Hellinger constellations: What is it? (Essence of the Method)

Hellinger constellations are an officially unrecognized method of group psychotherapy. This is one of the few methods of psychology around which there is heated debate. Some psychologists hate it and classify it as pseudoscience and quackery. Others actively use the technique and consider it the best way to heal the soul and body. The truth, as usual, is somewhere in the middle. Let's try to figure it all out. Let's start with a definition of the concept and a brief description of the method of systemic arrangements according to Hellinger.

Definition of the concept

Hellinger constellations - what is it in simple words? Hellinger constellations (systemic, family, systemic-family, generic constellations) are a method of group psychotherapy. The method was discovered in the early 1980s. The author of the method is German psychologist, psychotherapist, teacher, philosopher Bert Hellinger.

Many researchers call Bert a theologian and a charlatan. It is also worth noting that the technique is prohibited in a number of countries, for example, in Germany, Hellinger’s homeland and the first country where he began to practice family constellations.

What is the essence of the method? It allows you to understand the origins of any person’s problems through an analysis of his family, a “slice” of family problems. Roughly speaking, during the session it may turn out that the person now cannot find a job because his fourth cousin had an abortion. Or it turns out that at the moment a person has problems with money, because his distant ancestor squandered the state treasury (karma is spoiled for the entire family) and, as a result, out of fear and guilt, committed suicide. It sounds absurd, but this is how it usually turns out. This is what makes many people doubt the scientificity and validity of the method.

How constellations help in family relationships

Family constellations according to Hellinger Photo: Depositphotos
Here is a real situation that was worked through Hellinger constellations.

The man cheated on his wife and their relationship was on the verge of divorce. It seems the culprit is obvious. But when psychologists examined the man’s family, it turned out that the unhealthy situation arose even before the betrayal. The man's parents did not have such problems.

They role-played the relationships in the wife’s family: her father often cheated on her mother. She was very upset by her husband’s betrayal and unwittingly imposed on her daughter the stereotype that all men cheat. The daughter adopted her mother’s behavior: she made scandals for her husband and was jealous. And with such an attitude she pushed him away from her and provoked betrayal.

But such a family model will “come full circle” if a woman instills the same stereotype in her daughter.

The method of family constellations allows not only to find the “guilty”, but to give each character the opportunity to explain their position. It is important here that all participants in the process sincerely strive to find the objective causes of the problem.

Practicing psychotherapists claim: after a session, a person notices how his life, events, and surroundings change.

How does the Hellinger arrangement method work?

Hellinger viewed the family as a system. To be more precise, he called it the birth field. According to Hellinger's theory, all important events in the life of each family member and all important actions performed by them are recorded in the generic field. One person, having committed the wrong act, can harm not only himself, but also future generations. However, in order to return happiness to the birth field, it is enough to admit the mistake, ask for forgiveness and begin to behave correctly.

What else does Hellinger say about the family as a system? There is a hierarchy within it. And we are talking not just about the respectful attitude of the younger generation towards the older, but also about the subordination of the former to the latter.

And the third rule by which the generic field functions: the more you give, the more you receive. At the same time, life becomes brighter, happier, more joyful, more enjoyable.

Important! According to Hellinger, the ancestral field has its own laws. If a person wants to live happily, then he must comply with them, live within the established system. Working with the history of a family helps to understand who violated what.

Peculiarities

The Hellinger method involves working in a group of up to 30 people. There is no specific distribution of roles. Everything happens intuitively. People give themselves over to feelings, emotions and go where their subconscious leads them.

This is complete improvisation. Complete strangers gather. Then one person formulates his request, and others help him solve the problem, getting used to the roles of his family members.

What is the danger of the method

Every profession is associated with danger to some extent. For example, an unprofessional driver can hit a pedestrian, an inexperienced lawyer will deprive a person of his freedom, and an unqualified doctor will allow the disease to kill the patient. Due to the lack of experience or low qualifications of the psychologist, the client may lose personal integrity or mental health. In the hands of an unprofessional, even psychological work will be dangerous.

The benefits of the constellation method are directly related to the professionalism of the presenter. Only an experienced specialist will determine which version of the system is best suited for use for a particular individual, and which may cause harm or be useless. With the help of constellations according to the Hellinger method, participants come into contact with the personalities of other people, getting used to the roles. The guidance of a psychotherapist makes the process safer for the “actor”, who will leave the given role without negative consequences.

