Family Constellations, the group method developed by the German psychotherapist Bert Hellinger, offers shamanic work a vivid demonstration that each of us is part of a larger whole; the “Orders of Love”, Hellinger’s patterns of healthy families, which Paul Francis brought together with what we know of hunter-gatherer life to arrive at the Patterns of healthy groups; and a respect for the ancestors, including the dead who have been left out.
Who was Bert Hellinger, and what are Family Constellations? #
Hellinger was born in Germany in 1925. He trained for the priesthood, and for sixteen years worked as a missionary among the Zulus in South Africa, where he was both parish priest and director of a large school. After leaving his religious order he trained as a psychoanalyst.1 Though he studied modern families rather than tribes, his work “uncovered archetypal templates that underlie all healthy human living arrangements”. “He developed a unique way of working called “family constellations”. The work has evolved into many different forms these days”.2
Paul came to it when he wanted to go deeper than his own psychotherapy had gone. Beneath the childhood layers lie the layers of earlier generations, and looking for ways to explore them led him to epigenetics, the work of Bert Hellinger and Family Constellations.3 See How do we recognise and work with ancestral burdens?
What happens in a constellation? #
The work is done in a group. The client chooses people to represent the members of their family, themselves included, and places them in the room in relation to each other. Then they step back and watch. In the purest form, “the representatives are told nothing about the person who they are representing”. They tune into what they feel, speak it and move, and “What happens then is sometimes extraordinary.” A tableau of tension and isolation can change “into something that palpably feels and looks much healthier and resolved.”4
Part of the reason is that “people report that they enter a trance-like state”, which, with the stripped-back language and the attention to feelings and position, “gets underneath the content and stories about what is going on and reveals deeper patterns and truths.”5 Constellation practitioners call what the representatives tune into the “knowing field”, a term that comes from the facilitator Albrecht Mahr. In his book on constellation work, Indra Torsten Preiss describes it this way: “Without prior knowledge representatives have access to information that normally is accessible only to the actual family members.” He is frank that science has not yet explained how.6
What does it show about how we are connected? #
That what affects one of us affects the whole. When a constellation resolves, the healing can reach “not just for the client, but sometimes for other family members, too, and even for the family as a whole. In this, the work demonstrates that we really are all part of larger wholes, and that what affects one part affects the whole.”7
What are the Orders of Love, and how did they shape Therapeutic Shamanism? #
They are the patterns Hellinger saw in families that had healed. In Hellinger’s words: “There is an ancient order that works inside us, that controls much more than we are aware. Good order comes about when peace has been made for the whole system.” The word orders here means a sequence, “and not in the sense of rules or commands”. When families follow these patterns, “love flows”.8
Paul could see that Hellinger was on to something, but the patterns as Hellinger described them never felt quite right to him, partly because “at the heart of Hellinger’s Orders is essentially a nuclear family.” The answer came from asking how the patterns would have worked in hunter-gatherer tribes: the Patterns only emerged when he brought Hellinger’s insights together with what we know about pre-agricultural shamanism.9 So the Patterns of healthy groups taught in Therapeutic Shamanism owe a real debt to Hellinger. See What do tribe and belonging mean, and what is the shaman’s role in a community?
Why does it matter that no one is left out? #
Because what is pushed out of a family does not go away. One of the Patterns is: “Every member of a group is acknowledged (even the dead).” “In constellation work, Hellinger discovered that this even means abortions and miscarriages”, and a dead child, with the grief or shame around them, “can cast a deep shadow over families until they are acknowledged”.10 It does not mean every secret must be told; sometimes total honesty may do more harm than good. See What are ancestral burdens and how are they passed down?
Does Family Constellations have roots in indigenous ways? #
Possibly in part. Francesca Mason Boring, a constellation facilitator rooted in Western Shoshone tradition, writes that perhaps “in part due to his experience with the Zulu, the respect for knowing, seeing, ancestors, and connectedness, are all prominent in this work.” Of her own practice she adds: “From the perspective of Native American traditional healing, the ancestors are present, a valued resource, and certainly dynamic in the process of constellation.”11 How far Hellinger drew on Zulu ways is hard to pin down.
Does it work? #
The early research is encouraging. A systematic review published in 2021 found that the data so far “point into the direction that family constellation therapy is an effective intervention with significant mental health benefits in the general population”, whilst noting that there are still few studies, and that their quality is low. Amongst the small number of studies, the better-designed ones were those reporting benefit. The review also found that between 5 and 8 per cent of participants had minor or moderate negative effects afterwards, a rate the authors compare with psychotherapy in general, and it recommends checking on people after the work and offering support where needed.12 Mason Boring’s own guidance to people after a recent loss is simple: “when in doubt, leave it out.”13 See What can shamanism offer Family Constellations work?
