The method of systemic-family constellations is treated differently, most often either very well or very poorly. You can fully understand what this method is only by participating in constellations according to B. Hellinger.
A person who has been a participant in systemic-family constellations is convinced that this is not just a method of group psychotherapy. There is a lot of mysticism in the constellations, things that cannot be explained rationally. They delight, surprise and frighten.
Not all communities of psychologists recognize systemic-family constellations as a scientific method of psychotherapy. Representatives of the Orthodox Church, as well as believing psychologists, consider it occultism and obscurantism. The author of the method himself, German psychotherapist Bert Hellinger (born December 16, 1925), classifies it as a class of spiritual practices. The author has developed not only a practical method, but also an entire theory explaining why and how systemic family constellations work.
B. Hellinger integrated several progressive psychological theories and derived new knowledge on this basis. In particular, the formation of the theory of family constellations was influenced by E. Bern's transactional analysis, that is, the analysis of interactions, states, games that people play and their life scenarios. In addition, by the beginning of the nineties of the twentieth century, when B. Hellinger began to apply his method, family psychotherapy was already used and was popular. The psychodrama of J. Moreno and the “Family Structure” method of V. Satir also formed the basis of the teachings of B. Hellinger and are in many ways similar to him.
In 2007, B. Hellinger created his own school, where today he introduces and trains those interested in the method of family constellations.
There can be no doubt that family is extremely important in a person’s life.. In a family, an individual appears, grows, develops, is educated, learns, and becomes a person. The individual survives thanks to the family. But few people look at the family as a kind of system that stores not only knowledge and relationships of the present time, but also ancestral memory, a kind of field of the genus.
The author of the theory and his followers discovered that problems in a person’s life, regardless of the area in which they arise, are a consequence of family trauma. Traumas are troubles that happened to a person’s family, not only after, but also before his birth.
More often Negative events in the life of the family are tried to be silenced or completely hidden. I don’t want to remember and talk about a difficult death (murder, suicide, early death, abortion), forced immigration, divorce, a grief-stricken relative (an alcoholic, a father who abandoned a child, etc.), a period when the family was poor and hungry, about that children do not respect their parents and so on. However, all these events remain and are preserved in the family ancestral field.
According to B. Hellinger, the source of life's troubles is the concealment of family trauma and/or the exclusion of one of the participants in a significant traumatic event from the family system. The imbalance of the family system leads to the fact that the current and subsequent generations suffer without being able to understand the cause of their troubles.
Working on a personal problem in a psychotherapeutic group, a person can discover a hidden cause, find out what in the distant past became the source of his current misfortunes and find a way out of the current circumstances. After the constellations, life changes dramatically within a few months, and unlike other methods of psychotherapy, visiting a group of family constellations is enough only once.
How are Hellinger placements performed?
Constellations according to B. Hellinger are a method of systemic family therapy aimed at correcting the negative consequences of dynamic family traumas.
Constellations are carried out not only in psychotherapeutic groups, but also in the form of individual psychotherapy at the client’s request. In the second case, group members are replaced with objects.
The client communicates his problem to the psychotherapist while in the group, after which participants are selected who will “play the role” of family members in the constellations, that is, they will be their “deputies.” Next begins direct psychotherapy session. The psychotherapist regulates the process, controls the actions of the group, directs the course of therapy, changes the number of substitutes, and so on.
Participants in the family system are not only blood relatives, but also people connected to the family through significant relationships. In addition, a family is people who are currently living, unborn, and dead, regardless of whether a person knows anything about their existence or not.
The human family system includes:
- parents,
- children,
- brothers, sisters,
- spouses, lovers, sexual partners,
- other blood relatives,
- people who influenced the family, who were in a “relationship of life and death” with one of its members; this could be either a person who saved or significantly improved someone’s life, or someone who made it unbearable or took it away.
