Family constellations: a type of (pseudo)psychological therapy

What are family constellations and do they have scientific support?

The family constellations are a type of therapeutic dynamic that is having a great boom in recent times. This psychotherapeutic process is done in a group and aims to awaken the feelings and emotions that we have latent in our unconscious.

The theoretical basis of family constellations is rather questionable.. They usually base this practice on the fact that people live with certain unconscious emotional conflicts that we have not been able to resolve throughout life. This unconscious ballast can lead us to experience Pain and other emotional problems, without the possibility of getting rid of the cause of the problem. These internal conflicts can cause us behavioral problems and be in permanent dispute with certain people around us.

Family constellations: family introspection therapy

But what exactly are the dynamics of family constellations? The dynamic is carried out with several people gathered in the same room. They are people who have no family ties between them and who want to get to know themselves better and, perhaps, to overcome some family and interpersonal conflicts, overcome some family and interpersonal conflicts that have been dragging on for years..

We must make a small clarification: although family constellations are carried out in a group, it is not considered as a group therapy to use, since there are important methodological differences with respect to these.

The philosophical and methodological bases

The driving force behind the constellations method is the psychologist, pedagogue and priest of the Catholic Church Bert Hellinger. This German developed the foundations of family constellations in the 1990s, and is considered the founder and main author.

During his professional career of more than half a century, Hellinger researched, treated and collected data on the families he helped.. He discovered that most of us unconsciously reproduce patterns and dynamics within our families. These are patterns that very often lead us to have bad psychological experiences: anxiety, anger, guilt, contempt, isolation... In addition, we may be suffering from certain disorders as a result of our relationship with family members, such as alcoholism or emotional dependency.

Hellinger reflects and says that, when we are children, it is likely that we sacrifice our own emotional balance to remedy the emotional problems of our parents or other close relatives. According to Hellinger, family constellations can help to discover and reinterpret these unconscious patterns so that we are able to live and relate to each other in a healthier, more balanced and happier way.

In short, the aim of family constellations is to detect and discover the unconscious dynamics of each family and the attitudes and behaviors that occur among its members. Through experimentation in situThrough in situ experimentation, the participants in these dynamics can inspect their hidden feelings about their family members, which is an opportunity to find solutions to these latent conflicts.

Family constellation sessions: how are they carried out?

So, how exactly do family constellations work? how exactly do family constellations work? Several people (usually between 5 and 12) gather in a designated room, including the constellator, who acts as therapist and organizes the dynamics.

Sessions usually last several hours. In each workshop, 4 to 7 people are constellated, as deemed appropriate by the therapist based on the family to be represented in the dynamics. Each participant has a turn to constellate his or her own family for one hour..

During the time in which a constellation takes place, the rest of the participants act out and represent the unconscious experiences of the person undergoing therapy. After each turn, there is a break of a quarter of an hour to take a breath and continue with the next person. In this way, the therapeutic dynamic is chained and each participant performs his or her own personal therapy and participates in the therapy of the other participants.

The people who participate in the dynamics do not need to know the characteristics or the theories on which this type of therapy is based. The way of working is totally experiential, although the therapist imposes a series of essential methodological elements. All the participants carry out their own therapy, but they also benefit from also benefit from experiencing all the roles by representing the family members of the other participants, and drawing similarities with their own family members.and drawing similarities with their own personal and family histories.

A therapy... useful? More like pseudo-science?

The dynamics developed in family constellations do not have any scientific support.. In fact, this practice is often associated with pseudoscience and superstition. It is one of the new age that have gained relevance among spiritual and pseudo-psychological circles.

In any case, here we will limit ourselves to describe, or rather to echo, all the possible applications of this type of therapy based on the testimony of Hellinger and other prominent advocates of this therapeutic practice.

Family constellation therapists often point out that this type of therapy is useful for dealing with systemic issues within the family. It can help to resolve entrenched conflicts and to reinterpret family relationships, and by extension, to find a new way of living.and, by extension, to find a new meaning to life.

Conflicts that are usually treated through this therapy

• Problems in family relationships
• Childhood traumas
• Problems with the couple or with old sentimental relationships.
• Relationship with children
• Depressive symptoms, sadness
• Grief processes
• Coping with serious pathologies
• Isolation, feelings of loneliness
• Other conflicts

One more among the existential therapies

Existential therapies are based on a phenomenological vision of the human psyche, and therefore of the psychological conflicts we suffer from.and therefore of the psychological conflicts we suffer from. The dynamics of existential therapies leave the therapist in the background, and focus on allowing the patient to perform a deep introspection.

This allows the person to detect latent conflicts and try to solve them, usually through reinterpretation and reconciliation with certain people and events of the past. However, its scientific basis is nonexistent, so from the point of view of Psychology and Mind we must warn that participating in this type of sessions can be useless and even harmful.