Family constellations workshops provide a way to unlock the often hidden causes of personal problems that are holding a person back in their life. A trained facilitator works with a group of people, one of which is the seeker, to uncover and decode the underlying causes of issues that are holding the person back. The other group members form the constellation and represent the seeker’s family members, not as role play, but naturally mirroring the feelings of those family members, so the seeker can confront them. This gives the seeker a safe environment in which to better understand deeply buried family-related issues, without actually having to confront the family members in person.
The phenomenon that is Family Constellations is not fully understood, but Trauma Counselling Kelowna seems to work time and time again, assisting people to resolve their issues and move on in their lives. The observing participants of a family constellations workshop seem to intuitively tune into the seekers plight, channeling the reactions and feelings of that person’s family members. New aspects of the situation come to light and are played out until the seeker reaches a point of resolution. The people who make up the constellation can represent family members that are still alive as well as those that have passed; they can also represent countries, places, emotions and specific situational circumstances pertaining to the seeker. Each workshop is unique in that it represents each seeker’s personal situation and there is no way to predict the roles played out until the workshop is in progress.
A trained family constellations facilitator presides over the workshop and nominates roles for each person, relevant to the seeker’s plight. The constellation participants are gently guided by the facilitator during the workshop and the facilitator eventually prompts the scenario with positive turn-around dialogue, which enables the seeker to find a resolution to his or her issue.
Family Constellations workshops were developed by a number of psychologists and therapists including Edmund Husserl, Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy, Virginia Satir, the developer of family sculpture and Bert Hellinger who formed the methodology used by practitioners across the globe today. The method is used by psychiatrists, psychologists and alternative care providers and counsellors to help people who have identified the need for family related resolutions. Counsellors can train to be a family constellations facilitator, to integrate this method with other techniques such as hypnotherapy and life coaching to offer a range of services for their clients.
