Systemic and Family Constellations

Over the last four years I have undergone training as a systemic constellations facilitator and in the use of the approach working in groups, one to one, and with those affected by trauma and by illness. I have trained with Professor Franz Ruppert, Dr Albrecht Mahr, Jan Jacob Stam and Vivian Broughton.

The approach is relevant for therapeutic coaching, Executive Coaching and organisational development and I use it in a wide range of settings. Systemic Constellations has evolved from the work of Bert Hellinger, who first used and wrote about this approach to understanding the unconscious psycho-social and emotional dynamics within family and other group systems, and within an individual's inner psychological and emotional systems. As an approach, we use objects (felts on the floor or stones ) or individual people to represent different elements of the system and then explore the relationship between them. This is a dynamic and creative approach, which uses the intuition and phenomenological responses of those involved. The approach recognises the inter-generational component of our individual experience, as passed down from our grandparents to our parents, and from our parents to us. Through this developmental history, we can become very entangled in certain relationships, which keeps us stuck in ways of behaving and takes away energy from our lives. As an approach it is solutions-focused, that is it is used to enable an individual to find a resolution to something that is emotionally troubling to them.

I work with individuals through one-off or a course of constellation consultations; each consultation lasts for 2.5 hrs. I also work with groups who are interested in personal and/or professional development and wish to use this approach for example Women in Leadership.

Understanding the psycho-dynamics of stepfamilies
With Vivian Broughton, I co-facilitated two workshops exploring the psycho-dynamics of stepfamilies. I am currently writing about this topic and plan to run further workshops in Exeter in 2011/2012. If you are interested in this please get in contact with me.