Family & Systemic Constellations

What is Family Constellations?

Family & Systemic Constellations is a modality founded and developed by Burt Hellinger, weaving together indigenous understandings of ancestral healing, family systems therapy, and Rupert Sheldrake’s “morphic field.” It can be applied in one-on-one or group sessions with a trained facilitator.

Why Constellations & How Does it Work?

Constellations is a beautiful way of seeing how our past histories inform our present views.

Our way of being in the world is systems-based, informed by our first system: our family of origin. This work enables us to source a kaleidoscopic gaze, recognizing that one shift, one slight turn allows the luminous fragments of our life to be witnessed in a wholly different view.

Constellations work is not a solution; it is more a shift in perspective. Our gaze in Constellations reveals what we often don’t acknowledge. This frees us to embrace life’s invitation to live our potential, less entangled in the knots of the past.

An individual comes to Constellations work with an issue or challenge they want to address - be it related to family, work, their personal health, or some other aspect of their life. Other members of the group represent various aspects/roles, creating a map of the system - a constellation. The person has the experience of seeing their system mapped ‘on the ground’ and hearing the information that comes through these representatives.

Offerings

• Monthly group
(every third Saturday of the month)

• 1-1 sessions

• Professional consulting

• Workshop settings

If you’re interested in joining one of these offerings, please fill out the Inquiry Form below!

I currently facilitate a Monthly in-person Constellation Group which has been meeting monthly for over four years. Numerous members of this ongoing group work in both healing and creative modalities. We frequently integrate and cross-pollinate a variety of disciplines and modalities, informed by the practices of the group's participants. Thus we may weave storytelling, writing, somatic experiencing and other disciplines into our time together.

In my work as a facilitator, I bring constellation practices into a variety of workshop settings, where specific constellation exercises serve to deepen and enhance the purpose and content of the workshop. I’ve used constellation exercises in writing, performative, and organizational development environments.

INQUIRE HERE

Facilitation & Training

In my 45 years as an Episcopal priest, arts producer and community pastor, I have worked with a wide variety of individuals and groups in numerous settings, including hospitals, prisons, low income housing, college campuses, and public arts arenas. In our time together, I offer a passionate sense of inquiry, a courageous heart and a loving, receptive presence.

Constellations is a very permeable form that enables practitioners to weave together their own modalities and capacities. As a ceremonialist and arts producer, these elements of both ritual and expressive arts deeply inform my facilitation of Family & Systemic Constellations work, which I call Ritual or Kaleidoscopic Constellations.

As a member of the practitioner faculty of the Holistic Health Community, O+ Festival, The People’s Place, (NFP’s in the Hudson Valley,) I offer constellation work, providing outreach to underserved populations, including those in recovery & formerly homeless.

Additionally, I have offered introduction to constellation work in a number of public institutions including libraries and health festivals.

I have co-led a practice group for facilitators, and have received training in Family and Systemic Constellations from leading practitioners including Suzi Tucker, Jane Petersen, PhD, Leslie Nipps, and Barry Krost.

To read more about my background, click here.

Testimonials

from participants of The Outer Edge Constellation group and one-on-one Constellation Sessions

When I am in a Constellation session it always feels like it is a receiving space for stories that are waiting to be told. This feels true whether my unresolved issue is the one being addressed or other people's. Each session feels very powerful because of the deep connections being made within the Constellation itself. I always have insights into my own situations when other people's relationships are revealed in their Constellations.

-Jill

“Through this enigmatic process, I unconsciously shifted my thinking. I had, indeed, tapped into a truth that freed me…”

Read Fay’s full article about our one-on-one Constellation Session here.

-Fay

When I was a child, my friends and I would play what we called imaginary games. We would enter into a story, not knowing where it would take us. Constellation group has similar elements of play, imagination and surprise.

-Elizabeth

I come to the group inside myself, sometimes locked inside myself.

And then something more that I didn’t know was inside me, is suddenly present. More of me, more of who I am, more of where I came from. Sometimes those I didn’t know I was carrying with me become obvious. And then I can move, often into something new.

-Sue

Guided Journey

Pick up a leaf. Now imagine you’re standing before a tree, perhaps a beloved tree that you know, or a tree that appears to you, and journey down to the very origin, the very beginning, the first seed of your family line/lineage. The dream of the oak tree lives in the acorn. What is the very essence of your ancestral line? What energy and imprint did it begin and grow? Evolve into?

Now imagine the limbs of the first rungs and see your parents, and your grandparents, and their grandparents, 10 generations back, 1,022 ancestors in your family tree.

Behold your ancestors before you. You are alive because they lived. Their genetic lifeblood flows through your veins, and is pumping in your heart. Consider that they lived through wars and famines and murders, the brutality of oppressive regimes, civil wars, disease and suffering — and joys and celebrations and creativity and potential as well.

Does one or a group of your ancestors have a message for you about your life to live forward now?

And when you find it, bring it into your heart. Put your hands on your heart and hold fast.

Constellations work is phenomenological - which means it’s best experienced rather than explained.
Join us to experience it for yourself.