Hellinger Antoine Bert (born 1925) is a German psychologist, psychotherapist, teacher, and philosopher. Author of the method of systemic family group therapy.
After elementary school (Cologne) he enters the boarding school of the missionary congregation Mariannhill in Loor am Main to become a priest and missionary. There he studies at the city gymnasium. After its closure by the National Socialists, he studied at the gymnasium in Kassel. At the age of 17 (1942) he was called up by the authorities to serve in the construction battalions of the Wehrmacht. He survives the invasion of France, at the end of 1944 he is captured by the Americans and works in a prisoner of war camp in Belgium. A year later, he manages to escape from the camp. In 1946, he completed his studies at the Department of Theology of the University of Würzburg, accepted a novice and worked as a chaplain for half a year until the opportunity arose to go to South Africa to the church parish of Mariannhill. At the University of South Africa, he studied English and Pedagogy to teach in parish schools (1947-1948).
A few years later he was appointed head of all the schools in the parish. In this position, Hellinger is obliged to improve the skills of his subordinates and in practice he is faced with the fact that in the classroom representatives of different races and religions who were in the same ecumenical group demonstrated mutual rejection, clashes and conflicts. To overcome these difficulties, the Anglican Church sent psychology teachers, specialists in group dynamics, to Mariannehill. In these classes, Hellinger first became acquainted with the methods of group psychotherapy and, having mastered them, led his seminars.
In 1969 he was recalled to Würzburg as leader of the pastoral seminar of the mission at Mariannhill, where he conducted similar psychotherapy groups. However, Hellinger soon notices the insufficiency of his education in the field of psychotherapy and begins to study psychoanalysis (undergoing his own analysis), and then decides to leave the order. Then Hellinger continued his education in the Vienna «working community in depth psychology» with R. Schindler and I. Shaked, which later became the prototype of the Austrian professional association of psychotherapists.
In 1972, Hellinger got acquainted with the newly published book by J. Yanov «Primary Scream», which made such a strong impression on him that he used Yanov’s ideas in preparing his final work on psychoanalysis, for which he paid the price. He was not attested, considering that his work did not correspond to the canons of classical psychoanalysis. Since 1971, Hellinger has been developing and conducting group psychotherapy seminars, in which he uses many ideas of contemporary psychology and psychotherapy. This is the analysis of life scenarios (transactional analysis), and the method of non-directive hypnotherapy by Milton Erickson, and participation in family psychotherapy groups, and acquaintance with the family arrangement method, thanks to Thea Schönfelder, and the practice of NLP, which he consolidated thanks to Gundl Kutcher ( Gundl Kutschera) and others. This is how his own method of work gradually crystallized — Family Constellation, as a short-term psychotherapy, which became the basis of family-systemic therapy.
Hellinger describes himself as a practitioner who, after trying many different methods, eventually found his own. At the same time, his most important discovery is the fact that love, hidden behind all behavioral disorders and bodily symptoms, influences the fate of a person. Hellinger sees the key task of family-systemic therapy in finding the point where love is concentrated — then we find ourselves at the «roots» and find a way to solve a person’s problem.
Hellinger’s therapeutic work is based on acts of acceptance, respect, truth, acceptance of destiny, humility and courage. In recent years, Hellinger’s therapy has increasingly taken on the character of a work of finding agreement and reconciliation, which ultimately manifests itself as a service to the World. Hellinger comprehends the current foundations of his work and formulates his understanding in the reports “Guilt and Innocence in Relationships” (“Schuld und Unschuld in Beziehungen”), “Limits of Conscience” (“Die Grenzen des Gewissens”), etc.
Since 1994, he has been demonstrating his work in public, with up to a thousand people at the same time. After the publication of the book by G. Weber: “Zweierlei Glück. Die systemische Psychotherapie Bert Hellingers», 1992 (in Russian translation: «Crisis of love. Systemic psychotherapy of Bert Hellinger», 2000), Hellinger begins to present his experience and reflections on it in books (more than 30 books have been published, which have been translated into many languages), as well as in videos and CDs. In Russian per. Hellinger’s book was published: “The Orders of Love. Resolution of family-systemic conflicts and contradictions”, M., 2001. He is also the author of the books: “Anerkennen was ist”, 1996 (“Recognize that there is”. Conversations about family systemic plexuses and their solutions.); “Haltet mich, dass ich am Leben bleibe. Lösungen für Adoptierte”, 1998 (“Hold me so I can stay alive. Solutions for foster children”); «In der Seele an die Liebe rühren. Familien-Stellen mit Eltern und Pflegeeltern von behinderten Kindern”, 1998 (“To touch love in the soul. Family constellation with parents and foster parents of disabled children”); «Wie Liebe gelingt», 1999 (How love works. Couples therapy); «Entlassen werden wir vollendet», 2001 («Freed, we become perfect»)