What do people decide with arrangements?

People come to a session with completely different requests:

inferiority complex or other complexes;
chronic feelings of guilt and shame;
outbursts of anger;
failures at work or in your personal life;
children's grievances against parents;
headache;
nightmares;
infertility;
family problems;
repetition of certain life situations;
frequent illnesses;
feeling trapped;
insomnia;
financial difficulties;
etc. and so on.

According to those who support the method of systemic constellations according to Bert Hellinger, with its help you can solve any psychological or somatic problem.

Law of Hierarchy

The stream of life flows from the past to the future, from earlier members of the system to later ones; it cannot be reversed, it can only be passed on. For a family, those who came into the system earlier are more important than those who came later. For example, parents are more important than children, the eldest child is more important than his brothers and sisters, grandparents are more important than parents. Therefore, later family members often unconsciously sacrifice themselves for the sake of earlier ones; a special case is when a descendant begins to replace his ancestor to restore the integrity of the system, despite the fact that this harms him. And at the level of systems, newer systems are more important than previous ones, for example, the family of newlyweds is more important for their members than their previous families, where they were children of their parents. Or the new family is more important than the previous families of the partners.

Example “An adopted desire to die”

The granddaughter felt sadness and a desire to die.
In the arrangement it turned out that this feeling and desire to move into death was adopted from her mother. The mother had many abortions, was sad for her unborn children and wanted to follow them. Mom, in turn, adopted this feeling and life scenario from her grandmother, who also had many aborted children and the desire to follow them. The solution for the granddaughter, in this case, may be: to see what is happening, to disidentify, to leave the mother the opportunity to bear her fate and be responsible for the consequences of the decisions made. Various attempts by younger people to rise to the level or higher than their elders will be a violation of the Law of Hierarchy. For example, when a child interferes in the life of his parents, takes the position of a parent-educator in relation to them, takes the place of one of his parents (symbolic marriage), arrogance. The consequences can be completely different: conflicts with parents, energy exhaustion, illness, inability to find a partner or problems in the family, collapse. When a child somehow abandons his parent, for example through aggression, arrogance, or one parent is supplanted by another parent, the female or male flow ceases to flow to him, which leads to problems in relationships with the opposite sex, lack of confidence, and a feeling of support.

Layers of the systemic arrangement technique

The method of arrangement according to Bert Hellinger consists of five layers (elements):

Psychodrama. By choosing deputies, a person can look at the problem from the outside, live the past in the “here and now” mode. This allows you to look at a disturbing situation differently.
Motor arrangements. Each body has its own energy pattern. When we interact with someone, we are either attracted to them or repelled. According to these energy flows, people occupy one position or another during constellations relative to the person who came with the request.
Toponymy. Participants communicate exclusively through gestures, facial expressions, and movements. Nobody says anything. Hellinger believed that this would show the problem better.
Suggestion and emotional response. Everything that happens during a session can be compared to a performance. At this time, a strong intensity of emotions arises. Participants influence each other and instill certain attitudes.

Many psychologists have a negative attitude towards Hellinger constellations, including because of the “hodgepodge”. Researchers note that the tops of psychotherapeutic methods such as psychodrama, esoteric teachings, and spiritual practices are mixed here. What is also alarming is the fact that there is no single theory, instructions, or fundamentals for using systemic constellations - each practicing psychologist interprets them in his own way.

Even Bert Hellinger himself has not published a general book on constellations. He described his ideas scatteredly in several works. For example:

“And in the middle it will become easy for you”;
“The source does not need to ask for directions”;
“Orders of love. How life and love work together";
“Procedures for assistance”;
“Happiness that remains. Where family constellations lead us”;
“Orders of love. Resolution of family-systemic conflicts and contradictions.”

What is constellation in psychology?

In this question, I was primarily interested in the point of what constellations in psychology are in simple words. Immersing yourself in articles written in a specific language, it is difficult to understand the essence of the method. Therefore, ordinary people need “translation and decoding” of mysterious words. That's what I'll try to do today.

