ISSUE 5

Colette Green: Addiction: Scars of Attachment, Souvenirs of Love

This paper provides a new contribution to the understanding of the dynamics of addiction, by linking object relations theory to Bert Hellinger’s family systems approach. Hellinger brings to awareness the part of addiction, which is the result of a dis-ease within the family: an unconscious, inter-generational dynamic operating out of blind love and loyalty and calling attention to a loss or exclusion within the family system.

The paper starts by defining addiction and its issues through the language of Object Relations. It discusses Hellinger’s empirical findings, his observations on addiction and his methodology and how they contain the issues of an oral stage disruption. This is followed by a case example of a family constellation of a couple whose son struggles with addiction. The case demonstrates the effect of hidden dynamics and Hellinger’s particular contribution in noting the importance of’ the absence of the father within the addict’s family dynamic.

The paper concludes that Hellinger’s descriptive analysis of our being in the world, his insights and his powerful use of the constellation as methodology contain features that have been cited as important in recovery. While his work does not, in itself, provide a means of interrupting the cycle of active addiction, it makes a significant contribution, which may be of profound value to those in recovery from an oral stage disruption, to their families and to those working in this field .

Bertold Ulsamer: Trauma Work: Complementing and Enhancing Family Constellations

Despite all my enthusiasm for family constellations, I have always been aware that this approach addresses only a certain area of problems, namely those that are rooted within our families. Although this is an important area, not all our issues stem from this root: many problems result from life experiences unrelated to our families and therefore cannot be resolved with family constellations. I perceive constellations work as one wing of the bird. In order to fly we need the second wing and I see the body-oriented trauma work developed by Peter Levine as a way of providing this second wing. But most of us with some experience of constellation work are well aware that trauma plays a large part in creating entanglements and so is central to much of systemic work. Here, I compare how trauma is approached in constellations and in body-oriented trauma work and discuss how the insights and techniques developed by Levine may profitably be applied in constellations.

ISSUE 6

Albrecht Mahr: How the Living and the Dead can Heal each Other

In constellation work we can see that the dead can bring healing and benevolence when they are honoured and when their fates and life contributions are seen and acknowledged. Often healing solutions come from dead family members or from other dead ones who are connected to the family in some way. Parents who died early; children and siblings; partners or friends who died; people who sacrificed their lives for family members; as well the people who died in wars or never returned - they are all remembered in the family consciousness. Their influence can be supportive and strengthening. However, we also meet those dead who have not been redeemed and who burden the system. In these cases respect and acknowledgement are not enough to bring about resolution. In the constellations, these unredeemed souls behave as if they are not fully aware that they are in the realm of the dead, and they remain attached to one or more family members, with serious consequences for the living.

Judith Hemming & Terry Ingham: Helping Children to Learn

Child A, a Muslim girl was struggling with aspects of socialising and learning in the Year 6 Class. She had not been allowed by her father to take part in the class residential trip to Cornwall - the only child not to do so. In addition several parts of the curriculum were not available to her on grounds of her religious beliefs. The teacher seemed to carry some sadness and frustration that this child was unable to take full part in class activities.

Through consideration of ‘conscience group’ however, it is possible to see that the child’s primary loyalties are to her family and culture - and that though she is sad she cannot take part in some things, she understands why and completely accepts the situation. An honouring of her cultural attachment and support for her in upholding them enables the teacher to play a more open and facilitating part in the child’s learning.

At the end of term performance, the child sang an unaccompanied song beautifully. Her father, who hardly ever visits school because of the time pressures of his work, had slipped in to the hall a little late to hear her. She saw him and turned to her teacher to ask if she could sing an extra song just for her father. Again, unaccompanied, she sang a Turkish song exquisitely to her father. The whole hall of parents were moved and touched by her powerful performance, which was in a way a public declaration of her culture, language and loyalty.

ISSUE 7

Hunter Beaumont:
Soul: Moving and Moved

When we speak of 'soul', we are speaking of the realm of subjective experience in which we feel things like: longing, compassion, heartache, hope. I am proposing that it is useful and often helpful to examine carefully this dimension of our lives, for it is here that we humans find meaning and value. Surely disease of soul causes suffering, just as does disease of body or disease of mind. Yet, this realm of experience is organised differenty. It has different needs from the body and follows a different logic from that of the mind. It is not separate from them, not dualistically distinct, but under normal circumstances our subjective experience routinely distinguishes one from the other.

