Contents
The evolution of the method of system constellations
Part 1. Development of constellations with Bert Hellinger
We can trace the evolution of the method of systemic constellations in the practice (more precisely, in the work) of Bert Hellinger through his books and videos available to a wide range of interested people (perhaps what happened before the release of Bert’s first book, and his experiments on various seminars and therapy groups).
Bert Hellinger’s first book, Orders of Love, was published in German in 1997 and is a synopsis of his earlier seminars. There we see descriptions of constellations based primarily on the application of orders, i.e. unique «correct» place of each family member in the system. Hellinger, on the basis of extensive experience, discovered orders as a certain arrangement of figures of substitutes in space, in which they feel “better”, “in their place”.
Ordinal arrangements (let’s call them that) were made by Hellinger in several stages. First, the client did the initial constellation of all family members (Bert formulated who is in the family system and often all members of the system were introduced into the constellation at once, regardless of the topic declared by the client). Then the constellator asked all the deputies how they feel. Based on the information of the deputies, the moderator rearranged them and asked again. This could be repeated several times, and at the end, as a rule, it was possible to partially build order and the deputies reported an improvement in their condition. The main feature of the ordinal arrangement is that deputies in it are not allowed to move independently. Today, it seems that none of the leading international professionals practice ordinal constellations in the described format, but, of course, this way of conducting a constellation can occur in individual cases.
Gradually, Bert Hellinger (as he himself told about it) began to notice that the deputies seemed to feel some impulse to move, even before the constellator moved them to a new place. Then, in such cases, the deputy was asked to move independently. Bert called this impulse «the movement of the soul», and later they began to call it the method of conducting constellations, in which deputies can move with the permission of the constellator. In this case, the substituents show by movement the dynamics existing in the system, which, in ordinal arrangements, could only be understood from words. Fewer deputies began to be appointed — not all members of the system, but only those who are related to the declared topic or the dynamics that appear in the process of arrangement. In some cases, the substitutes independently found the location in space, which led to resolution. Often this decision corresponds to the orders, but not always — this means that with this way of conducting a constellation, the decisions more accurately reflect the system dynamics (instead of the constellator’s ideas about the «correct order»). This method of conducting constellations is probably the most popular, it is practiced by many specialists in the US and in Russia.
In the further development of Burt’s work, the deputies were given even more freedom. All deputies were allowed to move at the same time — and they themselves first reflected the current dynamics, and then, if possible, came to the final picture. The deputies seemed to be guided from a single source, and Burt called these constellations «movements of the spirit.» There were even fewer deputies, often the arrangement began with one or two participants, sometimes the client himself was immediately present in the arrangement. The constellator’s interventions were reduced to a minimum or, in some cases, they seemed to be absent altogether — the constellator did not manage the deputies in any way, did not rearrange them, did not invite them to talk about their condition. Berthold Ulsamer writes that the main «intervention» in such constellations is that the constellator is present at what is happening and «allows things to happen» (and very difficult dynamics can «happen», i.e. appear, and the leader is completely involved in them His presence, as it were, personifies the very fact that work is being done with the system, that there is a will to see what is happening and, if possible, find a solution.With outward invisibility, such work is internally quite difficult, and requires good qualifications and personal Many leading international constellators and some specialists in Russia work with the «movements of the spirit».
Gradually, Burt trusted more and more to what stands behind the system (“spirit”) and minimized the external intervention of the constellator and the number of deputies. Sometimes one deputy or just the client himself was appointed, sometimes two or three, and very often they were not assigned to a specific role as a member of the client’s family. For example, a client and another deputy were placed, and they were given complete freedom of movement without external intervention of the constellator. The formation was often interrupted before the deputies themselves could take some final position. Thus, the “incomplete” energy could be perceived by the client and he continued to carry and live it in himself after the arrangement. Such constellations were called by the word, which was translated into English as Spirit Mind, which roughly means «spirit of the mind.» There is no corresponding term in Russian and it is still customary to say «Spirit Mind». In such constellations, the client often does not state his problem in detail or only indicates who it concerns (mother, partner), without explaining the essence. This way of constellations is practiced by some foreign and very few Russian specialists.
There is no clear boundary between the constellations of “movement of the soul”, “movement of the spirit” and “Spirit Mind”, they differ in greater or lesser freedom of deputies and, accordingly, the degree of external interference of the constellator. Sometimes all three varieties are used in one constellation — it may start as «Spirit Mind», but then the constellator increases his interventions (for example, by adding deputies) and moves to «movements of the spirit» or limits the free movement of deputies, moving to «movements of the soul.» The manner in which a particular constellation is conducted depends on the energy of the system, the preferences of the constellator and his inner readiness to “let go” of what is happening in this constellation.