Constellations in psychology are a fairly new method of group therapy, although it came into use at the end of the 20th century, almost 40 years ago. And they call it new because right now it is at the peak of popularity. The author of the technique is psychologist and teacher from Germany Bert Hellinger (also a psychotherapist and philosopher).

Psychological constellation as a therapy is prohibited in some European countries, including in the homeland of its creator. The reason for this attitude is the “non-scientific” approach. From the very beginning to this day, fierce controversy has raged around this technique. Psychologists are divided into two militant camps.

Some consider the method effective and almost a panacea that opens up new possibilities, while others classify Hellinger as a charlatan and adherent of pseudoscience. How effective system arrangements are, everyone must decide for themselves. My task is to present information in accessible language.

A director in psychology is similar to a leader in a group game or a director in a play. The actors are random people and the main character. He plays himself, and the so-called surrogates become projections of the main character's family members. The main effect of this action is the opportunity to see the problem from the outside and, if possible, find an effective solution.

According to Hellinger's theory, we are all in close connection with our family. Even long-dead ancestors continue to influence our lives through their actions. To understand what caused the failures of any modern manager, he needs to “connect” to the collective consciousness of his family, the “information field” and extract the necessary knowledge from there.

Are they dangerous to human health?

Why are Hellinger constellations dangerous? We have already mentioned that in the process of psychological constellations, people get used to the role of family members of the main participant. This is the main danger. According to reviews from those who attended the session, as well as psychologists who treated people after participating in systemic constellations, not everyone is able to leave the role. There are those who take on other people’s problems or remember something traumatic from their lives.

Many people and psychologists note that Hellinger constellations lead to retraumatization and traumatization. They open old wounds, but do not heal them. The inability to step out of role is only one of the dangers. Some people refuse to solve their problems. They refuse a conscious approach to life and blame their relatives for their troubles. As a result, their life difficulties increase many times over and accumulate like a snowball.

Generic constellations

Hellinger constellations help to cope with family entanglements.
They consist of unfinished processes of the past in the family, drawing the currently living person into the fate of their ancestors. Constellations allow you to live in the present and not depend on the past. Freed from family entanglements, a person frees up a powerful life resource. It is easy to identify family connections. They are expressed in the inexplicable realities of life. An intelligent and educated person cannot find a decent job for a long time. A young beautiful girl has been alone for a long time.

The generic program represents an unconscious script that a person constantly follows. This program contains solutions, sensations in the world. By following the script, a person unknowingly becomes an aggressor or a victim. He may be constantly looking for something, subconsciously trying to complete the affairs of his ancestors.

Important! A person can be woven into not just one story, but several at once.

To understand family entanglements, you need to agree that they exist. Then you need to allocate a place for them in the heart. Then you can try to live with them or try to solve them.

How do Hellinger constellations work?

How do Hellinger constellations work? Currently, you can find different options for conducting Hellinger constellations, but the general plan for the session looks something like this:

The client formulates a request and describes the problem.
From the group of people who come, those who will play substitute family members are selected. They are chosen by the client himself or the facilitator (psychotherapist). However, the psychologist makes his contribution in any case. He prompts, guides and helps select those family members who, in his opinion, are related to the client’s problem. Participants can be changed during the work process.
All active participants in the arrangement are intuitively located in the workspace. Similar to how those family members now portrayed by these random people are related to the main participant. At the same time, the facilitator recommends that the client not try to analyze the features of the relationship with each of the deputies, but trust his intuition and listen to himself.
Substitutes also surrender to the power of intuition. They try to feel what their heroes felt. These can be images, emotions and feelings, physical sensations. Some feel it more acutely, others weaker - it all depends on the individual’s sensitivity and the degree of his suggestibility.
The facilitator asks participants about their sensations and feelings. Based on this, he draws additional conclusions about the client’s problem and how to help him.
Improvisation continues. The participants either interact with each other themselves or do so according to the instructions of the leader. This takes into account the classic picture of arrangements: children sit or stand in front of mom and dad, spouses next to each other, brothers and sisters line up from right to left from eldest to youngest. A violation in this system indicates problems, and a visual arrangement allows you to understand in what relationships (between whom and whom) the problem exists. You can also understand which family members were once excluded from the system, and what was the reason for this.

