Recently, I watched a series on Netflix called Another Self. It’s a Turkish drama that focuses on the lives of three friends, Ada, Sevgi, and Leyla. It explores the women’s lives both individually and collectively as they navigate careers, relationships, their collective friendships, and more. When one of the women, Sevgi, is diagnosed with Cancer, she seeks out alternative healing to help with her diagnosis. The women find a spiritual healer who leads them in healing ceremonies to uncover the traumas that still affect them today.
One of the spiritual tools highlighted in the show is documented as an ancient Zulu practice and was brought to the public eye by Bert Hellinger, a German Psychotherapist who spent time as a Catholic missionary in South Africa with the Zulu people. When Hellinger introduced this healing practice to the public, he called it Family Constellations. This method quickly started gaining popularity worldwide with facilitators adapting and integrating it into various healing modalities.
My experience with the practice currently known as Family Constellations started many years ago. I found myself as the “seeker”, the person looking for answers. My marriage was over and we were having a tumultuous family court battle. I wasn’t looking for anything specific, but I needed clarity on the whirlwind I was living. The seeker chooses participants to represent their family members or other elements. Each participant is invited to drop into their body and emotions and truly connect. They are then invited to express those emotions and move around intuitively as they’re led.
The facilitator watches the participants and invites them to adjust, or asks for further insight from the seeker. This often reveals the hidden dynamics, patterns, disruptions, or fractures within a family. The facilitator will then suggest actions for the seeker to say or do to release that family trauma.
In every family, there are generational traumas passed down that if not addressed and healed, will carry forward into each new generation. Sometimes we may not know why we struggle with certain things, but the answers can be found in our ancestral healing. Scientific studies have shown that trauma can be passed down intergenerationally. If trauma can be passed down from generation to generation, then so too can healing. When we heal our trauma and any trauma we may carry from our ancestors, we heal the generations to come forward in our lineage.
Just as we may carry the struggles of our ancestors within us, we also carry the potential for healing and transformation within us. May you find the freedom to your ancestors’ wildest dreams and walking prayers.