More recently, in April 2008, Bert Hellinger showed a new kind of constellation, which he called «multi-level» (multidimentional). He even stopped using the word «constellations», more often speaking «a layered approach.» In a multi-level approach, with a minimum designation of their topic by the client (or no designation at all), 15 or more deputies are displayed (but not placed) on the constellation space, and all of them are given the opportunity to move freely without external intervention of the constellator. This way of conducting the constellation is very difficult for deputies, because they become involved in very powerful dynamics, experiencing strong feelings to the point of catharsis. Apparently, this is also not easy for the constellator, but there is not enough experience here, because. apart from Bert Hellinger, this way of working has not yet been practiced by anyone.
Summing up, we can say that at each subsequent stage in the development of constellations, Bert Hellinger increasingly trusts some force that drives the system and is transmitted through deputies. There is more and more energy in the constellations, less and less intervention of the constellator and, as a result, less universal orders are used. At the same time, apparently, more and more internal work takes place after the constellation, in the process of experiencing by the client what was perceived in the process of work. If in the “ordinal” constellations the client “carried away” the resolving final picture and later could consciously turn to it internally as a resource, then in the “spiritual” constellations the client “carries away” the experience and it continues to develop, including remaining unconscious.
Part 2. Passing on
Bert Hellinger says that the best thing that those who have received knowledge of constellation work from him can do is to continue to work and pass on knowledge further, improving and developing it. In the modern constellation space, both those who carefully continue the practice in accordance with the “pure” Hellinger approach, (modern or “old”), and experimenters of many directions work.
Below we will attempt to structure the many varieties of constellation practice along three lines:
1. On the subject of placement
2. By setting (organization of work)
3. By «roots», i.e. by membership in communities of practice
1. On the subject of constellation, the following areas in constellation practice can be distinguished:
1.1. Classic family constellations: arrange the members of the client’s family system. As a rule, these are people that the client (his relatives) knows about or those who need to be introduced in the course of work (for example, if a brother died in a car accident, the person who was driving and was responsible for the accident can be introduced).
1.2. Constellations of non-family systems. Non-family systems include, for example, organizations, communities, cities and countries, etc.
1.3. Arrangements of «internal parts of the personality» or «subpersonalities». For example, two “parts” of the client can be placed: a child and an adult, or “the part that is free from trauma” and “the part that is traumatized” (in particular, Franz Ruppert developed his concept of separation into parts when working with trauma ( http://www.franz-ruppert.de/).
1.4. Constellations with abstract figures, for example, such as «war», «fate», «illness», «fear», «femininity». The last three figures can also be considered as «internal parts», therefore often these types of constellations (1.3 and 1.4) are combined and called «structural».
1.5. Constellations using symbols from various systems or concepts For example, constellations with tarot arcana, zodiac signs, socionic types, etc. As a rule, they are used by those practices whose main direction is not constellations, but the corresponding concept — astrology, socionics, etc.
1.6. Arrangements without naming figures. They are used, for example, in the «multi-level» constellations from Hellinger’s recent work (see Part 1), when deputies take on certain roles (both specific people and groups of people or abstract concepts), following the dynamics of the field.
This classification is not rigid; not every arrangement can be attributed unambiguously to one or another type. In many cases, several ways of structuring the constellation field are used at once, for example, a Department in an organization, its Head, his Wife, as well as Profit and “What hinders development” can be placed. In addition, in the process of work, the deputy can move into another role, following the dynamics of the field — for example, «what hinders development» can turn into a Father who does not approve of the son’s choice of profession.
2. By setting (organization of work), constellations can be divided into the following varieties:
2.1. Classic constellations in a group with deputies.
2.2. Constellations in a group with deputies, as well as using objects. For example, a heavy water bottle can be used to mean «mother’s difficult fate», and the daughter symbolically returns it back. A scarf laid on the floor symbolizes the “border of generations”, etc.
2.3. Arrangements using «anchors». With a shortage of deputies or during individual work, improvised pieces of furniture or pieces of paper (“anchors”) are used to designate individual figures.
2.4. With the use of figurines on the table, in individual work. Both special sets of figurines for arrangements and improvised materials are used — toys, interior items.
2.5. Arrangements in the imagination. They are carried out by the client independently, or in individual or group work with a specialist (for more details, see the book by Urusla Franke “When I close my eyes, I see you”).
