Hellinger constellations can hardly be called a new method in psychology; it is a movement that has existed in various forms since ancient times, but only in modern psychotherapy has it acquired structure and a clear scientific basis. The method allows you to literally look at the situation from the outside, understand and work through the key points.
The arrangement method is simple and complex at the same time. Under the guidance of a psychotherapist, the patient not only describes the situation, but “acts out” it with the help of surrounding objects or other people in the group during group constellations. Objects or people designate participants in the situation that worries the patient, and he himself places them in space as he imagines their relationship.
As a result, a picture is formed that reflects the problem. But unlike ordinary life, the patient can look at it from the outside, and not from the inside, with a more objective look. Another positive point is that the patient can take the place of any of the participants and try to understand someone else’s point of view.
If the arrangement is carried out in a group, then you can directly ask the participants how they feel when occupying a certain place in space.
The participants in the constellations are called deputies - they play the roles of certain persons in the patient’s life. They are not required to take specific actions, just be in the place where the patient has assigned them and listen to their feelings. In some types of formations, at a certain moment, deputies can move and move.
Types of arrangements
Constellations are classified depending on what goals the patient and his therapist want to achieve. The selection of a specific type depends on the situation, the patient’s condition, and the group’s ability to conduct a session with a sufficient number of substitutes. In any form, the rule remains that the patient himself also needs a substitute, and he is selected first.
Types table:
| View | What is it focused on? | Elements |
| Family | Family relationships | The patient, his relatives, people connected with his family through relationships of life and death, love and marriage |
| Organizational | Relationships in the team | The patient, his colleagues and managers, invited specialists, everyone who has a working relationship |
| Structural | Relationships between structural elements. Subtypes - archetypal, plot, tarot cards, etc. | Any parts of the structure indicated by the patient |
| Client | Solving a customer problem | The patient and the elements that represent his problem - people, resources, obstacles, finances, etc. |
| Spiritual | Features of emotional relationships | The patient and substitutes for his immediate environment |
| Diagnostic | Identifying problems in the emotional sphere | Revealed during placements |
| Remote (subspecies - in the imagination) | Carrying out any type of arrangement with the participation of video communications | Depends on the nature of the problem |
| Multi-level | Takes into account the client’s participation in several interconnected systems at once (family and work, work of family members, etc.) | Several systems - relatives, colleagues, karmic nodes, etc. |
| Hidden | Determination of emotional relationships in the system | Deputies do not know who they are replacing |
Family or ancestral
This is the most famous type of Hellinger arrangement. In them, the proxies reflect the patient's immediate family. This technique allows you to reproduce family relationships, involving not only living relatives, but also deceased relatives. At the same time, the roots and chains of transmission of unhealthy relationships are traced.
For example, a woman who cannot arrange her personal life may discover that one of the reasons is that her great-grandmother did not love her husband and could not love her daughter, who, in turn, passed on this attitude to her daughter, then to the patient .
In this case, it is especially important what exactly the surrogates feel - they are the ones who can provide valuable information about how the patient’s family members actually relate to each other. The arrangement also allows you to model the right relationships and suggest the actions that are necessary for this.
Structural
Hellinger arrangement is a direction that can be adapted for various purposes. In structural constellations, substituents designate various elements of already existing systems. For therapeutic purposes, these may be different elements of the patient’s personality as a complex system.
In business, the same method is used to display various business situations in the most effective manner.
Organizational
This type is needed to determine relationships in a large system - an enterprise or firm. The method is considered extremely accurate; it reproduces the relationships in the team and the place of the arranger in it.
Used for several purposes:
Client
This is a type of arrangement with substitute objects. It is used in cases where the client’s problem cannot be voiced in the presence of other people. For example, we are talking about deep family problems, commercial or medical secrets, or the client is not ready for group therapy. The advantage of this technique is complete confidentiality.
The disadvantage is that one can only guess about the feelings of the deputies and the people they replace.
Various objects can be used as substitutes - furniture, chess pieces, a special set of objects. Hellinger constellations are a type of psychotherapy that can be carried out independently without the participation of a therapist, but in this case difficulties may arise with interpretation.
Spiritual
This method, on the other hand, requires the participation of a group. The internal sensations of the deputies are extremely important in it. After the arranger finishes placing them in space, the substitutes can move based on their own feelings (“at the behest of the soul”).
As a result, the arrangement becomes more accurate, other elements of the system that were not taken into account are identified, and the estimated relationship of the real persons represented by the deputies to each other is revealed. Currently, this method is considered the most progressive. In a broad sense, spiritual constellations can be called more of a spiritual practice than psychotherapy.