It turns out that members of the psychotherapeutic group take on the role of not only the living, but also the dead, as well as bad people (scoundrels, rapists, murderers, and so on), participating in the constellation. This explains a lot negative attitude towards the arrangement method as to the occult and negative personal experience, because somehow the feelings and emotions of strangers appear in the deputy. For example, it is not easy to be a substitute for an aborted child or a person who died of starvation.
Orders of love
Problems arise if one of the members of the clan system violates the laws of the family, the order necessary for its normal functioning and the well-being of each of its members. The laws regulating the life of the clan were called by B. Hellinger “orders of love.”
Three orders or laws of love that cannot be violated:
- Affiliation. It is impossible to “force” someone out of the family. Each member of the system has the right to belong. If one family member is rejected by her, the other will “replace” him, will behave the same way as he did, or may repeat his fate, or problems will begin in the family that will contribute to its destruction. When someone from the family feels “like a step-in”, this may be a signal of a violation of the law of belonging.
- Hierarchy. The new family is more important than the old one. When a person has his own family, his parents are left “behind.” This does not mean at all that the child should forget about his parents, but a new family should be a priority.
This law also warns against transferring problems from past relationships to new ones. Even if a man and a woman were not officially married, but loved each other, they were a family, after breaking up, each of them must leave problems in the past if they want to be happy.
Nowadays, it is not uncommon for women and men to have several relationships before they find the person with whom they go to the registry office, people get married and remarry, have children from former lovers, and so on. Whatever happened in the past, it must be accepted as part of life, not ashamed and not hidden.
- Balance between giving and taking. This is the law of balance and mutual assistance. There will be no harmony in a family where one person always gives his love, strength, tries, makes concessions, and the second only accepts the benefits given to him, without giving anything in return. For relationships to develop, goodness must be responded to with even greater goodness; the mutual desire of family members to make each other happy strengthens the system.
Systemic family constellations are unique in their kind. Despite criticism, psychotherapists working according to B. Hellinger’s method help many people understand themselves and solve problems, not only purely psychological, but also related to health, well-being, personal life and work.
Sometimes people face problems that seem to be passed down in the family from generation to generation. And even academic psychology turns out to be powerless in solving them. If you encounter something similar, then it is not at all necessary to turn to grandmothers or fortune tellers.
A scientific study of such problems was carried out by the famous German philosopher and psychotherapist Bert Hellinger (b. 1925). As a result of his research, he developed a method with which it is possible to solve complex problems that go beyond the limits of one human life. This method is called systemic arrangements.
The term introduced by Bert Hellinger - familien-stellen, is translated from German as “family constellation”. Sometimes this method is also called systemic or organizational constellations.
The Hellinger Method is often presented as a branching family tree because it deals with unfinished tasks that have roots in family history. These processes from the past involve living family members in what happened long ago. Descendants find themselves intertwined with the destinies of all previous generations.
The main point of this method is that a person’s roots go far back into history. We cannot refuse the experience that our ancestors accumulated and passed on to each other. It is too valuable, it is thanks to this experience that our family has survived. This experience is passed on from parents to children, and with it often comes unsolved problems, intra-family conflicts and some oddities of behavior that are difficult to explain because they have already lost their context.
The family constellation method is concerned with restoring this context to gain a deeper understanding of the situation and problem that the person is facing. And most importantly, to find a solution to this problem.
The constellations are based on the method of psychodrama, supplemented by the method of substitutes, people who help restore the lost context. They may play the roles of absent or deceased family members. This method was used by psychotherapist Virginia Satir in her work.
Hellinger significantly enriched it by adding a phenomenological approach to it. This approach means the value of subjective perception of reality over reality itself. That is, if a person is worried that his mother left him at home alone as a child, then work will be done on this situation, although in fact she may have left him alone once for 5 minutes, thinking that he was sleeping . But the feelings of the participant in the arrangement are more important than what actually happened. The work is carried out specifically with feelings, although the real context of the situation is restored.
When can the systemic arrangement method help?
