Systemic Constellations is an approach that is used in a wide variety of contexts, not just family issues.

Family Constellations, in turn, represent a specific branch of the approach, often associated with the work of its founder, Bert Hellinger.

Video: What’s “Systemic” in Family Constellations

Both Systemic and Family constellations use bodily sensations and reactions as navigational tools. This serves an educational function: bodily states help us navigate a problematic situation or context.

The goal is for the client to learn a somatic solution to the context that is seen as problematic.

Publication by the order of psychologists of Quebec

In January 2026 the Order of Psychologists of Quebec classified Family Constellations as a kind of psychotherapy. In the same document the organization has named the practice inappropriate for the members of the order (all practicing psychotherapists in Quebec are required to be members of the order by law).

You can read the document here (in French)

The document has raised a lot of questions as it is formulated in a specific way. It may be seen as a restrictive demarche targeting the whole practice and all sorts of Constellations in the province.

An analysis of the above document made by a lawyer, Sylvie Lefebvre (Facebook, in French).

Common observations of the document

The article published by the Order of Psychologists says nothing about Systemic Constellations, as it is focused on Family Constellations.

With regard to the evaluation of Family Constellations done by those who are not members of the order, the article calls for a careful analysis of each case. This implies, obviously, that it is still possible to legally carry out this practice in the province of Quebec.

My practice of Systemic and Family Constellations

I consider it important to outline some of the features of the approach I use:

• Systemic constellations are a supportive practice. It helps to reconsider one’s perspective on a given problem, situation, or life circumstance. Constellations rely on bodily signals and the ability to notice them, drawing on subtle sensations and experiences in a specific moment. These sensations are of a physical, somatic nature.
• The practice of constellations is related to somatic approaches and produces similar results: solutions come not only at the level of consciousness but also through the experience of one’s own body.
• Unlike psychotherapy, constellations are not aimed at correcting mental health conditions and disorders.
• The practice of systemic constellations promotes personal development, the integration of mind and body, and liberation from habitual and stereotypical ways of perceiving situations.
• Constellations help one achieve a state of harmony and better understand oneself.
• Constellations facilitate education about the systemic principles by which we interact with other people and groups, and by which groups and other people interact with each other.
• Unlike psychotherapeutic work of any approach, constellation allows us to explore the relationships between theoretical concepts and the qualities of groups and teams in business (even those we do not belong to), or to help us choose the best decision among several options. All this is achieved through sensations at the level of the body.
• Through constellations, we better understand the patterns and the need for openness, compassion, and acceptance in our interactions with others.
• Family constellations are a subtype of systemic constellations. They are also included in the palette of tools used in individual sessions and groups.

Important

Systemic constellations are not suitable for working with people in states of psychological distress, regardless of their cause.

Despite a number of scientific publications indicating the effectiveness of this approach, some aspects of how constellations work remain unexplained.

Book a Systemic or Family Constellation

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To clarify the context, Systemic Justice is widely acknowledged in Brasil — briefly, an adaptation of Bert Hellinger’s Family Constellations to the civil dispute. Services of the trained systemic lawyers who use Constellations tools are provided in almost all regions of the vast country. It involves cases such as property disputes, or with whom a child should stay after a divorce of the parents. The general message of the conference was “we need it to be developed same way in Argentina”. Reports of the participants from Brazil, naturally sounded very interesting. 

What attracted my attention

A general question: What kind of law do we really need?

Law enforcement oriented on punishment and, at limit, imprisonment, is aimed at condemnation. Or, at increasing the gap between the person found ‘guilty’ and others. In Hellinger’s terms, this amounts to exclusion, depriving a person of an inherent right to belong. Ann Ancelin Schutzenberger noted that an ancestor’s stay in prison is often passed on from generation to generation as a family secret, constituting the core of transgenerational trauma. 

Adversarial trial: a concept of modern justice, where one side must ‘win’ and another therefore is doomed to ‘lose’, leads to circumstances where lawyers are rarely satisfied with the result of their work. A civil conflict cannot be fully resolved this way, the result will always lack some balance if the ‘winner’ takes it all. This in turn leads to exhaust and dissatisfaction with the practice among many of the lawyers. 

