Family Constellations

Synopsis 1
CONSTELLATIONS ACCORDING TO BERT HELLINGER
MICHEL DIVINÉ
Synopsis 2
Synopsis
SYNOPSIS ................................................................................................................2
PREAMBLE...............................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................5
CHAPTER 1: GENESIS ............................................................................................7
An original transgenerational therapy ..............................................................................7

The course of Bert Hellinger ...............................................................................................8
CHAPTER 2: TO REINTEGRATE EXCLUDED ONES FROM THE SYSTEM ......12
The family system includes recognized and excluded members.....................................12

Various levels of conscience...............................................................................................16
Other systems......................................................................................................................17
CHAPTER 3: FOLLOWING REPRESENTATIVES’S FEELINGS .........................19
Unfolding of a family constellation ...................................................................................19

Following the "movement of the soul" .............................................................................20
Questions on the phenomenon...........................................................................................22
Other applications of the installation of a "field" ...........................................................23
CHAPTER 4: CHARACTERISTICS OF FAMILY CONSTELLATIONS.................26
To agree not to understand with the mind .......................................................................26

Independence between client and therapist .....................................................................26
A quick intervention for a slow process............................................................................27
CHAPTER 5: COMPLEMENTARY THERAPIES ...................................................28
Psychotherapy: traumas, beliefs and behaviors ..............................................................28

Conditions of the success ...................................................................................................29
Some complementary effective therapies .........................................................................29
IN CONCLUSION, KEYS OF THE SUCCESS .......................................................32
BIBLIOGRAPHY .....................................................................................................33
Family constellations according to Bert Hellinger ..........................................................33

Other references .................................................................................................................33
Preamble 3
Preamble
"At the moments of grace I lived in constellations"
In an assembly of ten people, Mary, 45 years, asks me: "I will like to understand why I have
trouble to get separated from my mother". I answer her "You would like to cut the umbilical
cord from your mother? Select 3 people, a woman to represent you, another for your mother
and a man for your father, and place them ". She asks me "my biological father?" "Yes,
naturally", I reply.
Mary chooses 3 people and places them in the middle of the assembly: her representative is
facing her mother’s representative and her father’s representative is in front of her on the right,
some steps backward from her mother. The arrows represent the people and the direction of
their glance; dotted line indicates the displacement of the father.
Mary's Mother's
representative representative
Father's
representative
A few minutes later, the father moves forward spontaneously, turns on his right and goes
behind Mary’s representative. He pushes her towards her mother. Mary’s representative has
difficulty to advance; the father pushes her even more. When Mary’s representative is very
close to her mother, I ask her to say "mom, please, take me in your arms". The mother opens
her arms and tightens the daughter’s representative who advanced. Mary’s representative cries.
During this time, the father moves back and goes behind her. I say to Mary sitting beside me:
"In order to cut the umbilical cord, you must first feel it".
A few minutes afterwards, when Mary’s representative is at peace in her mother’s arms, the
father returns spontaneously and gently to the right-hand side of the mother. Mary’s
representative looks at her father and says "thank you". The father is happy and smiles. The
representative is turned back and leans on her 2 parents.
Several minutes later, a representative of her destiny is placed in front of her. Mary’s
representative moves forward. The father looks at her and says spontaneously "I am happy
when you moves forward"
Father
Mary's fate Mary
Mother
Mary takes her representative’s place. She is placed opposite her mother and repeats after me
the following words: "Dear mom, I take all of you, completely and all that that implies. I take
life at the price that cost you and that costs me. I take your gift and I honour it. I transmitted it,
as you did it with me. I take you for mother and you can have me as your child. You give, I
Preamble 4
take. You are the big one, I am the little one. I am happy that you chose dad. You are the right
parents for me. You and only you".
The scene lived by representatives is taken again by Mary. She goes to her father and says
"thank you". Her father smiles. Mary turns back and has now her back pressed on her 2 parents.
She remains thus several minutes. Later, the representative of her destiny is placed in front of
her. She gently moves towards her destiny. She stops and looks towards her father who slowly
raises his right hand, showing her the way and saying: "I am happy when you steps towards
your destiny ".
I close the constellation while saying: "I thank you, you can leave the roles".
One week later, Mary writes to me: "what I keep in mind… is this tenderness finally shared
with my mother in a context of reconciliation with myself, my two parents, and the possibility
for me to live my life in a greater freedom or in other words, to be myself, and free from my
desire to find my father who is already there, inside me. I was ready to live this experiment
which I felt in my heart and my body. I was touched by the love shared with my two parents.
What a liberation".
Introduction 5
Introduction
You have just read one of the last constellations I animated. I discovered family constellations
according Bert Hellinger in 1999 with Marlis Grzymek Laule. I remember it as if it were
yesterday. I was amazed and I am always astonished by the phenomenon. I am an engineer, got
a master of science in Stanford (USA) and worked 20 years in construction and data
processing. I even wrote books on data-processing methods. The world was for me rational and
"almost" everything could be explained.
I had also touched therapy, transactional analysis and gestalt therapy. But, this day, I was
completely out-of-date. I saw in front of me people who reacted as representative of people
they did not know at all. Selected people had the same history as the people they represented.
A woman who represented the mother of a client had, like the mother of the client, a father
who was an aviator. My brother, who was born in Algeria, was taken, 5 minutes after having
entered the room, as a representative of a person who went to Algeria! So many extraordinary
phenomena without rational explanations left me amazed.
Moreover, this art to follow participants’ feeling goes towards reconciliation. It reinstates
excluded people from the family system, without distinction, young deaths, committed suicide,
victims and the perpetrators, women who died in layers as miscarriages.
It applies to systems other than the family, to real systems such as companies or to fictional
systems such as scripts or fairy tales.
It changed the course of my life which I believed very straight. I animate now family
constellations regularly and am always astonished. I continue to try out and test new
techniques. I thus learned effective and complementary techniques to the family constellations
such as hypnosis of Milton Erickson, EMDR of Francine Shapiro and the holding therapy of
Jirina Prekop.
This little book is a call to come and see family constellations one evening. Perhaps will your
life change as mine? Its plan is as follows:
The first chapter clarifies various practices which contributed to the emergence of family
constellations according to Bert Hellinger.
The second approaches the objective of the constellations, the rehabilitation of excluded
from the family system and indicates the dynamic ones and certain diseases associated with
this exclusion.
The third describes the phenomenon which the representatives of family constellation feel.
It gives other examples of application of this phenomenon.
The fourth develops the characteristics of this therapy and, particularly, the necessary
independence between the customer and the therapist.
The fifth proposes other short therapies complementary the family constellations.
I wanted this book the simplest as possible.
Chapter 1: genesis 6
Chapter 1: genesis
The family constellations relate to the "transgenerational", the traumas having touched people
from preceding generations. They belong to family therapies and put in stage the members of
this family.
Bert Hellinger took, as a starting point, therapists’ discoveries to create family constellations.
Let us present the transgenerational therapies which can help you to understand Bert
Hellinger’s path.
An original transgenerational therapy

Many therapists understood the importance of the family in unconscious dynamics. Jay Haley
quotes Milton Erickson speaking about family constellation, just as Virginia Satir, an American
family therapist. People live in a family context and the child, the last arrived, is the "weak
link", the most flexible one to inherit and endorse a family problem. It will carry it for the
others because it feels very powerful, being able to take the destiny of another member. It
believes that while being sacrificed out of love for the system, it will save it. It is wrong.
Psychogenealogy
Many books are currently published on this subject. They attach importance on the dates of
birth, the events having a resonance, just like the names and the first names. Thus, if the father
or the child named Gabriel dies and if the following son is called Gabriel, the child replaces the
father or the son in the heart of the parents. He does not give himself any more the right to exist
for him. First names are thus significant: Christian, Agnes… for "Christ" or "Angels". They
point out missing people parents unconsciously seek to make live again. This technique is very
interpretative and random.
Moreno psychodrama
In order to clarify bonds between the people in the family, certain therapists had the idea to
stage the protagonists of the history or a particular event by taking representatives. The
objective is to put in space what is in the spirit.
Many people used this technique. The most known is Jacob Levy Moreno, a Rumanian
physician, who created in 1921 the "theatre of improvisation" in Vienna. His technique, the
psychodrama, was included in many other therapies. While playing in "reality" the event, the
client dives again in his trauma. Moreno had made a client who had fits of anger the role of a
prostitute, which was a completely different role from hers. Her fits of anger began to
disappear. In the majority of psychodramas, also called sculptures, people play their own role
and the therapist analyzes the situation according to the position of each person in space. Then,
he deduces a message according to his experiment and his perspicacity.
Bert Hellinger’s constellations