Constellations work with family weaves. But what are family weaves? These are complex, confusing life situations that sometimes cannot be explained from the point of view of reality. If a situation happening to a person has no real logical explanation, then it can be considered a family entanglement. Here are some examples of such situations:
1) a person works a lot and hard, but his work brings little money;
2) an attractive and intelligent girl cannot get married;
3) despite a healthy diet and a healthy lifestyle, serious illnesses appear for inexplicable reasons;
4) a person feels that he must help children left without parents, unhappy, homeless, or feels some kind of duty to other people, although in fact he personally did not take anything from them.
Often the feelings we experience are not true, for example:
1) inexplicable fear, fear of attack, although you have never been attacked in your life;
2) constant anxiety, without obvious reasons or reasons;
3) jealousy that has no basis;
4) causeless sadness.
All these situations are not accidents, but interweavings that have roots in the destinies of our ancestors. It was they who did not resolve something in their lives, they made mistakes, they did not love them. And these sensations, sometimes through words and stories, sometimes non-verbally, at the level of sensations, were transmitted to us from parents or other relatives. As a result, we partially live a life that is not our own, and solve problems that are not our own. But each of us can become happy. To do this, you need to understand and unravel your family weaves and start living your own life.
Laws that work in family weaves
The reasons for the appearance of family entanglements can be very different, but there are three orders (laws) according to which the family system develops and lives:
1) balance (equilibrium) between “take and give”;
2) hierarchy in the system (senior - junior);
3) belonging to the system.
Any violation of these laws leads to problems in life (tasks that require solutions). For example, if one of the sisters, growing up, takes responsibility for the entire family, relegating her parents to the background, then there is every reason for a family entanglement to arise.
It may have causes in the past. But it will most likely affect the future, in the lives of this sister’s children, as well as other young members of this family. That is why it is very desirable to find the reasons for the occurrence of such a situation and unravel them as quickly as possible.
What happens during systemic constellation trainings?
Therapy takes place in groups where there is an agreement to work together and a certain level of trust. At the same time, a person working in constellations can be as frank as he is comfortable with.
He sets out the essence of the problem and, to solve it, chooses other people who play the roles of his loved ones, co-workers at work, and so on. Already at this stage, people begin to engage in a problematic situation and experience some feelings that they can share.
The name itself reflects the essence of the work in the Hellinger method: the assembled participants are placed in a room, in accordance with the place in the mind it occupies in the mind of the main participant in the arrangement. These people are called “deputies”; they talk about the feelings and states they are experiencing, which allows the psychotherapist leading the constellation to untangle relationships in emerging conflicts and unresolved situations, and build the correct hierarchy from senior to junior.
Different levels of human perception are worked out (visual, auditory, spiritual (mental), emotional). Substitute participants move into the arrangement field, and new people are included in the process. The leader uses various psychological techniques, using his experience and intuition.
The exchange of feelings and thoughts during the constellation process, which occurs under the guidance of the leader, very often in itself helps to untangle the knot in relationships from the past or present.
A person experiences situations in a new arrangement, in a safe space, and ultimately acquires a new perception and a different positive model of behavior. If, based on the results of work for this system, the arranger made the right decision, then this is reflected in the state of the participants - they experience even, calm feelings.
This method uses the concept of a “knowing field”, which is not found in any other psychological technique. It means that substitutes somehow connect to the feelings and knowledge of those people, instead of whom they participate in constellations. In practice, this can look absolutely incredible.
But if you understand that an agreement on mutual participation and mutual assistance has been concluded between the group members, then everything that happens will not seem so incredible. In addition, in the mind of the person for whom the constellation is being done, all the departed family members and all the feelings that they experience are present. And the deputies, being included in the arrangement, one way or another, feel this content of his consciousness.
Occasionally, the leader introduces a character such as death into the arrangement. This must be done in situations where the death of someone close to you seems incomprehensible, unfair or unexpected, or the person is tormented by a feeling of guilt towards the deceased. In such situations, the high professionalism of the leading psychotherapist is required in order to proceed accurately and carefully. In some of these cases, at the discretion of the driver, in addition to the deputy of the deceased relative, death is introduced into the constellation as a fact that took place in life. As you can see, the approach to psychological work is unconventional. And yet, it is very effective. Many who were disappointed in psychotherapy and psychodrama were able to find solutions to their problems through constellations.
