Individual Systemic Constellations
Individual systemic representation uses techniques and tools that perform at the individual level. Some of these tools are placement, painting, Playmobil and the empty chair exercise.
An important view of Bert Hellinger is that every family system has a consciousness that requires all members to be connected and honored in a certain way.
If someone in the system is not properly honoured, then younger members – out of love or a need to belong – may “get involved” with their ancestors – especially those who have been excluded, forgotten, removed or have experienced a difficult fate. Unconscious entanglements lie behind many of the problems explored in these representations.
During the process we look for possible solutions that can release the entanglements and restore order and balance to the system. The process provides the customer with a new picture of their position in the system at the right price for everyone involved in the system. Exploring the system can help us heal our deepest wounds.
Systemic representations take place in an energy field that connects family, ancestors, organizational members, the natural world, and all of humanity. This “field of knowledge” is a conscious energy that we can enter into to experience the feelings and sensations that reflect who and what is represented.
British biologist Rupert Sheldrake explains this field phenomenon, which he calls a “morphogenetic field,” as an organizing force that explains patterns of behavior in social groups, such as schools of fish and flocks of birds. Dr. Albrecht Mahr is the one who first used the term “knowledge field” to describe the energy field in human systems. He referred to the term “representational perception” as the experience through which volunteer representatives in a systemic representation session access the information of a system. During a systemic representation agents take on the essential properties of who or what they represent and begin to experience thoughts, feelings and physical symptoms through the ‘cognitive field’. They are able to reveal what is true even if they have no prior knowledge of what has happened historically.
A key element in the process of systemic representation is the use of therapeutic propositions that express the essential truth of the involvements or problems. Also, there can be powerful suggestions that restore balance to the system. Bert Hellinger created many such suggestions, which are still effective, but new ones are created spontaneously during the process. Healing sentences are transformative when spoken at the right time.