Whereas the use of Constellations in the civil process makes it possible to settle conflicts, and to settle in the most profound meaning of the word. The parties to the trial really do resolve contradictions. There is no sense in continuing the dispute if a Constellation is successful. In addition, and I would draw attention to this — the parties fully experience profound feelings, presence in the moment and deep involvement that marks the way to solution.  It’s a process where instead of ’showing’ some emotions the parties are living their presence. That in turn leads to the proper alignment of the positions and finding solutions that are most welcome by everyone involved.

Historical Similarities

This reminded me of a lecture about peasantry by Teodor Shanin, a magnificent researcher of pre-revolutionary Russia. Local settlements in Russian Empire used to elect community courts at that time, before 1917. He describes a case when the community court finds a person guilty in misappropriation of the land. According to the decision of jury that person still received a part of what he had misappropriated. The jury said: he’s one of us, and he still needs land, so this would be fair if he receives a part of what he acquired illegally. Interestingly enough, the right to be acknowledged, to belong and to be a part of the community was, therefore, preserved.

Read more: Family and Systemic Constellations

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It is important that we can work with these layers in constellation practice.

I am very pleased with the composition of the group as well as the willingness to work and openness of everyone present. All participants were familiar with the constellations. In our not too large group, three continents were represented – North and South America, and Europe.

In my own experience there are workshops that were facilitated on each of these three continents. Somehow it gave a sense of resource.

It was new to me that work sometimes was done in three languages ​​- English, French and Spanish. Moreover, it happened that it was a kind of spontaneous “release” in going through the workshop with three languages present in the room. A group in which participants are supporting one another can go in such a “trilingualism”, this contributes to the dynamics in a good way. I feel that it also gives more space to the larger systems that the participants represent.

Many thanks to all participants. Also, my appreciation to the place, the Studio D 325 where we worked, for the profound sensation of neutrality and support that I feel here.

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These are in my opinion, worth visiting and will certainly change your view on the field of systemic work if you decide to go. The selection is based on my experience, the below mentioned figures I have had a chance to study with.

https://ioccti.com/ International Organizational Constellations Community for Transformation and Integration conference. October 18 to 24, 2020. Netherlands.Held by Jan Jacob Stam, probably the most prominent figure in systemic work with organisations. This will be an outstanding event for sure. Besides Jan Jacob himself, other top facilitators will be there, including for example, Stefan Hausher. This conference is rather expensive (participation costs between 1450 and 1900 EUR depending on the package), though it’s quite improbable that you might see anything of this scale in the domain of work with business systems, besides that there will probably be another IOCCTI Conference in a few years from this one.

http://healthy-autonomy.de/International Congress “What do I want: to live or to survive?”Friday, 16. October 2020 to Sunday, 18. October 2020, in Munich, Germany.Organised by the team of probably the present time’s largest name in constellations work with trauma, dr.Franz Ruppert, the conference offers a variety of workshops mostly focused on Identity Oriented Approach that Franz is developing and promoting. To me he’s work is marvellous and the approach is highly specific. The registration fee is 390EUR.

Franz Ruppert’s webpage: https://franz-ruppert.de

Daan Van Kampenhout will be in Mexico City in October 2020. Probably the most affordable of the events held by the figures of this scale, and within reach to people from Canada. There are various direct flights to Mexico City from Montreal, also very reasonable accommodation prices are available.Shamanic training (theme will be announced later)October 10, 2020 17:30 – October 14, 2020 18:50 @ Mexico City, Mexico

Daan’s webpage http://daanvankampenhout.com

One of my Russian teachers, Elena Veselago, director of the Centre for Modern Systemic Constellations in Moscow, will facilitate several workshops in English speaking environment in the US next year (and also – she said that she’s considering bringing her full training program to the States – not the next year but in a few years). One of the workshops is announced already.November 15-20 2020 . How the Soul Returns near Portland, Oregon.It will be the 6-day workshop dedicated to constellations and work with trauma. I guess that she’s invited by her friend Sarah Peyton. Price is relatively high – the tuition cost is between 1050 USD an 1350 USD depending on the time of registration, plus accommodation it comes to 1670-2000 USD for the 6 days of training.

https://empathybrain.com/event/how-the-soul-returns-with-elena-veselago/

Elena said that there will be other events in US also. If you might be interested, please write to me, I will ask her. Please feel free to share this information.

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