The psychology of the arrangement according to Hellinger is as follows: feeling, getting used to the role can occur even in the complete absence of information about the prototype. However, the question remains as to how objective this is. Is the deputy bringing up personal issues? This confuses me, like many other psychologists, very much and makes me doubt the correctness and usefulness of the Hellinger constellation method.

Bert Hellinger's systemic constellations: how to help yourself using the power of the family?

Do you want to change your life for the better? Do you feel like it's time for a major change? Do you value your time? Do you dream of dealing with a problem in your life that does not allow you to feel like a complete and happy person? Do you want to look at your problem objectively and understand the intentions and motives of other participants in the current situation? Then systemic constellations according to Hellinger are exactly what you need! Over the course of several decades, the method of systemic constellations has managed to win the hearts of millions of teachers, marketers, psychologists, sociologists, and psychiatrists all over the world.

German psychologist, philosopher and psychotherapist Bert Hellinger argues that any event that happens in our lives should, after some time, remain in the past, and the past should not in any way influence our present and future. To leave the past in the past, a person should not only find the optimal solution to the existing problem, but also find the reasons for its occurrence, and then completely remove them. What are systemic constellations according to Hellinger? How do they work and what features do they have? Can they be dangerous to humans? Today we’ll talk about the benefits and harms of systemic constellations according to Bert Hellinger.

Systemic constellations according to Hellinger: what is it?

How does this method work?
Features of the system arrangement method
What elements does the systemic constellation technique consist of?
Hellinger? Systemic constellations according to Hellinger: what is it?

Systemic constellations according to Hellinger are a special, unique and simple method for solving problems that arise in a wide variety of areas of human life. This technique allows you to thoroughly understand the problem, find its root and get rid of it once and for all. Bert Hellinger, having studied the works of Eric Berne, Milton Erickson, Arthur Yanov and some other experts recognized by the world community, came to the conclusion that the everyday life of the average person is influenced not only by the mind, situational feelings and motives, but also by the generic field, which can be compared with electromagnetic or gravitational field.

The ancestral field is the field of the ancestral history of a person’s family, where all the most significant and problematic events that happened to his relatives in the past, continue to happen in the present and will continue to happen in the future were recorded earlier and continue to be recorded. The ancestral field exists thanks to certain laws. The law of belonging requires that a person who is part of a particular system respect and take into account its laws. The more a person values a system, the more he should value the laws of that system. A small child sincerely believes that his belonging to the clan system is the highest good, so he will do everything possible to make the system happy with him.

The law of hierarchy states that those people who entered the system first have certain advantages over those people who enter the system after them. That is why many adult family members demand that representatives of the younger generation not only respect them, but also bow to them. Another generic law, which can be called “Give-Take,” says that the easier we give something of ours, the more we will receive in the end, and our existence will become much richer, more pleasant and brighter every day. If at least one of the clan ever violated at least one of the above laws, then the whole clan will suffer from this.

This situation can be corrected if one of the clan members sincerely asks for forgiveness and begins to behave well. To do this, it is necessary to use the Hellinger system arrangement method. How does this method work? To understand exactly how Hellinger’s systemic constellations work, you need to remember how our world works! We must not forget about the unity of each person with all living beings and phenomena occurring in our Universe. The method of systemic constellations is based on a person’s ability to feel other living beings and empathize with them!

This skill allows a person to “monitor” or “scan” the energy-information field of a problematic situation existing in his life. Each of us at least once in our lives has encountered this phenomenon: meeting one person gives us a lot of positive, bright and pleasant emotions, and after communicating with another person we want to go to the shower as quickly as possible, wash off irritation, fatigue and energetic “dirt”, and then simply erase this meeting from your memory. We want to share our most intimate things with one person, but we don’t even want to remember the existence of another person.

Although we may know nothing about both the first and second interlocutor, we unconsciously feel all people. At the subconscious level, all the necessary information is revealed to us, which is located in the area of subtle bodies invisible to the human eye. Thanks to the information received, we can draw the right conclusions and choose the best course of events. Hellinger argues that the first impression we form about a person when we meet him is almost always the most correct.

Features of the system arrangement method

The natural ability to feel, which is inherent in every person, is the basic basis for constructing the method of systemic constellations according to Hellinger. This technique is designed to work with a group of people. People who are not direct participants in a problem situation can easily and simply, using their natural ability to “scan” sensations, read the necessary information and find violations in different systems of another person. Bert Hellinger includes clan, family, team, business structures, etc. as systems. If we consider the system of a certain person, then it can include the subtle structures of his body, which influence mental and physical health, creative and personal development, self-esteem and faith in one’s own strengths, position in society, the ability to “present oneself” to other people, etc. .d.

