Who benefits from Constellations?
Constellations are a solution-focused way of resolving seemingly intractable personal, relationship, family and organisational difficulties.
They can help with issues such as:- relationship difficulties with partners; divorce and separation; difficulties between parents and children; family rifts; bereavement and loss; persistent behavioural problems, including addictions and compulsions; childhood sexual and physical abuse; trauma; persistent emotional symptoms (depression, anxiety, rage etc); isolation and not belonging.
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What is the Constellation approach?
It is a systemic approach that explores the underlying, and often unseen, dynamics in families and groups to provide new understandings and fresh insight. Rather than looking at ourselves as separate individuals, we look at the web of relationship within the wider system, in conjunction with any significant events that have impacted on the family and its members, to provide a fuller picture of the individual as part of a larger set of systems. The hidden and unexpected dynamics operating within the system are revealed, and addressed in a way that aims to find a healthy and respectful place for all members of the system in question.
Each and everyone of us are members of many groups or systems, both small and big; these include family, work and friendship-based groups; ethnic, religious, and national systems to name but a few. All have influences on our thoughts, feelings and behaviour to a greater or lesser extent.
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The most powerful of these forces is our family, by whom we are largely shaped, sometimes in ways we have not understood. Excluded members, tragic events difficult experiences suffered by our parents and grandparents and others in our family all send out powerful ripples that unconsciously affect the choices we make. Consequently, certain patterns or difficulties we face don’t seem malleable to regular individual therapy because the systemic root is unseen and unattended to. For example, a baby's still birth might cause a severe unresolved grief in the parents and affect their bonding with a subsequent daughter. That daughter's development may then be severely affected to the point where it interferes with her parenting of her own children. When her child comes into therapy it is almost impossible to address the effect of his still born uncle by classical psychotherapeutic interventions. It is very easy for the therapist and the client to become stuck in a resentment towards the emotionally unavailable mother in such a situation. Constellations provide the lens through which we can more easily attend to these roots to allow us to step out of such unseen dynamics.
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Workshops run throughout the year. |
How do they work?
A Constellation is a solution-focused process that examines the connections between the different elements of a system, including people or events that have been overlooked. The client is asked to create a spatial representation of the family (and significant events) in relation to one another. This generates new information and perspectives; further information is elicited as each representative feeds back the experience of that position. The purpose is to locate where the issue or difficulty originates within the system, which past event or family members had the original experience that is still having ramifications now. The therapist facilitates the handing back of the burden and the responsibility in a way that is respectful and honours everyone in the system, and frees the client from his or her entanglement.
Clients report improvements to their significant relationships, and to their physical and emotional well-being. People also experience a greater sense of openness and vitality in their lives. The constellation process reveals a simple and memorable picture of the dynamic that allows the client to have a compassionate overview of the entire situation
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