The Associate - Newsflash!The newsletter for graduates and students of Bath Centre for Psychotherapy and Counselling

Describing a constellation in words is not aneasy process. The word evolved out of a wholeseries of words being used to describe a newphenomenon brought to England by founder,Bert Hellinger in 1996. The German word wasso straightforward: Systemaufstellung (settingup a system) but in our own much more subtlelanguage a new word had to be found.

If we gaze up at the stars, we see constellationseverywhere. We see them dotted about the skyin a spatial relationship to one another. So, in itsmost literal sense, that’s exactly what aconstellation is – a number of people (orobjects) placed in spatial relationship to oneanother much like the stars.

However, this is but the tip of the iceberg.Constellation work is a lot more than that.Being part of a constellation, whether as client,facilitator, representative or member of the

holding circle, is an experience which isprofound and touches the deepest parts ofourselves. It requires a major shift in ourthinking and asks of us that we adopt a newparadigm – that of viewing the world and thoseliving in it in a holistic, inter-connected way. Weare urged to move beyond the dualistic natureof being, of seeing right and wrong, good andbad, cause and effect to seeing that everythingand everyone are inextricably linked, that thepast and the future are not separate from thepresent. This is a quantum leap for somepeople, yet not for those already interested inGestalt theory, permaculture, morphicresonance, crop circles or quantum physics.

When we start to think in this way, we canmore readily accept that the actions of ourancestors are with us now and that a lot of ourcurrent suffering is directly linked to ‘past’events. It helps to see that the family is asystem which needs to be in balance in order tothrive – just like nature. And just as in nature,many things upset the balance of our familiesand we and our children and grandchildren feelthe effects. If you see love as flowing downthrough the generations just like a river flows tothe ocean, then what happens is that there areboulders in the river and some of them areimmediately visible (such as adoption, or the early death of a child or parent) and may not beable to be removed; others are not visible andmay become so through a constellation(abortions, secret affairs, murder). Then our jobis to see if it is possible to remove theseboulders so that the river of love can flow freelyonce more. Removing them would beequivalent to an opening of the heart and there-inclusion (‘re-membering’) of the missingperson. Sometimes it just isn’t possible and thenwe have to find a way to come to a deep levelof acceptance of what is.

Bert Hellinger’s original vision was that thiswork would be freely evolving and not comeunder any fixed methodology and as a resultthere is a wide variety of ways of working withconstellations and many applications beyondworking with families. The work has gainedacceptance across the world and there are fewcountries left who have not embracedconstellations in some form or another.

Many people working with constellations havenow thrown out the idea of the ‘orders’ whichBert Hellinger originally talked about, but forme they still form the bedrock of the work. Theimportant thing is not to hold on to themtightly, to be prepared to let them go if what isin front of your eyes, tells you somethingdifferent.

I think the analogy with nature is an interestingone. We don’t think anything of the ‘rules’which apply in nature and help maintain balance– a seed comes before a shoot, the seasonsfollow a certain order. What happens in naturedoesn’t have anything to do with right orwrong. It is just a system doing what it needs todo to maintain balance. We as humans havedisrupted the order in nature and now we arereaping the consequences.

The same is true in families and the 2 naturallaws which help maintain balance in a familysystem are:� Everyone has an equal right to belong to their

family, no matter what they might have done.� There is a hierarchy in terms of time. Those

born first take precedence over those whocome later i.e. parents give and children take.The eldest child has more weight than the nextchild and so on.

Unless you are able to step outside your ownmorals, and your own ideas of ‘right’ and‘wrong’, ‘better’ and ‘worse’ you will find ithard to accept the above and all the othernatural orders that flow from these two.

No-one really knows what happens in aconstellation; for me, it is as if we step into theenergy field of the client’s family to see whatemerges. In a group situation we can choosemembers of the group to represent membersof our family and sometimes abstract conceptslike: war, love, truth, a secret or maybe a partof ourselves. We place these people in themiddle of the group according to our intuitionand then begins the piece people find hardest totake on board – the representatives start toexperience sensations, an urge to move or deepemotions related to the person they arerepresenting. Clients are repeatedly astoundedby the accuracy of what they see and hear fromrepresentatives of their family members.

By looking at the shape of the constellation andseeing and sometimes hearing the experiencesof the representatives, it is possible to begin theprocess of seeing if we can uncover and/orremove the boulder. Healing sentences providea ritual for opening the heart and ‘cominghome’.

This work can be equally effective when carriedout in an individual session using mats on thefloor or Playmobil figures.

The effects of the constellation are sometimesimmediate and dramatic and can be felt bymembers of our family not present at theworkshop. More often the changes are gradualand can take anything up to a year to have aneffect. Sometimes, there is no effect at all andthis can be for all sorts of reasons. Surprisingthough it may seem, it can be difficult for somepeople to let go of their stories and theirsuffering.

I could offer many examples of the effects ofconstellations but I will restrict myself to onepersonal example and two from people Iworked with in a group many years ago. Thefirst example was to do with my father whoseown father had been an excluded person in thefamily. He hadn’t seen him in 64 years. I was

doing a constellation about the male side of myfamily and in that constellation I brought in thisexcluded grandfather.

