Family Constellations are the fastest growing holistic therapy modality simply because they can provide immediate mental, emotional, physiological and physical transformation in one single session. ​ Trauma is passed through DNA, which records every second of our life. But we can rewrite these neuronal paths for new recordings. And sometimes it’s easier than we think: constellation work addresses our relationships issues and mindsets in relation to the patterns of our family conscience. Similarly to practices like yoga or somatic work, we access the subconscious mind and the family conscience through the doorway of the body. The residual feelings that an event in the family create for its members become encoded in the family’s interpersonal dynamics: they are encoded in our very tissues and in our patterns of communication - the things we don’t say or can’t talk about, the anger or other emotions only some members of a family are ‘allowed’ or able to show, and so on. Mapping out a Family Constellation encompasses exploring previous powerful life events -from accidents to adoptions- and accessing the deepest dynamics in that family system. This process helps us recognize and then resolve deeply seated family patterns. For example, in order to understand a person's inability to trust, the family history of betrayal must be uncovered and released. These insights replace resentment with respect, and replace pain with understanding. This method is not just about understanding the past, it is about creating a new future for all the members of the family / relationship system.

Constellations can be done in a group or one-on-one, both in person or online. How long is the session? A constellation may take anywhere from around half an hour to an hour and a half or two hours. ​ Do I need to prepare? What do I need to bring? No need to prepare, no need to bring anything. ​ Mapping out a Family Constellation encompasses exploring previous powerful life events -from accidents to adoptions- and accessing the deepest dynamics in your family system. So the more you know about your family and their past, the better. However, often traumatic events in a family are kept secret. This is not an obstacle and we can still set up a Family Constellation without the facts. ​ It is always best to work on a particular issue. However, it is also very possible to just look at oneself in a constellation to see if everything is in balance. Or even to constellate a decision or choice we need to make. See more details and examples below. Can it be done online? Absolutely. And it works beautifully and as efficiently as an in-person session. Can it be done at home? It can be done anywhere as long as you have peace and quiet in the space during the session. You don’t need a big space at all. You can come to me or I can come to you (Sydney, Aus only) Constellations available in English and Spanish.

