What is Family Constellations work?
What is Family Constellations work? For people totally new to Family Systems Constellation work, it can be a challenge to explain what it’s all about because Constellations work is experiential. Rather than using the language of the mind, it speaks in the language of the heart through dynamic interactions with others.
These group healing events are a powerful and effective way to achieve lasting improvements with a physical or emotional struggle. Many of our struggles in life did not originate with us but are instead an inherited pattern from our family of origin. A painful family pattern can often go back several generations without anyone being aware of the original source of the issue. These Constellations Workshops in Los Angeles are a supportive and safe community for self-discovery and expansion. They are an excellent way to heal pain and locate lasting peace.
The Constellation approach is an ancient healing practice developed by the Zulu tribes of Africa. It was brought to the western world in the early 1950’s by a German man named Bert Hellinger who lived among the Zulu for several years and learned their traditions. Bert Hellinger studied this ancient group healing method for over four decades. His foundational work has continued to expand and evolve, bringing valuable ancient indigenous wisdom into modern, urban times.
Founded on the core values of ancient village wisdom, Constellation’s work recognizes that healing needs a community of support in the same way a wild meadow needs a diversity of plants and creatures. Governed by the universal orders of love and acceptance, a group of relative strangers can help each other find relief, peace, and clarity. These Constellations Workshops in Los Angeles show us how the healing process can be creative and fun.
When we set up a Constellation for an issue in our life, we are able to see that struggle in the larger context of the family patterns that go back several generations. This helps us understand how many of our struggles did not begin with us but are actually a pattern we get pulled into by the power of our Family system. Without an awareness of the impact of our family system energy upon our view of the world, we often believe we alone are responsible for fixing a problem or making a change. Seeing the forces at work that are larger than us is often a great relief and allows us to let go of burdens that were never ours to begin with. That kind of relief and clarity is what these Constellations Workshops in Los Angeles help us achieve. Integrating our struggles into a larger context of awareness and opening up to the support of others liberates us from a personal frustration we thought was ours alone to figure out and resolve.
Family Constellations work teaches us the importance of recognizing how we are all born into a specific and unique family system that has certain rules we must follow to be a member of that family. The depth of influence our family of origin has on us is often overlooked. But if we are alive, our perspective and our expectations are governed by the world view of our unique family system that has very specific rules we must follow whether we know those rules or not. Even if no member of our family is alive, we still came from a legacy of ancestors starting with two parents and four grandparents who had opinions and perspectives that shape our own views today.
Family Constellations Work recognizes that each social system we engage has rules we unconsciously obey in order to belong in that system. Sometimes the rules go against our own personal guidance system and we must make a choice between staying connected socially or staying in personal integrity.
When the unspoken social rules are not followed we suffer the pain of exclusion. Being excluded is a very painful experience. Sometimes exclusion leads to personal growth but most often that same personal growth leads back to a longing to have peace in the dynamics of our family of origin. Finding peace with our family does not require us to obtain the cooperation of any living member in our family. Finding peace with our family involves navigating and releasing our own expectations and beliefs that are causing pain.
We belong in our family system. Everyone in the system belongs in that system. Exclusion of any member of the family system is the cause of pain. Inclusion of the exiled aspect restores peace. This is what Family Constellations work reveals time and again.
But the best way to understand Constellations work is to experience a workshop. These group gatherings are a fun way to explore our life challenges as well as gain deeper insight into ourselves and others.
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