My father had no idea about the work I wasdoing. Next time I talked to him he had found aphoto of his own father with his arm round hiswife, my father’s mother. He said he saw forthe first time the possibility that maybe hisfather wasn’t all bad and asked us to take him tofind where he was buried and where he hadlived. He managed to make peace with hisfather before he died. We later discovered thatthis grandfather had died only six weeks afterhis wife whom he also hadn’t seen for thatlength of time.

The second example was of a couple who hadbeen trying to have a child for many years. Theyboth did their own constellation but it waswhen the man stood in the line of men in hisfamily, looking tall and proud, that I brought inhis wife and stood her beside him. She sobbedand said how great it felt to stand next to herhusband when he had this line of men behindhim. They conceived that night!

The third and most poignant example was of awoman who had given up a child for adoption atthe age of 16 and hadn’t seen her since. In theconstellation there was a highly emotional anddeeply moving reunion between them. Twoweeks after the workshop the adopted childmade contact with her.

I have many such dramatic examples. However,for the majority of people the changes are muchmore gradual and subtle and often the directionof the change is not at all what we may predict.

There are many scientists researching whathappens in a constellation to try and make senseof it. In other professions, people are trying tofind ways to fit the work into their ownparadigm so they can really understand what itis about. For me the work stands alone; it doesnot fit into any box, mainly because it asks of usthat we enter a new paradigm – a new way of

viewing the world. This is difficult for a lot ofpeople. They want to be able to fix itsomewhere so they can make sense of it. Aswith most new discoveries, there are overlapswith other disciplines, but for the time being atleast what happens when a person stands in as arepresentative remains a mystery, and whoknows, maybe if and when some kind of‘formula’ is found, it will lose some of itseffectiveness. That remains to be seen.

In response, she has designed a day-longworkshop tailored to meet this need. It’s anintegrated CPD opportunity which aims tosupport attendees in exploring at depth whatshort-term work really means to a therapist.Working experientially and via discussion, role playand through group supervision, the workshop willuncover the essential differences between short-term and long-term or open-ended therapy.

Topics will include unspoken attitudes, beliefs andagendas around short-term work, it’s suitabilityfor specific clients and an appreciation of thepressures, rewards and practical implications ofworking short-term. The group will also look atthe boundary between time-limited counsellingand life coaching.

June will share with the group some of thefeatures of her own developing model for briefwork to assist those who might wish to developtheir own model fully for themselves. The dayitself will be structured to reflect one way ofexploring time-limited work and the group will berestricted to a maximum of six.

The workshop is suitable for both qualified andtrainee counsellors with some experience of briefwork, experienced or trainee psychotherapistswho primarily work long term but take on short-term counselling when it arises and supervisorsparticularly interested in brief work.

June’s deep interest in short term work aroseafter a sabbatical year she took following herdiagnosis with a chronic illness in 1997 (click herefor June’s story in last month’s .She felt she very much wanted to continuecounselling but that it would be fairer on clientsnot to accept them long-term when the outlookfor her was so uncertain. She therefore resolvedto be clear about the framework and stick to itand has been working this way for over 13 years.She is accredited with BACP since 2005 andpractises mindfulness.

The workshop will take place on April 21st.beginning 10.00 am at 7 Belgrave Road, Bath BA16LU (ten minutes walk from BCPC). Themaximum group size will be six so sherecommends early booking. The cost is £40 forbookings made prior to March 12th. and £50thereafter up to April 2nd.

To book you can send a cheque payable to JuneHall along with your name, address, e-mail andtelephone number to the address below, orcontact June for a booking form.

June Hall,7 Belgrave Road,Bath, BA1 6LU.

E-mail: jphall@waitrose.comTel: 01225 421033

Kate Hardenburg, psychotherapy student and formerAssociation Treasurer, is running the Bath HalfMarathon next month in aid of

in Bath where she also works in placement.

Kate has been regaling us with frightening stories ofher gruelling training runs, braving cold, snow, sleetand mad dogs at every turn during our BCPC days.

I’m sure we all agree that we are glad it’s her and notus. So instead, visit

to sponsor her. It’s much less painfulthan actually doing the run.

Even a small amount will help but if you can’t spare afew pennies, at least come along on March 11th tocheer her on.

Similarly, my daughter Jenny has been regularlyturning me off my dinner with graphic pictures ofinjuries (black toes, bleeding toes, red toes…) whileshe trains to run the London Marathon in April (myconcern for your own gastric sensibilities prevents mefrom sharing). She is running for the charity ,having been moved by an article in The Guardianwhich stated that a huge proportion of people visitingtheir GP do so due to depression. Stephen Fry hasjust become their President.

You have two ways to support her - either visit or….

Come along to where you will see me and her

boyfriend - - selling cup cakes, brownies,muffins and truffles all delicately made by our own fairhands in support of her efforts. So you can have laughAND get fed for a good cause.

Blood, sweat and sponsorship…..