The two classification methods described are quite specific, i.e. each arrangement can be attributed to one or another variety or to several at the same time, simply by looking at the technical aspects of the work. But there is something else that is not reflected in the technical aspects, this is the “spirit”, the philosophy of the approach. This feature cannot underlie any structuring, but there are several communities within which the «philosophy» is often quite similar. To help you navigate in a huge space of arrangements, we decided to introduce this classification as well.
3. By «roots» or belonging to the community.
3.1. Bert Hellinger. At this stage, he is doing such original work that it seems that no one can be attributed to his direct followers.
3.2. «First Disciples» This is a group of mostly German constellations who studied the method with Bert Hellinger at the end of the last century, when Bert still belonged to the community of systemic family therapists in Germany. In particular, these are Gunhard Weber, Hunter Beaumont, Marianne Franke, Stefan Hausner, Jakob and Sieglinde Schneider, Matthias Varga von Kibed, Berthold Ulsamer, Jan-Jakob Stam and others.
These are the first names in the world constellation business. Many of them have a basic psychotherapeutic education in a different approach, decades of experience in psychotherapy and more than ten years (and some already twenty years) of constellation practice. Basically, they continue the traditions of Hellinger’s «ordinal» constellations or «movements of the soul», adding to them their own methodological developments, sometimes very interesting. In particular, Jan-Jakob Stam is considered the «author» of organizational constellations, and Matthias Varga von Kibed — structural ones.
The “first students” have already brought up a significant number of followers, the “second wave”, who, also continuing basically the classical Hellinger approach, develop their own subject areas or methodology. So, Franz Ruppert, already mentioned by us, is developing a method of working with trauma using systemic constellations. And Dan Cohen from Boston (USA) develops constellation work with prisoners and recently completed his dissertation on this topic. In Russia, Marina Bebchuk and Mikhail Burnyashev can probably be attributed to this group (students of Hellinger’s «first students»).
Of course, the third and fourth waves are already “growing up”, and further…
3.3. Constellators related to the spiritual teachings and practices of various traditions. Gradually, followers of various spiritual teachings (practices, traditions) discovered constellations for themselves and accepted them as a method “related” to their practices or as a method that fits well into their philosophy. In particular, these are constellations in Osho-space (Osho (Bhagavan Shri Rajneesh) is an Indian mystic. In the community of followers that has developed around him, various meditation, bodily and therapeutic practices have been widely developed), which includes, for example, Svagito Liebermeister (In Russia recently Svagito Liebermeister’s book «The Roots of Love. Family Constellations — From Addiction to Freedom» Publishing House «Ves», 2008), Body Ray, Swami Harisharan. Berthold Ulsamer “hidden” under the last name, who thus belongs to both communities — both to the followers of Hellinger of the “second wave” and to the sannyasins (followers) of Osho. Carolla Castillo and Dan Compenhout develop constellations in the context of ancient shamanic practices, the Frenchman Idris Laor develops them in the context of Gurdjieff’s teachings, Sufism and a number of other spiritual traditions. The daughter of Bert Hellinger’s wife, Manuela Erdodi, practices constellations with elements of shamanic techniques.
In Russia, “Osho constellators” include, for example, Swami Virgo Zaka (Andrey Stepanov), and Igor Lyubitov uses shamanic techniques.
At the same time, “visually” constellations in various spiritual traditions may practically not differ from constellations in the psychotherapeutic community. Features can be seen when viewing a large number of constellations, when through the author’s style of the leader, his views, formed in one or another spiritual tradition, are manifested. «Inclusions» from these practices can be used in preparation for the start of the group’s work, at the end of the day, during breaks. And in some cases, elements of other practices are directly introduced into the work, for example, shamanic songs and movements help to “work with energy” in difficult moments of constellation.
3.4. Specialists in helping and spiritual practices who use elements of constellations in the process of work in the traditions of their main methods / approaches. For example, some typical constellation phrases are often used in psychodrama (usually these are phrases that establish order between the child and the parent, for example: “You are big and I am small, you give and I take”). Elements of constellations are introduced into art therapy work. Constellations and «constellations» use the magical deeds of the master. Here, in many cases, the therapist/practitioner does not have enough knowledge of the constellation method and uses its elements without a deep understanding of the principles and essence of the work. Nevertheless, perhaps it is here that new directions for the development of constellations will “sprout”, at the junction of this method with other approaches.
This classification is certainly incomplete and definitely not final, because constellations develop much faster than we can look at and structure them all. Nevertheless, this classification can help you navigate in a huge field of constellations and, perhaps, it is easier to find a place in it for yourself as a client or as a practice…
Elena Veselago, October, 2008