Bert Hellinger is the creator of the family constellations. In a German psychotherapist and family therapist who was a priest. He developed his method in the mid-1990s from his experience working with families as a family therapist. Family Constellations is a therapeutic approach designed to help reveal the dynamics hidden in a family in order to address the stressors that affect those relationships to treat them.
Family Constellations is a dynamic therapy that continues to evolve, although its basic principles continue being the same and constitutes an alternative to traditional methods not exempt from criticism due to the lack of evidence scientific In this Psychology-Online article, we explain what are family constellations in psychology.
Family or systemic constellations is a form of emotional therapy and a group process that allows you to discover the underlying or hidden dynamics present in the family, either the present or the source. It is a method that allows us to identify family conflicts, both in the family of origin as in the present, and change the suffering or other problems present in different generations of the family. Hellinger observed that many of us unconsciously "assume" destructive family patterns of anxiety, depression, anger, guilt, loneliness,
What is a family constellations session like?
The therapy is usually carried out in one or two sessions with a A group of people. In a group workshop, the client chooses other participants to represent the people involved in his problem. Participants take turns representing the people involved in each other's problems. Some deeper conflicts may require more sessions.
Although a family constellation looks similar to a project through psychodrama, it is not, since it does not select particular events in the client's life to reproduce them, it is about highlighting the family dynamics without any sense of drama and with little or no information on the subject or the lives of those affected. The person with the problem does not participate in the representation to be able to observe the process from the outside and thus see it from another perspective and be able to consider other alternative solutions.
Performing a family constellation has some benefits compared to other traditional methods. A family constellation is a brief and deep experiential process that allows internal changes to take place so that external change can take place, for this the person has to be really ready for the change. For this reason, preparation is very important and allows space for:
- Contemplating new perspectives on the problem
- Acceptance: which requires maturity, compassion and putting the hurts of the past aside. Acceptance of what we cannot change is the goal.
- Gratitude for what we have
- To love for oneself and others: to accept ourselves we must accept where and from whom we come. This may involve resolving unfinished business from our past experiences and releasing family and systemic trauma.
Benefits of family constellations
In summary, the benefits would be the following:
- It's a very fast process. Some people solve their problems in one or a few sessions
- The people involved in the problem do not need to be present
- You do not need to know what happened, that is, you do not need to know the problem just a few facts uncovered
- The resolution o the change (not always) usually affect or modulate the others involved in the problem
This therapy is based on the fact that relationships are perhaps the most important aspect of the human experience since we are individual and relational in nature. We need time alone and we also have an innate need to belong to a different group, at first they were tribes and as we have evolved extended families. A healthy sense of belonging provides us with warmth, satisfaction, and peace of mind.
Family constellation therapy is considered adequate to address concerns that are systemic or relational in nature. These concerns can include problems in the family of origin, difficulties in the parent-child relationship and in the intimate relationship of the couple.
It can be used as a method of potential therapy for people who:
- Are seeking help in addressing negative or harmful relationship patterns
- They want to solve their relationship conflicts
- They are trying to solve family problems
- Have experienced significant trauma or loss
- They want to achieve personal and professional success
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
