Bert Hellinger is the creator of the system-family constellation method. Biography, books

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

Hellinger constellations are very popular these days. Reviews about them are the most positive, but there are also opponents of this method. It is not surprising, because it does not fit into the framework of traditional psychology. The author of the method is Bert Hellinger. His books, published at the end of the last and the beginning of this century, are gaining an increasing audience. We invite you to get acquainted with the Hellinger method, as well as with him.

The biography of this man is quite interesting. Bert Antoine Hellinger is a famous German philosopher, theologian, psychotherapist, and spiritual teacher. His figure sometimes causes controversy, but this only fuels interest in this person. Quotes from Bert Hellinger are often found in scholarly writings and popular articles.

Origin and childhood

Hellinger was born on December 16, 1925 in the city of Leimen (Germany). His father was Albert Hellinger, a German engineer andCatholic. Bert was the middle of his three sons.

In 1936, the boy graduated from elementary school and left his parents' house at the age of 9. He went to Loor am Main, where the boarding school of the missionary congregation was located, in which Bert intended to continue his studies. In the future, he wanted to become a missionary and a priest.

The boarding school was closed in 1941, so the guy returned to his parents. He continued his education at the gymnasium. Bert Hellinger at this time joined the Catholic youth movement banned by the Wehrmacht. The local organization of the Hitler Youth tried unsuccessfully to recruit him. As a result, Bert Hellinger began to be seen as a potential enemy of the people. The administration of the gymnasium even wanted to refuse him a certificate after completing the course of gymnasium sciences.

Capture and escape

In 1942, Hellinger went to France, to the construction battalions of the Wehrmacht, where he was called to serve. And in 1945, American troops took him prisoner. So Bert Hellinger ended up in a prisoner of war camp in Belgium. A year later, he escaped from captivity, hiding in a freight car. After escaping, Hellinger returned to Germany. Here he learned about the death of his brother Robert, who died at the front in Russia.

Monasticism, university studies and a trip to South Africa

Hellinger, once in Germany, joined the religious Catholic order of Marianhill. He became a monk and took the name Suitbert, abbreviated as Bert. In 1971, Hellinger left the order, but retained this name.

Bert studied theology and philosophy atUniversity of Würzburg. After graduating from it, he accepted a novitiate, after which he served as a chaplain for six months. Then he went to South Africa, to the parish of Mariannhill, where he was supposed to carry out missionary work among the Zulus. Here Hellinger continued his studies. He graduated from the University of South Africa and the University of Petermaritzburg, where he took a course in pedagogy and English.

Bert's life in Africa

Bert has lived in Africa for 16 years. He taught in schools, was a parish priest and director of a complex of 150 regional mission schools. Bert studied Zulu, actively communicated with the local population, participated in its rituals. Over time, he began to understand the view of the world of these people and earned respect and fame.

Bert Hellinger, as a head of schools, faced conflicts and mutual rejection that arose between representatives of different faiths and races. In an attempt to resolve these conflicts, he collaborated with members of the psychodynamic group, which the Anglican Church sent to Maryannhill for this purpose. So Bert learned about the methods of group psychotherapy. He was impressed with how they could reconcile opposites through mutual respect.

Return to Germany, leaving the order, marriage

In 1968, Bert returned to Germany. He decided to get an education in the field of psychotherapy. In the order, the man began to be considered a heretic, but he worked in it for several years, while receiving an education and conducting his own practice with psychodynamicgroups. But in 1971 Hellinger left the order. He decided that he no longer wanted to be a priest. During this time, Bert met Herta, his future wife. He had no children in his marriage to her. Together with Gerta, he continued to lead psychotherapeutic consultations and groups.

The book that influenced Hellinger's fate

Hellinger did not stop absorbing new knowledge. In the early 1970s he studied classical psychoanalysis at the Vienna Depth Psychology Society with I. Shaked and R. Schindler, and studied at the Munich Psychoanalytic Institute. Arthur Yanov's Primal Cry, which Hellinger read in 1972 when the book had just come out, made a very strong impression on him. Burt even interrupted his psychoanalytic education. He left Germany for a year. During this time, Bert Hellinger studied with Janov in the USA and received personal therapy.

Going back, Bert used the ideas of Arthur Janov in his thesis on psychoanalysis. The scientific community did not accept these ideas, and Hellinger was not certified as a psychoanalyst.

Introducing new techniques

After that, he studied and practiced the therapies used at that time: transactional analysis, non-directive hypnotherapy, provocative therapy, gest alt therapy, etc. With Gundl Kucera, Bert studied NLP. By the way, his first book, which remained unpublished, is devoted to this method. Burt studied family therapy with Ruth McLendon and Leslie Cadiz. Their groups first introduced him to the work that became the prototype of his later creation.family constellation method.

Family Constellation

After a while it became the main method used by Bert. He developed it by combining two provisions in it:

• systemic approach, in which the client and the topic declared by him were considered in relation to his members of the system (family);
• A phenomenological approach that involves following what comes up as you work, with no prior concepts, and no further interpretations.

