Atlantic Systemic Constellations

Why Systemic Constellation Work?

After the work of Bert Hellinger - German author, poet, philosopher, psychotherapist - SCW has evolved in Europe, the Americas and beyond, practised in over thirty countries worldwide as a vibrant modality used by social workers, coaches, psychologists, traumatologists and others. Often conducted in group workshops, this unique method allows the client to set up an issue, difficulty or challenge in a visual way, using people or markers placed in relationship to one another. The relationship among people or elements associated with the issue is the starting image the client brings to the “Constellation”. Once the image is placed the client settles back to watch how the Constellation subsequently shifts and what, out of the complex dynamics of the family field, wants to make itself known in that moment to her/him and to the group (even if ‘the group’ is just the client and facilitator). This “Knowing Field” has all the information of all experiences, traumas, successes and relationships across multiple generations of the family system and can be accessed to help the person now. The soul of the family is what unites all its members and this unparalleled work allows us the possibility of new unions within our family system and across systems connecting us deeply with others and with Life itself.

Example:  A man brings an issue of chronic headaches to the workshop. He chooses a representative for himself and one for the headaches. We may also set up his parents and grandparents as representations, since the observation has been that difficulties are connected somewhere in our family system, usually to someone in a previous generation. The client sets up his representatives slowly, one by one, placing them in relationship to one  another, almost by instinct, in the space. Then we all wait and watch. The person who is ‘the headaches’ wants to move until he is standing very close to the paternal grandfather. The story is revealed by the client that his grandfather experienced a fall from a height that resulted in head injuries, causing a wider trauma of financial distress for the family. His mother’s loss of her father as a child carried weight in the family and her son, in turn, holds ‘headaches’ as the connector between the three generations. This may be a simple example; other revelations may be more complicated, less concrete and without historical references.

Always the client receives a kind of soul-level acknowledgement of where a difficulty is connected - even if s/he doesn’t know her/his family stories. This “Knowing Field” never lies. We have seen dramatic resolutions, as the loyalty and connections born out of love have caused us to be connected to an ancestor so deeply that we are willing in our souls to look back at them, rather than forward into the success that is, by its very nature, our own life.# Once we see, once we acknowledge where the connection is rooted, we can then release it back where it belongs, carrying on with more energy, more love, more awareness and more of the strength of who we are and from where we have come.

Many types of issues can be opened up in the systemic work, including issues adversely affecting organizations and businesses, as well as those challenging individuals. Because organizations are systems, too, created by people and undergoing events which cause ripples over time, limitations seen to be thwarting success or development may be turned to strengths, using the multidimensional tools of Constellation work. Workplace injuries and deaths, for instance, can cause trauma that if left unresolved and unacknowledged may result in generations of human resources difficulties. Constellations help with product development, to test out new ideas and gain direct insight as to how these dynamics will affect the larger system.

For us as individuals, the sudden awareness that our ancestors want us to succeed, that yes, they may have suffered tremendously yet trusted that their children’s and grandchildren’s lives would be better than theirs, is often experienced in Constellation work as a new supportive pillar, one which bolsters and nudges us to do something good with our life.
I heard Bert Hellinger himself once say, “If more people in the world were doing Family Constellations [the original name for what is often now referred to as Systemic Constellations] there would be no need for psychotherapy.”# A bold statement from the “Granddaddy” of the Constellation work, from one who has facilitated and observed thousands of moving and beautiful moments, in a methodology still young, yet poised to be seated in a powerfully potent place at this time on Earth. Whatever is reflected in an individual’s life is mirrored in our organizations and in our global and cultural systems; in striving for unity, peace and reconciliation this healing tool is ready to serve. In serving, it may need to present the flip side of what we know to be true, in order to open us to the rich tapestry of a parallel connectedness, a deeper more lasting ground.
“Above all, in everything we remain in the love that lasts.”#


Judy Young Melanson is a facilitator of Systemic Constellation Work and founder of Maritime Constellations. She provides group workshops as well as facilitating Constellations one-to-one, in person, by phone or Skype. Maritime Constellations offers facilitation, education and training for those interested in experiencing or using the Systemic Constellation Work for personal or professional enhancement.

www.maritimeconstellations.com