The method is based on the philosophy that all human aspirations have a common source, which is both the cause and purpose of human life and actions. The purpose of the constellations in this case is to learn to move away from subjective philistine assessments and get a new, impartial approach to a certain situation.
How does the systemic arrangement according to Hellinger work?
The Hellinger arrangement occurs in several stages:
- Description of the problem. At this stage, the patient and therapist identify the essence of the problem, and also find out whether there is a need to do an arrangement, and what type is best suited.
- Appointment of deputies. At this stage, the patient becomes a constellator. He chooses substitutes for himself and other participants in the situation and distributes them throughout the space.
- Primary analysis. At this time, the patient can look at the situation from the outside for the first time.
- Movements of the soul– substitutes move in space based on their own feelings, after which another stage of analysis follows and the involvement of substitutes, the patient can also take the place of his own substitute and compare the view of the situation from the outside and from the inside.
- Elaboration of possible options for resolving the situation- in fact, the purpose of the arrangement, during which the patient can understand what he needs to do.
Systematic consideration of problems
In the constellation method, it is taken as an axiom that the problem can never be hidden only in one person - it always has a systemic nature. Behind every psychological problem and failure in life (especially recurring ones) there are relationships in the family or team, which over and over again put the patient in a situation where he is forced to repeat the same actions to his own detriment.
The arrangement allows us to identify such relationships.
Hellinger constellations place great importance on the family situation, since this is the environment where the patient’s attitude towards life is formed. Often dangerous scenarios are reproduced generation after generation without any of the participants realizing the danger.
Having seen the system that reproduces unhealthy relationships, the patient and his therapist can decide how to influence it so that the patient feels comfortable. Another option is to find ways to log out.
The impact of egregor on humans
The interpretation of the concept “egregor” is quite broad. The most “down-to-earth” version is a person’s unconsciously learned attitudes that force him to perceive others from a certain point of view.
The most common example– constant quarrels between parents force their grown child to consider all representatives of the opposite sex as enemies, but at the same time be sure to strive for relationships with them. This leads to unhealthy relationships being repeated. At the same time, a person cannot explain to himself why he is looking for a partner and why he is constantly annoyed with him.
In especially severe cases, this leads to the patient subconsciously looking for the most inappropriate and annoying partners.
By looking at such a situation from the outside, a person can realize it and stop reproducing it. But there is a risk that relationships with other carriers of the same life position (the same egregor) will deteriorate.
Law of belonging
This law implies that in a system all its members have equal rights to participate in it. That is, if we are talking about a family, then the participants in the system will be not only close relatives of the patient, including grandparents and more distant ancestors, but also their previous partners, illegitimate and aborted children, people who influenced family members or those who were influenced in any way by family members.
As a result, the number of elements in the system becomes very large, sometimes it is necessary to resort to several arrangements only to understand the intricate relationships of the participants.
Violation of this law - repression or exclusion of any elements - leads to disruption of the system, discord in the family, sometimes major quarrels and the complete collapse of relationships. Constellations help to identify such repressed elements, return them to their proper place and build healthy relationships.
Law of Hierarchy
The elements of any system are arranged in a strict hierarchical order. In the case of constellations, this order is chronological. Those. in a family, the most important members are grandparents; among brothers and sisters, the eldest is more important than the youngest; in a team, the most important employees are those who came earlier (not necessarily bosses).
The point is that people who came into the system earlier pass on their unfulfilled and unconscious desires to newer members of the system.
Violation of the law of hierarchy is an attempt to stand on the same level with higher elements (for example, a child’s attempt to influence the relationship between parents, or a recently appointed leader to influence relationships in the “backbone” of the team). Such attempts turn out to be fruitless, but very energy-consuming.
Law of Balance
Hellinger constellations are a course of psychotherapy that borders on philosophy and esotericism. The law of balance is one confirmation of this. In human relationships, there is a certain balance or partnership - one person gives the other what he needs, receiving something he needs in return.
If such a return transfer does not occur, the balance is upset, the person who received the benefit feels guilty until he repays the debt. If this cannot be returned, then this person regularly finds himself in situations where he gives more than he takes.
Birth
The constellation method considers the birth of a person as a combination of a large number of circumstances that had an influence. Those. one should take into account the character traits of his parents, the conditions in which the first years of childhood were spent, as well as one’s own predispositions, talents and shortcomings.
