Systemic Constellations
So much of what you carry didn’t start with you. While you’re shaped by your own experiences, you also carry the imprint of the families and systems you come from. Culture, collective trauma, and forces like war, displacement, and exclusion influence us, often invisibly, whether we’ve experienced them directly or through our lineage. Research into epigenetics shows that what our ancestors experienced can leave a biological mark on us before we’re born.
When you can see what you’ve inherited more clearly, you have more choice: not just to let go of the burdens you carry, but to make the most of strengths you didn’t know you had, or that you took for granted. So many people come to this work believing that something is wrong with them personally, when what they’re carrying has deeper and more collective roots. By seeing the imprints these experiences leave, you build the compassion that makes it possible to release what was never yours.
WHAT IT IS
A way to see the patterns alive within a system
Systemic Constellation work offers a way to see the patterns alive within a system, whether it’s the body, a family, an organization, or a collective. It’s an experiential, embodied process that transforms what’s usually invisible into something you can see, feel, and work with.
Various elements of a system — generational family members, stakeholders in an organization, even the symptoms of an illness — are represented three dimensionally. In a group, you position people who serve as representatives in the places that feel right, without needing to explain why. Once they’re placed, they often begin to move on their own, drawing information from what constellation work calls the “knowing” field. In an individual session, you place objects as representatives, and you’re the one who moves, receiving the new information directly.
This work draws on ancient ideas about lineage, ancestors, and belonging. In fact, constellation work carries a documented debt to Zulu communal and ancestral traditions.
Sometimes, constellation work can be integrated into a broader, clinically recognized psychotherapy session. When this is the case, I can provide a superbill you can submit to your insurance company for possible reimbursement if you have out-of-network benefits.
TWO FORMATS
I offer this work in two formats
1:1 Constellation Sessions
Private sessions using objects, colored felt, and embodied methods to represent and explore the system we’re working with, whether it’s related to family, lineage, immigration, or a collective trauma. We can also represent the elements of a dynamic you’re entangled in, such as a work situation or relationship triangle. This can be a single session or ongoing work, depending on what you’re looking for.
Group Constellation Workshops
Group gatherings in which participants take turns bringing forward something to explore, while others represent family members or other parts of that person’s system, creating a three-dimensional perspective for the person, and the ability for the representatives to feel what it’s like to stand in another’s shoes. For that reason, even when it’s not your own constellation, representing and witnessing often cracks something open — an unexpected recognition of your own story living inside theirs, or a perspective vastly different from your own.
Who it’s for
People who’ve already done therapy or personal growth work and feel something is still unresolved
People curious about patterns that may reach beyond their individual experience into family, ancestral, or larger systems
People whose anxiety, health, relationships, or self-beliefs don’t seem to fully make sense given their own life story
People marginalized by a dominant culture
People marked by the imprints of war, genocide, colonization, and other collective traumatic experiences
People drawn to an experiential, embodied way of working
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
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No. No prior experience is necessary. New participants are always welcome.
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It depends on what you’re looking for. A 1:1 session offers privacy and focused attention on a specific issue. A group workshop gives you the opportunity to explore your own constellation or participate in others’ constellations through representing and witnessing.
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In a 1:1 session, yes. In a group workshop, not necessarily. Representing and witnessing are integral parts of constellation work and can offer unexpected insight into your own experience.
“We do not have to repeat only the tragedies of our ancestors. We can respect and acknowledge the difficulties they had, but we can invite the ancestral field to remind us of their laughter, their passions, and compassion as well.”
— Francesca Mason Boring
A NOTE FROM ME
Why I do this work
My own patterns started to crystallize with motherhood, though it took years to come fully into focus. I noticed them surfacing in how I was parenting, and recognized how they’d been moving through me to my children. Constellation work brought me into a deeper relationship with my Jewish lineage, giving me a way to honor what my ancestors carried and draw strength from what had also been passed down. Working in groups with other people’s family systems has continued to deepen my understanding of how love can become entangled, and what can help restore its flow.
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