Family Constellations
Sometimes an individual story makes more sense when we can see the system around it.
Systemic Family Constellations is an experiential practice for exploring the relationships, patterns and dynamics that shape us within our families and other relational systems.
Our families are our first systems. Within them we encounter love, loss, belonging, exclusion, loyalty and particular ways of relating. We also inherit stories about who we are, what is expected of us and what it means to belong.
Some of these inheritances become resources. Others can become patterns that continue to influence our relationships and choices long after their origins have been forgotten.
Constellation work offers a way of bringing some of these less visible dynamics into view.
How does it work?
We begin with something happening in your present life — perhaps a relationship, recurring pattern, family difficulty, rupture, loss, identity question or an area where you feel stuck.
A constellation creates a spatial representation of the system around an issue. In group work, people may represent individuals or other elements within the system. In 1:1 work, this can be explored using floor markers, figures, objects or other forms of representation.
We then pay attention to what emerges: relationships, distance, movement, language, bodily responses, belonging, exclusion and possible areas of entanglement.
A constellation is not about establishing definitive historical truth or recovering factual memories. It offers another way of seeing and experiencing an issue.
My approach works with both:
What have I come to believe within myself?
Our experiences can leave us with conclusions such as:
People leave.
I have to earn love.
I must keep everyone together.
It isn't safe to be fully seen.
Over time, we can stop recognising these conclusions as interpretations and begin experiencing them as reality.
Alongside systemic enquiry, I therefore pay attention to meaning, language and metacognition — developing the capacity to notice our thoughts and assumptions rather than automatically living from them.
What may be operating within the system?
Invisible loyalties
and entanglement
We can sometimes find ourselves repeating relationship patterns, occupying familiar roles or carrying responsibilities that are not entirely ours.
Within systemic practice, these dynamics can be understood as entanglements or invisible loyalties.
Untanglement does not mean rejecting our families or histories.
It means developing greater clarity about our place within them.
What belongs to me?
What belongs elsewhere?
What have I inherited as a resource?
What am I repeating?
And what might become possible when those distinctions become clearer?
My work particularly focuses on:
Relationships · Couples · Rupture · Family relationships · Belonging · Identity · Adoption and questions of origin · Culture and faith · Grief and loss · Life transitions
You do not need to understand Family Constellations before beginning. You simply need something you are willing to look at differently.
The aim
For me, constellation work is about untanglement and integration.
Not rejecting where we come from, but developing a clearer relationship with what has shaped us.
Keeping what gives us strength.
Giving what came before its rightful place.
And finding greater freedom in how we live and relate now.