In Bert Hellinger’s family constellations, the therapist notices the feelings and possible
spontaneous movement of the participants, on the phenomenon which appears. His perception
is more important than his interpretation.
Bert Hellinger is a German philosopher born in 1925, who was a missionary in South Africa
where he directed a school. He thus practised group dynamics, psychoanalysis, primal scream,
family constellations and Ericksonian hypnosis. He also "theorized" philosophy while being
attentive to the phenomenon and the resolutions which appeared at each family constellation.
Bert Hellinger’s path

We recall here the various disciplines used by Bert Hellinger and which contributed to the
emergence of the family constellations. Shortly, our unconscious, which wants our greater
good, has been touched by various traumas. The most significant ones concern the dramatic
events which touched people of our family for which, with good consciousness, we want to
suffer in order to restore an impossible balance.
“Our unconscious is benevolent”, said Milton Erickson

Milton Erickson, an American psychiatrist born in 1901, renewed hypnosis in the world. He
used it in 20% of cases and had a simple definition of the unconscious: is unconscious what is
not conscious. “In hypnosis, you cease using your conscious spirit; in hypnosis, you start to use
your unconscious spirit. Because, unconsciously, you know as much of it and even much more
than what you know consciously" said Milton Erickson. The unconscious is like a horse and
conscious its rider. "He is the captain of the boat!" said Richard Bandler, a pupil of Erickson.
The unconscious is like a little child full of emotions. Its characteristics are the followings:
Its intention is always positive. It protects the conscious part. Even if the latter always does
not understand its intention. When you smoke, your unconscious has a positive intention,
facing your death make you believe you are immortal or to remind you for example your
father who died of lung cancer after having smoked during 35 years. Obviously, this
behavior is harmful for your health.
It is extremely sensitive to symbols and metaphors, like stories you heard when you were a
little one. Some still have influence. Do you remember Ugly Duckling? He was a swan. He
couldn’t accept parents he did not know.
It understands everything literally, without negations. It is thus necessary to speak to him
clearly. This point is significant when you reinforce positive beliefs. Between "you are not
guilty" or "you are innocent", which one do you prefer? Do not tell me you did not
understand. I would not believe you.
Bert Hellinger likes, as Erickson, to use metaphors, stories that one of his friends told him
during a journey… Here is one.
"A man meets an old Master and asks him: "How do you help the others? When people come to
consult you on things you know little about, they however leave you relieved". The Master
answers: "When somebody stops and refuses to go further, it is not a question of knowledge.
He seeks safety where he needs courage and liberty of action where he does not have the
choice. It is for that that he gets nowhere. The Master resists the artifices and appearances. He
seeks the centre, collects himself and waits there: like somebody who tightened his veils with
the wind, he waits for a word coming, a word which will reach him and have action. When
somebody comes for advice, he finds him where he should himself go, and the answer reaches
them both. Together they are listening» And the Master added: "the center I am talking about
is felt as great lightness!"
“Our traumas traumatise us” said Arthur Janov

When a traumatising event appears, it is urgent to react, by flying, fighting or freezing, as the
chameleon does. It is the role of the primitive or limbic brain. Sometimes, the danger is so big
that this event remains engraved in this brain without having reached the neocortex brain, the
man thinking brain. The limbic brain protects the neocortex by not submerging it with
emotions. It dissociates the person to alleviate the pain and to enable him to react. It does not
ask him to think. The limbic brain is in a hurry.
Event Thought's
Limbic asking Neocortex
Reaction brain brain
Thought
When an image or a feeling evoking the trauma reappears, the limbic brain (over)reacts. And
when the trauma was not healed, the individual does not understand what happens. His reaction
surprises him. The limbic brain has declared emergency and has taken the commands, such as
the horse in front of an obstacle the rider does not see.
Arthur Janov is a Czech psychiatrist. He specified the role of the limbic brain and that of the
neocortex in his book "the body remembers". The external feelings arrive at the limbic brain
which has a "local" memory. When the trauma is violent and that the emotion is too "strong"
for the neocortex, endorphins are released to prevent the too unpleasant feedback. There is then
a difference between the memories of the 2 brains.
The cicatrisation of the trauma consists in making the 2 memories coherent, updating
information between the limbic brain and the neocortex. Thus, the individual will react to
emergency in a fast and suitable way.
We reproduce scripts of life said Eric Berne

The American psychiatrist Eric Berne realized that people played the same script in their
relations to others. Certain people thus always take the role of victims, others that of
persecutors and some of savers. They perceive their lives only through this prism.
The victim will reject any solution which would make him act and grow. His script will be
saying "yes, but" to any help a saver will try to give him. The victim will think: "nobody
can help me".
The saver will seek a victim to save and prefers to deal with the destiny of the others rather
than his own: "I only tried to help you" is another losing script.
Lastly, the persecutor seeks love by collecting negative "stamps”. When he plays "This
time, I got you, bastard", he seeks the detail which, such a victim will enable him to be in
anger. He justifies the rage he has inside him while pretending being a victim and thus
avoiding seeing his own deficiencies with good consciousness.
Eric Berne thus detailed many scripts people plays, marital, professional, and sexual or
therapist-room plays.
In the game of the alcoholic, this one wants to be scolded; his spouse persecutes him, and
wants perhaps unconsciously to kill him. The doctor plays the role of saver.
In the therapist game "the greenhouse", there is an exaggerated respect for "authentic
feelings". The feeling is presented to the group as a rare flower that is advisable to consider
with reverence. This play avoids intimacy and often the search for solution.
For each script there is a belief which affects deeply life. A person can thus unconsciously
think that it is dangerous to have children and will respect his belief in having none.
“We are connected by invisible bonds” precises Boszormeny Nagy

Boszormenyi Nagy, a Hungarian psychiatrist who emigrated to the USA, highlighted the
existence of an unconscious balance in the relations, a balance between giving and receiving.
When a person gives, the receiver feels indebted and guilty. He will try to restore balance, or to
give more. Thus the exchange is built. An invisible concept of justice is at work. Feeling
confident in this immediate or differed reciprocity makes the bond reliable. Thus a passion can
develop in true love.
If one of the 2 partners comes from a system in "debt", if he is handicapped for example, he
will ask more than he can give to his partner without handicap. Balance will be broken. He
asks, what he finds legitimates, to the wrong person. He is retained by invisible bonds to the
members of his system of origin. He is unconsciously "trustful" with his system of origin. It is
important that he restores first a certain balance in his system of origin in order to be in a
balanced relation with his partner.
In case of separation of the parents, the child wants to be honest to both parents. If there is a
contradiction appears a cleavage of honesty. The child is lost or finds himself in a dead end
because it does not know any more which it must receive in priority. If the parents were
malevolent, the child will try to compensate even more by behaving like a parent to his parents.
By wanting to save them, he replaces his grand parents.
A person thus can, by honesty, replace another person of his system to restore the wrong that
was made to him. He believes he is very powerful. In fact, he sows disorder. How to restore the
order?
Chapter 2: to reintegrate excluded ones from the system 11
Chapter 2: to reintegrate excluded ones

from the system
A constellation is a bunch of stars connected by imaginary lines, thus tracing a figure on the
vault of heaven. The client is also a star inside a system, people with which he is in bond and
interaction. Family constellations according to Bert Hellinger put in light disturbed interactions
and put them in order by reintegrating a person, a star, who was excluded from the family
system.
The family system includes recognized and excluded

members
We always belong to a system, such as the earth belonging to the solar system. The other
planets are the other members of the system. We are influenced; not only by close planets but
also by the remote planets we do not know consciously the existence. We have a system of
origin, that of our parents and a current system if we are married or if we have children.
Members of the system of origin