WARNING: triggering content. Some stories may upset some readers. In Family Constellations, surprising improvements in people’s health and happiness have become an everyday thing. When family dynamics can be shifted, when we can open our eyes, so to speak—the results are life altering. Emotional or physical suffering either recedes on its own, or yields dramatically to remedies that previously failed. My own case Symptom: I wanted to constellate my relationship with food as cooking, buying or planning meals had been an issue for me since becoming a mother. Not even eating nice food was enjoyable any more. In addition, I became extremely obsessed with my children’s diet and made it my mission that they ate 100% clean foods, labelling anything else as 'poison'. Seeing my children eat processed foods or what other people called ‘treats’ triggered me enormously. I often shouted "You can't eat that - it's poison!" To top it all up, my children showed physical symptoms related to food - arsenic toxicity, intolerances and a rare tummy condition. What I discovered in my first constellation? That I carry massive family trauma, a tragedy that was kept a secret for many, many decades. My dad had a sister he didn’t know about until a lot later in his life. She was 5YO when she died. The story, only shared by my grandfather when his wife (the mother of the deceased child) passed away, was that ‘an infection’ killed her. She was never talked about, my father never even saw a picture of his sister… Only recently we found out the truth: my auntie was accidentally poisoned by her father - she ate rat poison wrapped as a lolly and died the day after. My grandmother never recovered from the loss of her little girl. Never. Her marriage became torture. Imagine the guilt of that father, the blaming, the grief. Imagine the fear and how their parenting would have been affected from then on. My father was a baby when this happened. He was breastfeeding. He was literally ingesting grief. Fast-forward 34 years, when I’m born. I am my dad’s first daughter, my grandparent’s first granddaughter, the extended family’s first girl. Trauma is passed down. Family history is a massive part of who we are and how our brains are hardwired. We model the family 'templates' with every cell in our body, creating the foundations for our behaviours. But when we see and name the emotions, we bring them into the conscious and change the part of the brain that they've been carried in. These emotions then become accessible to be considered and be changed. And I did just that. The outcome: I felt lighter immediately. It's hard to explain the sensation of having cleared out something dark and dense. I felt clean. My constellation continued landing and being integrated by my body, mind and soul for many weeks. Once it became clear in my mind what ‘meaningful actions’ I had to take, I went for it. And it was life-changing. My relationship with food was healed - I felt a lot calmer and relaxed about what my kids were eating, I was enjoying food myself again, and even cooking became a positive. I saw incredible changes in my children too. Other people noticed my renewed love an happy attitude towards food. No more unexplained triggers. Seeing the unconscious family pattern I was following freed me from it. I broke the pattern for me, my children and the generations to come. Case studies from book ‘Health, Happiness and Family Constellations’ by Michael Reddy Ph.D, CPC Note: I do not publish my clients’ case studies to protect their confidentiality and ensure their privacy. I have strict policies and procedures for maintaining confidentiality in my clinic. The cases below demonstrate how we can rewire and ‘soft-wire’ our brains when they have been hard-wired based on trauma and suffering. When we modeled pain with every cell in our body for many generations, we need to open our eyes to that inheritance to make the patterns conscious and realise that we are no longer children and no longer need the old strategies to survive or save others… that what she calls ‘the unconscious contract’ has expired and we need to release it. TERRIBLE MIGRAINES FADE—Don’s debilitating migraines go away when he resolves a hidden loyalty to his father’s older brother. At the age of four, a child who would have been Don’s uncle fell down a stairway, hit his head, and died of a concussion. Instead of grieving, it seems, Grandma and Grandpa fought over which of them was responsible. Should he have fixed the stair-rail sooner? Maybe. Or should she have watched the child more carefully? Who can say? In any case, blame one another they certainly did, and a lasting enmity settled into the family. Don’s headaches echoed his uncle’s concussion. The grief and pain that was stifled by bitterness two generations back surfaced in the suffering of this grandson--until a family constellation relieved him of this burden. PUBLIC SPEAKING PHOBIA VANISHES—Rising executive John’s incurable panic at presentations vanishes when he discovers a hidden loyalty: a grandfather was crippled lecturing about explosives. John’s paternal grandfather was explaining the safe usage of grenades to recruits when a faulty one exploded. Instead of coming home from the war a hero, he returned as a cripple—one who apparently could not do what he was supposed to be expert at teaching. He was thus both maimed and shamed by this and never really recovered. John’s phobia “remembered” his grandfather’s tragedy. Lodged in John’s subconscious was the shock his grandfather never got past-- lectures can destroy your life. Until the constellation process brought this to light, and freed him to give the wonderful presentations he was quite capable of. CAN’T LOVE BECOMES “I CAN!”—Beth’s avoidance of any man she starts to love shifts when she releases her loyalty to both a mother and a grandmother who could not be close to the man they loved. Back when, Grandma was not allowed to marry her long time sweetheart. But in her heart, she never let go of him. Mom was Grandma’s oldest and, although she did actually love her husband, she was inexplicably unable to open up to him. Without understanding it, she experienced suffering similar to that of the mother she loved. Her innocent, loving, inarticulate child self had taken a kind of lasting vow. “It’s ok Mom,” said the little one, “I’ll share that pain with you.” But then Grandma’s oldest daughter grew up and herself had an oldest daughter named Beth. And Beth inherited a two-generations old pattern that said “any man you love, you can’t ever have.” So she avoided love instinctively anytime it even appeared likely. She was true to the shared fate of the line of women to which she belonged— until a pair of family constellations opened her eyes and released her from this blind love. ASTHMA AND COPD RELIEVED—Dave’s life-threatening respiratory problems finally respond to treatment and stabilise when he discovers his subconscious bonding to a brother who suffocated during birth. He was called “Dave” as a “replacement child” for this immediate older brother, whose umbilical cord failed during the delivery His mother was deeply affected by this earlier loss. Dave’s condition expressed Mom’s buried grief, and his difficult life as a memorial to a brother who never got to breathe. It resolved when he was able to feel and express his rightful status as a unique and different child. Finally, he too could breathe—as himself. BUSINESS FAILURES RESOLVE—Seemingly inexplicable blows to Margaret’s acknowledged business creativity and organisational skills cease to occur: she resolves her subconscious identification with an inventor her grandfather cheated. The inventive best friend was a partner in Grandpa’s initial financial success, but Grandpa cheated him out of the company. When this happened, the inventor took to drinking and ended up on the street. Margaret knew about him only peripherally, because the episode shamed the family and made them secretive about it. But she was very close to her Grandpa. Margaret’s repeated business failures attempted to atone for her favorite Grandpa’s injustice. In the constellation that freed her, Grandpa, in the person of a representative—was able to accept the guilt he earlier denied. MENTAL ILLNESS DISAPPEARS—Ann’s severe depressions clear up when she releases her subconscious bond to a banished great aunt. This hysterical great aunt was sent secretly to an asylum and then lied about to family members. Before 1940, families often tried to cover up insanity in their midst. Although the aunt was actually institutionalised, descendents were told that she had died young. Ann’s depressions “re-membered” the great aunt and the family’s failure of love. A constellation helped the family acknowledge their denial of their role in the aunt’s suffering. This (along with cognitive therapy) made Ann whole again. Curious? Make an appointment to discuss your case and see if Family Constellations could help.

