What is Systemic Constellation Work – and what are Genograms?

We humans love our concepts.Structures give us a sense of safety. And that’s a good thing — because if we constantly remembered that even physics is based on theories that help us grasp the world (but are only valid until proven otherwise), we’d probably go mad from the uncertainty.

Luckily, many of these theories prove themselves over time. Humanity has already discovered quite a bit.

One of these truths is this:There is a field surrounding us that holds information — often referred to as the morphogenetic field. Everything is connected. And so, we are also connected with one another.

To put it simply:When something terrible happens (a trauma), or something is excluded or ignored, there’s a kind of chaos that arises within the system of our personal connections.It creates a blockage — and this blockage affects us in ways we usually experience as painful or “negative.”

It can lead to retraumatization, again and again… until the tangled web is finally released.

Systemic constellations offer a powerful method to untangle these threads — helping us resolve family patterns, find clarity, and uncover answers to deep, essential questions.

With tools like genograms (visual representations of family relationships and patterns), we become aware of the dynamics passed down through generations.In systemic work, we make visible what has been hidden in the subconscious.

This can include patterns related to relationship choices, illnesses, or repeated losses (and yes — even beneficial patterns are passed down too!).

Did you know that as an egg cell, you were already present in your grandmother’s womb?A woman is born with all the eggs she will ever have — meaning we physically carried the imprint of our grandmothers' experiences.

The trauma our grandmothers lived through was passed down epigenetically — to our mothers, and then to us.

And so it goes with inner beliefs too.

We inherit the worldview of the five closest people who raised us.A baby first has to learn how the world works — and it learns that from its environment.If love seems conditional — something we must fight for — we absorb that lesson.

We may internalize beliefs like:“I’m never enough.”“I have to earn love.”Or even the slightly more optimistic: “It’ll work out somehow.”

Of course, how beliefs are formed is complex — and this is just a glimpse. The point is: much of what we carry didn’t begin with us.

During our grandparents’ time, the world was shaken by war.As the saying goes: “Hard times create hard people.”

And those battles — disappointment, mistrust, emotional shut-down — still echo through families and relationships today.Sometimes, they carry on through struggle and intensity. Other times, they flip entirely:Into numbness, powerlessness, or a deep lack of motivation.

Often, when we try to do things differently than our parents or grandparents, we go 180 degrees in the opposite direction.Which can still be just as extreme. :)

The path of change follows five steps:

1. Awareness – Becoming conscious of what’s happening

2. Understanding – Why does it keep happening?

3. Releasing – Letting go of what keeps us from happiness and our goals

4. Creating – What do I want instead?

5. Learning – Taking new actions, one step at a time

Systemic work is a powerful tool for this process — whether in one-on-one sessions or, in its most powerful form, through group constellations.

In The Encyclopedia of Family Constellations, Pierre Fort describes it beautifully (page 32):

"Constellations are above all spatial images — externalized maps of the inner world of the seeker.”