Like an atom and its various layers of electrons, we are connected to several circles of people,
The first circle is consisted of the members of our same "blood" family, our brothers and
sisters, uterine (of the same mother) or consanguineous (of the same father), our parents,
our uncles and our aunts, our great-parents and our ancestors.
The people having yielded their place for members of the family constitute one 2nd circle. It
includes the preceding partners of our parents, people having worked or having suffered for
the family or the owners from wrongfully acquired objects. For example, the expelled
people of houses belong to the system of the current inhabitants.
The third circle includes the "correspondents" of the people implied in serious events. If,
for example, a murderer belongs to the family, his victim will also be part of the family
system. And reciprocally, the murderer belongs to the system of the descendants of the
victim. In certain native tribes, where the word justice is unknown, the murderer lives
within the family of the victim. Thus, nobody is excluded.
A last circle includes those who were strongly related to the precedents. The war creates
such powerful bonds. The fight or captivity comrades are often part of the system of the
descendants of the survivors.
There is not difference between the live and dead ones. As you can suspect it, there are more
dead than live people in a family system. Our life comes from many ancestors, 2 parents, 4
grandparents, 8 grand grandparents. Each one existed and his life contributed to ours. We can
thank and honour them for life they transmitted to us.
Who is excluded?
The excluded is the one whose destiny is not accepted. A tragic event is always at the origin of
this exclusion. It is often a death which one considers unjust, like a woman who died in layers,
a child who dies young or a person who committed suicide. It can be also a member of the
family who is handicapped, insane or left abroad and voluntarily forgotten.
Those who gave their life for the family, such as forced workers, slaves, the platelayers must
also be honoured.
Victims are often recognized, the murderers are less. They belong to the system and their
human character must be recognized so that the victims are in peace. Paradoxically, people
who exclude are often good conscience and, in the name of this good conscience, behave like
persecutors. Thus, they do not render service to the victim of which they are claimed to make
justice.
In the current system, aborted, miscarriages or dead children belong to the system and must be
reintegrated in the event of unconscious exclusion that avoids living the pain of the loss a dear
being.
The dynamic ones: the derivation of the bond of love

When a love bond was interrupted, when a member had a heavy destiny that his descendants
do not accept and do not dare to look at, a person may represent him in order to him bring back
to the conscience of the system. The system looks at the not integrated person and another
unconsciously takes his place to point him out.
Let us take the case of a client whose father lost his young mother. In a constellation, the father
always looks at his mother and does not look at his daughter. The girl puts herself
unconsciously at the place of the mother to be seen by her father. The objective of the girl is to
make her father happy to see his mother he misses. Unfortunately, while thus acting, the girl
does not solve anything, she only perpetuates the illusion of life of the mother in the glance of
her father. This one does not make the mourning of his mother. He refuses to feel the pain and
open his heart. He thinks "Mom, I do not need anybody". Paradoxically, he excluded her
mother.
A constellation will give order if the father accepts the death of his mother. "Mom, I will be
able to tell you how I missed you so much". While going in her arms, he let love flow again,
the bond between his mother and himself. He is then free to see his daughter, who can thus
remain in her place and in life.
The derivation between the girl and the paternal grandmother can be abandoned. The original
bonds, the (paternal grandmother, father) and the (father, girl) are restored. The girl reinstated
her place and is free for her destiny, to meet a man who can live and remain with her, contrary
to the mother who did not remain with her son. The negative belief, which comes from what
the grandmother lived, can be changed into a positive belief, an authorization most of the time.
What existed does not need any more to be reproduced. Once is enough.
Some dynamic family
They are declined in the form of oath to a dear being. The 3 most current are "I recall you", "I
follow you in death" and "rather me that you".
I recall you
This dynamics recalls the excluded one to the eyes of the one who seeks him unconsciously, as
in the preceding case of the dead paternal grandmother. By love, the child will point out a dear
being excluded from the system by taking again unconsciously his behaviour. He can thus have
the same or an attenuated disease. If the excluded lost a leg at war, the child can break a toe in
an accident.
He can often be recalled by a skin disease. A very current case is the one of a light separation
one of the parents did with a former partner. The son will have eczema, reminding the ex-
partner or the love one that the mother has difficulty to forget. The son can also have itching
with the foot, asthma or a light allergy.
I follow you
In this case, the person follows in death the loved one. If the father died young, the son may
want to join him and go to the paradise. It is the unconscious question "father, why did you
abandon me?" Thus, the adoptive children who did not know its parents want sometimes to go
and join them and commit suicide. They can also be symbolically more close to Heaven and
Got the Father while piloting ULM or plane, as Antoine of St Exupéry who lost his father
when he was 4.
Sometimes one of the parents wants to join a dead child by developing a cancer. That can be a
cancer of the testicles, like Gerd Hamer, the inventor of biological decoding, after the death of
his son or a cancer at the jaw, like Freud after the death of his daughter Sophie.
Rather me that you
The all-powerful child believes he has the capacity to save his parents while sacrificing
himself. It is the history of Little Thumb who protects his brothers and who does the job of his
mom. In the tale of Perrault, he becomes rich and returns to his parents. It is a fairy tale
illusion. The child is little and the parents are big. To remain little and humble is a pledge of
safety. To bow in front of ones parents is essential. A child can thus die when it knows that his
grandfather has a cancer of the jaw. He believes to save him. Thus a grandson of Freud died
little after the declaration of cancer of his grandfather.
The other dynamics
The identification with an excluded person from the family system is tragic when this person is
a murderer or a victim. A member of the family of a murderer can be identified with the victim.
A member of the family of a victim can be identified with the murderer. It is always preferable
simultaneously to accept both the victim and the murderer. The one who needs more love is the
murderer. Thus, a person belonging to persecuted people but whose no ascending died can take
again the torch and persecute the "anti persecuted people". And the games go on without end.
If you have murders in your family, just imagine victims and persecutors in peace, looking at
themselves or with closed eyes. This image will release you.
In the case of woman died in layers, the man is also perceived like a murderer at the origin of
the death of his wife. The male descendants will prefer not to marry fearing of killing their
wives and women will prefer not to have children to remain in life.
Suicides also influence the destiny of the descendants. One who committed suicide needs to be
seen because he does not understand what it happened to him. The descendants must then
thank them even if they do not understand their gesture. If not they will tend to want to be seen
under penalty of not existing. You thus have people who want to be perfect without the least
defect and to be seen by the whole world. They do not eat, follow draconian diets and want to
pass to television or the cinema. It is for them a question of life or death.
Diseases or love directed towards death…

We will distinguish these 3 cases according to their origin: personal, parental, or systemic.
Personal culpability
In this case, the person wants to die following an event of which he is or feels responsible.
When the person wants unconsciously to die, he will have accidents, problems of money which
will prevent him from living correctly or will develop a serious illness like a cancer.
For a woman, an abortion is often the cause. The person wants unconsciously to die and
join the fallen aborted child. It can be also a young dead child whose relative does not
assume the destiny and feels guilty, especially if it was handicapped or got a hereditary
genetic disease.
For a man, that more often comes from the death of people one feels responsible. It can be
at war, in an industrial accident or the fact of being a survivor whereas the other people
died. This, even if he is innocent. A personal bankruptcy or a wrongly acquired good, with
the detriment of other people, expelled people of their house is other rather frequent cases.
Bond with the parents
A child needs his 2 parents, especially his mother.
If the bond with his mother or his father was interrupted during the first 3 years, the child
will feel a vacuum inside him and a lack of connection with life. He will be able to develop
asthma or allergy. If he refuses to lean internally on his parents, he can have back aches. If
he rejects them, he will be depressive, because he is rejecting himself. He creates vacuum,
depression inside him.
If his parents had contradictory speech, he in a conflict of honesty. "Whom can I trust?"
Which solutions to adopt? First is to dissociate towards the 2 contradictory beliefs. Second
is to have a contradictory behaviour. For example, the child eats in the name of the mother
and vomits in the name of the father. That can also arrive when the parents separate. The
child does not manage to bring together his 2 parents inside him and becomes compulsive.
The solution is to think being on the knees of his father while eating in the name of the
mother. Thus, both parents are brought together.
If one of the parents wants to die, the child wants to disappear in his place. An anorexic girl
generally does it for her father. We find the dynamics “rather me than you".
The significant one is to reconcile oneself with both 2 parents, to carry both together in ones
heart. Here is a text often pronounced in the constellations. Use it without moderation, each
day the first week when you look at yourselves in the mirror the morning. It will reconnect you
with life.
Dear mom.
I take very of you, completely and with all that that implies
I take it at the price that that cost you and that that costs me
I will do something of it to please to you.
Your gift will not have been useless.
I preserve it and I honour it and if, I can it, I will transmit it, as you did with me.
I take to you for mother and you can have me for child
You agree to me such as you are and me I am the child who agrees you.
You are the tall one and me I am the small one. You give, I take.
Dear mom, I am happy that you chose dad.
You are the parents that I needed
You only and only you.
And you do it in the same way with dad.
Dear dad
I take very of you, completely and with all that that implies
I take it at the price that that cost you and that that costs me
I will do something of it to please to you.
Your gift will not have been useless.
I preserve it and I honour it and, if I can it, I will transmit it, as you did with me.
I take to you for father and you can have me for child
You agree to me such as you are and me I am the child who agrees you.
You are the tall one and me I am the small one. You give, I take.
Dear dad, I am happy that you chose mom.
You are the parents that I needed
You only and only you.
Dynamic systemic.
In dynamic the "systemic ones", we recall a being different from the parents. It can be a dead
brother, an uncle or a dead aunt, a woman died in layers, a suicide, a murderer or a victim,
somebody whose death was not accepted. Cancer is thus often a disease of love which makes it
possible to join a dear being.
The disease and its "vibration" recall the excluded. Committed suicide call committed suicide.
The women died in layers frightened the descendants who protected themselves from
pregnancy by fibroma, sterility or celibacy. We find our 3 principal oaths:
"I point out it to you" will generate skin problems or will reactivate the disease of the forgotten
person. They are love diseases more than hereditary diseases. When the person is a victim or a
persecutor, the consequence is more serious. A person reached of autism, multiple sclerosis or
epilepsy will point out a murderer. The disease "protects" from violence. A schizophrenic
person will point out the murder between 2 people inside the family. He represents both
people, who make him confused. Confusion will stop when both people are reconciled, in
peace one with the other.
"I follow you" and "rather me that you" involve accidents, cancers or suicides. The very current
case of a dead brother or sister involves a difficulty of assuming life and successes. The
survivor feels guilty and wants "to die" to be seen of his parents. He will also avoid stopping
under death penalty "I live a little and then I will join you" is a repairing sentence the living
one can tell the dead one, even if he did not know him.
The solution is of intégr er all the members of the family