The birth constellation allows you to see the situation at the time of birth and understand exactly which moments need elaboration and additional therapy.
Features of group and individual classes
Hellinger constellation is a branch of psychotherapy that can be carried out in a group or individually. Which method is preferable depends on the characteristics of the patient's situation.
The group method is necessary in the following situations:
- when the emotions of the surrogates are important;
- when there are many elements of the system;
- when it is important that the elements may be arranged differently from the way the arranger placed them.
Private lessons do not have all these advantages, but they allow you to maintain privacy if necessary. In general, group classes are preferable; they give a more complete picture of what is happening.
When does the arrangement take effect?
The constellation examines the system, but can only affect the patient, so it is difficult to talk about its action. We should start with the fact that none of the known methods of psychotherapy can completely rebuild a system that negatively affects the patient.
However, the arrangement allows you to objectively look at what is happening and draw a conclusion about how to behave correctly in order to reduce the negative impact on yourself. When the effect of the arrangement begins to take effect depends on the patient’s internal activity- he can make the necessary decision right during the arrangement, or he can spend months or years on this process.
Possible danger of the method
Proper placement is completely safe. But if mistakes have been made, there is a risk that the patient will replace one incorrect setting with another. At best, this will lead to the ineffectiveness of the method, at worst - to the deterioration of an already difficult situation.
It should also be remembered that the arrangement is a model, and not a real lever of influence on the situation.
If mistakes have been made, Hellinger formations can only make the situation worse. Those. Only the patient himself can correct the situation through his actions, and the other participants in the situation remain the same as they were. They cannot suddenly change behavior after sensing what their surrogates have done.
Why don't arrangements help?
Sometimes arrangements have no effect.
There may be several reasons:
- The problem on which the arrangement is being made is incorrectly defined, i.e. the real problem remains unaddressed. A more thorough study of the patient's situation is necessary.
- The results of the arrangement were misinterpreted; instead of correct and healthy attitudes, the patient received incorrect ones and acts based on them. A more detailed analysis and interpretation of the situation is needed.
- The patient has not made a decision that should help him or does not follow through with it. In this case, the situation continues to develop as usual, and the patient does not gain leverage over it. Need to work in another method.
- The patient has not fully realized the laws of hierarchy, balance and belonging, and internal denial of the problem continues. A more thorough study or change of method is required.
About ten years ago I first saw an advertisement for Hellinger constellations in the Russian information space. Since at that time I was aware of the content of this new phenomenon for our country, I decided that quite quickly this practice would naturally move into the world of “occult services.” A year later, having discovered price lists of several fairly large psychological centers that did not associate themselves with magic in any way, I decided to go there and see what exactly they were doing there and how professional psychologists explained to themselves the legality of using this practice.
The opportunity appeared on its own and very quickly: I came across an advertisement for the search for so-called “deputies” - important participants in the most common type of arrangement. My husband and I signed up as “deputies,” naturally, without informing us about our motivation or professional affiliation (to be fair, no one asked us about this). Let me make a reservation right away: the formats for carrying out constellations may differ, but they are meaningfully based on the same idea. And they can be called differently: systemic family constellations, simply systemic constellations, and many more variations on the theme. The case below serves to illustrate the “work” of the method, as well as material for the critical analysis that follows.
So, the arrangement was carried out for a young man. He, under the guidance of the psychologist leading the arrangement, assigned each of the deputies the role of one of his family members (for now only living ones) and placed us around the room. Several arrangers were left without roles. And then a phantasmagoria began: “experienced deputies” (from among the center’s employees) began to report “heaviness in the heart”, “tickling in the heel” and other mysterious sensations from standing next to someone or, on the contrary, due to the distance of someone That. And only we stood in our places and felt nothing but curiosity.
Then, in some way incomprehensible to me, one of the “deputies” (who felt a strong desire to pour out love and regret to the client) “turned out” to be the client’s aborted child, several more people “turned out to be” long-dead relatives... the seance began. Then something happened that looked like a psychodrama with a mystical twist. And all this ended with a strict instruction from the arranger in the category of “get up and go!”
Naturally, I stayed late, told the arranger my professional affiliation and asked what it was, where he studied and how he was not ashamed. In response, I received a stream of consciousness “there is a lot in the world, friend Horatio...” on the topic of the existence of phenomena still unknown to science and certain fields that need to be connected to in order to gain knowledge.
Then I decided that with this level of delusion, this service would serve clients well: it would help them distinguish truly professional psychologists from charlatans who have nothing to do with scientific knowledge.