Franz Ruppert:
Integrating Split Components of the Soul;
Constellations based on Multi-Generational Systemic Pschotraumatology

A revolutionary development in brain research - the discovery of so-called 'mirror neurons' by the Italian physiologist Giacomo Rizzolatti and his colleagues may help us to understand the phenomena of the Constellation method. In experiments with animals these researchers demonstrated the existence of specific nerve cells in the brain that respond not only when a specific action is performed by the animal under investigation but also when the animal observes the same action being carried out by another. These nerve cells have been named 'mirror neurons' because they seem to 'mirror' in the brain the behaviour of other individuals. A similar neural response has been found in humans, using brain scanning methods, although these do not have the resolution to demonstrate the activity of individual nerve cells as has been done in the animal work.

Michael Gurevich:
Opinion: Blind Spots and Side-Effects of Constellation Work

Constellation work can have a very powerful effect on all who participate in it and this effect can sometimes be negative. We have often become blind to these negative consequences of constellation work. It is important to pay attention to all aspects of what we do, including possible side-effects of our work and our own personal blind spots. There are effective ways to make our work less dangerous and more valuable, some of which will be discussed in this article.

ISSUE 8

Eva Madelung:The Role of Women and The Feminine in Constellation Work

Bert Hellinger's attitude towards women and the feminine has often been the focus of public criticism and has attracted accusations of male chauvinism.
From the beginning, his students, both male and female, have inevitably brought their own attitudes to the work, rather than adopting his stance blindly. In other words, their own family imprints and views are borne out in the constellations they lead, whether they are aware of it or not. In this sense, the accusation of male chauvinism cannot refer to constellation work as a whole; nevertheless it is being raised as an issue.

Melissa Roussopoulos: Anyone know the URL for the truth? Science and Constellations

While science is not yet able to detect the entire range of information that humans can pick up from each other, it has found mechanisms by which such communication could be happening: electromagnetic fields of varying strengths and frequencies carrying information within and between people. This could provide an explanation for the counter-transference long familiar to psychotherapists, as they 'tune in' to the emotions of their clients and validate the body psychotherapists' view that this process is essentially a bodily one. It also ties in nicely with our experiences from constellations, where the representatives' bodily responses provide clear indications of what is going on.

Dan Booth Cohen: I Carry your Heart (I Carry it in my Heart) Family Healing in Prisons

For the past two years, a group of 'Lifers' has been participating in monthly family healing constellation circles as part of the third stage in the Growing Together Programe at Bay State Correctional Center in Norfolk, MA. In my view, these men do not fit whatever pre-existing stereotypes ae commonly held about murderers and rapists in prison. Although their crimes are real and their punishment severe, these men are not hardenened, hostile or withdrawn. In the context of the group meetings they are remarkably warm and kind. One of the women volunteers from outside the prison who participated in a constellation session with the men, reflected on her experience: "I was amazed how much I became involved with the constellations. It was a great privilege to be in the company of people who had gone through an ordeal that we can oly imagine, and had worked, with your help, to find a way to their souls."

ISSUE 9

Zita Cox: A Different Kind of Field Trip

Some time ago I began to have my own notion that systemic sontellations could be used in a wider field than previously, in order to listen to the Earth system - the system with which we, as humans, are so completely interconnected and on which we depend. Synchronistically, others were also exploring this idea in Germany, Holland and America and here in Britain....
The most moving and satisfying aspect of facilitating environmental constellations is those moments that people have vividly described, where their beliefs have changed and where their pre-conceptions were not met. A new view came to them through the experience nd they felt compassion for people they had previously seen as the problem or the enemy. This gives me hope that we can break down the walls of the homosphere we have built around us.

