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

Nowadays, the Hellinger arrangement is very popular . Reviews about them are very 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 past and the beginning of this century, are gaining an increasing audience. We suggest you get acquainted with the method of Hellinger, as well as with him.

The biography of this man is quite interesting. Bert Antoine Hellinger is a well-known German philosopher, theologian, psychotherapist, spiritual master. His figure sometimes provokes controversy, but this only fuels interest in this person. Citations of Bert Hellinger are often found in scientific works and popular articles.

Origins and childhood

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

In 1936, the boy graduated from primary school and at the age of 9 left his parents' home. 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 boy returned to his parents. He continued his studies at the gymnasium. Bert Hellinger at this time joined the youth Catholic movement, banned by the Wehrmacht. He unsuccessfully tried to enlist the local organization of the Hitler Youth. 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.

Captivity and escape

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

Monasticism, university education and a trip to South Africa

Hellinger, when he was in Germany, joined the religious Catholic order Marianhill. He became a monk and took the name of Syutbert, abbreviated - Bert. In 1971, Hellinger left the order, but retained that name.

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

Bert's Life in Africa

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

Bert Hellinger, working as a school leader, faced conflicts and mutual rejection that arose between representatives of different faiths and races. Trying to resolve these conflicts, he collaborated with members of the psychodynamic group, which the Anglican church sent to Mariannhill for this purpose. So Bert learned about the methods of group psychotherapy. He was impressed with how they could reconcile opposites by mutual respect.

Return to Germany, exit from the Order, marrying

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

The book that influenced the fate of Hellinger

Hellinger did not stop absorbing new knowledge. In the early 1970's. He studied classical psychoanalysis in the Vienna community of deep psychology in I. Shaked and R. Schindler, and also studied at the Munich psychoanalytic institute. The work "Primary Scream" by Arthur Janov, which Hellinger had read in 1972, when the book had just come out, made a very strong impression on him. Bert even interrupted his psychoanalytic education. He left Germany for a year. During this time, Bert Hellinger was trained by Janov in the United States and underwent personal therapy.

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

Acquaintance with new methods

After that, he studied and practiced the methods of therapy used at that time: transactional analysis, non-directive hypnotherapy, provocative therapy, gestalt therapy, etc. In the Gundla Kuchery Bert studied NLP. It is to this method, by the way, that his first book is devoted, which remained unpublished. Burt studied family therapy with Ruth McLendon and Leslie Cadiz. Their groups first introduced him to work, which became the prototype of the subsequently created method of family placement.

Family Arrangement

After a while, it became the main method that Burt used. He developed it, combining two provisions in it:

• A systematic approach in which the client and the subject he claimed were considered in relation to the members of the system (family);
• A phenomenological approach that presupposes following what arises during work, without using preliminary concepts, and without further interpretation.

Order of Love

The research that Hellinger conducted, convincingly proved that the personality should be viewed not as a unit, but as a component of a system that is greater than the sum of its constituent parts. Bert soon became convinced that members of the same family (brothers and sisters, fathers and children, not only living now, but also deceased) are connected by invisible threads. These relationships are based on three basic laws. The general name that Bert Hellinger gave them is "The Order of Love."

The law of belonging is the first of these laws. It says that any member of the family system has the right to accept it and belong to it. The next, called the law of hierarchy, assumes that the new system, that is, the young family, has an unconditional priority over the old (parental) system. Finally, the law of balance presupposes the need for equilibrium in the relations of acceptance and bestowal.

Violation of laws

If the family system is functioning normally, the people living now give the children the love that their parents once gave them. The lack of love can cause a failure in the system, called parentification. This phenomenon describes a situation in which children turn out to be "parents" for their fathers and mothers.

It also happens that the law of belonging is violated. As a result, a person feels his whole life as if he is reproducing other people's feelings and fulfilling other people's needs. Fortunately, family arrangements shed light on the situation in the family and transform the relationships within it.

