True innovation is a rare thing. In reality, innovation comes on the back of former masters from the past. Starts with an idea that is developed into a new field of knowledge and possibly practice or product.
Hellinger was the innovator of Family Constellations in the 1990’s. A unique way of working with the human condition. Involving the struggles people face viewed through the lens of the larger context of their family system.
It is unique, because for most counsellors and psychotherapists for the last 80 years or so, the focus has been on the individual as an isolated entity. A place where a person is put under the microscope in terms of their story, beliefs, emotions, behaviour and how they make meaning. The underlying belief in the counselling and psychotherapy realm is that providing a safe confidential space for individuals to offload through the use of counselling skills enables them to unpack or unravel their feelings or life challenges and may lead to awareness and growth over time.
The other major school of thought comes from the medical model that involves, diagnosis, management of symptoms and often medication.
The main problem that innovators face is that they go across conventionally accepted boundaries. Propose an ‘out of the box ‘way of looking at something that has not been highlighted before in this way.
If it’s a valid innovation it creates a new area of foundational knowledge and principles from which it operates, that may form a logical plan of action with a structure or methodology, with an outcome or hopefully, a benefit of some sort.
Innovators are always challenged and challenging.
- There was a time when humans thought that the world was flat. This was so deeply ingrained, it took several hundred years for human consciousness to catchup with the facts that the earth is a revolving sphere.
- Einstein was a genius who came up with ideas that were hundreds of years in advance of his time and was frequently ridiculed in his life.
- Darwinian’s theory of evolution was considered blasphemous and beyond credibility for centuries. Interestingly, some groups, often religious, maintain this status.
The mass of human consciousness moves slowly. Mainly because we don’t want to go against the grain. Stand out from the crowd or be excluded or ridiculed.
It takes a huge amount of courage to highlight new ways of thinking, being or doing.
I have great respect for innovators as they generally take us forward.
Hellinger was a German catholic priest working as a teacher in Zulu land for many years, who observed and grew to respect the Zulu traditional complex, extended families in ways that insured all have a healthy place and a sense of belonging within their group or culture.
On his retirement Hellinger began a journey of study with many masters of the key psychotherapies of that period of his development in Germany as a family therapist. These included Virginia Satir’s experiential “Sculpting”, the work of psychiatrist Milton Erickson specializing in medical hypnosis, psychodrama and a range of other key humanistic methodologies of that time.
Through his learnings and observations of human experience and behaviour, Hellinger began to experiment with the spatial arrangements of individuals with their significant family members. He found this represents how they experience themselves in terms of their perceived place in their family system. He found this to be important as individuals form their sense of self through their connections in their family system and this becomes how they experience themselves in the world. Influencing their sense of worth, mental health and how they relate to others.
Hellinger used the term “Family Constellation” from Erik Erikson a students of Sigmund Freud. Erickson created a philosophy involving the view that individuals are highly influenced by family and relational connections. His work included viewing people in the context of family and society with the idea that the patterning we receive from our family system has a lasting effect.
Over the next ten years or so, Hellinger developed a unique and complex philosophy through his observation of human connection, bonding and spatial placements. He found he could use these observations to discover and highlight the hidden entanglements of human disturbances with a client or individuals in a group, experientially.
Hellinger developed therapeutic processes to provide brief experiential interactions and processes to assist clients in expressing and releasing emotions and psychological stress’s with Constellation ‘Healing sentences’ and movement to assist with inner transformation in the growth and healing process
Hellinger transformed significantly during this time. Initially saying that all mental health workers and the public needed to do is to attend his public Family Constellations workshops to learn how to work in this way. However, true to Hellinger’s nature, he later back-flipped on this, in deciding Family Constellations training could be taught in a more formal and structured way and opened his first Family Constellations training in 2007, which I was fortunate enough to attend.
Family Constellations as a modality has had a turbulent history. Around the time of Hellinger opening his school, the constellation community split into two groups.
One I will call the Traditional, composed of mental health workers such as psychiatrists, psychologists and those in the medical model including some counsellors who found Hellinger’s approach too challenging to their traditional education and beliefs.
The other group I will call Dynamic were made up of mental health workers and those who recognised Hellinger’s genius in developing this philosophy and approach and who were curious and willing to explore this new direction of working with human suffering through Hellinger principles with Family Constellations psychotherapy.
Interestingly the Traditional group continued to use certain aspects of constellation theory and practice without acknowledging their founder Bert Hellinger and developed in its own way. While the Dynamic group of which I align myself, acknowledges Bert Hellinger as the founder, has continued to develop and grow in this field. Utilising the core beauty and flow of Hellinger principles towards wellbeing for those who seek this form of systemic psychotherapy.
In my opinion, this split in the group has had consequences that have led to confusion for the public that has held Family Constellations back from becoming a mainstream psychotherapy. One that may be perceived as a credible alternative traditional psychotherapeutic approach for the wellbeing of men and women who seek to improve their sense of worth, mental health or ability for better relationships in brief, experiential interventions
Moving forward, Family Constellations sits within the psycho spiritual humanistic psychotherapies along-side such modalities as Internal Family Systems. Family Constellations is a brief experienced solution-focused approach that may take place in workshops and private sessions. At present there is a lot of verified evidence-based research being published in psychological research journals such as the APA. More information
It is gratifying to witness how epigenetic research is validating what we in the constellations have always known, that trauma, disruptions and dysfunction patterns are passed through generations around the environment of the DNA and has the ability to switch genes on or off. Reference
I took part in such a Family Constellation research that is due to be published in the next couple of months and remain hopeful that the late innovator Bert Hellinger with his gift to humanity may spread, as he intended to all who seek such psychotherapeutic interventions.
There is no doubt that Hellinger was a controversial figure of his time and in this he was simply a man. However, I continue to be grateful to have come across Family Constellations in my own formative years as a counsellor and hypnotherapist looking for more effective ways of working with my clients.
I hold a comprehensive Systemic and Family Constellations training fully online for those who are interested in providing better service and outcomes for their clients or patients. Trainees are able to add this to their indemnity insurance and start elevating their skills and practice in working in a field that is fascinating and rewarding in making a difference to individuals in our highly disturbed world. More Details