Family Constellations

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Family Constellations session

Family Constellations, also known as Systemic Constellations and Systemic Family Constellations, is a pseudoscientific[1] therapeutic method which draws on elements of family systems therapy, existential phenomenology and Zulu beliefs and attitudes to family.[2]

Family Constellations diverges significantly from conventional forms of cognitive, behaviour and psychodynamic psychotherapy. The method has been described by physicists as an example of quantum mysticism, and its founder Bert Hellinger incorporated the speculative idea of morphic resonance into his explanation of it. Positive outcomes from the therapy have been attributed to conventional explanations such as suggestion, empathy, and the placebo effect.[1][3][4]

Practitioners claim that present-day problems and difficulties may be influenced by traumas suffered in previous generations of the family, even if those affected are unaware of the original event. Hellinger referred to the relation between present and past problems that are not caused by direct personal experience as systemic entanglements, said to occur when unresolved trauma has afflicted a family through an event such as murder, suicide, death of a mother in childbirth, early death of a parent or sibling, war, natural disaster, emigration, or abuse.[5][6]

A constellation session is a one-time event, with no follow-up. It may take place in front of a large audience.[7]

  1. ^ a b Witkowski, Tomasz (2015). Psychology Gone Wrong: The Dark Sides of Science and Therapy (illustrated ed.). Universal-Publishers. p. 261. ISBN 978-1-62734-528-6.
  2. ^ Cohen, D. B. (2006). ""Family Constellations": An Innovative Systemic Phenomenological Group Process from Germany". The Family Journal. 14 (3): 226–233. doi:10.1177/1066480706287279. S2CID 145474250.
  3. ^ Carroll, Robert T. "Bert Hellinger and family constellations". skepdic.com.
  4. ^ Lebow, Alisa (2008). First Person Jewish. U of Minnesota Press. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-8166-4354-7.
  5. ^ Hellinger, B., Weber, G., & Beaumont, H. (1998). Love's hidden symmetry: What makes love work in relationships. Phoenix, AZ: Zeig, Tucker and Theisen.
  6. ^ Boszormenyi-Nagy, I., & Spark, G. M. (1973). Invisible loyalties: Reciprocity in intergenerational family therapy. Hagerstown, MD: Harper & Row.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Talarczyk was invoked but never defined (see the help page).