Paper short abstract:

Many therapists refer to Bert Hellinger and his sort of family constellation therapy. In this, the members of the audience act as representatives of the patient’s family. Their bodily experiences are the main indicator for the diagnosis and they constantly influence the development of the therapy.

Paper long abstract:

Especially in Germany, many therapists refer to Bert Hellinger and his sort of family constellation therapy, which is becoming increasingly popular. In this, illnesses, unpleasant bodily feelings, and other irksome problems of life are traced back to the patient's family system which is supposedly not in the right order - a posited symbolic order which many consider to be obsolete. The starting point of the therapy has the patients selecting people from the present audience to position them in a room as representatives of their dead or living family members or of other non-human aspects of their problems. During the therapeutic process the main focus lies on bodily symptoms, sensual perceptions and emotions of the representatives which the therapists instruct them to report on in detail and which are considered to be the authentic feelings of those people and things they stand for. These bodily experiences are interpreted for the diagnosis and constantly influence the further development of therapy which consists in relocating the representatives and in vocalizing given sentences which then should alter the bodily feelings of the others. The aim of the therapy is to find a constellation, which ends with all representatives feeling agreeable; in general this is then supposed to influence the 'real' individuals.

This paper discusses the representative's bodily experiences concerning which senses and emotions are involved, how they are handled and interpreted, how the required unusual bodily awareness of the representatives tends to establish special 'somatic modes of attention' in regular participants as well as how the intensity of the experiences causes participants to believe in the efficacy of the performance leaving behind even the most critical participant at least ambivalent towards the therapy.