Facets of the Family Constellation -- Volume 1: Facets of the Family Constellation

By Marc Baco

This is a highly readable guide to the powerful family constellations method of therapy, which is based on recreating family patterns within the therapeutic context. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: BadPress
• Release date: Aug 13, 2021
• ISBN: 9781667410357

Book preview

Facets of the Family Constellation—Volume 1

Marc Baco

––––––––

Translated by Robert E Anderson 

Facets of the Family Constellation—Volume 1

Written By Marc Baco

Copyright © 2021 Marc Baco

All rights reserved

Distributed by Babelcube, Inc.

www.babelcube.com

Translated by Robert E Anderson

Cover Design © 2021 Sarah Wanning

Babelcube Books and Babelcube are trademarks of Babelcube Inc.

Facets of the Family Constellation

1

by

Marc Baco

Notice:

This publication has been researched and prepared in accordance with the best of our knowledge. However, the publisher and author cannot accept any liability for ideas, concepts, recommendations and facts.

The published tips and advice are to be understood as aids to arrive at your own solutions in each case.

If you have any unanswered questions, please contact your primary care physician or therapist.

The book is not a substitute for medical treatment / therapy.

The author and the publisher cannot give an absolute guarantee for your personal result. You must act in all cases at your own responsibility.

As a reader of this book, we would like to expressly point out that no guarantees of success or the like can be guaranteed. Also, no responsibility can be taken for consequences of any nature that may occur to you or other readers in connection with the contents of this book.

The reader is responsible for his own ideas and actions resulting from this book.

Reproductions, translations, distribution, further processing or similar actions for commercial or non-commercial purposes as well as resales are not permitted without the written consent of the author and publisher.

Table of contents

Foreword

What happens during a family constellation

Preliminary talk

Selection of representatives

Actual lineup

Final interview

Aborting a lineup

Excursus – Rules of the game

Clarify family tree and family ties

Clothing and appearance

Blog article from www.marc.baco.de

How do you best benefit from a constellation as a representative?

What does Hitler's mother have to do with the family setting?

Are you allowed to be happy at all?

What is the sibling circle good for?

How a fairy tale constellation reveals your life script

Constellations with the 'Essence of the relationship'

For whom is it particularly important to be a 'permanent representative'?

Micro Expressions – what fleeting facial expressions reveal to the family writer

How the ancestral lineage allows you to come into your power

Trauma constellations – How pent-up energy can finally flow away

How quickly a dream constellation can become a trauma constellation

Can a wellness constellation help you?

How spin-off's can confuse you

Why death wish does not have to be related to yourself

Inner Team Constellations: Who is actually pulling the strings inside you

How you can let go of even the most difficult roles

What strengthens your self-esteem in constellations and at home

Energetic constellation and the solution path through the archangels

Prenatal trauma – How experiences in the womb affect your life

Can you set up for someone else?

Are there black magic and curses in family constellations?

What does it mean when children stutter?

The five most important reasons when an individual session is useful and important in advance

How trauma constellation and inner child work can work together

How secondary feelings hinder our development

Other-feelings – For whom do you feel, think or act?

Constellations with the group soul

Afterword

Literature

About me

Foreword

This book is a compilation of my previous blog posts (as of 07/27/2015) on www.marcbaco.de supplemented by basic features of family constellations from my information booklet Familienstellen – Ganz Praktisch [Family Constellations – Completely Practical].

You can also just read most of it for free on my site if you feel like it.

Because I use informal language on the blog, I have kept it here in the book as well – contrary to my other practices in my other books on family constellations.

It was only when I was compiling this book that I realized again how diverse family constellations are. I have already illuminated much, but much more has not even been touched.

That is why I decided to publish this volume as the first of a series:

Facets of the Family Constellation

I will publish a new volume about every half year. Over the course of time, you will have a comprehensive compendium of the variety of aspects of family constellations.

I wish you a lot of fun with it and enlightening insights!

Marc Baco

What happens during a family constellation

The general procedure at a glance:

Preliminary talk

Selection of representatives

Actual lineup

Final interview

The preliminary talk

In the preliminary meeting, the request of the person who wants to have a constellation (the client) is clarified and further background is asked. Usually one has received a preparatory questionnaire beforehand, so that one has had enough time to research family connections and events. It is useful to contact the 'knowledge bearers' of the family history in order to be able to fill out the questionnaire adequately.