Netra Tingwen Chou: Traditional Chinese Philosophy & Hellinger's Family Constellations

It seems like there is a very ancient soul in this young man's body whose interests are quite different from those of most young people nowadays....
I saw that the wisdom, customs and ways of life in the East are very similar to the principles of Family Constellations. Therefore, when I encountered it, I wanted to introduce it to Chinese society in the East....
One important concept of Taoism is 'to do nothing'. When Bert Hellinger works, we see that he often retreats to the back, and many things start to happen by themselves. But actually something is happening inside him. From an audience's point of view, it seems that he is doing nothing. But inside something is going on, and it is his secret. Some people come to realise the same secret and start moving towards this way of working.

Wim Jurg: Constellations to identify Branding Problems

In marketing, it is generally accepted that the practice of thinking of non-living elements as human-like facilitates interactions with the world. The commonly used brand-as-a-person metaphor is a special case of this anthropomorphosis: Is brand X to you young or old? Is it a man or a woman? Is she sexy or serious? The concordant brand personality concept is the projection of human characteristics on to brands. A related construct in marketing is the positioning notion. This refers to the way people perceive the relationships between brands as opposed to the way companies want their brands to be in comparison to other brands. These relationships are usually presented in two-dimensional space to denote psychological distance between brand perceptions. Psychodrama is a recogised tehnique in qualitative marketing research on brands in which the relatiohship between consumers and brands is played out on a stage. Applying constellations to brands is thus a logical extension of such work.

ISSUE 10

Dr. Dimitris Stavropoulos: Orders and Movements of Destiny

The movements of destiny arise from the relationship between the three orders of destiny. We consider the Ancient Greeks approach to the three Fates as an apt metaphor to illustrate the otherwise hidden dimensions of destiny. The Fates, through their dialectic interaction give rise to movements that we recognise as primal and call movements of destiny. The interplay of the three orders of destiny shapes a morphogenetic field, which the Ancient Greeks characterised as soul and which guides and co-ordinates the movements of the soul. These were observed by Bert Hellinger, with the aid of systemic constellations, as early as 2002.
The objective of the movements is to unite whatever was divided and excluded, which by its exclusion broke up the cohesion and wholeness of a system. In this system, all who have received an individual share of destiny within the community of destiny are participants.

Lisa Iversen: Letter to the Constellations Community

What qualifies those of us who facilitate or teach (even if it has been for 10-25 years) to do so?
From where or whom have we received this permission?
With whom or what are we entangled when faced with our embodied response to these questions?
We don\'t know how, where or even if this work would have spread throughout Europe and the globe if the person who developed the approach had been African single mother who was pastor of a church, a Jewish holistic doctor or a musician.
I have grown tremendously from Berts insights about the therapy profession. I also sense that the inflammatory spirit of his public, sometimes venomous comments regarding therapists is played out between us in the field.
The personal relationships between Bert and others - both the smooth and rough spots - have a far-reaching, systemic effect on the whole field.

Hans Gruenn: Return of the Shadow

Through the work, many people have been touched by a deeper truth, a greater love, a richer understanding, a new humility - all qualities that are deeply healing for body, mind and soul. SFC runs into problems when its practitioners start talking about the phenomenological work and try to communicate what happens in there to anybody who is out there. The books, articles and statements that describe the truths, all too often encounter misunderstandings and misperceptions from the uninitiated public.
The critics rightfully point their finger at a blind spot that eludes our phenomenological gaze. What meets us out there intimately belongs to us; it is our very own shadow.
Firstly, when communicating in a public space, SFC practitioners are all too often inconsistent with the core message of SFC and violate their own rules and principles.
Many of our statements, some of them the holy cows of SFC, contain an abundance of generalisations.

Marco Matera/Riccardo Benardon: Miracle Scaling

In our work as coaches and counsellors engaged with clients on personal and professional issues, we became fascinated by the miracle question. We wondered if there were scales or grades of miracles and also if it might be useful for the client if their own miracle scale could be clarified and experienced within a constellation. We developed our Miracle Scaling approach just over a year ago as a type of structural constellation which integrates timeline work from NLP with the miracle question from the solutions-focused interview by Steve de Shazer and his team at the Brief Therapy Centre in Milwaukee.
What particularly fascinates us about solutions-focused work is the principle by which problem and solution lie on different levels. As Steve de Shazer states: One can think about the solutions without having to worry too much about the problems.

