Family Constellations

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Family Constellations session

Family Constellations, also known as Systemic Constellations and Systemic Family Constellations, is a pseudoscientific [1] therapeutic method which draws on elements of family systems therapy, existential phenomenology and Zulu beliefs and attitudes to family. [2]

Contents

Family Constellations diverges significantly from conventional forms of cognitive, behaviour and psychodynamic psychotherapy. The method has been described by physicists as an example of quantum mysticism, and its founder Bert Hellinger incorporated the existing pseudoscientific concept of morphic resonance into his explanation of it. Positive outcomes from the therapy have been attributed to conventional explanations such as suggestion, empathy, and the placebo effect. [1] [3] [4]

Practitioners claim that present-day problems and difficulties may be influenced by traumas suffered in previous generations of the family, even if those affected are unaware of the original event. Hellinger referred to the relation between present and past problems that are not caused by direct personal experience as systemic entanglements, said to occur when unresolved trauma has afflicted a family through an event such as murder, suicide, death of a mother in childbirth, early death of a parent or sibling, war, natural disaster, emigration, or abuse. [5] [6]

A constellation session is a one-time event, with no follow-up. It may take place in front of a large audience. [7]

History

The term "Family Constellations" was first used by Alfred Adler in a somewhat different context to refer to the phenomenon that each individual belongs to and is bonded in relationship to other members of his or her family system. One premise of his work is that one can inherit trauma.

The philosophical orientation of Family Constellations were derived through an integration of existential phenomenology, family systems therapy, and elements of indigenous mysticism.

Criticism

Małgorzata Talarczyk of The Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic, Poznań University of Medical Sciences in Poland has criticized the family constellation method as not meeting many of aspects of the Polish Code of Ethics for Psychiatrists. In particular, she found that it was inadequate in the areas of "the process, contract, diagnosis, supervision, confidentiality, alternativeness." Thus it is difficult to consider it as "psychotherapy". [7]

See also

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wolfgang Tschacher</span> Swiss psychology researcher

Wolfgang Tschacher is a Swiss psychologist and university lecturer. He is professor at the University of Bern.., Switzerland. He has conducted theoretical and empirical research in the fields of psychotherapy and psychopathology, especially from a systems-theoretical perspective that includes self-organization and complexity theory. He is active in the development of time series methods for the modeling of psychotherapeutic processes and generally social systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan Garriga Bacardí</span> Spanish psychotherapist

Joan Garriga Bacardí is a Gestalt and humanistic psychologist and psychotherapist. He is known for working on family constellation approach, and also for applying the technique to couples’ relationship problems, mainly in Spanish-speaking countries.

References

  1. 1 2 Witkowski, Tomasz (2015). Psychology Gone Wrong: The Dark Sides of Science and Therapy (illustrated ed.). Universal-Publishers. p. 261. ISBN   978-1-62734-528-6.
  2. Cohen, D. B. (2006). ""Family Constellations": An Innovative Systemic Phenomenological Group Process from Germany". The Family Journal. 14 (3): 226–233. doi: 10.1177/1066480706287279 . S2CID   145474250.
  3. Carroll, Robert T. "Bert Hellinger and family constellations". skepdic.com.
  4. Lebow, Alisa (2008). First Person Jewish. U of Minnesota Press. p. 81. ISBN   978-0-8166-4354-7.
  5. Hellinger, B., Weber, G., & Beaumont, H. (1998). Love's hidden symmetry: What makes love work in relationships. Phoenix, AZ: Zeig, Tucker and Theisen.
  6. Boszormenyi-Nagy, I., & Spark, G. M. (1973). Invisible loyalties: Reciprocity in intergenerational family therapy. Hagerstown, MD: Harper & Row.
  7. 1 2 Małgorzata Talarczyk (2011). "Family Constellation Method of Bert Hellinger in the context of the Code of Ethics for Psychotherapists". Archives of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. 13 (3): 65–74.

Further reading