Family Constellation Work

The very foundation of self and our relationship to the world are shaped in our early family systems, whereas infants we begin to configure an internal map that will come to determine what we expect, our perceptions and how we see things. Trauma experiences can mark this process in profound ways because trauma disrupts connectedness and puts in place primitive defense systems that help us survive. But over time and unbeknownst to ourselves, our trauma imprints can often distort our sense of self and our relational life, and lessen our ability to be fully alive in the present.

Family Constellation work allows us to visit our early family systems, so the roots of where we are stuck today might be revealed. Utilizing three-dimensional floor images, participants re-create their experiences by placing footprints (made of plastic/various sizes) in a large circle in ways that illustrate how they felt in these early systems. (The footprints represent members in the system.) Participants then stand in each set of footprints, feeling/sharing/processing what was happening back there. They may even engage in healing dialogue with various family members (their footprints).  

Family Constellation work is about bringing together that which got separated and integrating what was never integrated. Working these images helps participants gather the parts of self that got dispersed by looking deeply into the family system – tracking systemic trauma, and revealing their unconscious relational patterns and learned behaviors such as stress management, coping-styles and emotional expression. When participants are able to recognize that, “What is happening in you today, is really over there…” healing and the shifts toward wholeness are fostered.

When a client participates in Family Constellation work as part of their customized healing program, it is always done individually.  If a client requests that family members be a part of their Family Constellation work then the therapist and the participant can discuss which family member(s) should be invited to participate.

Family Constellation Work is suggested toward the end of a client’s healing program and in some cases it is part of their continuing care plan.