Systemic and Family Constellations

Approach introduced by german therapist Bert Hellinger has since been developed and widened to the multiplicity of therapeutical, focused on personal trauma, diagnostic and even non-healing applications, such as constellations for business and decision making.

At my office I mostly work in an individual setting. My group workshops are usually held at third-party venues in the city of Montreal.

Classic Family Constellations approach is based on the idea that an issue that client faces in his or her individual life might have the roots in the events of the family system of the client, past or present. These issues might be effectively settled through a constellation.

According to this point of view, we all carry some kind of luggage of the past, and not just ours, but our “systemic” luggage – the stories that are not resolved in a particular generation, say, by our ancestors, would pass to the descendants and may involve us, sometimes in a very specific way. The approach gives means to properly resolve such systemic issues.

Requests for Systemic Constellation work vary from major physical or mental symptoms to rather minor but for some reason significant issues, such as attitudes to people or situations that otherwise would not have reasonable explanation.

Besides my 2-year immersive course in Hellinger Learning Center of Eastern Canada, with Claire Khudai Dagenais, I studied constellations work with great European masters such as: Stefan Hausner (Germany, Constellations for People with Heavy Physical Symptoms), Franz Ruppert (Germany, Constellations of Identity and Work with Trauma), Daan Van Kampenhout (Holland, founder of the approach of Systemic Ritual, combining the visions of systemic constellations and shamanic practice), Jan Jacob Stam (Holland, founder of Systemic Coaching, work on subjects of Leadership and Transformation in Organizations).

Read more: Systemic/Family Constellations in an Individual/Online Setting

Systemic Constellations for Organizations and Busineses

Throughout the years I have been in training in particular topics of Systemic Constellations Work with Elena Veselago, member of the board of ISCA, International Systemic Constellations Association. Passed the educative program in Structural Constellations with Anna Petrovskaya, and with Anna Evstratova, a marvellous practitioner in Russia, on her workshops on Constellations in Metaphorical Space. Still, after years of practice, from time to time I attend the workshops of the Constellations practitioners from various countries, and participate in conferences.

Systemic work helps acknowledging the events excluded from the vision of an individual or a family, and in a very special way it expands individual freedom.

Online work

Systemic and Family Constellation works are available online

You will need about 2 hours time and stable internet access. The work is done using Google Meet or Zoom videoconferencing environment.

Please feel free to contact me to clarify whatever needs to be understood about the workflow or an outcome of an online work, using a contact form below or my phone/email: you can find it in “contacts” section of this website. There is also a detailed article dedicated to individual and online sessions you can consult.

Timing and setting

A regular individual session may last between 1 and 2 hours. If we deal with the emotionally charged, specifically hard context it may require more time. We will often make pauses to keep things safe, and the work may extend to 2.5 hours. Clients session in group is usually shorter than the same session done individually. Due to the nature of the therapeutic process, it is not possible to predict the exact length of the session before the work is done. The work can be facilitated in a group or in several types of individual setting. When done one-on-one, it can be organized remotely, using Zoom or any other video conferencing tool. Usually it is not recommended to repeat constellations work frequently. An effect of a constellation work can be very profound, and it may take some time to settle.

Process description

Brief interview is a necessary and important part of the work in most of the constellation settings. It is used not only to clarify the request, but to reconstruct the whole picture of the situation that precedes and surrounds an actual request of the client. It is also an important step in establishing the therapeutic relations between a facilitator and a client.

Constellation itself may be done with other people as representatives or in one-on-one setting the figurines or objects like pebbles or toys would be used to represent certain figures of the present or past (family members, events, or even concepts), or “floor anchors” that are marking certain places on the floor where one or another figure is being represented. In this case, the therapist himself, or the client represent other figures while occupying these locations, and the constellation develops using their own sensitivity. In an online setting the process evolves while the therapist uses floor anchors or figurines, as in the regular individual work.

Client-facilitator relations

Holding space is a task of the facilitator of the constellation. The space needs to be secure and friendly for the work to be done.An engaging, non-directive relationship between therapist and client is essential in this therapeutic modality. To do a constellation a request from the client is needed. A particular session requires full commitment and focus from both the client and the therapist. In most of the setting types it would start with an introductory interview and continue with the constellation itself – setting up a structure that models certain situation related to client’s request, in space.Client – therapist communication during the session is a necessary part of the process that allows a particular work to proceed steadily.

Individual Sessions

Group Workshops

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