Conclusion
Each arrangement is unique and individual, it depends on the specific person and his needs. It is important that this method does not require long and serious work, like, for example, a psychoanalyst. One serious problem can be resolved in one arrangement. If you are afraid to participate in constellations, take part first as a substitute. You will gain a unique experience that will also help solve your problems.
In our country, the Bert Hellinger method is an effective method officially used by psychologists, recognized by the All-Russian Professional Psychotherapeutic League. The volume of use of constellations is large - in pedagogy, business, medicine, and psychotherapy.
The method described above is very young (founded in 1992), is in the stage of formation and constant development, showing us a wide variety of creative approaches to each person. The professionalism and experience of the leading psychotherapist plays a great role in its effectiveness.
Alina Farkash presents a new column, the heroines of which anonymously (and therefore frankly) tell how they managed to solve their personal problems with the help of psychologists and psychological techniques.
- PROBLEM: CHILDREN'S RESULTS AGAINST MOM.
- METHOD: HELLINGER ARRANGEMENTS.
- HOW MANY SESSIONS: ONE.
- COST: 3,500 RUB.
You know, everyone always thought that I had an ideal mother... She is beautiful, cheerful and modern. My friends always ran to her for advice and to talk about life. But I never told her anything. I am, in general, a quiet phlegmatic, and the only person in the world who can drive me into hysterics and slamming doors in ten seconds is my mother.
How we couldn't talk
My prosperous mother beat me throughout my childhood. I was a homely girl, whose happiness in life was to hide in a corner with a book, I studied well, never left anywhere without calling, until now (until I was 29 years old!) I have not tried either vodka or cigarettes... Why beat me?
I needed a reason. I pestered my mother with this “why?”, my mother shouted in response about my indifference and the fact that I never understood her. I screamed that I didn’t know how I could help her at three years old, when she first…
Despite everything, I love my mother. And she me too. But the resentment was stronger: the question “for what?” burned out my brain, I didn’t know what answer I wanted to get, and I continued to ask it with the tenacity of a maniac. Mom exploded with the same persistence. I went to psychologists, some called for forgiveness, others - to stop “soul-destroying communication with my mother,” but no one answered why the hell my mother beat me.
How everyone shed tears
I found myself in Hellinger constellations by accident. I read stories on blogs, saw an announcement that deputies were invited to the formations, and decided to take a look. Everything took place in the center of Moscow: a small room with sofas around the perimeter, ten people, a psychologist-presenter. The person for whom the arrangement was being done came to the center and talked about his problem. And the presenter offered to choose from those present deputies for the participants in the conflict. Sometimes these were real people, sometimes already in the process of arrangement the psychologist asked to add the hero’s dead grandmothers or unborn children to the action. Then everything was very strange: the newly appointed relatives walked around the room, quarreled, refused to communicate, blamed each other and tried to get closer again. The presenter gently guided the deputies, asked them questions, and asked them to describe their feelings. The one for whom the arrangement was done sat and shed tears: “Yes, yes, dad always talks to me like that!” Or: “How do you know that grandma’s brother died in prison?” And then everyone stood hugging each other and sobbed in unison. I looked and thought that everything was far-fetched. That people see what they want to see. And it is not clear how this can help.
How mom got a substitute
I don’t know why during a break I approached the presenter and asked her to do the arrangement for me. I was shaking to the point of nervous stuttering. I was scared to hear from the deputy what I was always afraid to hear from my mother. I noticed someone who could play her role a long time ago - a beautiful plump blonde with a gentle face. Amazing resemblance to the original!
Then miracles began: the little brunette, who was me, ran around the room and hid in a corner (how did she know?), “Mom” chased her and tried to hug her. “I know she likes to be alone, but I can’t help it, I really want to hug her!” - “Mom” explained, and I began to sweat from how similar everything was to my reality.