ISSUE 11

Bert Hellinger: Dimensions of Love

Now we look at our mother as she is, exactly as she is. She is our mother because she is as she is and are we even allowed to say: \"My Mother\" or \"My father\"? Do they belong to me? Do I have them? Are they at my service or are they given to me as a present as they are from another force; something much greater than we are and they are given to us exactly as they are. Only because they are as they are, could we grow and become as we are. Now look at your mother first and say: \\\\\\\"I love you as you are, exactly as you are. This is most precious for me because you are as you are, exactly as you are and I take you into my heart and into my soul as you are and I give up all those expectations that go beyond what is reasonable to expect from you as you are. Some people say: \"You should have been better to be my mother.\" If you had been better you could not have been my mother. You are my mother only because you are as you are and as you are I take you now into my heart dear Mum.\"

Suzi Tucker: The Infinite Container of the Spirit-Mind

It was as though there were some issues that were best considered close to home, whereas others required the widest angle - even beyond our knowledge - in order to find the place where reconciliation might be possible. In this other place, entanglements and loyalties and other dynamic configurations exist merely as moments in time, irregularities in the landscape of eternity. Such dynamics, which define some people\'s entire lives, are known but not dwelt upon in the Spirit-Mind constellations, which do not focus on the dyadic relationship between self and others. Fluid, ongoing, and relentless, the Spirit-Mind contains everything all at once and judges nothing, ever. In this work, the facilitator finds his or her way to be open to this dimension, allowing time for it to unfold exactly as it is without embellishing or correcting, without even the impulse to interfere at any level.

Ken Sloan et al: The Birthplace Representative

Beyond our personal identities based on membership in families, religions races, genders, tribes or nations, we are all members of the earth community of beings born on and nourished by planet earth. In contrast to these other memberships, our connection with the earth is critical not only to our well-being but to our existence - a few minutes without air and we die. In family constellation work we can experience how important it is for us to be connected with the resources of our human family systems, especially the love and life energy flowing to us (or not flowing to us) from our parents. From this resource-oriented perspective the focus is not so much on identifying and resolving or accepting difficulties in our histories, but instead on recognising and receiving the resources that are available to us, above and beyond the apparent difficulties. Could it be that our membership in Earth Community with our birthplace being our direct link to the Earth, provides a similarly critical resource of love, energy and even wisdom for our lives? We believe the answer to this question is a resounding Yes!

ISSUE 12

Geoff Mead: Meanings, Moments & Movements: Storytelling & Constellations

In a way, we might say that all constellations are based on story. The client is interviewed with the intention of becoming clear about what solution they want and gathering the basic information, the bare bones of their story...One could describe what we then see unfolding in the constellation as a story in motion...What we witness, time after in constellations work, is the innate desire of the system to reconstitute relationships so that they become more congruent with lawful patterns. When it occurs, we might call it a movement of the soul, the universal animating principle of which we all, human and non-human, partake. I think that at least, some traditional stories work in a similar way...Opening the story up, enacting and embodying our responses, can implicitly help us connect with our souls. Such a story speaks the language of the soul, which understands that kings and queens, horses, ravens and the hidden heart are all aspects of ourselves.

Barbara Morgan: Interview with Bert Hellinger

BH: There is one important aspect of the spirit-mind. It never repeats itself. Everything is new. As soon as you rely on former experiences, then you rely on you, no longer on the spirit-mind. That is a big step to take, to trust something where you have no experience yet. Every insight coming from the spirit-mind is new and leads to something new. It is always creative and it always succeeds. And it cannot be repeated. That is a controversial thing to say but it is true.
BM: You have always been surrounded by controversy wherever you have been. What is your perspective on the current situation between the Sciencia programme and the ISCA? How do you see them co-existing and how do you see the tensions between you?
BH: I do not think about it. I allow everybody to go his own way because whatever they do they are also guided. We are not always guided to a success; we are also guided to failures so we can learn from them. I am also led to situations where I fail and I have to learn immediately that I have to change. To get in tune with the movement of the spirit-mind is an effort that takes your full time. Well actually, it is not really an effort, you just go with it and allow yourself to be guided.

