In the middle of last year, the Turkish series
My other self
(
Another self,
in English), on Netflix, brought many closer to family constellations.
"Constellar" is a verb that continues to gain popularity in what was once called "alternative therapies."
Cristina Llaguno
, lawyer, family constellator and author of several books on the subject, clarifies that, first of all, it is not "a therapy".
As she explains to
Clarín,
it is "a philosophy for life, a phenomenological work that has to do with observing what is seen in the field of work and relating the people who are in that field to each other to see conflict dynamics." .
Its creator, the German psychotherapist
Bert Hellinger
, laid the foundations for family constellations in the 1970s.
From then until his death in 2019, he worked over the decades to disseminate his methods, which were adapted and also covered the organizational field and that of legal mediation.
Llaguno studied with him.
Hellinger's look at family constellations is based on the premise that, in addition to individual configuration, each person is part of a larger system: that of the family clan.
There, in which each one occupies —or should occupy— a specific place,
conscious and unconscious information
is contained about the dynamics, the secrets and the filial wounds.
According to family systemic therapy or family constellations, people have conscious and unconscious information about our family system (Photo: illustration Shutterstock)
The scope of the application of this model has been debated by the scientific community, which does not endorse it as a formal psychological therapy.
The skepticism of the academy does not discourage those who practice and teach family constellations.
"It is not a therapy, many people know about family constellations, but in reality the constellation is the didactic form of a much larger work that is a philosophy for life," Llaguno maintains.
In no case are medical treatments dismissed.
Its function, he adds, is to offer a complementary and systemic look.
"The constellations stage the movement of the family soul," explains Llaguno in his book
Amor en movimiento
.
In other words, just as there is an individual conscience,
there is also a family conscience
and when a child is born, "it carries with it the unresolved issues of all its ancestors, through the maternal and paternal lines, whether they have known them or not", maintains the author.
Although at first Hellinger established principles that he called Orders of Love, he later changed their name to Laws for Life, indicates the constellator.
They are the Law of Belonging, the Law of Hierarchy and the Law of Balance or Compensation.
Each one denotes what the dynamics of that system is like and how it can be worked to manifest itself in a harmonious way.
Family constellations: what a session consists of and why we speak of an "information field"
Turkish actor Firat Tanis plays Zaman, a familiar constellator in the My Other Me series.
(Photo: Netflix).
"What we have to do is open that
field of family information
to see where that flowing energy stopped, with what traumatic event, what caused you to be frozen now and unable to move forward, for example," explains Llaguno, referring to the work that the constellators play.
It can be "constellar" through two modalities: in individual sessions or in group workshops.
A glimpse of these workshops appears in the scenes of the Turkish series starring the actress
Tuba Büyüküstün
, and several constellators have expressed their opinion and highlighted their fidelity with most of the practices that are represented in this fiction.
Generally, before attending a session, it is advisable to ask yourself questions that lead to the origin of our family, its history, and our role in it.
During the individual sessions, they work with figures to be the representatives of father, mother, grandparents and other ancestors.
(Photo: illustration Shutterstock)
The consulting person comes to the workshop with
a request
that they must be able to transmit to the constellator in one sentence.
This request cannot be made on behalf of someone else unless it is a minor child, in exceptional cases.
The session continues with the help of
representatives
, assistants who also go to the workshop and are usually chosen by the person at that moment to represent the father, mother, grandparents or other ancestors.
In this circle, the constellators explain, the field appears: unconscious information that is part of the applicant's family history.
Based on this information, the constellators work on
a new image
that reconciles the applicant with his parents or other ancestors and allows him to take his place in the family clan.
“That has to do with quantum physics.
I cannot perceive what happens with your family system, unless you ask for it —says the lawyer and constellator—.
If you ask for it,
a field of information opens
where, as we are trained to perceive and read people's bodies, we can realize what was happening before”.
During the group session, the consultant chooses representatives, workshop assistants who come to represent the father, mother, grandparents or other ancestors.
(Photo: illustration Shutterstock)
In fact, Llaguno assures that the mere fact of participating and observing also offers a look at the dynamics of our own family.
“We cannot guarantee that everyone who attends a workshop will make their own constellation.
However, it is impossible to be in a workshop and not be constellated, you are seeing
dynamics that are universal
”.
“It all seems very magical, but it is not magic, it is a lot of personal work by the constellators to perceive what is happening in that family dynamic”, affirms the constellator.
How to prepare a family constellation
The secrets and information that is shown in the field during a session not only includes the parents, but also grandparents, great-grandparents or members who participated in that family system.
(Photo: illustration Shutterstock)
Llaguno is also a constellation teacher and highlights that the constellation training in her school consists of three years divided into thirty modules.
It's not something that can be learned in a workshop over the weekend, she clarifies.
The lawyer also devised in 2002 a method that unites the law with several of the foundations of the constellations for conflict resolution and that she has called "Systemic Law".
Before being able to receive and certify, adds Llaguno, the constellators are supervised in different meetings.
A session may vary in its duration according to the circumstances of each field.
The constellators, lawyer Cristina Llaguno (left) and obstetrician María Esther Jandette (right) in Mexico last month.
(Courtesy Cristina Llaguno)
During her dialogue with Clarín she is accompanied by the Mexican doctor and obstetrician
María Esther Jandette
, who has come to Argentina to give talks and workshops on her "Systemic Renaissance" model.
Jandette also received her training as a constellator from Hellinger before specializing as a "reborner" in the study of conception, gestation and birth as the pinnacle of connection to the mother and her ancestors.
"As an obstetric doctor, I find the systemic view to be an impressively useful contribution to women's health. Diseases, diagnoses, symptoms, in the female sphere, have a direct connection with what is unresolved with the mother, with what is unresolved between women for several generations ago. And the field of constellations shows it," says the doctor.
The approach to family constellations also includes a joint discovery between the consultant and the person who constellates.
In the event that the applicant is adopted, the workshops work with four representatives: two for their biological parents and the other two as their adoptive parents.
One of the signs, explains the obstetrician and constellator, is that “if a conflict is being repeated in a person's life, it is responding to a tangled issue, tangled in its own history.
You have to work on that and this [the constellations] is an excellent model for that”.
Llaguno completes this idea by explaining that "like a mirror, everything that happens in the microcosm of the family expands to the macro, to the outside."
look also
Why parents cannot be constellated, and other frequent questions about family constellations
Why children's songs are essential for children's development
Why family stories are often repeated from generation to generation
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