Family Constellations & Focalizing
Day-Long Seminar
April 19th, 2008

I recently attended a seminar facilitated by Cristina Casanova, Jan Crawford & Dr. Michael Picucci on Family Constellations and Focalizing. Trying to describe what is by definition experiential and phenomenological can be a little daunting. When a group of twenty some men and women agree to participate with open hearts and minds to a process they are unfamiliar with, it’s little wonder that inexplicable things happen. Here are the mechanics of how it worked: One person at a time volunteers to be the “client,” meaning they sit in a designated chair and respond to some questioning by the focalizer (facilitator):

What is an issue in your family that you would like to resolve?

Describe some of the dynamics of the situation among the various family members involved.

Choose an assortment of people from the room to represent (role play) the key family members.

These seem to be the only bits of structure the process is concerned with, other than the wise and gentle guidance from the facilitator. Everything else takes on an organic life-force of its own, and then it starts to get really interesting. My choices, for example, of who would represent my various family members seemed to me to be completely random. And yet, I couldn’t have asked for anything better out of Central Casting. The representatives seemed to know instinctively how to express emotions (both verbally, and non-verbally) that felt authentic for the individuals in my family they were representing.

One of the other clients spoke of disturbing violence in his childhood that had been perpetrated on his mother by his father. The woman representing his mother faced the man who was representing his father (the client had arranged their poses) and after about three minutes staring at her abuser, she burst into uncontrollable tears. The sobbing lasted for the next ten minutes, even after the poses were changed and she no longer faced her violent husband. I wondered if something in her own life was triggered by taking on the emotions of the woman she was representing, since it continued for so long. Or, maybe what she was picking up was so strong she couldn’t control it. The fascinating thing was that either way, the client seemed to benefit enormously from observing her response. Was that random then, when he initially chose her, or is there indeed a sort of unseen magic at play here?

The courage and openness of the participants was stunning. This was not a method acting class; the people there were not actors. Simply by agreeing to be whatever person from the family they were asked to represent, their emotional responses to the situations were incredibly authentic. Not only were they responding to real things they actually felt in their capacities (some of those feelings were physical), but it felt authentic to all who were observing.

In my own family constellation that day I was able to see a relationship in a different light, from a point of view I’d never had before. In subsequent reading about the Constellation approach comparing its power to that of a sacred ritual, it was said that another result of this work is that it may have a profound affect on the people represented who weren’t actually in the room. I’m open to all of the possibilities, and very grateful for having been there. And who knows? Maybe my estranged sister will be giving me a call.

For further information:
www.hellinger.com/international/english/index.shtml
www.focalizing.com