The preliminary discussion serves the constellation leader to get all the relevant information, although there are also leaders who say that they do not need any information because everything important is revealed in the constellation.

Selection of representatives

If the concern is determined, the relevant persons are set up for it, such as father, mother, brother and sister, for example. Abstract concepts such as freedom, things (such as the parental home, for example) or symptoms (such as lack of money, for example) and others are also represented by persons and are also set up or placed like a person.

If you are the constellator, then listen to yourself for a moment before choosing the representatives to see which of the people present can best represent the person to be portrayed. Rely completely on your gut feeling when choosing! And also choose a representative for yourself, because you are only in the role of the observer, at least at the beginning (but this can be different depending on the setting).

In the setting of the 'Freiburg School', the client steps behind the representative, puts his hands on his shoulders for a certain time (thinking inwardly of the person in question) and leads him, pushing him slightly, to a place that is coherent for him – in which the realm of the living is in the circle of chairs and the realm of the dead is outside it (but this can be redefined after an announcement).

If you are a representative, feel yourself in the role. This works best if you neglect your mind and do not pay attention to whether your thoughts and feelings are socially desirable in the role.

Representatives can also decline or relinquish the role at any time if it becomes too much for them.

Actual lineup

When the client has positioned all the representatives in the room, they are usually questioned in their initial position before they are allowed to move freely or are rearranged by the leader.

The interesting thing about this is that complete strangers can nevertheless portray a family member so accurately that they are perceived as authentic and characteristic of that person (in different ways, of course: sometimes very similar, sometimes less so). Why this works is still unknown to science. But what is important is that it works.

In the course of the constellation, all sorts of things can now happen in the interaction. For example, so-called 'solving sentences' are spoken or certain groupings are made. The representatives follow their movement impulses.

At a certain point in the constellation, the client may also take the place of their representative in the constellation in order to move from the role of observer to the role of experiencer / feeler / actor, which usually deepens the constellation experience.

After some time, a final image is created, which concludes the constellation. At this point, it is also possible to continue working on another day with a new constellation if no solution has been found or if further 'construction sites' open up.

Final interview

When everyone is back in their seats, there is a debriefing – usually brief – in which the leader often summarizes what has been seen and puts it in the context of the concern. However, this is handled very differently. Some leaders use few words and take the view that what has been experienced should first be allowed to have an effect and, if possible, not be talked about. Others help interpret what has been experienced and even make suggestions for action for the next time.

That was a short explanation of a constellation, which is based on the customs in the area of Freiburg im Breisgau. Family constellations are performed very differently from leader to leader. Therefore this description can only give you a rough overview. There are some videos on YouTube where you can get a basic impression of what to expect.

Aborting a lineup

Sometimes it happens that the constellation leader stops the constellation.

Selection of reasons for (premature) termination:

No movement of the representatives is shown and/or the representatives are uninvolved.

There is no energy to the subject in the lineup.

Representatives get into overly strong, perhaps overwhelming feelings and the constellation is aborted to prevent harm to them (such as because of strong trauma, or the representative has strong resonance with the subject, for example).

The constellator is uninterested and/or uninvolved in what is happening, in the sense of constellation leader/representative, doing THIS for me (the constellation has little effect without emotional connection).

Rules of the game are violated (happens very rarely!): grabbing, hitting, disregarding the instructions of the line-up leader, etc.

The constellation facilitator feels that the client can't take any more and there needs to be (at least) one more constellation (in my experience, the most common and healthiest reason for cancelling a constellation).

The constellation facilitator will never lightly abort a constellation. He/she always has the well-being and interests of the constellant as well as the group (including him/herself) in mind.

It has often been shown that there have been important developments after a break-off at home with the client that have then led to great progress in a new set-up.

Do not despair!

Excursus – Rules of the game:

Since authentic behavior of the persons represented by the representative comes to light in constellations, the actions mentioned above (grabbing, hitting, disregarding the instructions of the constellation leader, etc.) may occur.

In order to do justice to authenticity, on the one hand, and to not become encroaching on each other, on the other hand, there are a few general rules of the game in constellations:

Hitting/violence: movements are implied and powerless, that is to say, a slap in the face, for example is only implied and/or verbally expressed slowly, sometimes without touching.

Groping or sexual acts: Movements are implied without touching and/or verbalized (I would like to ...).