Guiding Principles of Constellation Facilitation

1. Organicity- Self-Healing

We regard every person seeking help as inherently capable of growing, changing and facing the challenges that
life throws at them. Like a doctor who prepares a patient to heal a wound by removing the obstacles that get in the way of self-healing (e.g. infection), a constellation facilitator prepares for healing by releasing the family system of blockages that prevent the ‘flow of love’ from reaching the current generation.

The healing images that appear as the constellation unfolds, are impulses for growth, not prescriptions for action. These images bring to light what has been hidden or lost This stimulates an inner
development within our family soul that evolves into a reorganisation of our family system. That, in turn,
provides the motivation and strength to act differently in one’s daily life.

In other words the healing does not come from acting out of obedience to someone else, or as a consequence
of something someone has said or done or in resistance to something. Rather it comes from tuning into and
flowing with this organic healing movement; the natural tendency of life to adjust, adapt, and spontaneously
reorganise as new experiences are integrated. In this way we are all able to face the reality of the circumstances of our life and we naturally become stronger.

2. Non-violence- Humility

We respect and trust in each person’s capacity to choose, to decide and to determine how to deal with what happens in their life.
Therefore as facilitators we need to beware of imposing our own agenda and projecting our own values and experiences. This requires ongoing self- reflection as to how we may be inadvertently imposing thoughts. words, actions i.e. a “I know what’s best for you” attitude- that does not belong to the unfolding organic process. It also requires a here and now non judgemental awareness, so that we can more easily identify when we have been seduced into adopting these unhelpful attitudes, as we inevitably will from time to time.

3. lnclusivity- multi-partiality

Family Constellations are a process of collaboration, reconciliation, consciousness-raising, and of integration of split off parts. We believe that all parts of a system and person are interconnected and interdependent and therefore must be considered and given a place.

The family system includes all who enabled the family to come to be and therefore we open our hearts to all who have been excluded because of pain, hurt or fear and we attempt to give all who belong, a place. We work with both the living and the dead and in contextualising the events and experiences of family members. We
even include family members who may have committed unspeakable crimes. If we don’t, other family members suffer unnecessarily.

4. Unity of Body, Mind and  Spirit

In constellations the body becomes the primary source of information, intelligence and change. The facilitator uses his or her own body to register changes, to guide actions, to make assessments and observes and tracks the body of the person who is being interviewed. We also listen to the feedback coming from the bodies and minds of the representatives during the constellation process. In this way we are assuming that all experience, including spiritual and mental, is registered in the mind/body connection and that we communicate with the personal and systemic unconscious mind through the body.

5. Healthy Structure with Love

Constellations attempt to bring a healthy structure into family systems with love.  Love without healthy structure is blind and often ends in tragedy while a healthy structure in family systems without love is cold and impersonal. In Constellations we allow love to unfold within the context of certain principles:

  1. lnclusivity.
  2. Priority according to place in time
  3. Balance of give and take.
  4. Every family member carrying their own responsibility and fate

This then enables the current generation to live their life fully unencumbered by past unresolved entanglements.

6. Mindfulness

As facilitators we are committed to nurturing:

  • The ability to tune into and flow with the organic healing movement
  • The here and now non-judgemental awareness that is required to sustain humility
  • The courageous all-encompassing compassion required for empathy that includes everyone, no matter what they have done.
  • The ability to shift our attention fluidly between different domains such as observation of the body, the order in family systems and intellectual reflections
  • A reliable mindful resting place to return to so that we can maintain objectivity about emotions, thoughts, impulses, confused family systems or other mental events.
  • Increasing capacity for mindful holding (equanamity) so that we can work effectivly with all the mental states previously mentioned

We believe the best way to to this is through a regular practice of mindfulness which is the practice of courageously opening our awareness to the contents of the mind (sensations, emotions. impulses and thoughts) in a compassionate. curious, and non judgemental way.