“You see,” said the presenter, “she really loves you, even too much. Yes, she violates your boundaries, but she doesn’t know any other way.” I already knew that she loved me: “Ask her why she beat me.” “Mom” began to tell how tired she was and how no one loved her - in frighteningly familiar expressions and intonations. The presenter asked the girl portraying me to sit down, and me to stand in her (in my!) place. More precisely, climb onto a chair and look at “mom” from above. “From this position, do you also want to ask her similar questions?” I felt embarrassed: “mom” seemed small and defenseless. But the desire to find an answer was stronger than the awkwardness. I was shaking, I repeated, as if wound up: “Why! You! Me! Bila! “Mom” screamed back at me. “I wanted it, and I beat it,” the presenter suddenly interrupted our hysteria. I choked mid-sentence. And she continued: “Tell her that you are her mother and that you know better how to treat your child. That you were in a bad mood or PMS... That’s none of her business.” “Mom” obediently repeated this to me. And at that moment I suddenly felt better. Then, when I thought about everything that happened, I realized that the presenter had relieved me of the burden of responsibility. It wasn't me who did something so bad that my loving and loving mother had to beat me while she was having PMS. Or she just wanted it that way. I have nothing to do with it. I was small and could not influence the situation in any way.
But at that moment I stood on a chair, looked stunned at “mom” and repeated: “Well, why did you want this?” She suddenly said: “I never wanted other children, only one like you. And you... You never let me get close to you.” And she added in a whisper: “I still want to hug you.” And suddenly a puzzle came together: my mother always said that she dreamed of a short, gray-eyed brunette, how she was afraid of giving birth to the “wrong” child, how happy she was when I turned out exactly as she had imagined. How I dreamed of a brother, but she refused to give birth to someone else: either we are undergoing renovations, then grandfather has a heart attack, then she needs to defend her dissertation∂, then we are saving for a car... I got off the chair and hugged my mother’s deputy. The stranger's blonde and I stood and cried. I raised my head: everyone was crying. It seems that this story was relevant not only for me.
How we went for a manicure
I was asked not to discuss anything with anyone for two months. I didn't discuss it. But on the way home, I dialed my mother’s number, and for the first time in many years we had a normal conversation. It was as if she had been bewitched - she never once accused me of indifference. And I didn’t remember her childhood insults. We even agreed to go for a manicure together! And they went. I don’t know if what I was told at that session is true; I even think that from the outside it seemed just as far-fetched and far-fetched as the other arrangements. But I got the answer to my question. And I felt better. And mom felt better: we actually love each other very much.
Psychology is a very complex science that has many different approaches to the perception of a person, to his psyche, to what is happening in his head. There are those methods that are considered scientific, since their effectiveness has been confirmed by practice for many years. But new approaches are constantly appearing, and some of them complement the scientific component of psychology (naturally, over time, when they also undergo a kind of testing_. However, many methods remain unofficial - they are not recognized by the scientific community, but at the same time they remain relevant in narrow circles, one of the most striking examples is systemic constellations - a psychological approach, which, despite the fact that no one has recognized it for many decades, still remains relevant and is used by an impressive number of its supporters. What is this? method? How do system arrangements occur? This is what will be discussed in this article.
What is the essence of the method?
Systemic constellations are an unconventional approach in psychology, which is based on the fact that all human problems come from the family, or more precisely from the family system. Therefore, the essence of this method is to reproduce this system in a session in order to understand it and find the true cause of the problem. This reproduction occurs in reality and is called arrangement.
Systemic constellations have been practiced for quite some time, but have not yet received recognition from the scientific community. But people do not always turn to professionals - sometimes they are closer to what they want to believe in, and many people believe in this method. Perhaps the reason is that its creator is not only a psychologist, but also a theologian and spiritual teacher.