Cheng Lap Fung: The Healing Power of Future: Part I

My work is gradually developing in a way that helps clients to look at the future. This path has led to some interesting observations: firstly, resolution of the past is not always necessary for the client\'s well-being and growth; secondly, when a client is able to reach to the future with his soul, in many cases resolution of the past is achieved automatically anyway. Usually this means that the entanglements is over and in the constellation, the representatives often say: It is over. Even when the resolution for the past is visible and available, the individual members of the system generally do not feel at peace until the client begins to face the future.

Chris Walsh: Mindfulness & Phenomenology

Every time we are involved in a constellation we are involved in a phenomenological investigation. It is through the application of the phenomenological method that Hellinger discovered the orders of love. Although the orders of love reduce relationships to simple formulae, they provide the basis for an understanding that assists us to enhance the health and well-being of those relationships. So research can assist us in our understanding and application of constellations.

Using the phenomenological method for facilitating family constellations leaves us with at least three practical dilemmas:

1. How to integrate useful pre-existing knowledge and theories.

2. How to deal with background assumptions which may be out of awareness.

3. The lack of a systematic method for training and improving our skills in the phenomenological method.

Once a practitioner is guided by theories of the orders of love or any other pre-existing theory or experience, they are no longer being strictly phenomenological. Phenomenology may either confirm the theory or demonstrate that it does not apply in the particular case in question. In this way phenomenology is not only helpful for the case in question, it also helps us to fine tune our theory. So we need to be able to move between the phenomenological stance and scientific enquiry, which includes accessing theory. It also includes paying attention to specific facts as presented by the client.

ISSUE 13

b.h. Yael: Reconciliation in Palestine - Interview with Bert Hellinger

I have discovered some laws operating in cultures and in families and in nations. One of them is a law of priority. That means: those who came first take first place. Those who came second take second place. Whenever somebody who is in second place wants to take first place, conflict is unavoidable.

The history of the Jewish people starts with a breach of that law. Abraham had a first son and a first wife and he expelled her. Isaac, the second took first place. This conflict has continued to this day: Israel still takes first place. If Israel and the Jewish people would understand that Ishmael has first place and the Arabs have first place and that they come second, then peace would be possible....

We see that also with Christianity. The Christians come second; the Jews come first. All the conflicts between the Christians and the Jewish people arise from not respecting the law of priority.

Ty Francis: Intentionless Silence - Interview with Albrecht Mahr

TF: Clients often feel overwhelmed by the complexity of their situation. With this in mind, how does it help the client to witness the degree of chaos that can sometimes be revealed in a Political Constellation?

AM: I don\\\'t try to avoid the chaos any more. some constellations - and this is especially true of Political Constellations - contain the danger that the client feels invited or tempted to be accountable for many, many things. There can be a certain grandiosity in attempts to change huge systems. ..What I have learned is that just helping clients see the complexity and say: \\\"I am in a very complex field - that is how it is\\\" without feeling the need to resolve it all, has a clarifying, even relieving effect. We need to support them to withdraw their attention and focus more on their specific area of influence, with modesty. This re-focusing has a calming effect.

Jen Altman: In the Spotlight: In conversation with Hunter Beaumont

My dream for ISCA is that it will become a network of people working to achieve excellence in this kind of work; and that through ISCA we will find a way to negotiate the difficult terrain of conflict between different institutes, different individuals, different interests. I see ISCA as one attempt to protect the excellence in the work that we all love by developing clarity and the ability to differentiate what really helps in which contexts, rather than creating rules or standards that limit creativity. And I hope that we will figure out how to talk to one another about differences without falling into destructive conflict.

Bert Terpstra: Conquest of Abundance

Without an implicit worldview and an ontology telling us what is real and what illusion, what is true and what false, what exists and what does not exist, we would have little footing to make any sense of the complex, confusing and often contradictory impressions that we get from the world around us. That is why, according to Feyerabend, people in all cultures tend to simplify reality by subsuming all phenomena into simple categories, abstractions and descriptions. Thus, an abundance of subtle phenomena is reduced to a simplified projection on to a flat framework. That framework also works a s a filter: anything that falls outside we can no longer observe. This is what Feyerabend means by \\\'conquest of abundance\\\': filtering the abundance of available pheonomena to reduce it into a simplified world.