Constellations

The origins of constellations

German psychotherapist Bert Hellinger (1925-2019) is the founder of constellation work. He developed family constellations in the late 1980s into a full-fledged method for gaining insight into an invisible but all-important system.

By doing many constellations, Bert Hellinger learned how systems work. For example, he learned that systems are all-encompassing. For example, that in every family there are unconscious movements to let everything and everyone have a place.

And that if we want to be complete, we have to make room for everything in the system. Even the generations before us, even the events or persons you would rather not give a place to. And he taught that if you want to change your entrenched beliefs, you have to look back at how your patterns are connected to your family history.
What he learned was written extensively in several books and all that information is referred to as “systemic work. In the years since, all his insights have also been translated and extended to organizational and social systems.

“Acknowledging is the most healing movement” is an important statement by Hellinger about the workings of systems.

How do constellations work?

A constellation is a spatial representation of a system. It can be a constellation of a family system, but also of an organization, a class, a neighborhood, or even a country. The purpose of the constellation is to explore a question. A systemic facilitator feels through with the questioner what elements need to be set up for that purpose.

Those elements are represented in the constellation – by people or materials or even in the imagination. By looking at a constellation with a systemic perspective, and trying out movement or phrases under the guidance of a systemic facilitator, unconscious patterns and dynamics become visible. A constellation facilitator works without judgment. The systemic coach or facilitator does not give advice to the questioner, but explores with the client how the different parts relate to each other.

By watching the constellation from a distance, the pattern comes into your awareness. Suddenly it becomes clear what your behavior is trying to portray: perhaps the painful history of a grandfather tackling something new that ended in bankruptcy with consequences for many….

Constellations do not provide solutions, but insight. By zooming out, it becomes clear what still needs a place in history before space is created for movement in the situation of the questioner.

Constellations for different themes

Everyone is part of multiple systems. And one system is always part of a larger system. But which system provides the insight you need? The facilitator explores the theme of the question and, in the conversation with the questioner, tries to sense in which system the answer to the question should be sought.

On personal issues

Because we are inseparable members of our family system, many of our questions have their origin in the family system. A family constellation is not only about persons in the system, but more about the way our families have dealt with history and how they have survived painful situations. That way of survival of our ancestors is often the source of patterns and dynamics we don’t want now.

Within organizations

An organizational constellation shows the dynamics of an organizational system or team and makes visible which elements and roles influence it. By zooming out to larger wholes and also to the origin and history of an organization, the constellation provides clarity about what, for example, resistance is trying to bring into focus. With an organization constellation you can also investigate what consequences changes will have or what conditions must be met to implement changes properly.

For social questions

Zooming out not only sheds different light on dynamics and patterns within families or organizations, it also provides new insights into social issues and change processes. The systemic perspective thus gives more space in conflicts and understanding.

Different work formats for constellations

There are two ways to do constellations:

With representatives

Constellations are often conducted with people representing an element. They assume a place in the constellation for this purpose without needing to be familiar with the situation. Sometimes (but not always) they receive some context to the question through a preliminary conversation between the questioner and the systemic facilitator. The representatives “receive” their information unconsciously, through, for example, the energy present in the questioner, the questioner’s system and from the dynamics with other representatives.
Representatives react from their intuition to their position and possible changes in the constellation. These may arise because the questioner or another representative makes a movement. Or the facilitator asks a question and investigates what happens when a representative takes a different position. Representatives make visible or tangible what their reaction is in the process and thus provide a lot of information about the dynamics within the system.

With materials

Constellating with material is a low-threshold method that coaches or systemic facilitators often use to get a quick view of the whole and see what is going on in the subconscious.
You can work with a table constellations or with floor anchors. In a table constellation, the people and/or elements involved are represented on the table with a material. These can be dolls, but just as easily coffee cups, pens, sugar cubes or shells.

You can do a floor constellation with colored pieces of fabric, each representing a different person or element. Or you use blank A4 sheets and write on them which sheet represents what, or placemats are also very useful. The materials are laid out on the floor, which has the advantage that you, the questioner, can stand in different places to feel what a place does to you.

The facilitator asks questions, helps the questioner move within the constellation and explores where space is created.