It seemed obvious to me that a reasonable person, before giving his money for any service, would Google about it. When searching for information about Hellinger constellations, you almost immediately find perhaps the most systematized brief description of the technique in the Russian-language segment: Veselago E.V. Systemic constellations according to Bert Hellinger: history, philosophy, technology. // Psychotherapy. No. 7, 2010. No. 1, 2011. : [Electronic resource].
Reading this article, in my opinion, is enough to understand that this technique has nothing to do with psychology as a science in any way “reincarnation”. And the paragraph below (ibid., p. 14) makes it clear that arrangements have the same relation to the concept of norm in any sense as to science: “ Hellinger says his work is not psychotherapy, it is practical philosophy. I would like to add: “And also practical theology.” And in this practice, we sometimes reach limits: frightening, unacceptable, incorrect, “immoral” movements (events, stories). After all, if there is neither good nor bad and everything moves the way it moves, then what about, for example, situations of incest? Violence, murder, abortion? Fascism, genocide? Many times, witnesses to Hellinger's constellation work have encountered unacceptable things: for example,in the constellation, the daughter, who is in a sexual relationship with her father, says to her mother: “Mom, I’m glad to do this for you.” Through this phrase, spoken in a constellation, the spirit of “sighted” love and reconciliation comes, the connection reveals its meaning and ceases to be necessary. But at the same time, a wave of indignation arises from defenders of victims of violence and abuse, from women, from men, from social workers and many others, in whose understanding the idea of protecting the victim from the rapist and the appropriate punishment for him is correct.».
But judging by the prevalence of constellations, the almost complete absence of criticism in the Russian-language segment of the Internet and scientific sources, and the penetration of methods into the system of public education and science, this issue is in dire need of discussion.
So, Bert Hellinger’s method of systemic family constellations became widespread in the second half of the last century as a helping psychological practice. It is believed that the basic principles of the method correspond to the systemic and phenomenological approach, but their interpretation is carried out by the author in an extremely unorthodox manner. Based on systemic premises, Hellinger proposes to consider in therapy the entire complex of family relationships in their interconnection and hierarchy, including intergenerational ones (including between living and deceased relatives). The phenomenological nature of the method implies the priority of the direct subjective experience and sensations of the participants in the constellations.
According to supporters of the method, the relationships, experiences and sensations of members of the family system are in a certain “field”, and, being placed in the appropriate roles, completely strangers seem to be included in this field and begin to reproduce the characteristic sensations of its members, even without having any preliminary information about them. By interacting with these “deputies,” the participant gets the opportunity to work out his personal problems and issues of relationships with relatives, work colleagues, and even abstract concepts.
In my opinion, what has already been listed should be enough to understand the unscientific and useless nature of the “method” of constellations, but in case the reader still has doubts, let us dwell in a little more detail on the most odious provisions (I will try to avoid highly specialized terms) .
Firstly, the “mechanics” of constellations is based on the so-called phenomenon of substitutive perception, when the substitute begins not just to imagine, but to feel and experience what his real living or long-dead prototype feels and experiences, drawing information directly from the “information field” . The mechanism of this substitutive perception and the method of transmitting information between its carrier and its substitute, however, is not formalized or explained in any way - but it cannot be verified and refuted.
Secondly, the fundamentally sound idea that an individual does not live in a vacuum and is influenced by family members (by the way, not only they, but also a lot of other social subjects and agents of socialization) is brought here to the point of absurdity and the person turns out to be not just connected, but closely intertwined (and we are not talking about genetics!) in his destiny with the destinies of his ancestors - even those about whom he does not know and could never know in principle. As a result, it is argued that he can live a destiny that is not his own and perform tasks that are not his own, since several generations ago a psychological problem arose that has not yet been solved. Neither modern psychology nor neurophysiology has scientific explanations for this phenomenon, and there are also no ways to verify whether the client is really suffering for the sins of his great-grandmother.
If we remove the philosophical and mystical component, then the constellation technique itself is, in fact, an attempt to project the client’s conscious and unconscious ideas about the structure and nature of interpersonal relationships within the family - and this could have limited practical application, but similar techniques already exist (for example , psychodrama), so novelty, obviously, can be achieved only through mystification and operating with quasi-scientific concepts like “psychic energy”, “information field”, “substituting perception” and others. But maybe there’s nothing wrong with that and let the clients of the “arrangers” pay a kind of “tax on ignorance”?..
Not at all. The method is not “ethically neutral” and contains several elements that are very dangerous for the client.