The solution is to honour the excluded, to give again their place and to let them rest in peace.
Here a meditation of B Hellinger this reconciles the alive and dead ones.
"Close your eyes; gather your centre, in your empty centre, and go down to the kingdom of the
dead. – They are lengthened there, all those of your family. – Some can be with open eyes and
look at you with a request. Say to some: I see you. I give you honour. I see what they did to
you. Or: I see what you did to them. I give you the honour of the dead, the honour to be equal
to different, the honour you can have peace, like all the others, honour you can belong, honour
that I recognize: I am like you, the honour I put in order, which must still be put in order for
you.
Then look towards a remote light, very far. Bow deeply, humble, without a word and withdraw
slowly, behind, very slowly as somebody who penetrated a prohibited country, until you finally
arrive, that you feel that you returned to the country of the alive ones. Then gather in your
centre, turn, feel the different light, open the eyes and look at it»
Various levels of conscience

We consider at least 3 levels of conscience: individual conscience, family conscience and a
super conscience that you will discover if you attend family constellations. Other consciences
of group exist, country, scientific communities, philosophical, psychoanalytical, political,
sporting or religious consciences … You have the embarrassment of choice.
Individual conscience: the good and bad, the good and the bad conscience
When the child is born, he just spent 9 months in the belly of his mother. It is the original bond.
Without this bond, the child is not connected with life. He is related to a system to survive
"How can feel alive without mom?" He will make everything to preserve this membership. He
will comply with the clan’s rules even if they do not have any meaning for him. These rules are
those of the family or of the community. That can go from simple rules, such as "thou shall not
eat an apple", "thou shall not walk naked", "thou shall not drink", "thou shall not smoke", "thou
shall not to kill", to more sophisticated rules such as " thou shall not wear a beard" or "thou
shall wear a beard", "recite 3 prayers per day", "do not cook the kid in the milk of his mother"
or "do not to touch corpses"… It is according to the clan.
When he complies with the rules, the individual feels himself well. When he does not respect
them, he feels bad, guilty and has bad conscience. He has even good conscience to exclude the
bad members who do not comply with the rule of the clan. He can let himself carry by the
enthusiasm of the community, as a supporter on a football field. He is out of him. He can even
kill with good conscience.
To belong, a member is also ready to put himself at the place of an excluded one in order to
point out it. It is a bond of love. This bond can be mortal, but the member feels very powerful
inside the group.
Family conscience: to maintain the clan in life and to include all its members
This conscience aims to maintain the coherence and the survival of the members of the group.
It integrates all the members of the group. When a member is excluded, it tries to reinstate it by
respecting the order of arrival of the members in the system. It is in peace when each one is in
its place.
This family conscience is disturbed when a member of the group who lately arrived wants to
replace an old member to point him out. Places are then not respected. How to restore the
order? By calling on a higher conscience which reconciles the excluded and respect the order
of precedence.
Super conscience: to maintain in life the alive members and give peace to dead
Here, a conscience without judgement intervenes, without good or bad. It is necessary to go up
in this conscience where each one is in his place of origin and is released from the primitive
notion of good and bad. As Jesus said "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good
to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on
the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matthew 5, 43, 47.
The constellation lets act this conscience, quite simply, that which Bert Hellinger calls "great
soul" or "Great Whole", that which reconciles and is at the service of life. It is it which acts in
family constellations. It is sufficient to be attentive and to be carried by this force.
Other systems
Other systems exist and have a law of balance between members. For some, such as
companies, the rehabilitation of excluded is less significant than in family systems. We will
clarify 2 of them, the couple and the company.
The system "couple" implies a long-term exchange

A new "human" system is created when a couple marries, whether it lives a common life or a
child. At the origin of this system, a love "capital" exists between the 2. Two systems merge
then to form a third one which has priority on the 2 precedents.
Inclusion of 2 equivalent systems
A new balance must be found. Each partner accepts the system of the other, makes him place
and gives up part of his system of origin "the man protects his wife, is at the service of life and
femininity, the woman follows the man in his country, his language" says Bert Hellinger.
Love exists… balanced. This balance between giving and receiving, man and woman, is the
guarantee of love. One gives, the other receives and will give a little more because he loves.
And reciprocally. This exchange is love; it gives dividends from the starting capital.
Precedence is also respected; the bond of love between parents precedes that existing with
children. The couple relation exists before the parental relation. When parents strengthen this
bond, children get well. This is to be reconsidered in case of recomposed family. In this case,
the parental bond is former to the bond with the second spouse. The children of the first
marriage take precedence over the second partner.
Inclusion of new members

The children cannot give back life they received from their parents. They can only take this gift
and thank them. They will later transmit it by having children or while serving life.
Inclusions of not honoured members
In this new system tragic events and risks of exclusion can occur again. Thus, handicapped,
died children, miscarriages or aborted children must be honoured under penalty of being
excluded. Parents must carry it together and give them a place in heart. There lay the solution.
With the difference of the family of origin, the partners of a couple will separate sooner or
later. Like an employee and his company.
The professional system honours the old ones

The company is also a system including members. Its laws are closer to those of a couple than
of that of a family where the children take life of parents without giving it back. The employees
of a company "take" the money in exchange of work. On the other hand, they are not eternally
related to the company. They can leave when they want.
We find the preceding laws: honouring the creators, the former ones and respecting balance
between giving and receiving.
To honour the founders
Such as parents, the founders must be honoured. They took the risk of creating. Employees
must consider and respect them.
To honour the preceding employees
As in a brotherhood, the order of arrival in the company must be recognized. A person, even
hierarchically at the top must recognize, if he arrived last, that he is "behind" the others, in a
systemic way.
A balanced system
If the company receives more than it gives to one its employees or leader or if an employee
takes more than he gives to the company, the system is disturbed. In the latter case, the place
"is excluded". A person, even qualified, will not be able to take the job and to succeed unless
the company damaged bond is rebuild towards the person who was not honoured.
In the following chapter, we give examples. After the theory, the practice.
Chapter 3: following representatives’ feelings 19
Chapter 3: following representatives’

feelings
Family constellations are based on the appearance of a phenomenon independent of the will of
the therapist. The less he has intention, the more he leaves place to the phenomenon which can
then develop and reintegrate excludes from the family system.
Unfolding of a family constellation

In a constellation, people are put in space. They are then animated by feelings which are those
of the people they represent and the history of which they are unaware. A curtain of theatre
rises, what is hidden is put at light, the time of a "representation". Then it bends down. It
occurs in several acts: an installation, a series of movements and at the end, often a resolution.
The installation of the representatives

The person who wishes a constellation chooses people representing members of his system or
symbols suggested by the therapist within an assembly which can go from 4 to several
hundreds of people. He thus places representatives for his father or his mother, life or death in
space. The original German word "Familienaufstellung" means "installation of family". The
"client" places a person for himself, his representative. Then, the therapist waits until the
phenomenon appears and gives him information.
The various scenes of the representatives, the therapist tests places

