What Happens in a Family Constellation?

Every moment is alive and evolving in a Constellation. We stay with the present moment-to-moment experience and allow what is to unfold through the body's sensations, emotions, movements, images, and impulses.

We witness and allow the natural healing movements and resolutions - which bring a big shift in the body to any life situation, desire or challenge. I like to open up a looking and seeing process rather than seeing our life through problems and achievement.

Read more: What is Family Constellations?

THE GROUP PROCESS

  1. We open to our intentions and safety in the space.
  2. One person (client) offers an issue or challenge in their life, and what they want in their life.
  3. I briefly ask a few factual questions. Who is in your family? What losses, trauma, or difficulties have happened in your family line?
  4. The client invites others to represent themselves and/or the parts, symbols, or people involved. We choose which parts, symbols or people intuitively. This is not a mental or thinking process. There is no analyzing, just feeling into and sensing.
  5. The representatives stand and tune into their bodies, emotions, physical impulses, sensations, images and words that may come to them. They are guided to follow their movements and what their bodies feel compelled to do.
  6. We provide loving witness and observe with the client the dynamic that is unfolding.
  7. I support the representatives in reporting what they experience. They speak from their individual perspective. We do not analyze, give advice, or try to fix anything.
  8. We allow the dynamic, imbalance, or unintegrated loss to reveal and provide support for the resolution.
  9. We invite the client into the constellation at the time of resolution emerging.
  10. I, and the representatives, intuitively bring words to support a specific healing resolution or clarity. For example, “You are my son.” “I take responsibility for my part in the pain of the relationship.” or “I honor you by living my life.”
  11. The representatives and client connect with resolving statements, healing movements or loving touch, and the client integrates through their body and energy the resolve.
  12. The constellation ends when all people in the constellation and in the room feel at peace.
  13. The client thanks each representative and does a closing ritual to shift everyone back to themselves.

PERSONAL CONSTELLATION OR REPRESENTATIVE?

What is the difference between having a Personal Constellation set-up or being a Representative or Witness?

Personal Constellation: Receiving a Personal Constellation means that you will be invited to bring your specific intention of what you want to look at in your life to me/the group. You may share a little bit about your intention or challenge, or we may do the constellation blindly (without knowledge of mental details). I may ask a few facts about your family ancestry or about what is happening around the thing you want to look at. You may be invited to sit and observe what you notice as we set up the constellation with representatives - these would be people in the group that are willing to represent parts of your family system, inner parts of yourself, or symbols and energies in your life. Without mental knowledge of the storyline, we invite the representatives to follow their movements, feelings, sensations, and expressions. The underlying dynamics of the thing you want to look at unfolds and we offer compassionate witness and space for a natural healing movement or balance that is wanting to emerge. At some point, I may ask you to step in and fully receive the shifts in the body and embody new statements or connections that arise from the constellation. You will also be able to engage as Representative or Witness in other's constellations.

Representative: Being a Representative means that you will have the chance to stand in as a representative in people's constellations. You can always say no and witness. Often, people gain just as much and sometimes more with representing, as it's often synchronicity that brings you into the right representation or dynamic that you perhaps need or desire to see/experience. Think of it as healing at a bit of distance, as emerging through another person's universal experience. I will teach you how to tune in as a representative, follow and notice your movements, and share or express what is going on, without letting the mental information of the "storyline" interfere. The Constellation unfolds as representatives begin to move in the space as they feel what is happening. It is almost instantly that something is felt through the body and you will not need to act or make anything up. You may be representing someone's mother, child, grand-parent, brother, career, loved one, pet, house, emotion, or an unnamed energy/symbol.

Witness: As a witness, you may choose to join in and represent at any time it is called upon. Your presence is enough and makes all the difference! It offers a loving witness and more resource to the constellation. It often brings a distance for you to receive and see something new for yourself or in your life situation.

THE INDIVIDUAL OR COUPLES PROCESS

This is similar to the group process but we use props, or I may offer myself as representative. Together we tune into sensory experience even if no information about the family system or the symbols/people that are involved are known.

AFTER A CONSTELLATION

What do I do after a constellation for self-care and continued integration + healing?