Bert Hellinger, a German psychotherapist developed the group healing work called Family Systems Constellations, also known as simply Constellations.  Bert was a Catholic priest who moved to Africa just after World War II to live as a missionary with the Zulu in South Africa. While living with the Zulu nation, he was shown a healing method used by the villages as a way to help members of the community with physical ailments and mental distress. He was shown by the tribal members how to align with the forces of nature.

After leaving Africa to return to Europe, Bert later trained in group dynamics which brought his attention to the study of phenomenology, and the individual human experience.

He studied Freud’s psychoanalytic theory and Janov’s primal scream, a body-based therapeutic experience. He studied gestalt therapy with Ruth Cohn and Hilarion Petzold and became aware of invisible bonds and hidden loyalties between family members going back several generations. 

Bert Hellinger went on to study family therapy with Ruth McClendon, Leslie Kadis, and Thea Schonfelder. He studied Jay Haley’s perverse triangle and discovered the importance of hierarchy in families. He studied Milton Erickson’s hypnotherapy and neuro-linguistic programming. 

Bert Hellinger sifted and sorted through all these teachings and collected universal truth from each one.  This became the foundation for the development of  Family Constellation work which holds the process of inclusion of that which has been excluded as the most helpful healing movement a mind can make.

“The Greater Soul moves in only one direction, and that is to bring into union that which has been made separate.”
— Bert Hellinger

Bert died in 2019 but his work founded a large community of Constellations Facilitators who continue to explore and advance the power of this healing method.

His work has been documented in books and videos from all over the world and his legacy of students now has a new generation of students who bring the work into the current times and maintain its relevance and power as one of the most effective healing tools available.  In the videos below, watch Burt Hellinger facilitate Constellations at a workshop in Taiwan and learn about Family Systems Constellations from the founder of the work.