Firstly, the simplest objection is that using a “crooked” method leads you astray from the right path and the conviction that the root of the problems must be sought “down the family tree”, listening to the feelings evoked in you by strangers, on which are assigned the roles of all kinds of relatives, will prevent you from seeing the real problem. This is the best case scenario. At worst, you will become entrenched in your misconceptions and distorted perceptions.
Secondly, an unformalized method with unverifiable results leaves too much scope for the work of the “arranger” - and places extremely high demands on his professionalism, ethics and ability for critical reflection. Something tells me that people who practice (often commercially) an unscientific method with vague, semi-esoteric premises may have serious problems with these qualities. Moreover, for people in borderline states, the experience of constellations (in any role) can be dangerous as a provocation for the development of full-fledged psychiatry.
Thirdly, at their core, Hellinger’s ideas about the “orders of love” reproduce patriarchal models of gender and intergenerational relations, actually prescribing certain (and rather harsh) principles of perception and behavior to clients. Hellinger's sensational interpretation of incest as the mother's guilt in that she did not sufficiently satisfy her husband's sexual interests, as a result of which he was forced to have sex with his daughter, not only creates the basis for cultivating a sense of guilt in the mother (which, perhaps quite logically, alienated from her husband for reasons), but also forces the incest victim to “accept with respect” the act of violence against herself. Not to mention the fact that for the rapist himself, such an interpretation does not give any chance to realize his responsibility for what was done and work out the reasons that led to this act.
I admit that those psychologists and educators who refer to Hellinger's ideas and introduce them into their practice and curriculum do not accept everyone provisions of “systemic-family” therapy, but then this indicates either their ignorance or scientific incompetence. Everything that “works” in the constellations is not the specific features of the constellations, but is completely exhausted by other, completely scientific methods. And what is unique about them is neither psychology specifically, nor science in general, and therefore does not work and cannot work.
Nevertheless, there are also those who “passed through” and who were “helped.” Why did it “work” in their case?
It is much easier for many people to live, believing that they are not to blame for anything. The “family field” is to blame, which forced, for example, to repeat the fate of an expelled relative. And guilt is one of the very common problems with which people seek help.
Since the constellations use elements from points 2–4, there are lucky people who were helped by the constellations and, perhaps, did not even harm them much. Although harm in the form of mythologization of consciousness was definitely caused to them! The same harm is caused to “deputies”. It’s not worth talking about the confirmed effectiveness of this method at all, because there is not a single study in this area.
For a number of controversial statements and methods, Hellinger was expelled from the German Association of Systemic Constellations by his former followers, but at the same time they continued to engage in constellations, removing the name of Bert Hellinger and the morally controversial installations. In fairness, it should be noted that there are also those specialists who, although they recognize the potential in this eclectic method, consider it unsafe for patients.
Unfortunately, constellations are now becoming increasingly widespread as a service. But the worst thing is that they begin to occupy an indecently large space among professionals, are included in educational programs and practices, and are included in publications indexed by the RSCI.
Recently, I discovered constellations in the curricula of some state universities, courses on constellations conducted in the ANO on the basis of state (sic!) psychiatric institutions and allowing you to obtain a state-issued certificate!
In their attempts to legitimize the constellation method, supporters of the approach do not disdain falsifications: for example, an article on systemic family psychotherapy in the Russian-language Wikipedia was clearly written by adherents of this technique. The bold statement that "about 80 randomized and controlled studies have been able to confirm that systemic and family therapy is an effective and cost-effective method of psychotherapy with very good long-term effect" refers to a certain Bernard Schorn and his "work" entitled "Scientific Study proves effectiveness and long-term success.” A search in the Russian-speaking and English-speaking segments of the Internet did not help me uncover the mysterious identity of this man. Well, of course, I didn’t find the corresponding work either.
And finally, I inform you that arrangements for business systems, arrangements for exchange rates and other economic issues are becoming increasingly widespread today. Which personally gives me mixed feelings: it’s funny, of course, but... if business people and bankers begin to rely on the results of occult practices in making decisions, then what will await us in the future?
Ksenia ChuzhaFamily, or rather, systemic family constellations by Bert Hellinger(considered the founder) refer to methods that can help a person solve many, not only family, issues.
How do Hellinger family constellations work?
The person who came with the request places the group members himself or with the help of a therapist in the role of substitutes for his loved ones, telling his situation along the way. In the process of constellation, deputies feel what the client’s relatives have experienced or are experiencing, for example, love, resentment, uselessness. With the help of group members (including a psychotherapist), the client has the opportunity to look at the situation from the outside and largely solve his problems.