People are complementary parts belonging to a single whole. Whether we like it or not, we are all connected by ancestral programs, family values, religious rituals, national traditions, etc. Each of us is looking for like-minded people who would understand us. We influence each other and depend on each other, although we do not always realize it.

What elements does the systemic constellation technique consist of?

The method of systemic arrangements includes several elements or layers.

The first element (layer) is psychological drama. A client who wants to sort out his life situation chooses “surrogates” - people who will play characters related to the life problem. The client, observing the “deputies” from the outside, will be able to understand what exactly his problem is, look at the situation from a completely different angle and draw appropriate conclusions.

The second element (layer) is arrangements that have a motor nature. Each human body has its own pattern. The pattern can be passive or active, repulsive or attractive, twisted or straight, expanded or compressed. Hellinger argues that the movement of motor arrays can be “looked at” by observing motor fields. Motor fields occur when two people are physically close to each other. Physical bodies, interacting with each other at the energy level, create certain vectors of movement.

Each new person with whom you have to communicate creates his own vector. The created vector will have a positive or negative impact on your life in the future. Since “substitutes” should not be chosen randomly, but should have a certain resemblance to the real participants in the problem situation, arrangements that have a motor nature quite plausibly demonstrate the real state of affairs.

Toponymy is the third element (layer) of systemic arrangements according to Hellinger. The system of non-verbal communication (facial expressions, gestures, artistic compositions, etc.) allows you to “scan” the problem in more detail and deeply and find the optimal solution. The fourth element (layer) is suggestion with performance and emotional responses, which represent one of the options for group therapy. By raising topics that concern the client, the psychotherapist, with the help of other people, creates organized pressure on the client and helps him heal.

Is it possible to do this yourself

Is it possible to do a Hellinger arrangement yourself and if so, how to do it? Psychologists still do not have a clear answer to this question. Some say that there is nothing complicated or dangerous in this - you can gather several people and arrange the arrangement yourself. Others do not recommend doing this, as there is a risk that you will not cope with the surging emotions and opened wounds. If we are talking about a healthy constellation method as a means of psychotherapy, then, of course, this must be done under the supervision of a specialist. If something happens, he will support, help, guide.

However, there is one safe method for independent use, which is also classified as the arrangement method. Its essence is that you imagine a person with whom you would like to talk, with whom there is something unfinished in the relationship. Or you can entrust the role of this person to some object. You can do the same thing if you want to talk with several people from your life, that is, surrounding objects will participate in your arrangements, and not random people. The items will be substitutes.

What to do when the roles are distributed? Talk. Remember all the good and bad. Say what you wanted to say. Hear what you wanted to hear. At the end of the session, forgive and/or ask for forgiveness, thank yourself and those with whom you communicated, close this situation from the past.

Another safe method is to make your own arrangement on paper. The principle is the same: you portray all the important members of your family, build connections yourself and identify problems. And then you say what you originally wanted to say. The independent implementation of the Hellinger arrangement method on figures (people or any other) has a similar description.

The impact of egregor on humans

After a constellation session, you may wonder: “How did it happen that I began to play a role that was not my own in life? Why did I speak with someone else’s thoughts?” In fact, few people think about whether they really do what they want and whether they live the way they want.

In most cases, it turns out that we borrow our daily thoughts, feelings and actions from the people around us: our own family, team and society as a whole. In other words, a certain energy-information space (egregor) has a direct impact on the personality.

Each society (collective) is subject to a certain value system. The influence of egregor can be both positive and negative. Everyone develops their own value system. For example, a church egregor seeks to influence people through sermons.

And any terrorist organization creates its own egregor by manipulating the consciousness of participants with a certain theory. Sometimes stronger individuals can create their own egregors and influence others. Such an individual should be the most energy-intensive, since his task is to lead and influence, that is, to manage many energy flows. Egregors are written in detail in one of Bert’s works called “Arrangements according to Hellinger.” The book tells us that often the root of the problem can be in the values of life that are passed down through the family.