Orders of Love

Research conducted by Hellinger convincingly proved that a person should not be considered as a unit, but as a component of a system that is greater than the sum of its parts. Bert soon became convinced that members of the same family (brothers and sisters, fathers and children, not only living but also deceased) were connected by invisible threads. These relationships are based on three basic laws. The common name given to them by Bert Hellinger is "Orders of Love".

The law of ownership is the first of these laws. It states that any member of the family system has the right to be accepted into it and belong to it. The next one, called the law of hierarchy, assumes that the new system, that is, the young family, has unconditional priority over the old (parental) one. Finally, the law of balance implies the need for balance in the relationship of giving and taking.

Breaking laws

If the family system functions normally, then the living people give their children the love that their parents once gave them. Lack of love can cause a failure in the system called parentification. This phenomenon describes the situation in which children are "parents" to their fathers and mothers.

It also happens that the law of ownership is violated. As a result, a person all his life feels as if he reproduces other people's feelings and fulfills other people's requests. Fortunately, family constellations shed light on the situation in the family and transform relationships within it.

How constellations are done

Most of all they resemble psychodrama. Participants in it play the role of other people. However, this is only a superficial resemblance. Spectators and participants in the arrangement find themselves in the world of real people, their joys, tragedies, emotions and feelings. There is no game in this. Participants replace people they do not know. At the same time, they very accurately convey what is happening in the life of this person.

A substitute is a person who is chosen to replace one of the participants in the client's life story. This person is guided by what Hellinger called vicarious perception. Tragedies and dramas are played out in the constellation. This is evidenced by the words, movements, reactions of the substitutes.

Benefits of constellations

How can family constellations be useful? All people, as you know, belong to their own kind. They carry in their lives something that their ancestors, members of the clan, could not realize or live through. ATconstellations, the doctrine of karma looks completely new. It turns out that a person, being born in a particular family, carries within himself its karma. He resolves situations that were not resolved by his ancestors, and also experiences emotions that some member of his kind could not express.

The place-by-place field can reveal what is at the root of this client's problem. Sessions conducted according to the Hellinger method can help a person understand himself, as well as the processes that are happening to him and his partners in the family, in the family. This will help improve relations with relatives, overcome crises, change your life, find spiritual harmony and love.

Should I recommend Hellinger constellations? Reviews about them are ambiguous, because this method has not yet received scientific recognition. However, many note its benefits. Of course, to get the desired result, you need to find a good specialist. Many psychologists today practice the Bert Hellinger method, so it's easy to find an experienced person based on reviews.

Love as the basis of the method

Bert considers himself a practitioner who, after trying many different methods, eventually found his own. He says that the most important element of this approach, which distinguishes it from classical family therapy, is the understanding that love is behind any behavior. It is also the latent active force in all sorts of symptoms. Therefore, it is very important for the psychotherapist to find a point where the love energy of his client is concentrated, sincehere lies both the root of his problem and the key to his solution.

Popular constellations

Bert's therapeutic work is based on acts of respect, acceptance, acceptance of destiny, truth, courage and humility. His method (family constellations) very quickly became popular both in Germany and outside this country. Bert has worked with many bands around the world. He says that he does not teach the method, but releases all practitioners for free exploration. A group of colleagues formed around him, passionate about his method. They quickly master and develop new techniques and areas of constellation work: organizational constellations, structural constellations, those that use figures, etc.

Bert Hellinger: books and talks

The further fate of Bert after the discovery of the method is successful. Hellinger is active in the 1980s. He is also a member of the Society of Family Therapists in Germany. However, Burt still does not write books or teach. Gunhard Weber, his student, received Hellinger's permission in the early 1990s to publish recordings from the seminars he taught (scripts of comments and constellations). In 1992, Bert's first book on family constellations ("Two Kinds of Happiness…") appears. This edition becomes an instant bestseller.

Hellinger's work has become increasingly public since 1994, speaking to audiences of several hundred people. Bert begins to describe his methodconstellations in books, as well as in CDs and videos. In 1992-2007 More than 30 of his books have been published. They are mostly recordings from seminars given around the world by Bert Hellinger. "The Source Doesn't Need to Ask the Way" is one of his most famous books. Like his other works, it is popular all over the world. Another interesting book by Bert Hellinger is Healing. It contains many meditations and exercises that allow you to experience the healing and liberating movement. As you know, all diseases have a psychological component. You need to strive to heal not only your body, but also your soul. We suggest you pay attention to one more book - "The Big Conflict". Hellinger in it talks about mental mechanisms that lead to conflicts and wars between religions and peoples of the world.

In our country, between 2000 and 2009, 11 Hellinger's books appeared, as well as 2 versions of the translation of the publication by Gunhard Weber (in 2001 - "Two Kinds of Happiness", in 2005 - "Crisis of Love").

Bert Hellinger recently turned 90 years old. He is currently actively traveling. Hellinger conducts training courses, seminars and lectures throughout Europe, as well as in South and Central America, USA, China, Russia and Japan.