About Family Constellations
“The places where we are most reactive are the places where our original belonging comes in. An original belonging - that is what reactivity is.” ~ Suzi Tucker
Understanding how we belong in our family systems is the key to understanding how we find our place in the world. Our ancestor’s experiences impact how we live our lives, the thoughts we think, and the actions (or lack of actions) we take. Our biological parents are our gatekeepers, whether we want to admit that or not. Constellation work is a lens through which we can better understand the dynamics of why we are the way we are. Constellation work is a philosophy - a living wisdom - that we can apply towards our life so that we might travel with more ease and generosity.
Scientific research shows that the experiences of your ancestors can determine your behavior today and can affect future generations. Recent scientific research into DNA reveals that Epigenetics is embedding the effect of a traumatic experience by altering the genetic structure. It means that some of your behavior patterns can be attributed to traumatic events in your family history. Sometimes this is referred to as Inherited Trauma or Secondary Trauma. This notion has always been one of the guiding principles of Systemic Constellations, a form of work that is dedicated to revealing issues emerging from your family system.
My individual sessions, group platforms, and workshops provide a safe space where deep personal work is done. Maintaining confidentiality and respect of each other's privacy is paramount. If you have done one-on-one sessions with me before, I invite you to experience a group setting.
FAQs
What is family constellation work?
Family Constellations is a holistic process that allows individuals to integrate and bring together that which has been separated. This modality uncovers the spaces where struggle occurs, especially in the areas of life where it feels personal. Anxiety, depression, trauma, illness, stuckness, and other emotional dynamics are largely rooted in the past - within the family, the family’s history, and events and circumstances that may have surrounded the upbringing of the client, the parents, the grandparents. Not excluding war, country of origin, early deaths, and other moments of impact.
Can Constellations actually help?
The past informs the present. Secondary trauma - inherited trauma - is carried through DNA. What wasn’t received in childhood carries over to adulthood and then tends to spill over into every area of life. Relationship, career, friendship, money, etc. When shifts are felt in the Constellation, seeds are planted that have the opportunity to grow and have movement.
It seems that there is a way in which families are so deeply connected that when one family member steps into the new space and position with the family system, the system as a whole begins to shift. (I don’t believe constellations are a magic solution. There are ways in which to see things from a new perspective and I feel constellation work provides this.)
What Happens In A Family Constellations Session?
Whether one-on-one or in a group setting, a brief conversation is invited between the client and the facilitator. The facilitator will ask the client what resolution the client is looking for from the constellation and then continue the conversation from there.
Once enough information is gathered, the facilitator may ask the client to choose representatives for the family member or concepts that are relevant to the narrative. In a group workshop, the client will pick people from the group to stand in for those in the family system. One-on-One, these individuals may be represented by footprints or objects. (Many times I utilize guided imagery in a One-on-One constellation.)
What develops is a snapshot - an image - of what actually might be - rather than what the client might believe life to be. Why does grandmother step away from her child. Why does dad go to the ground?
Ultimately, a new narrative emerges. As the facilitator assists the client in traveling through the family system, resources are discovered. Each client is unique. Each constellation is unique to the client. The constellation seeks to restore order, balance, support, love, strength, and sometimes appreciation for the life that has come through the ancestors.
Where would I find more information?
An excerpt from https://kripalu.org/resources/healing-deep-wounds-family-constellations
When we look at family photographs, it’s easy to see where our physical characteristics come from. We may have our fathers’ smiles, our mothers’ eyes. Our grandfather may have had long, skinny legs and so do we, or our curly red hair might be the spitting image of our great aunt’s. We know why we look the way we do.
We often chalk up mental and emotional characteristics to family members, as well. “She’s got her father’s tenacity,” we might say. “He’s the life of the party,” we might remark, “just like his mom.” We accept that talents are passed down through the genes, too. We may have a parent’s or grandparent’s athleticism, way with words, or musical aptitude.
If we’re stuck in our lives, though—in a marriage or a job that doesn’t suit us, or trying to break free of depression or addiction or loneliness, or butting heads with a child we just can’t seem to reach—we don’t necessarily link it back to a precipitating event in our family history that’s been passed down in our genetic line.”
“I am convinced that Constellation Work, with its systemic worldview and the gift of the opportunity to stand as a representative in a constellation, is one of the most relevant and important tools to support us as we navigate our evolution into our future. I am convinced because I have stood in powerful constellations, and I’ve had the felt experience of being guided to unexpected resolutions by some unseen hand, of knowing that we are parts of a larger whole, of knowing that, in one sense, we are not individuals, but rather human systems of relating, of knowing that the Here and Now contains both the past and the future, undivided. I have experienced deeply held beliefs transform in minutes and hate and fear and frozen hearts dissolve. Entanglements can be undone. Love can prevail.” ~Hunter Beaumont, September 2021, THE KNOWING FIELD. ISSUE 39 January 2022, page 11 - Hunter Beaumont is a co-author of Love's Hidden Symmetry and helped to bring Bert Hellinger's work into the english speaking world.