Family Constellations are not only extremely effective in a short amount of time, but also very versatile and can be used in almost any setting. One of the best things about constellations is that it enables us to express what we need to without actually having to ‘say’ things to the other people involved. In this work we are healing bonds, not necessarily the actual relationships. ​

A Family Constellation happens when you are aware of a pattern that repeats itself in your family system, generation after generation. The source (the ‘trauma’, which could simply be an event that a family member couldn't process) imprints and is then passed down. We know that family history is a huge part of who we are. Family Constellations help us uncover and release any issues that we inherited from the past. ​ Family Constellations are effective because we are healing the wound at its source, not just managing its symptoms. Scientific evidence of cellular memory and epigenetics shows that past traumatic events are not only an emotional experience: they are a biological one. And what’s in your body will resurface every time you face similar or related situations, re-living the past and creating ‘symptoms’. Also, when you set up a constellation you have the unique opportunity to (literally) see yourself in relation to others you care about. When you see how you hurt your partner’s feelings with the anger you learned from your father, or how you repeat the passive-aggressive habits your mother modelled from her mother, affecting and frustrating your children, the pathway to positive change becomes visible, too. It's challenging to see ourselves as others experience us, yet real compassion and growth happen when we begin to understand ourselves not just as an isolated ego, but as an interconnected and interdependent self-in-relation-to-others. We start to make sense of our partner’s and children’s complaints, and become less defensive, more open to real connection and honest relationships. When we start this movement, our whole family can benefit from the clarity and kindness towards ourselves and others that can result.

Family Constellations is the creation of a German psychologist named Bert Hellinger. Hellinger traveled to South Africa as a missionary in the 1950s. He became interested in the customs of the Zulu people and a particular ceremony they used to understand one another. In Zulu tradition, ancestors are sacred, and healing ancestral wounds is a key to strong family ties. Hellinger saw family members in a state of harmony, speaking to one another candidly, without being passive-aggressive or becoming frustrated. It wasn’t quite how he was used to seeing family matters play out back home. Family Constellation work draws from a number of other disciplines including psychoanalysis, Gestalt therapy, Family Systems, psychodrama, phenomenology, hypnotherapy, systemic family therapy, and Zulu beliefs.

If you are seeking healing, clarity, and transformation in your life and are open to exploring the hidden forces that may be shaping your experiences, Family Constellation Work can be a profound tool. Whether you have specific things to address (see list below) or simply wish to gain deeper insights into your ancestral roots, this modality offers a unique and therapeutic journey toward self-discovery and healing. I am here to guide you on this profound journey of self-exploration and healing. Join us on this remarkable adventure into the hidden depths of your family's legacy, and let Family Constellation Work illuminate the path to a more harmonious and fulfilled life.

Constellation work is not related to astrology, card readings or astronomy. It is a powerful solution-focused, short-term therapeutic method. Family Constellations are different from star constellations. Think of the word constellations as a configuration. A Family constellation is a 3D representation of your family and its dynamics. This short-term intervention visually maps out the unconscious dynamics of a family system in order to see and understand what’s out of balance and what is needed to restore the flow of love and energy. ​ The term ‘Family Constellations’ refers to the phenomenon that each individual belongs to and is bonded in relationship to other members of their systems (not just our family). This effective form of therapy can help you uncover the underlying dynamics in which you are involved in, so it applies to any groups you belong to: your friendship circle, profession, culture, gender, religion, etc. These systems have their own consciousness that affect us and our immediate surroundings. This is why some facilitators choose to call this work 'Systemic Constellations" and not be limited to the term 'Family'.