When people are in the roles, they experienced feelings. They can feel cold, warm, and look in
the air, to divert their look from the ground or, on the contrary, to be attracted by the ground.
They tighten their fists in anger or shivers of fear. They sometimes want to lie down, to die.
This is the phenomenon on which the family constellations according to Bert Hellinger are
based.
Thus, the representatives have feelings. Representatives often rise the question "does it come
from me or from the role?" It comes from the role. If the history of the representative is similar,
which usually occurs, he will unconsciously benefits from it, without putting useless questions.
Scenes after scenes, the representatives are moved or people are added by the therapist. The
installation of the excluded person often involves a general relaxation of the representatives.
Words are pronounced in order to restore these damaged love bonds. Sometimes, they are
spontaneously said. These ancestral words act in the unconscious. Here are some examples:
A man, who lost his mother at 2, said: "Mom, I missed you so much".
A son tells his mother who wants to die: "Mom, blessed me if I remain" or "I let you go,
with love".
A mother said to her aborted child: "I thank you for having made place for me. I give you a
place in my heart".
Ending the constellation, the client reintegrates his place

The phenomenon usually leads to a resolution. It also occurs it is not the case. A mother can
feels better lengthened beside "the aborted child" than upright. She prefers to die and join her
child rather than to live. The message is clear for the client who keeps his free will.
Generally, the client was identified with an ancestor of his family system. He finds his place
and the ancestor too. He then fully accepts his system and his both parents. He takes power
while leaning on them. The life, given by the parents, is behind him and in him and death or his
destiny is in front of him. He advances while being released of his bonds, while having
integrated what he had rejected. He grows.
Life X Death
Then the client is “reassociated”. He takes again the place of the person who represented him.
He becomes aware of an image in order, which brings peace and force. A simple image is to
feel ones family behind us. Life is coming from there.
Close the eyes and imagine… your parents behind you… your father is behind you on the right,
your mother is behind you on the left. Your father is pressed on his parents, his father behind
him on his right and his mother behind him on his left. In the same way, your mother has her
mother on her left and her father on her right. And so on.... All your ancestors are behind you.
The paternal line is on the external right edge and the maternal line on the external left edge.
Your parents deviate and you go a step behind. You feel your father, dead or alive, on the right
and your mother, dead or alive, on the left. Take a deep breath and do a step behind. You are
on the level of your grandparents; of your paternal grandfather on the right to your maternal
grandmother on the left. Feel your heart. Feel as if they were inside you. Continue to move
back and go in the past, and reconnect with your ancestors. Go towards your 8 great grand
grandparents. All these people gave their life for you. It is thanks to them that you exist. They
all are inside you. At a given time, feel the benevolent presence of one of your ancestors.
Breathe and feel the message, the gift that he gives you. Take time to appreciate it in an
unconscious way. It is a new resource for you. Say thank you. Go back to the present, step by
step, while advancing with this gift towards your grandparents, then your parents. Lastly,
regain your place and feel all this energy behind you and which enables you to advance in
front of you. This method comes from Daan Van Kampehout.
To digest and leave the role

In constellations, at least at the beginning, to leave a role may be difficult. Especially when you
do not represented the client. Sometimes, any representatives can be still disturbed whereas the
representative of the client is in peace. The significant one is how the representative of the
client feels and not his grand grandfather. I continued to be cold shortly after a constellation
after having been a representative of a soldier who died in Stalingrad.
Announce it to the therapist. He will be able to help you to leave the role while bowing in front
of the destiny of the person you represented and going towards yours.
Following the "movement of the soul"

In this technique, also developed by Bert Hellinger, the therapist follows spontaneous
movement of the representatives and intervenes with parsimony. Very few words are
pronounced and the therapist asks few questions to the representatives. Silence supports the
emergence of this movement. It is as if energy passed in the body and not in the word.
Bert Hellinger says: "the therapist withdraws himself and gives place so that major movements
emerge. In this approach, the therapist does not have a clear image to follow in his mind, nor
an unspecified objective to be reached… Here, when the therapist understands the major
movements of the soul, he can withdraw and trust the movement in progress. Sometimes, an
intervention is adapted, because the therapist is also exposed to these major movements of the
soul. If the movement stops, an attentive therapist may have an inspiration and knows the
following step. At this time, he intervenes just for this step and thus makes possible the
movement to continue"
Examples of movement of the heart

A mother has 3 children including 2 handicapped. She asks me what she can do for them. I
place the representatives as follows: the mother is in front of her destiny and a representative of
the 2 children is also placed in face of his destiny. A person can thus represent several people
and even a whole generation.
Children's fate
Mother's fate
Children
Mother
The mother and her destiny do not see them. Their glances are crossing. The destiny of the
mother looks at the children and the mother looks at the destiny of the children.
The destiny of the children tells the destiny of the mother to look at the mother and the
representative of the children tells the mother to look at her destiny. The mother looks at her
own destiny then, but the destiny of the mother continues to look at the children.
Then the destiny of the children wants to change position. It turns spontaneously to the right
and the representative of the children follows and goes opposite. The destiny of the mother is
turned also right and always looks at the children. Then the representative of the mother places
himself in front of her own destiny. We arrive at the following configuration.
Children Children's fate Mother Mother's fate
When the mother advances towards her destiny, the destiny of the children moves back and the
children advance. The representative of the children pronounces the suggested following words
then: "mom, when you advance towards your destiny, I can go towards mine". The client
replaces her representative, the same words are pronounced and the constellation is stopped.
In this constellation, we knew who were the people represented. It often occurs in “movement
of the soul” constellations that representatives are added no one is unaware who they represent.
This raises even more questions without answer. Most extraordinary is that this movement
reintegrates almost spontaneously excluded ones.
I remember a constellation where the person put in scene was a disease which was epilepsy and
the reason of the disease. The first partner of its mother was epileptic. The starting scene
included 3 people: his representative, behind him a woman representative of the disease and
behind another woman representative the reason of the disease. The disease looked on the
ground. I lengthened a person on the ground who was taken of convulsion. I then placed
several people upright, according to my intuition. These people moved in all the directions. It
was total chaos. At the end of long minutes, everything calmed. People were in peace, alone,
on the ground or some pressed on others. The representative of the client feels himself well. I
turned him towards outside and made him advance. It felt better and better. I then stopped the
constellation. I suppose that the 2 people representing the disease and the reason of the disease
were the mother and the grandmother and that the lengthened person was the first partner of the
mother. I was unaware of who were the people represented. I can exert this work only if I know
that I am carried by this movement of reconciliation towards excluded. If not, I would abstain.
Questions on the phenomenon

What impressed me the most is that the client chooses representatives as if he knew their
stories. The person chosen for a child of an alcoholic has an alcoholic father. The girl whose
father committed suicide chooses a representative whose relative committed suicide… The
unconscious perceives very well.
I have myself be selected as a representative of a person who had a military dead father who
was in boarding school in his youth. He also had a deaf maternal grandmother. At the end of
the constellation, I went and see him and said "it is exactly my history. There remains however
a difference, I was myself in boarding school during 18 years". He answered me "me too". We
however had 2 completely different lives. Thus, I learned that our tests of growth do not
determine our destiny. We can have the same formation and go on very distinct paths.
The 2 most current questions are: why these feelings and why this spontaneous movement?
Why do the representatives feel so?

We belong to a family system "extended" to people who yielded place, victims or persecuting
our ancestors. We belong and we have access to the information of this system by the
installation of a constellation.
A representative thus connects to a field, an entity or a higher conscience, containing
information of the system of the client. This higher entity is called the "great soul" by Bert
Hellinger. Thus the representative can feel.
Other phenomena described by Rupert Sheldrake, such as phantom limbs, are also
unexplained. He calls these consciences "morphic fields". He noticed that birds had behaviours
coming from their "ancestors” that their parents did not directly learned. The birds of London
mended the milk of the bottles distributed after the war whereas several generations had run
out during the war without milk bottle, therefore without bird having this behaviour.
Information is "in the air" and thus transmitted.
Why a spontaneous movement?