This view and a number of intermediate steps in the therapy process help to find a way out of the situation. A picture-solution remains in the mind in the form of the words of the therapist, substitutes and their placement. This serves as a resource for changes in a person’s future life.
To become more familiar with the method, we recommend studying the basic concepts of constellations in specialized literature (since their interpretation will take more than one page). The foundation can be articles by Bert himself and his followers, G. Weber, F. Ruppert and others. The method has much in common with such therapeutic techniques as psychodrama, family sculpture by V. Satir and some others.
It is worth noting that the arrangements in each individual case, although they have a “Hellinger” basis, differ from each other. The reason is that constellations-psychotherapists work differently. The diversity of approaches, in turn, is explained by the fact that family constellations are a practical method. Constellations do not have a theoretical basis in their classical, scientific version. That is why there is no unambiguity among psychologists in assessing the methodology. Some experts classify constellations as spiritual practices, and some as psychotherapeutic ones. But let's focus on the main question - do the arrangements work? If yes, then in what cases?
When to say “yes” to constellations
Therapists and clients themselves note that the method is very powerful. A session (arrangement of one situation) is carried out once, unlike most other techniques, work with which sometimes lasts for years. Even being only in the role of an observer, many people receive a very deep impression, even to the point of transforming their life positions. For the same reason, the technique in some cases (we will consider them a little later) is not recommended.
Most problems in any person's life are rooted in the family. Murders, expulsions (and psychological ones as well), abortions, violation of the hierarchy in the family (even in its distant past) are the root cause of many phenomena in human life. Incomprehensible feelings, inexplicable actions, dual relationships, failures, conflicts, illnesses (especially chronic ones). All this can be sorted out, the reason and explanation can be found, and most importantly, the solution, in the constellations.
An example from practice: a son sharply withdrew into himself, although there had been no events in his life before this. The mother at the constellations wants to know what to do. During the work, it turns out that she had an abortion long before the birth of her son. The reason is the unsettled life and young age, 18 years. The aborted child, pushed out of the system and forgotten, demands attention through the real one. When the mother admits her guilt, mentally asks for forgiveness from the unborn, and accepts it, the eighteen-year-old son soon tells his mother about an incomprehensible suicidal desire that passed as unexpectedly as it appeared.
Five “no”s to formations
2. If available fresh psychological trauma(rape, humiliation, deep resentment, conflict, moving, natural disaster), therapists do not recommend going to constellations even as an observer. The stressful state to which the participants in the constellation succumb is already present in a person’s everyday life. Additional psychological stress can only worsen the situation.
3. Acute grief(unexpected death of a loved one, separation, serious illness) are also among the conditions in which it is better not to carry out constellations. Why? A person, being in acute grief, cannot distance himself from the current situation. Sometimes trying to “look from the outside” can intensify feelings or offend the client. Therefore, experienced qualified constellations survey participants before conducting therapy to exclude the risk group.
4. Exacerbation of psychiatric illness. Constellations are among the techniques for mentally healthy people. Psychiatric illnesses may worsen if the patient is a participant in constellations.
5. Purely out of curiosity It’s also better not to participate in therapy. If a person goes to a constellation without a request or makes it up, then not only the client himself, but also his deputies find themselves in an incomprehensible or untruthful situation. In most cases, the constellator stops such sessions when he realizes that curiosity will not provide therapeutic benefit.
conclusions
Any psychotherapeutic method is based on the fact that the client works on the issue independently. The therapist’s task is to help, guide, but not decide. Arrangements are also built using the same principle. If the client has a desire to change something, systemic family constellations according to Hellinger can contribute to this. At the same time, it is worth remembering the words of Paracelsus that everything is poison and at the same time medicine. Sometimes only constellations can help, and sometimes they are the ones you should avoid.
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“I went through Hellinger’s constellations - a friend-psychologist advised me, she highly recommended it. We live in a provincial town, and sometimes different psychologists come here and conduct trainings. A married couple arrived and announced recruitment to the group where we studied. I passed, it was hard for me, but I made certain conclusions. However, six months later, this same friend of mine comes and says that this method, well, if not charlatanism, then somewhere nearby, and that this psychologist Hellinger even approves of incest! And my story partly related to this very issue (I’m not a participant - my half-sister). So now I have to give a damn about the result? How can I live now? I feel like I participated in something nasty and only made things worse for myself!”
