Finding Your Right Place: A Family Constellations Workshop
About this Event
Are you seeking more felt connection with your ancestral roots?
Are you noticing stubborn patterns in your life that block your ability to live more fully?
Do you long to experience a fuller sense of meaningful participation in a greater web of life?
If so, this workshop is for you.
Family Constellations is a powerful group healing modality that empowers individuals by giving them a wider, more complete perspective — on their lives, their lineage, and the larger systems they move through.
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We each pursue our lives as best we can, making the best of what we were given to create meaning and connection. Yet the cultural beliefs we swim in can pull us between two stories: that our life is entirely our responsibility, and so we are at fault for its struggles; or that we are victims of circumstance, prey to forces beyond our power.
Neither story is quite right. And the knot they leave behind often shows up as:
- chronic judgement toward yourself and others,
- resentment toward your place in life, paired with a sense of powerlessness to change it,
- cycles of blame and shame,
- a constant, irresolvable tension — like there's a knot deep inside that can't be touched or untied.
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We are told life is our responsibility, so the results must be our fault. Yet in our heart and soul we also know we are part of a greater whole — that great, cosmic forces move in mysterious ways, shaping the world we find ourselves in, and that a long, mostly unknowable web of relationships, a complex of history, lies behind every life.
Family constellations is a tool that helps us find our right place within all of this. from this place we see the greater shape of which we are part — not lording above it all, not crushed beneath it all, but flowing amidst it all. This true place offers a peace and understanding that is both profoundly humbling and profoundly empowering. We can accept what is beyond our control, and at last settle into what is truly ours to do.
How it works in the room
We will begin our time together grounding into our bodies and our intentions, get to know one another through brief council sharing, and do some preparatory exercises to familiarize ourselves with the practice of representation and to begin to touch into deeper layers of what may have brought us to this workshop. Following this, the space will be open for a few individuals to volunteer as a ‘seeker’ - bringing a urgent question or intention with which to begin a constellation.
The primary tool of constellations is representation. Without any foreknowledge or preparation, anyone in the group can stand in for someone in your family system — a parent, a grandparent, a sibling, or even a feeling or archetype — as a representative. Listening to their bodies and felt intuition, representatives interact and respond to one another, usually with few or no words. What emerges is often mysterious and revealing, strange yet familiar.
As a seeker, you largely witness the constellation as it unfolds. Though the representatives may have little to no understanding of the story they are part of — this is no performance or creative re-enactment à la psychodrama — the experience is often deeply potent and healing for everyone involved.
As a participant, you can come in two ways:
- As a seeker — bringing a question, a pattern, or a relationship you'd like to explore, then watching it unfold in the field.
- As a representative — standing in for others. Many people find that holding someone else's field opens unexpected insight into their own life.
A note on trauma safety, consent and agency
Constellations work is meant to bring up potent emotions and sensations, opening the space for significant and subtle shifts in our attitudes and perspectives. Often they touch on pain points, or traumas, both personal and historic. Trauma can be defined as the residue of an experience that was too intense to process or effectively respond to. Hence, a healing process necessitates agency over the intensity of the experience.
As a seeker, you are in the driver’s seat: your constellation progresses and evolves with your consent, and you can end a constellation at any time. As a participant, you are under no obligation to participate as a representative — witnessing is a potent and necessary role — and you can step out of or ‘dial down’ the intensity of a representation at any time. As the facilitator, it is my role to remind participants of their agency, and ensure the process moves at a pace that feels safe enough for everybody in the room.
What to Expect
We will gather in a small group of 8-12 participants. There will be a combination of periods of sitting on the floor and standing with gentle movement, alternating exercises in pairs, trios and as a whole group. There will be built in breaks for rest and reflection. There will be plenty of cushions, blankets available, as well as water and tea.
What to Bring: Comfortable clothes, water bottle, willing heart. Optional: favorite cushion or blanket, journal for personal reflections
Investment: 3 tiers
- Standard: $55
- Community: $30
- Supporter: $80
Most seekers leave a session with a felt shift in their body, a sense of grounded clarity regarding their relationship with themselves and their family, and gratitude for their participation in the greater web of life.
Questions: Contact me at [email protected]
About the Facilitator
Christopher Collins, MSW, is a facilitator of personal and group transformation with 5+ years experience leading Family Systems Constellations circles. He brings a balance of humble attunement and courageous compassion, grounded in his training as a clinical social worker. His constellations teachers include Ron Young and Francesca Mason Boring, and he has sat with Barbara Morgan, Róisín Fallon, and Líam Mac Gabhann, among others. He is the founding director of The Hidden Temple community event center, and also works one-on-one with individuals seeking more agency and vitality in their lives.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 35.00 to USD 85.00