It is enough to wait and to be centred, empty and patient. The representatives have a
movement, sometimes unperceivable for an observer without attention. They tighten the fists,
look fixedly at a point in front of them or on the ground, and slightly turn the head to avoid
looking on the ground. Or on the contrary, they look in 2 directions at the same time.
Sometimes, they advance, the hands rise around the neck of somebody like strangling him or,
on the contrary, they deviate as a sign of reception.
It is so. The existing model is that of the morphogenetic fields of Rupert Sheldrake. An
undifferentiated cell becomes cell of mouse or cell of cat while being attracted by what
Sheldrake calls a basin of attraction which creates a transformation of the cell towards its
evolution. In the same way, the representatives would be taken of movement towards an image
which goes in the direction of the evolution of the family conscience.
You can yourself connect you to this "great soul" while coming to a family constellation.
Why why?
Indeed, why ask the question why? To question the phenomenon makes it possible to raise an
objection unconsciously. It is thus at the time of constellations. The questions are seldom
allowed, they weaken the constellation rather than they reinforce it. To accept this "field" and
its consequences can be used in other contexts.
Other applications of the installation of a "field"

This phenomenon of felt participants, of creation of an "information field ", appears as soon as
you place people belonging to a system. You can also place people without their statement who
they represent. This is common in the case of the movement of the soul because the therapist is
also unaware of it. Here are some more or less current examples of use of this field.
Constellation of tetralemma
It is the simplest case. Do you have a decision to take? Do you have to choose between the
contract with Brazil or that of Portugal? Take a representative for you then, for Brazil, for
Portugal.... And for both and one for "neither one nor the other". That opens the choice to you
and allows you not to remain in the dilemma. You have 4 choices instead of 2. You have A, B,
"not A and not B" and "A and B", a tetralemma and not a dilemma. Then you observe the
phenomenon.
Constellation of E ntreprise
You can take representatives for clients, products or concurrent companies. The questions are
often of 3 types:
What is the strategy of the company? Does a product have to be launched? Who are the
prospective clients? Can a competitor be purchased? How will behave its current clients?
Does the name of the purchased company have to be preserved?
Are the founders sufficiently respected? Do they always have their place in the company?
Are they seen by the current chairman?
Which organization to adopt with which people? Is the order or balance between giving and
receiving respected? Were people wrongfully laid off?
Here is an example. The director of the French subsidiary company of a Japanese group had
been fired and the English subsidiary company took then the control of the European
subsidiary companies. He wanted to understand what the subjacent dynamics was. The
installation included representatives for the Japanese group, the English subsidiary company,
the French subsidiary company, the English clients, the French client and the products. It
showed that the director of the French subsidiary company wanted to sell only Japanese
products and not the English products. The Japanese leaders preferred the English subsidiary
company who agreed to distribute all the products.
The director writes to me later: "This constellation centred the cause of my dismissal on one of
my professional decisions and not on a personal cause on which I focused myself".
fairy tales Constellation

A fairy tale is a system including members, wolves, princes, frogs and fairies. They exist in the
unconscious, while being unreal. The protagonists have bonds between them and a more or less
unconscious message exists. You will be surprised by the result of a constellation. I ask the
representatives to place themselves spontaneously not to influence the starting image.
In the constellation of La Fontaine fable of “the crow and the fox”, the crow represent the
mother, the cheese her girl and the fox the father of the cheese or a partner of the crow. The
message is: "the mother does not want to release her child who wants to go towards his father
or another man". And the cheese always succeeds in leaving.
Script constellation
A script is also a living system in a writer’s imagination. Several scenes are interesting.
1. The starting scene tests the event revealing the objective of the protagonist. For example,
the nymph Eurydice dies, pricked by a snake and the objective of her husband, the poet
Orpheus is to find her.
2. Does the objective of the protagonist have weight? Yes, he is ready to go to hell to save her.
3. Does the climax brings or releases energy? At the end of this act, the hero reached or gives
up his objective. He finds Eurydice in hell. She will live again provided that he does not
turn over before she left the hell. Unfortunately, he turns over too early and his wife
transforms herself into a statue. Then he loses his wife because he did not wait sufficiently.
4. Does the final scene bring order? Did the protagonist grow? The order is respected. The
dead remains dead. Orpheus scorned the love of the other women and was cut out in
pieces.
What is the message brought by the protagonist to witnesses or to his family? Is it necessary to
suffer to be a good musician and to know glory?
You can also test the dramatic irony, what the witness knows and what the protagonist is
unaware of. Eurydice was still in the shade and Orpheus was not, because he was in light, he
had already left Hells. This is why he turned over.
You must pay attention not to solve the conflicts too early, they are necessary to the history and
the drama. Where would be then the identification of the witness with the hero?
By the mean of constellations, you check if "systemic" dynamics is respected. If it is the case,
the script has more power on the unconscious.
Constellation of supervision of therapist

In these constellations, the therapist and his client are put in scene. It is essential for a therapist
to lean on his 2 parents to accept the destiny of his client. He thus has an image in advance on
his client. He has a systemic sight. Here is an example.
A supervisor of educators must intervene with educator working in an institute of disturbed
children. He asks me how to animate a constellation of supervision, between an educator and a
child. I decide to update the dynamics between him and the educator without setting up the
child. I thus ask him to place a representative for him and for the supervised educator. He
places them face to face.
Supervisor Educator
The representative of the educator wants to place himself behind the representative of the
supervisor. He wants to be the father or the supervisor wants the educator to be his father!!!
The father of the supervisor is placed behind the supervisor and tells the representative of the
educator "the place is taken". The educator replaces himself opposite. The father of the
educator is then brought behind his son. The supervisor says then to the educator "I see that
you can be leaned on your father" and the educator answers him the same words.
One week later, he writes to me: "Yesterday I animated a meeting of analysis of the practice in
the therapeutic institute and...... I succeeded! I did my first family constellation. For the team,
the interest was manifest, surprised of lightings and power…
Time passed so quickly and I came out with considerable energy! The image that I had is that
of the control of Rolls-Royce with a powerful engine, I could hardly touch at the steering
wheel… That appears so powerful and I felt so small, I became aware of the importance of
humility in front of this phenomenon! I held probably too much the wheel and am brought out
with a part or the engine in me. I take even conscience of the danger to be led without
sufficient humility… wanting to succeed! A thank for these discoveries"
Chapter 4: characteristics of family constellations 26
Chapter 4: characteristics of family

constellations
The phenomenon is there, taking the entire place. It gives from the order in the system. It
clarifies a truth, the truth of the moment. The existence of this phenomenon involves a
particular state of mind with respect to this "therapy": it implies to agree not to understand, that
this truth comes from the constellation and not from the therapist and that the result takes time.
To agree not to understand with the mind

It is a school of humility and perception. Feel rather than think. Accept to live the phenomenon
and to trust him. To absolutely want to understand prevents comprehension with the soul. It is
wise to use ones mind advisedly. In the constellations, give more room to feelings. It is a truth
of the moment, which can evolve.
To feel rather than to think

This technique makes it possible to the representatives to feel without knowing the history of
the person whom they represent. All is in the feeling. It is thus a privileged mean to go in the
body, to agree to be guided by an unknown force without understanding. The intuition passes
through the body. Be attentive with shivers, intestines gargles or sudden heat which circulates
in all the body.
And the answer to my question?

There is no guarantee. The phenomenon goes where it wants "the way follows its own way"
said Lao Tseu. For example, the client wants to see how to ensure the success of his project
which is very important and does not end? The constellation shows the abortion he does not
want to see. He did not understand yet that his projects were also aborting.
To be in anger?
Sometimes, the "constellated" person is in anger because he does not understand what occurs.
It especially happens with people who want to understand everything. Or they do not like the
message: they wanted to see the problem of their mother, their father or of the current partner
and the constellation indicates their share of responsibility and which action to take. The
proposal is to act rather than to complain. The person turns over the therapist who must also
accept the existence of this phenomenon.
"Anger is that of the child against his parents" says Bert Hellinger. It is beneficial because she
helps the person to separate from his parents or the therapist. It also happens that he is in anger
not to say thank you and that he asks for the address of another therapist.... What I do readily.
This bond between the client and the therapist is often the reflection of the bond between the
client and his parents.
Independence between client and therapist

The client who "absolutely wants to constellate" thinks that his fate is related to the goodwill of
the therapist. He is wrong. Often, the client behaves with the therapist the same way he
Chapter 4: characteristics of family constellations 27
behaves with his mother. He will be respectful, in anger, scorning or demanding according to
the bond which he developed with her.
The client is independent of the therapist

This independence is required. The therapist, to support this independence, has a "systemic"
sight. He takes in his heart the parents of the client and will seek to reinstate the excluded, the
dragon, in order to give him a kiss. Thus, the client has more chance to find it and to reconcile
himself with his dark parts. The therapist places himself where the client must carry his glance.
He puts himself thus "behind" the inner father to help the client to see him. Then, he must leave
as quickly as possible because he came the last.
The therapist is independent from the client

This point is even more delicate. Certain clients will be manipulators or demanding with
respect to the therapist. The therapist must be held remotely and not intervene in the destiny of
the client.
"Mom’s son" is a mother cherished child who often replaces his father. He believes everything
is allowed and will require a lot from the therapist, especially if this one is a man. He will be
opposed to him as he is opposed to his father. Those who were rejected as child will tend to
repeat the same script thus. They will seek the therapist to stop the therapy. And their script
continues "Nobody can help me, I cannot grow. Then, I remain with mom"
The therapist can also play an unfinished personal script and ask the client to remain when he
wants to leave. In this case, the therapist financially or emotionally needs the client and takes
him for his parents. He will have difficulty to release the destiny of his client to look at his
own. Knowing how to stop this relation is a sign of wisdom of the therapist.
The therapeutic bond according to Bert Hellinger

This bond exists when the therapist is caught for a relative or a child of the client. In this case,
the therapy will be long, the client not wanting to release the therapist… or the reverse. If the
client wants to stop the therapy without the agreement of the therapist, he will be called
resistant.
A quick intervention for a slow process

The constellation being fast, the "therapeutic bond" has less of chance to appear than in a
several years lasting therapy.
One or several sessions?

