Joanna Malinowska
Professional Hypnotherapist
Sydney Hypnotherapy & Self Hypnosis Centre
Family Constellations in Tradition of Bert Hellinger
Family constellations is a way of working with issues within the family systems without the need of other family members being present.
Each person is an individual but also a product of an the environment, family and other group systems. Our emotional issues, like depression, low self-esteem, anger, anxiety, personal relationships' dynamics, and business issues are very often results of unresolved disturbances from previous generations. In the western culture, it is very common to blame parents for our issues, even completely cutting ourselves from our roots. It leads to anxiety and depression, and affects our relationships with current family, especially our children. The opposite happens in some other cultures, where parents are always put on pedestal, and events which disturb the harmony of the family are denied and forgotten.
Family Constellation work is a relatively new discipline, very popular in Europe It is a systemic family therapy developed by Bert Hellinger, German psychotherapist, now over 80 years old. Bert Hellinger spent last 25 -30 years uncovering, developing, practicing and teaching Family Constellations. In his working with thousands of family systems, he observed a natural order that determines how family dynamics unfold at an unconscious level. Deviations from the natural order in previous generations will affect the lives of successive generations. Family Constellations awakens one to destructive patterns giving one the ability and awareness to see opportunities for change. From this, one's freedom of experience and growth is the natural state.
Family Constellations does not attempt to blame others for the situations we might find ourselves in, but rather to see the bigger picture of ourselves within the group. It is a phenomenological process, based on the philosophy of Love. According to the Family Constellations philosophy, a family is connected on a soul level, having a collective consciousness, or family group energy. Disturbances to the "Orders of Love" in previous generations affects the lives of both concurrent and future generations. Understanding and acceptance of all family members releases the energy, individual suffering is seen in a new light and healing can happen. The Love, even when damaged and misdirected, can be transformed into a force for healing.
Bert Hellinger's work is dedicated to bringing together what has been apart, healing through the acceptance, through the respect of the heart. Facing our deepest feelings, and the feelings of our family members naturally redirects us towards love, and with the support of our ancestors, at the roots of who we are, we can receive the gifts which come form Love - the peace, the strength, and the freedom to choose our own ways.
The Family Constellation method is based on accessing the "collective consciousness" of a family group. It may sound like magic; however, everybody had experiences like this. We may sometimes feel ourselves in "somebody's shoes". And we sometimes feel strongly connected with others, perhaps when playing some team sports, or during family Christmas, or when we deeply love. However, it is much stronger during Family Constellation, when the energy of the "knowing field" forms and representatives for family members can access feelings, emotions, very often the characteristic behaviour and other knowledge of people they have never met and never heard of.
I often use Family Constellation elements during hypnotherapy sessions, especially when there is an issue with the client's family of origin, because relationships with our close family members, especially parents, affect our whole life and they are the main source of our emotions, beliefs and life strategies. The deep hypnotic state is itself a very powerful tool to access the "knowing field" and find the resolution.
Sometimes, especially when family is complex (many members, step children coming from different parents, entanglements with uncles and aunts etc) the private session is not performed in hypnosis and we use figures to represent the family members. The knowing field is formed around the figures and clients are accessing the energy of the family members from the focused, composed state similar to hypnotic trance.
Private Family Constellation sessions are very powerful and very helpful, as resolutions are reached on a very deep level, especially when they are combined with the full hypnotherapy process.
My qualifications as Family Constellations Facilitator
I am a Family Constellations Facilitator, trained originally in Australia by Yildiz and Satish Sethi.
I am a member of International Systemic Association (ISCA), I attended the ISCA Intensive Constellation Training in Germany in May 2010 and again in May 2013, with many well known international teachers - Guni Baxa, Francesca Boring, Judith Hemming, Stephan Hausner, Albrecht Mahr, Jane Peterson, Sneh Victoria Schnabel, Jakob Schneider, Guntar Weber, Lap Fung Cheng, Christine Blumenstein-Essen, Constanze Lang and Jan-Jacob Stam. I am also proud to thank my additional teacher, Ursula Franke and many others.
I've recently paused facilitating group workshop, as I see bigger benefits for my clients when the Family Constellations work is combined with hypnosis. The systemic family work creates the opening for the change and hypnotherapy assists in generating the change, it makes the posibilities true.
To learn more bout Family Constellations you can visit Systemic Constellations Association (ISCA) website