Family Constellation Therapy

Family Constellation Therapy or Systemic Constellation Therapy as originally developed by Bert Hellinger recognises that none of us are islands immune to the influence of our family group.  We are all embedded in a complex system of bonding relationships over three or four generations where psychological and emotional problems are often passed on from one generation to the next.

Psychological problems of course sometimes arise out of personal experiences and individual trauma.  However it was Hellinger who had the original insight to realise that very often the causes of our difficulties and problems do not lie within our own direct experience.

The transgenerational transmission of trauma is now being widely recognised as a hidden and destructive phenomenon.  The trauma of our parents, grandparents and ancestors can leave a deep invisible injury in the minds of the living, operating within the psyche as psychological vulnerability.  Epigenetics too recognises ‘the ghost in your genes’ and that the lives of our grandparents can affect us decades later.

Family Constellation Therapy, either in individual sessions or in group weekend workshops, offers ways of disentangling the current members of a family from the unresolved issues and traumas of previous generations.  It offers immediate and long term healing not just for the individual but for all members of the family system.