Several sessions are sometimes necessary and it is important to leave the effect of the final
image to act inside. A session may need several months to act in the client’s psyche. It is
preferable to let it act and not to think. Do not raise grass to check if it grows. You can think of
the last image, that which reconciles. The remainder, you can forget it.
These sessions of constellation will touch various people of the family system. In the case of
the constellation of Mary quoted at the beginning of this book, it was her 2nd constellation. The
first was related to the suicide of her brother. The following ones were related to a missing
paternal aunt, an abort child and the maternal grandmother who could not leaned on her own
mother. Finally, it is always a question of bowing in front of our parents, of integrating all
excluded from the family and of accepting one’s own life.
To have a therapist?
Family constellations can "stir up" and often, the people who animate constellations do not
ensure a "therapeutic" follow-up. Keep your therapist if you have one.
Chapter 5: complementary therapies 28
Chapter 5: complementary therapies
Why will a client consult a therapist? He seeks to change a behaviour unsuited to a situation or
a relation. He unconsciously wants to cure a trauma appeared either in his family, or during his
birth or during his life, most of the time in his childhood. It is as a spine of the past which is
still present and hurts always badly.
The transgenerational traumas are the most numerous and family constellations solve them.
There are effective therapies treating the other cases. With each type of trauma, genealogical,
primal or life, corresponds one or more therapeutic techniques. Let us explore the traumatic
process before crossing these 3 types of traumas with some effective techniques.
Psychotherapy: traumas, beliefs and behaviors

The result of a successful psychotherapy can often be summarized with a change of beliefs and
passing from a negative belief into a positive one, to pass for example from "I will die
unmarried at 35" with "I can meet a person and live with him". How to reverse the tendency?
Beliefs
The mind rather prefers to summarize the various events by a belief than to remember all its
experiments consciously. And to respect a belief, we are even able to modify our memory
while being persuaded of its truth!!!
The event "mom is in anger against me" involves the belief "I am malicious or I deserve to be
punished" who can then apply in much case… Until somebody comes and takes into account
the event "mom was in anger against dad" and to invent a belief even more difficult to believe
which is "I can live with somebody who loves me".
Traumas
The traumas generate one or more beliefs which influence our behaviours. Let us take the
example of a grandmother who died in layers. The belief is "the man is a killer" and "it is
dangerous to have children". If you are a woman, your current behaviour will be anger against
men and pushing them back unconsciously. If you are a man, you will make an unconscious
vow of chastity not to kill anybody. A trauma can generate several beliefs and a behaviour
come from several beliefs and traumas.
Traumatism
Belie
f
Behavior Positive intention
Woman who
died in layers Man
is a kille
r Wanting no
Staying alive
children
Behaviors
Any behaviour has a positive intention. The fact of not wanting to live with a man and not to
have of child has, in our case of a woman who died in layer, the positive objective "to remain
in life" or "not to kill". Our behaviour helps us to repair the trauma by putting it at the
conscience. The body reacts while wanting to save the person.
The effective therapies heal the traumas and change the "negative" belief into a positive one.
They are based on the behaviour or the belief and directly will look after the trauma when it is
known. They remove the spine rather than to speak about it. Which are the common
characteristics of these effective therapies?
Conditions of the success

Like a surgical act, the therapist will seek the origin of the suffering and will anaesthetize the
client if that will injure him too badly. He does not trust his reactions to have courage to go and
seek for the spine.
To leave the possible emotion

A lot of therapies take along the client in a trauma and then ask him what he feels. It is then
likely to be submerged by his emotions. His? Not so sure. The emotions are misleading. Bert
Hellinger distinguishes 4 types of emotions or feelings.
The primary feelings, yours, deal with a concrete situation and are turned towards action.
They last little time and there is no drama. The person has open eyes.
The secondary feelings are substitution feelings, as tears which draw attention and collect
the energy of the others to be avenged. These feelings handle. They are not turned towards
action. They are expressed with closed eyes and seeing the interior self. They give certain
happiness. These feelings are very current and it is necessary to be wary about them.
In the third type, the feelings are foreigner and come from other people. The person is then
"out of him". His face changes and takes the face of who he represents. Often, it is an anger
accompanied by a strong feeling of injustice or justice. The person takes the pretext of
defending the victim to be persecuting.
The last are "meta feelings". They are feelings such as courage, humility… Those there are
very rare and very valuable. In their presence, you feel alleviated and centred.
Certain therapies are "emotions" and not solution oriented. The objective is to make you going
back inside. The client is then opened to all, without reserve. He returns in anger against his
mother without understanding that it is that of his grandmother against her father. He has few
chances to leave it there. If you do not feel safe, flee…
To be dissociated and in safety

The effective techniques are able to dissociate the person. The client regresses in the trauma
with his resources or the assistance of the therapist. In family constellations, the client looks at
the phenomenon, it is not inside. He is reassociated, back to his place, when the constellation is
in order.
To be solution or movement directed

The therapist feels the moment when he goes from the question to the solution, from the
negative belief into the positive belief, from separation to reconciliation. He helps the client to
take a step in the good direction… which he knows a little time in advance.
Some complementary effective therapies

Here is a time line breaking up the types of traumas and which will be used to guide us in the
choice of effective therapies.
A trauma time line

Let us cut time in 4 stages: transgenerational, i.e. before birth and which touch the preceding
generations, birth, one period of which we do not have any memory and the period, generally
after 3 years, which we remember.
No memory
Transgenerational Birth Until 3 After 3 years
When the traumas are known, it is easier to directly go to heal them with the good technique.
Effective techniques correspond to each phase. I privileged the short therapies, which last less
than 9 months. The constellations act on the transgenerational traumas (the grandfather or a
brother who died young before me). The holding therapy of Jirina Prekop acts on the birth and
childhood (I am premature or I was entrusted to my grandmother before my 3 years), the
EMDR is effective on the traumas we memorized (I was beaten by my parents or I lost a child)
and hypnosis serves as last recourse because it covers much case (I do not manage to urinate in
public and I do not have any memory of trauma).
Systemic and nonsystemic

The family constellations reinstate excluded members from the system. In the therapies known
as systemic the objective is the rehabilitation an excluded being from the current system,
different from parents, a brother, an uncle, an ancestor…
In the nonsystemic therapies, the stress is laid on the bond of life with the parents or the
emotion due to a trauma. In this case, you can feel your fear with an accident or a fire. It is a
primary emotion.
Holding therapy from Jirina Prekop, birth, childhood, nonsystemic and effective
The holding therapy makes you turn over in your primary emotion, the one you can follow.
Jirina Prekop, Czech psychologist, developed this technique. She used the discovery of Martha
Welsh who firmly tightened in her arms autistic children. That calmed them. It is possible to do
the same with adults.
The client is lengthened on the back and a person different from the therapist holds him in his
arms and strongly encloses his legs. This pressure is a catalyst of a phenomenon of
spontaneous native regression or accompanied reconciliation. The hold one can live his
emotions in full safety.
Jirina Prekop developed 4 alternatives which are articulated on this phenomenon: native
regression, reconciliation with the parents, the children or between partners. The reconciliation
with the parents involves a visualization of a childhood’s trauma, a parents’ childhood’s trauma
and final reconciliation. It makes it possible to go in the emotion until the reconciliation. It is
extraordinary. To express primary feelings while being safety hold…
The native regression fills this birth’s vacuum of those who were separated from their mother
in the first years of their life. This therapy is the only one I know which allows the body’s
journey in all confidence. A wonder! A therapy of the body and soul.
The EMDR of Francine Shapiro, nonsystemic and effective

The EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), desensitizing and
reprogramming using ocular movements, act directly on the trauma. From an image
emotionally charged (all the class had fun when I read aloud because I was of foreign origin),
you identify a negative belief associated with the image (I am null) and that positive, in which
you do not believe yet (I am well as I am). By alternative right-left sweeping in front of the
eyes, you decrease the feeling of distress related to the negative belief (cognition in EMDR
language), then go up the veracity of the positive belief. It is incredible but true… You also
check if another part of yourself does not go against this new belief.
The major traumas influence our identity. They generate negative beliefs such as "I am in
danger", "I am a without value" or "I am impotent". By healing the trauma, your identity
evolves. You pass thus to "I am in safety" or "I have value"… It is impressive. A person having
lost a young child thus passed from "I deserve to die" in "I deserve to live" then of "I deserve to
be unhappy" with "I deserve to be happy". To pass thus from a death instinct to a life instinct is
a whole program.
Hypnosis: systemic, nonsystemic and effective

Hypnosis will be always accurate. It knew several stages. With Charcot, it was reserved to
hysterical people, to show them that their paralysis disappeared in a hypnosis state. With
Bernheim, it could be used for everybody. Milton Erickson made it known universally.
Hypnosis is the queen therapy. You are in light, average or deep trance and the hypnotherapist
speaks with your unconscious… What could be easier? And while you read this book, your
spirit can rove, to remember the moments where you were well, in agreement with yourself. Do
you remember your first steps? The difficulties you had to hold in balance? Then gradually,
you took confidence in you, accepted this provisional imbalance to go forward. The first meters
carried out balances on a foot, then the other, what a pride you had at this time there! Perhaps
you remember the glance of your parents, as they were also proud of you when you arrived in
their arms! Feel inside you this feeling of success which can be always alive. You can even
breathe inside, with each inspiration, feel you are in contact with yourself at this time there....
Hypnosis thus allows you to feel resources while remembering your exploits of long time ago.
It also makes it possible to go up towards the original trauma starting from your behaviour to
modify or to render comprehensible to you the positive intention of your behaviour. These
journeys inside yourself can transform you and change your beliefs.
Ericksonienne hypnosis is when the therapist accompanies the client. It is often not directive
and amplifies daily trance… by creating a little confusion, while speaking, by telling stories.
Milton Erickson spoke about the contraction of the pupil or the muscles of the stomach to a
enuretic child or the manner of planting tomatoes with a person who had cancer… The hidden
message is a lesson of muscles contraction for one and life for the other.
New hypnosis wants to be broader and "ecological". The hypnotherapist is neither
authoritative, nor manipulator. The client always has the choice "You can smoke or not". "You
can be allergic or not ". The treatment of the phobias or allergies in hypnosis is spectacular. An
half an hour session is sometimes enough.
The final crossing

You understood? Use family constellations for the transgenerational traumas, holding therapy
in case of birth difficulty, of nonsystemic bond which was deteriorated with the parents, the
children or of your relation in the couple. The EMDR acts directly on the trauma of which you
have a memory and hypnosis helps you in the other cases. Moreover, hypnosis helps you to put
to you in resource.
In conclusion, keys to the success 32
In conclusion, keys to the success
The constellations allow, thanks to a simple and ignored phenomenon, to create a "information
field" by the installation of representatives, to rest on their feelings and to thus reintegrate
excluded members of a family system.
By accepting all the excluded people, we avoid taking their place. We take again our place in
our system of origin and our current system. We grow by including what we excluded. We will
thus have a behaviour adapted to the situation, directed towards life. Our beliefs become
positive.
In this technique, the client feels and accepts what occurs. He is an adult able to support and
see the truth of the moment. He is independent of the therapist.
The family constellations according to Bert Hellinger are not sufficient to look after all the
types of trauma. They do not replace other techniques more appropriate to traumas dependent
on birth or your childhood. Fortunately, these techniques exist and are effective.
Just like the family constellations, they enable you to pass to the action. They put you on your
way and reconcile you with life. This one comes by far, from your parents, your grandparents
and your ancestors. When you honour them and take them in your heart, they are in peace and
proud of you. You will join them one day. Till then, honour the life that they transmitted to
you. They look at you with benevolence.
Bibliography 33
Bibliography
Family constellations according to Bert Hellinger

The books of Bert Hellinger are more and more translated and some are in translation.
The site of Bert Hellinger is www.hellinger-international.com. The majority of his books are
published in the editions Carl Auer Verlag or Koesel. They are referred on the site
/www.hellinger-familienstellen.de.
Acknowledging what is: conversations with Bert Hellinger. BERT HELLINGER GABRIELLE
TEN HÖVEL. The simplest book on the philosophy of Bert Hellinger. An interview by a
journalist without kindness. Bert Hellinger has just granted her another interview in his last
German book "a long way".
Rachel weeping for her children. BERT HELLINGER. Family constellations in Israel. Very
profound…
Insights, lectures and stories. BERT HELLINGER. A collection of stories and metaphors. To
read with delight, even without understanding.
Other references
Anatomy of mental illness. ARTHUR JANOV. Sphere Book Ltd. Janov details the traumas and
the various brains.
EMDR: The Breakthrough Therapy for Overcoming Anxiety, Stress, and Trauma.
FRANCINE SHAPIRO MARGOT SILK FORREST. Basic Books. Excellent introduction.
The sense of being glared at. RUPERT SHELDRAKE. Hutchinson. Unexplained capacity of
the animals and all the strange phenomena such as the feeling to be seen.
My voice will go with you. SYDNEY ROSEN. W. W. Norton and Company. The book which
made me adore hypnosis. What, you do not know Milton Erickson?
Core transformation: Reaching the wellspring Within. TAMARA AND CONNIRAE ANDREAS.
Real People. Going until the end of the positive intention of a behavior. This technique is
extraordinary.
Jay Haley on Milton Erickson. JAY HALEY. Routledge. How to find the resources of a
person to advance it.
Scripts people live. Transactional Analysis of Life Scripts CLAUDE STEINER. Grove /
Atlantic. An excellent book on the transactional analysis.
Games people play. ERIC BERNE. Penguin. A reference on all the games which we play
unconsciously. Is like a bible, is also difficult to read.

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Synopsis 1

CONSTELLATIONS ACCORDING TO BERT HELLINGER

CHAPTER 1: GENESIS ............................................................................................7

An original transgenerational therapy ..............................................................................7

CHAPTER 2: TO REINTEGRATE EXCLUDED ONES FROM THE SYSTEM ......12

The family system includes recognized and excluded members.....................................12

CHAPTER 3: FOLLOWING REPRESENTATIVES’S FEELINGS .........................19

Unfolding of a family constellation ...................................................................................19

CHAPTER 4: CHARACTERISTICS OF FAMILY CONSTELLATIONS.................26

To agree not to understand with the mind .......................................................................26

CHAPTER 5: COMPLEMENTARY THERAPIES ...................................................28

Psychotherapy: traumas, beliefs and behaviors ..............................................................28

IN CONCLUSION, KEYS OF THE SUCCESS .......................................................32

Family constellations according to Bert Hellinger ..........................................................33

"At the moments of grace I lived in constellations"

Mary's fate Mary

An original transgenerational therapy

Bert Hellinger’s constellations

Bert Hellinger’s path

“Our unconscious is benevolent”, said Milton Erickson

“Our traumas traumatise us” said Arthur Janov

We reproduce scripts of life said Eric Berne

“We are connected by invisible bonds” precises Boszormeny Nagy

Chapter 2: to reintegrate excluded ones

The family system includes recognized and excluded

Members of the system of origin

The dynamic ones: the derivation of the bond of love

Diseases or love directed towards death…

The solution is of intégr er all the members of the family

Various levels of conscience

The system "couple" implies a long-term exchange

Inclusion of new members

The professional system honours the old ones

Chapter 3: following representatives’

Unfolding of a family constellation

The installation of the representatives

The various scenes of the representatives, the therapist tests places

Ending the constellation, the client reintegrates his place

To digest and leave the role

Following the "movement of the soul"

Examples of movement of the heart

Children Children's fate Mother Mother's fate

Questions on the phenomenon

Why do the representatives feel so?

Why a spontaneous movement?

Other applications of the installation of a "field"

fairy tales Constellation

Constellation of supervision of therapist

Chapter 4: characteristics of family

To agree not to understand with the mind

To feel rather than to think

And the answer to my question?

Independence between client and therapist

The client is independent of the therapist

The therapist is independent from the client

The therapeutic bond according to Bert Hellinger

A quick intervention for a slow process

One or several sessions?

Chapter 5: complementary therapies