How to arrange

Most of all they resemble psychodrama. Participating in it act out the roles of other people. However, this is only an outward resemblance. Spectators and participants in the arrangement are in the world of real people, their joys, tragedies, emotions and feelings. There is no game in this. Participants replace unfamiliar people. At the same time, they very accurately convey what is happening in the life of this person.

A deputy is a person who is chosen to replace one of the participants in the client's life history. This man is led by what Hellinger called a substitute perception. Tragedy and drama are arranged in the arrangement. This is evidenced by words, movements, reactions of deputies.

Use of constellations

What can be useful for family arrangements? All people, as you know, belong to their family. They carry in their lives something that has not been realized or lived their ancestors, members of the genus. In the alignments, the doctrine of karma looks completely new. It turns out that a person, being born in this or that family, bears in itself its karma. He resolves situations that were not resolved by his ancestors, and also experiences emotions that some representative of his kind could not express.

The field of placement through the deputies can tell what is the root of the problem of this client. Sessions conducted by Hellinger's method can help a person understand themselves, as well as the processes taking place with him and his partners in the family, in the family. This will help improve relationships with relatives, overcome crises, change their lives, find harmony and love.

Should I recommend the arrangement of Hellinger? Reviews about them are ambiguous, because this method has not yet received scientific recognition. However, many note his favor. Of course, to get the desired result, you need to find a good specialist. Many psychologists today practice the method of Bert Hellinger, so you can easily find an experienced person, based on feedback.

Love as the basis of the method

Bert considers himself to be a practitioner who, after experiencing 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 there is love behind any behavior. It is also a hidden active force of all kinds of symptoms. Therefore, it is very important for the therapist to find the point at which the energy of his client's love is concentrated, because here lies the root of his problem, and the key to its solution.

Popularity of constellations

The basis of Bert's therapeutic work is acts of respect, recognition, acceptance of fate, truth, courage and humility. His method (family arrangement) very quickly became popular both in Germany and outside of this country. Burt has worked with many groups around the world. He says that he does not teach the method, but lets all practitioners for free research. Around him is formed a group of colleagues, keen on his method. They quickly master and develop new techniques and directions of organizing work: organizational arrangements, structural, those in which figures are used, and others.

Bert Hellinger: books and speeches

The further fate of Berth after the discovery of the method is developing successfully. Hellinger in the 1980s is actively working. He is also a member of the family of German family physicians. However, Bert still does not write books and does not conduct training. Gunhard Weber, his student, in the early 1990's gets the permission of Hellinger to publish records from the seminars he conducted (scripts of comments and arrangements). In 1992, Bert's first book on family arrangements appeared ("Two Kinds of Happiness ..."). This edition immediately becomes a bestseller.

The work of Hellinger since 1994 has become increasingly public - he speaks to audiences numbering several hundred people. Bert begins to describe his method of arrangement in books, as well as in CD and video films. In 1992-2007 years. More than 30 of his books were published. Mostly they are records from seminars that were conducted around the world by Bert Hellinger. "The source does not need to ask the way" - one of his most famous books. Like his other works, it is popular all over the world. Another interesting book, authored by Bert Hellinger, is "Healing." It contains a lot of meditations and exercises, allowing you to learn the experience of a healing and liberating movement. As you know, all diseases have a psychological component. It is necessary to strive to heal not only your body, but also your soul. We invite you to pay attention to one more book - "The Great Conflict". Hellinger in it talks about the spiritual mechanisms that lead to conflicts and wars between religions and the peoples of the world.

In our country in the period from 2000 to 2009 appeared 11 books Hellinger, as well as 2 versions of the translation of the edition of Gunkhard Weber (in 2001 - "Two Kinds of Happiness", in 2005 - "Crises of Love").

Bertou Hellinger recently turned 90 years old. Currently, he actively travels. Hellinger conducts training courses and seminars, lectures throughout Europe, as well as in South and Central America, the US, China, Russia and Japan.