Constellations are an embodied, or somatic, technique that allows us to see the dynamics at play within families, organizations, relationships and even the competing voices in our heads. Using either other people or inanimate objects, we “set up” the players so that we can walk around and observe them in a new or different way. Where are the entanglements, the hidden loyalties and alliances, the strengths, the weaknesses? With this perspective, we move the players around and notice where there is relief, more freedom, more ease.
Based on the work of Bert Hellinger, a psychologist and former priest who traveled the world observing families in a multitude of cultural settings, constellations are used to acknowledge “what is”— not what we hope for, not what we pretend, not how we think things should be—but how things actually are. When we can honestly see where we really are, then we have the opportunity to move towards what we desire in an authentic and intentional way.