- Exploring the feelings: The facilitator, who assigns people to represent your family members or other parts of you, might then describe the feelings they have in the positions you put them in. These feelings might be clues about what's going on in your family's history or you and how everyone or everything is affecting each other. For example, someone who is standing in representing your mom might feel sad or worried, and that might connect to something that happened to your mom or even her parents.
- Finding new solutions: Once you see these patterns more clearly, the therapist can help you try different arrangements or say things to the "family members" that might help shift the feelings or patterns to be more positive and helpful. This can help you understand why you or your family members act a certain way and find new ways to connect and relate to each other.
- Think of it like this: Sometimes, when things are a little tricky in your family, it's not always because of what's happening right now. It can also be influenced by things that happened a long time ago, even before you were born. Systemic constellation therapy helps you look at those older stories and connections to see if they're affecting you now, and then find ways to make things better. It's about bringing things that are hidden out into the open so you can understand them and heal from them.
- Setting up the "family picture": You might use objects like small figures or pillows, or even other people in the room (who aren't your actual family members), to represent different people in your family, including yourself, your parents, grandparents, and maybe even important friends or other people who are like family.
- Seeing the relationships: You would arrange these objects or people in a way that feels right to you, showing how you see everyone in your family relating to each other. Do some people seem closer or further apart? Are some facing away from others? This "family picture" can help show hidden feelings or ways your family members interact that you might not even realize are happening.
- Exploring the feelings: The therapist, or other people representing your family, might then describe the feelings they have in the positions you put them in. These feelings might be clues about what's going on in your family's history or how everyone is affecting each other. For example, someone standing for your mom might feel sad or worried, and that might connect to something that happened to your mom or even her parents.
- Finding new solutions: Once you see these patterns more clearly, the therapist can help you try different arrangements or say things to the "family members" that might help shift the feelings or patterns to be more positive and helpful. This can help you understand why you or your family members act a certain way and find new ways to connect and relate to each other.
Systemic constellations and traditional talk therapy represent distinct approaches to addressing personal and family issues. While traditional talk therapy focuses on individual experiences and conscious narratives through verbal exploration, systemic constellation therapy delves into unconscious family dynamics and intergenerational patterns using an experiential often non-verbal, approach.
Here's a more detailed breakdown:
Here's a more detailed breakdown:
Traditional Talk Therapy
Systemic Constellations
Key Differences Summarized
Systemic constellation - themed systems.
Systemic constellation -experiential, nonverbal.
Systemic constellation -unconscious.
- Focus: Primarily on the individual's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors within their present life.
- Method: Relies heavily on verbal communication between therapist and client, exploring past experiences and current challenges to develop coping strategies.
- Perspective: Centered on the individual's subjective experience and conscious understanding of their issues.
- Goal: To help individuals gain insight into their problems and develop healthier patterns of thinking and behavior.
Systemic Constellations
- Focus: Explores the larger family system and how past generations' experiences and unresolved trauma can influence present-day challenges.
- Method: Often involves placing, in the field or circle, individuals to represent emotions, teams, institutions, family members and their relationships, physical ailments, and more, allowing for an experiential exploration of hidden dynamics.
- Perspective: Acknowledges the interconnectedness of those of which are represented in the field and the impact of unconscious patterns across generations.
- Goal: To reveal and resolve unconscious dynamics, often by bringing hidden patterns to light and facilitating a shift in the system's energy.
Key Differences Summarized
- Focus:
Systemic constellation - themed systems.
- Method:
Systemic constellation -experiential, nonverbal.
- Perspective:
Systemic constellation -unconscious.
- Goal:
- Traditional talk therapy - individual insight or change. Systemic constellations - trauma resolution and system rebalancing.
Systemic:
This refers to an entire system as opposed to individual components.
Epigenetics:
Our emotional genetic makeup influenced by our environment that is passed on from generation to generation.
Morphogenic Field or Knowing Field:
The field created in constellations where we all reside. It is void of mind knowledge and contains only creativity.
Phenomenologic:
A way to term the constellation experience. This term is used to encourage everyone to set aside preconceived experiences and reason and simply allow the process to help resolve.
Somatic:
Affecting or characteristic of the body as opposed to the mind or spirit.
