Family Constellations
BodyTalk’s basic premise of re-establishing broken communication systems applies within the body, such as organ to organ, and also to a person’s environment, specifically their families. Broken communication within a family tree results from untimely severing, and it can be devastating to someone’s health. Examples include shunning, disowning, miscarriage, abortion, incomplete divorce, suicide, murder, and accidental or sudden death.
The life line through each of your family members flows like sap through the branches of a tree. If there is a broken or severed limb, all branches below will lose life force. Severing yourself from another family member, like from your child’s father, for instance, is like cutting off the very branch you’re sitting on—you may be fine now, but your children and their children will wither. You don’t need to love the person. In family constellation work the rule is you honor, respect, and love your bloodline, in that order.
The placement of the people or objects representing family members is part of the linking process. One chooses the people (or objects) and asks them to stand where they think they belong. A person may place people far away or close, facing towards or away “form one another. The therapy is in the rearrangement of these people and has a ripple effect of healing for the client. This healing can reach the rest the family members who were not even present. This is a very experiential process, similar to Gestalt.
During Family Constellation workshops and study groups we use people in the workshop who often do not know each other and who also do not know your family. Yet, during the work, they seem to enter the energy field of a particular person when they are chosen to represent particular family members. They seem accurate in the words they choose or the emotions they express.
Marita also applies this means of therapy in her clinic. Because other people are not readily available, she uses chairs to represent the people in a client’s family. The client himself or herself sits in the energy vortex of the different people in their family, and rearranges them to create more harmonious links within the family tree. Marita sometimes links to previous generations during a client’s session on her table through a technique called “casting the net” which links and reestablishes the family’s lifeline through three generations.
In addition to the incredible realization that can come through family constellations about how and why you relate to certain family members, Marita has also seen results in chronic, long-term diseases including multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s Disease, autism, and scoliosis.
Marita periodically invites family constellations facilitators trained by Burt Hellinger. She also holds local study groups of her own at her clinic.
Jeanette Bevilacqua is a BodyTalk instructor and Practitioner who has developed a course on Family Constellations and Genealogy.
This class is offered as an Elective class within the BodyTalk System, and has no prerequisites or IBA membership. The content supports Modules 6 and 9, yet more in depth regarding family dynamics, emotions; more specific, and dysfunctional family patterns. The construction of a multigenerational family tree, or Genogram is utilized as a process and data collection tool. Each student has the opportunity for sessions after developing his or her family tree. Constellation exercises provide the opportunity to experience energy dynamics through different exercises. Any extra class time will be devoted to exploring different mental health conditions. This class is a very interesting and dynamic experience!
