3 Key Principles of Family Constellation Work

Our Ancestors Ourselves: How to repair the pain of the past that is alive within

What if you could track the cause of your anxiety, barriers to financial prosperity, health challenge or frustrating relationship dynamic to something that happened in your lineage?

I have been fortunate to learn and now teach Family Constellation Work, an ancient technology, that was created and formalized by German Psychotherapist, Bert Hellinger, for the modern world.

Systemic Family Constellation Work is generational healing. The work supports the resolution of inherited trauma and familial patterns. It guides the family system toward wholeness by reveling patterns that are often beyond conscious awareness.

When we are born, we not only inherit our physiology, we also inherit family behavior patterns that may have been carried for generations.

Constellation work allows individuals to release—

Challenges

Dysfunctional family patterns

Barriers to joy, freedom, health, and prosperity

Family Constellation Work is phenomenological*. It is highly experiential which makes it difficult to explain in words or to fully understand through concepts alone.

There are three key principles that guide a constellation session:

The greater soul moves in only one direction,
and that is to bring into union that which has been made separate. —Bert Hellinger

1) Belonging

Everyone has the right to belong. When a member in a family is excluded, the relational field—the Knowing Field, as it is described in constellation work—becomes disturbed. These disturbances are carried forward by future generations as physical and mental illness, relationship challenges and barriers to stepping fully into one’s life. These patterns are repeated until wholeness of the family system is restored.

2) Order

Each person in a family system not only has the right to belong, they also have their right place within the order of the family system. This right order allows the flow of love to move freely. It is referred to as the Orders of Love. When a family system is disordered, there is a ripple effect that alters the ability of a family to function as a healthy system. For example, a child may unconsciously be in the place of a parent or a sibling may be operating out of birth order.

3) Acknowledgment

The impact of stating the truth acts as an energetic, chiropractic-like adjustment of the soul. To acknowledge “what is” stimulates changes within the family that support belonging and right order. We are able to carry what belongs to us and release what does not. Acknowledgment in constellation work may occur through subtle energetic shifts, eye contact and by using “healing words” that act as remedies for strengthening the soul and awakening our consciousness. We see that the truth really does set us free.

Family Constellation Work is the work of becoming whole together. The Systemic Relational Theory and Framework that I have developed over years of study and practice is what I consider to be an important part of the new paradigm: The end of separation.

Paradox is inherent in truth

Paradox softens the edges of our thinking mind. This softening takes us deeper into the truth within.

In constellation work, we learn that we are only individual beings together. This is relational sovereignty. We are wired to connect. And paradoxically, the future calls for us to reconnect to our ancestors so that we may walk in their shoes long enough to understand ourselves. For we are them, and they are us.

We are the legacy of our lineage and we can work with the past in the present to change the future.

(This is the first in a series of three articles)

*Google’s definition of phenomenological is “denoting or relating to an approach that concentrates on the study of consciousness and the objects of direct experience.”