Founder of the movement
Since we are talking about who exactly founded this method, it is worth dwelling on this person. Systemic family constellations are the work of Bert Hellinger, a famous psychologist who was born in 1925 in Germany. He studied psychology for a long time, worked as a psychotherapist, however, as mentioned earlier, he was also a theologian. And in the eighties of the last century, Hellinger discovered and introduced the method discussed in this article. That is why it is often called “Hellinger Systemic Family Constellations.” This variation is primary and most in demand.
The roots of the method
The method of systemic constellations is an original branch of psychology, but it also has its own roots. Hellinger created this method based on several psychological movements that were relevant at that time. However, if we highlight the most important method that has had the greatest impact on system arrangements, it is Eric Berne's script analysis. The essence of this method is to analyze the life situations of each person (this psychologist also believed that all problems come from the family). He believed that each person has his own life scenario along which he moves. The script is formed in childhood under the influence of parents and the environment and can only be slightly adjusted in the future.
Hellinger acted precisely in accordance with this method, but at a certain point he realized that it had its drawbacks - as a result, he developed his own approach. Later it was called systemic constellations and is known to this day under that name. Bert Hellinger's systemic constellations are quite popular in narrow circles. It's time to figure out what exactly this approach is.
Problem situation
So, what does Systemic constellations mean - this is not just a psychological term, constellations actually take place, and this is how it happens. To begin with, there must be some kind of problematic situation of one of the participants in the psychological session. Strictly speaking, this situation represents an element of a certain system, most often a family one. This is what the group participating in the session will have to deal with. Bert Hellinger's method of systemic constellations involves the participation of all people, even those who are not familiar with the person whose problem is being considered or with anyone from his family system.
How does the arrangement take place?
The focus of the session is the client's story, his problematic situation. All participants in the session form a large circle, and the problem is presented in a plane in space between all people. Each element of the system is first represented in the imagination, and then its place in the real world is taken by a person called a deputy. During the session, he represents a specific member of the system - thus, the entire system is replenished, and everyone gets their role. This is exactly how the arrangement happens. At the same time, this is all done quietly, slowly and with concentration. Each participant concentrates on his feelings, trying to penetrate the essence of the person he is replacing in the session.
Vicarious perception
As mentioned earlier, deputies may not know either the client or his relatives, including the person they are replacing in the system. And the client doesn't tell the group anything about them, so people have to concentrate and try to figure out on their own what kind of affiliation they have. This is called vicarious perception - people must, without outside help, become the person they are replacing. Thus, the lack of information is compensated by precisely this phenomenon of vicarious perception, without which the process would simply be impossible. It is quite likely that this is what repels professional psychologists and psychiatrists from this method - there is a lot of uncertainty in it, which cannot be scientifically compensated for in order to allow calling the method of systemic constellations professional.
Source of information
The main source from which participants receive information about the problem, about the client and about the system as a whole is the so-called “field”. This is why people have to concentrate and work in silence - this is how they try to establish a connection with the field in order to obtain the necessary information about who they replace in the system, as well as what kind of “dynamics” their character has with the rest of the system participants. This is exactly how a systemic arrangement occurs - each participant turns into a deputy, gets used to his image, drawing information from the field, and then all participants try to reproduce the problem and solve it. A psychotherapist, called a constellation, guides this entire process, gives people the roles that best suit them, and also tries to help them solve the problem during the constellation process.
The main goal of this entire process is to accurately reproduce the situation so that the client can see it live, understand it and accept his problem. Only when he manages to do this is the session considered successful. Then it is believed that he no longer needs to reproduce a specific problem in the conditions of the constellation, since he was able to realize it and can now begin to solve it.
Conclusions
As people who practice this method report, it really helps - participants can look at their situation from a different perspective, try to assess what is happening impartially, without associating all actions with their family and friends, which prevents them from thinking rationally. And when a person sees a situation being performed in real life by strangers, he can understand that this is really his problem - and then he can begin to look for its solution. Often, the client is not only unable to solve his problem on his own, but even to see it - this is exactly what constellation is used for. The client looks at the situation with an outsider's eye and gets a chance to see the problem in general, and then recognize his own in it.