Bella, 48 years old
Ekaterina Mikhailova, psychotherapist:
“Bella, really, how can you not trust yourself to such an extent! It so happened that you found yourself between two chairs (roles, if you will). The first is a normal client role: on the advice of a friend, we went to the group, it was hard, but we also got some benefit from it. Great, let’s clutch our result in our fists, think, refine it ourselves, what more could you want? But here a second role creeps in: a friend shares with you critical information about the approach that is current in professional and semi-professional environments, introduces you, so to speak, and you feel deceived, and your result can be “crossed out and spat on.” Why on earth is this? Just imagine how many scandalous details from the lives of truly great people - certainly larger than Bert Hellinger - can be found in literature! Dostoevsky was not only a gambler, he also did not repay his debts. Now why not read The Brothers Karamazov as a sign of protest? Mussorgsky drank heavily - we don’t listen to Khovanshchina. Tchaikovsky had a non-traditional sexual orientation - down with the Nutcracker, spit and cross out. And so on. I won’t even talk about “our” greats - Freud, Jung or Moreno; so many unflattering things have been said about them, including psychiatric diagnoses. I am by no means a fan of Hellinger constellations, but I know people - including among my clients and students - who have advanced their work on themselves through participation in these groups. And this is good. Moreover, if they got some important result for themselves thanks to African dances with a tambourine, that would be just as good. Which does not mean that African dancing is the best psychotherapy in the world. Discussions between professionals are one thing, but the real benefit received by the client is quite another. And here's why: it's not so much the method that works on the client's problem, but the client himself. I took as much and as much as I could take. The method gives it form, material and language, nothing more. You allowed yourself to depend on the unstable opinion of your friend-psychologist, and you are ready to cross out your real feelings and independently drawn conclusions. It seems to me that the problem is this, and not at all whether the method or its author is good or bad.”
Prepared by - Lisika
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We will talk about the method of systemic family psychotherapy.It is said that the Austrian psychotherapist and psychoanalyst, who was a long-time missionary of the Catholic Church in South Africa, gained ideas from seeing a solution to ancestral problems among ancient African tribes. Hellinger did not write anything about the method for a long time, believing that it was very difficult to do, easier to do in practice. The first descriptions appeared when Hellinger was 65 years old, and they were made by Gunthard Weber, a psychotherapist and member of the group. This method is currently used in group therapy andindividual consultation.
The essence of the Hellinger arrangement method
The essence of the Hellinger family constellation method is that a person dealing with a serious problem first of all selects “substitutes” from a group of people participating in the constellation. “Deputies” will play the roles of real characters who are present in a person’s life, and, as he believes, may be indirectly or directly related to the current problem. During the arrangement, the situation will be played out, the characters will voice their roles, talk about their states and experiences. History will be restored step by step. The main thing that needs to be done during the arrangement process is to find the imbalance between the characters or forces creating the situation. Next, you should move the “substitutes” so that the state of discomfort ceases to be felt, so that balance is restored. After the forces are transferred, the situation is played out again with the help of the characters. The result of a quality alignment should be a feeling of physical and mental reliefthe person who came with a problem. And also a strong understanding of what needs to be changed and how to get out of the situation. Thanks to the fact that “deputies” are chosen completely unbiased, it becomes possible to obtain new information about your problem, to bring to the surface what was previously blocked by many factors.
What problems can be solved using Hellinger?
We are talking about an imbalance in the hierarchy. This means that there is a system (family, clan) in which the natural laws adopted in the system and going from generation to generation are violated. Bert Hellinger called it "family weaving." Unfinished processes of the past in the family involve living members in what happened long ago. This is how the law of balancing the system works. Descendants, obeying these laws, are called upon to complete what was unfinished by their ancestors: to grieve, to finish, to live something for someone... Without realizing it, a person does not live his own life.
Examples could be situations when a beautiful and smart woman does not find a mate; a person works a lot, but is poor; with serious concern for health, serious illnesses arise; a person does not want to drink, gamble, take psychotropic drugs, but cannot get rid of addiction, etc.
An imbalance occurs between the concepts of “take/give”. For example, the relationship between father and daughter will involuntarily be influenced by the attitude of the girl's father and mother. If the mother did not repay, then her daughter will be forced to repay the debts. This shouldn't happen. The hierarchy is broken, mother and daughter change places. The daughter lives her mother's life instead of working out her own life.
Types of arrangements
Most often people are troubled by family-type problems. However, arrangements can be made for any systems with a hierarchical structure.
