What is Family Constellations?
WELCOME TO SYSTEMIC FAMILY CONSTELLATIONS LONDON & ONLINEReaching Beneath the Surface
Of What's Shaping Your Life
Some things can't be solved just by thinking about them more. Some things can’t change just by talking about them.
Systemic Family Constellations is a therapeutic approach that reaches beneath the surface. It helps you to discover the hidden, even unconscious or intergenerational, patterns shaping your life. Crucially, it helps you to address these patterns – to experience them, to understand them, and to embody new ways of being. This is the key to significant, lasting transformation.
How Family Constellations works
We all carry patterns from the families we grew up in. Some are obvious; many are not. We also carry patterns from the wider systems we are in, such as our relationships, workplace, and community. These all shape how we behave and react in life.
They can show up as repeated struggles in our life; in our friendships and relationships; in our self-esteem. It can be with feelings and responses we can’t quite explain, or a sense of being stuck no matter how hard we try.
In a constellation, we create a spatial, three-dimensional map of your system – the relationships, dynamics, and patterns within it. Unlike talking therapies, this is an experiential process: something you can see in front of you, feel in your body, and interact with directly. You don't need to analyse or explain. The constellation does much of the work for you.
My role is to guide and hold the space as facilitator. I will ask you some initial questions to understand what you're bringing and help you to set up your constellation. I’ll help clarify who or what needs to be represented, and where to begin. From there, I follow what emerges, gently intervening to shift the map, introduce new elements, or invite you to notice what's changing. The process moves at your pace, and you remain in the driving seat throughout.
You’ll be guided gently through the process. There’s no pressure to have all the answers, and you don’t need to share your whole family history, your trauma, your life story. Your role is simply to stay present and curious. You don't need to know what the answer is, or even what the question is. What matters is what arises – in the representatives, in the space between them, and in you.
Depending on the setting, this takes different forms. You can see more about this below.
What to expect in a session
How often do I need to come?
Every constellation is different, because every person, every family and every system is unique. There is no script and no predetermined outcome. There are some different settings though which change how we create the constellation.
In a one-to-one session, small objects or figures are used to represent members of the family or the system. That can include the issues, emotions and challenges being experienced, as well as supportive resources. Placed intuitively, and shifted in response to what emerges, they can surface hidden dynamics – unresolved grief, unspoken loyalties, entanglements carried down across generations – with surprising clarity.
One-to-one sessions can work with a wide range of experiences, whether that's exploring your own patterns, understanding a family system, or mapping what is happening in your close relationships. Even without a partner present, a constellation can illuminate the wider systems at play – family histories, inherited loyalties, and ways of relating that you may not be noticing.
In a constellation circle or workshop setting, 1 or 2 people bring an issue that they want to work on and other participants act as representatives for members of the family or system. They are given no information beyond who or what they represent, and yet how they naturally move in relation to each other often reveals dynamics that are immediately familiar to the person at the heart of the constellation. Everyone gets great insight and feels benefits from being involved, even when it’s not their constellation.
I also provide integration sessions for deeper healing. They offer a quieter, more conversational space to explore and make sense of your Family Constellations experience. We’ll help you to gain a deeper understanding, truly embrace the healing and, where helpful, receive targeted advice and complementary support to help body and mind come into alignment with what has opened up.
Sessions are typically 90–120 minutes. Some people find that a single session can bring significant movement. For those seeking deeper transformation, at least 2 or 3 sessions are recommended.
The effects may be felt straight away, or unfold gradually in the days and weeks that follow.
Online vs in person
Constellations work well both online and in person. The spatial and relational elements that make this approach so powerful are not limited by physical distance.
Online sessions use video call alongside small representative objects that you hold or place within your space. Many clients find online work just as meaningful as in-person sessions, with the added benefit of being in their own familiar environment.
In-person sessions are available from my dedicated constellation space in my home in the Hampstead area (NW3). There are great transport links too (you can see more details on my Contact and Location page).
The roots of
Family Constellations
Family Constellations was developed by German psychotherapist Bert Hellinger in the latter half of the twentieth century, and its roots run deep and wide.
Hellinger's thinking was shaped by an unusually broad range of influences. . His later training drew on family systems therapy, Virginia Satir's family sculpting work, and the psychodrama of Jacob Moreno – the pioneering approach that first explored how placing people spatially in relation to each other could reveal hidden dynamics that words alone couldn't reach. Hellinger also trained in Ericksonian hypnotherapy, transactional analysis, and primal therapy, weaving these threads into something genuinely new.
What emerged was an approach that recognised families as living systems, governed by unspoken laws and loyalties. When these are disrupted or unacknowledged – through loss, trauma, exclusion, or secrets held across generations – the effects ripple forward in ways that can be surprisingly difficult to trace.
The method has continued to evolve since Hellinger's early work, and today draws on insights from systemic therapy, trauma research, somatic awareness, and the emerging science of epigenetics – the study of how experience can be transmitted through family lines. It is a living, developing field, and one that continues to grow.
FREE DISCOVERY CALLI offer a free 20-minute discovery call – no hard sell, just a conversation to see if it feels like the best way forward for you.
Family Constellations London: In-person sessions in North West London in the Hampstead area (NW3) and online UK-wide & internationally