The psychological method of the German doctor Bert Hellinger has earned recognition from specialists in various fields: pedagogy, psychotherapy, sociology, marketing. The uniqueness lies in the simplicity of the method, the ability to find the root of problems in various areas of a person’s life, as well as determine ways to solve identified negative conditions and situations. Hellinger constellations have been successfully used for several decades. However, this method has not only admirers, but also opponents who believe that the system causes harm to program participants.
What are system arrangements
The teaching is an effective practice that was introduced in 1925 by the German philosopher and psychotherapist Bert Hellinger. Systemic constellations are the ability to feel and “scan” the energy and information field of a problem situation. Hellinger's method is based on people's innate ability to feel. Its proof is our feelings after chance meetings with people. Some awaken exclusively positive emotions in us; after communicating with others, we want to take a shower and wash away the negativity and irritation.
Hellinger constellations involve working with a group of people. Each participant must use the natural ability to “feel” people and the problem situation that was given by the leader. As a rule, people easily read information about difficulties in different areas of life from the main participant (the person whose problem is being worked on).
Each of us is a complementary part of a single system. People are connected by ancestral programs, family relationships, religion, national traditions, friendships, business partnerships. We influence and depend on each other, we seek mutual understanding and love, but among a huge number of people we often feel lonely. This sense of self is dictated by a state of isolation: a person extols suffering and pain, his own exclusivity.
Hellinger's installation serves as a simple method to help people realize the commonality of their problems. With the help of constellations, program participants can get rid of many far-fetched problems and mental beliefs, revealing their root causes. As a rule, they are destructive family programs and unfinished problematic situations in the family that have a negative impact on a person’s fate. With the help of Hellinger's constellations it is possible to reveal the root causes:
- diseases (drug addiction, alcoholism, genetic diseases);
- difficulties in family relationships, in relationships with the opposite sex;
- various phobias, depression, panic attacks;
- childlessness (if there is no infertility);
- business problems;
- unfulfillment in life.
What are the types of constellations using Bert Hellinger's method?
Psychological consultation, based on any approach (classical or systemic), begins with identifying the client’s problem. At this stage, the specialist determines which placement method is best to use. Hellinger's system involves several main types: family, structural, organizational, client and spiritual constellations. What are their features and differences?
Family
This type of arrangement involves working with family problems. Family constellations according to B. Hellinger include the elaboration of intrapersonal conflicts and generic messages that negatively affect a person’s life. Experts are convinced that the difficulties of many clients are explained by traumas that were suffered within the boundaries of the family system in the past. Problems are often associated with a failure of the hierarchy order or the “take-and-give” principle (parents’ desire to take from children, children’s awareness of their superiority over their parents, and the like).
Bert Hellinger believed that family trauma is the main cause of any health, personal or material problems. The psychotherapist is convinced that the root of any problem is the desire to cross out (forget) the participants in the family trauma - both the perpetrators and the victims. This desire to exclude what happened from memory becomes the “causative agent” of various problematic situations and incorrect mental programs in subsequent generations of the family. The Hellinger constellation method helps to find the hidden causes of the client’s unhealthy state and get rid of them.
Structural
This type of Hellinger arrangement helps to improve areas of life such as work, finances, illness, and get rid of fears. The method is extremely effective if it is impossible to logically justify the reason for the repetition of the same problem. Structural arrangements help to bring to the level of consciousness the underlying causes of problematic situations. The program involves the transformation of a person - this allows him to independently change at a deep level.
Organizational
Designed to solve problems among members of work teams. Special areas of application of the program are working with business consultants, script writers, and scientists. Organizational constellations using the Hellinger method involve “playing out” roles, main character traits, and specific stories. The purpose of the method is to unite the team to increase team productivity or resolve internal conflicts. The priority of organizational arrangements is the employees themselves and their community.
