Find her life at risk during childbirth? l Suffer illness or disability from giving birth? l Have a stillborn child? l Die at a young age? l Have an illegitimate child? l Have a child who was abandoned or given up for adoption? l Have an abortion yourself? [Abortions and in some cases miscarriages affect the couple’s or parents’ relationship but usually do not have an impact on the other children. Children should not inquire about an abortion or miscarriage, honoring it as part of the privacy of the parents’ relationship. A stillborn child, however, is considered a sibling and children must know about it.] l Have a former spouse, fiance', partner or lover? [Inquire about a parent's or grandparent's former partner(s) only if that partner was a spouse or fiance'. Other relationships are part of parents' privacy. However, you must know about children from any former relationship.] l Attempt or commit suicide? l Have a serious or long-lasting illness? l Have a physical or mental disability? l Commit a crime or war crimes? [Do not inquire about war crimes.] l Survive or die in the Holocaust? l Die in action during military service? l Become a missing person? l Join clergy or enter monastery? l Find themselves ignored, not respected, not honored? [Was anyone treated with contempt, cast out or slandered? E.g., disabled persons, gays / lesbians, alcoholics, criminals?] l Not marry and so be belittled? l Experience being taken advantage of? [E.g., regarding inheritance, etc?] l Emigrate to another country? Lose a fortune? l Live an unusual life? |
For more details about Family Constellation Work: www.Hellinger.com