Familyconstellations work with family problems,with intrapersonal conflicts, problems family line. Structuralconstellations solve problems related to money, work, illness, and fears.Organizational constellations are used to resolve problems in work teams, including the imbalance between who helps and who is helped.Scenarioconstellations are used for decision-making situations, searching for new paths during periods of stagnation.
Hellinger Constellations and Tarot
Most often, constellations are carried out in a group. However, not everyone can bare their problems in front of a group. It is not always possible to gather a favorable group to play out the scenario. If the client is uncomfortable, a hidden arrangement is carried out, i.e., without voicing any information.CThe client himself regulates the degree of openness of his work.
One way out is to use a tarot arrangement for the session. Alena Solodilova suggests using this methodwho actively practices it, studies it, and deepens it. The order of the constellations is quoted practically unchanged.
Sessions can be conducted classically in a group, where the deck is used to diagnose a systemic process, and the deputies are people from the group.
Progress of tarot placement in the group
1) During the arrangement, the first question that is asked is “What is the situation? What do you want?"
The client chooses an arcane randomly without seeing the card.
2) Then he says what he sees on the map, what he concentrates on: “What do you see? What figures and symbols attract your attention? What do you highlight in a map design?”
3) Further For each selected symbol (figure), the participant selects substitutes from among other participants. He touches everyone lightly and tells them their role. For example: “Volodya, you are a staff in the hands of a Magician.” He then shows each participant where and how to stand in the formation. Let the choice of deputies and their places be spontaneous, intuitive, without logic or reflection.
4) The next stage is living through states as substitutes, moving, and speaking. At this stage of the arrangement, the customer looks at the action from the outside. Meanwhile, the facilitator asks the deputies to feel their desires, track the thoughts and emotions that arise, and move the way they want to now. The arrangement comes to life. The deputies exchange messages to each other: “I feel for you... I want from you...”
5) Now the client himself is introduced into the arrangement. At a certain moment, the presenter asks all the deputies to speak their messages to each other at the same time, and the client to listen to this host of voices, feelings, demands and choose the figure that touches him more emotionally, in which he feels more energy for himself, and take her place . And from this role, make movements, perform actions, say words that harmonize the arrangement as a whole so that each participant feels good, everyone finds their place.
6) An obligatory stage is the completion of the arrangement with the conclusion from the “roles”. Substitutes are also released from roles through touch and words. For example: “Volodya, you are not a staff in the hands of the Magician, you are Volodya.” He agrees: “Yes, I am not a staff in the hands of the Magician, I am Volodya.”
7) The arrangement ends with a general survey. At this stage it is worth working with deputies more deeply than with the person who ordered the arrangement. Questions for deputies: “How did you feel in this role? Why do you think you were chosen for this role? What is this about in your life?” Questions for participant-observers: “What feelings did the arrangement affect? What were you worried about? Questions to the “customer” of the constellation: “What stories of your life, relationships with which specific people did you learn during the constellation? What important happened here for you? How are you now?"
You should pay attention to the completeness of the manifestation of the archetype. For example, if a middle-aged woman complainsfor a chronic sore throat and takes out the Hanged Man’s Arcana from a full deck, then focuses on the “shining head” and “legs”, then during the arrangement one should consider the manifestation of the archetype at the following levels:
Physical – request – chronic sore throat.
The subpersonal level is the denial of part of one’s “I”.
Family level – long-term resentment towards the husband.
Event level (scenario) – codependent relationships with men.
The generic level is the violent death of a man.
Cultural level – martyrdom as an idea.
The archetype level is victim.
Individual arrangement using a tarot spread
The work is carried out entirely using a tarot layout, the “substitutes” being the cards themselves. There are three stages here.
1) Request. (Same as in the previous version). Based on the request, the client draws cards from the deck (“face down”) - himself and his deputies. Next, you need to ask the client to arrange the closed cards in the layout field the way he wants (without thinking), and only then open them.
2) Process. The presenter (and sometimes the client himself) moves the cards according to the composition of the layout, according to the logic of the layout field (ancestors at the top, descendants at the bottom), according to the client’s wishes orthe desire of the presenter. Also, if necessary, additional cards are added to the arrangement, and sometimes “non-working” cards are removed. With a qualitative change in the arrangement, it is possible to draw “test” cards. During the arrangement, actions are consistent with the content of the images of the cards, with the bodily and verbal manifestations of the client, and with the subjective experiences of the leader.
3) Completion. Completion occurs when the picture of the arrangement looks harmonious in the content of the cards and is consistent with the logic of the layout field, when the client and therapist feel internal agreement with what happened.
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