Client
Constellations using the Hellinger method are aimed at people whose professions involve helping others (doctors, social workers, psychologists, teachers). This type of program helps to consider the relationship between helpers and recipients of help. Through client constellations, it is possible to see how effective this support is, what motives drive the helper and, if desired, adjust them.
Spiritual
The teaching positions the spirit as something that stimulates development. This Hellinger constellation identifies the therapist and participants as tools for the manifestation of the spirit. The technique somewhat contradicts therapeutic constellations, where the main role is assigned to the therapist looking for a solution to the client’s problem. The system does not use the concepts of “problem” and “solution”. Spiritual constellations view the situation through the free movement of consciousness.
Laws of order of love
The family constellation method is based on two main concepts - conscience and order. The psychotherapist in personal philosophy relies on the aspect of conscience, which acts as an analyzer and “organ of balance” of a person. The system will work well only if the conscience is calm - then there is internal confidence that family life has worked out. Anxiety means that a person can no longer belong to the system. This concept is a detector of the degree of internal balance.
Hellinger divides conscience into unconscious and conscious. If an individual acts in accordance with the latter, he violates the rules of the unconscious. Thus, the conscious conscience gives us excuses, and the unconscious makes us feel guilty. The psychotherapist says that conflict between them often causes problems in the family. The relationship between husband and wife in such a conflict will be destroyed even in the presence of strong love.
Many people believe that established family routines can change under their influence or that they can be easily defeated with some effort. However, love is not capable of giving order, since the latter serves as a fundamental principle, and love is only a component of order. Thus, love is formed exclusively within any order, and it is impossible to change it through one’s own efforts.
How is system placement carried out?
Group therapy involves working with each participant, which can last from 30 to 90 minutes. The duration of the system arrangement is determined depending on the number of requests. The person whose problem is being worked through determines who from the group will play the roles of members of his family. For example, a woman who has a problematic situation with her husband chooses participants to play the role of herself and her husband. The client, under the guidance of her own ideas and feelings, according to the instructions of the psychotherapist, arranges the participants around the room.
During the program, amazing things happen: “deputies” (aka participants) experience first-hand the feelings and emotions of the family members whose roles they perform. Thus, strangers are immersed in a situation so deeply that they can clearly express the situations happening to someone. Thanks to this effect, there is no need to talk a lot about the events that took place in the client’s family.
What is the danger of the method
Every profession is associated with danger to some extent. For example, an unprofessional driver can hit a pedestrian, an inexperienced lawyer will deprive a person of his freedom, and an unqualified doctor will allow the disease to kill the patient. Due to the lack of experience or low qualifications of the psychologist, the client may lose personal integrity or mental health. In the hands of an unprofessional, even psychological work will be dangerous.
The benefits of the constellation method are directly related to the professionalism of the presenter. Only an experienced specialist will determine which version of the system is best suited for use for a particular individual, and which may cause harm or be useless. With the help of constellations according to the Hellinger method, participants come into contact with the personalities of other people, getting used to the roles. The guidance of a psychotherapist makes the process safer for the “actor”, who will leave the given role without negative consequences.
Features of teaching the technique
The school of constellations will be of interest to beginning or practicing psychologists, family doctors, psychotherapists, social workers, teachers and anyone who works with people. The main teaching methods used in the program include theoretical and practical parts. The first involves studying the basics of arrangement, reading philosophical notes, and considering the methodological and morphogenetic prerequisites of the system. The practical part contains analysis of specific situations and work using the family constellation method.
During the course of training, students become familiar with the psychological and philosophical teachings of the constellation method. Students learn about the basic premises of the system, such as positive conditions for the development of healthy family or work relationships. The training examines how love relationships are made or broken. Course participants can study their own problem situations through the prism of Hellinger's constellations and see methods for solving them.
Video about systemic arrangements according to Hellinger
Modern psychotherapists are convinced that the method is most valuable in practice, not theory. However, in order to achieve the best results from group work on constellations, you need to understand what the basic concepts and principles of the system are. With the help of the video below, you will gain basic knowledge and understanding of the Hellinger psychological method.
