Constellation Training & Learning Programs in Santa Barbara

The Santa Barbara Ongoing Constellation Learning Program in Santa Barbara, CA

The Constellation Institute of California is pleased to announce an ongoing training program in the phenomenological systemic approach of Bert Hellinger, which takes place in Santa Barbara, California.

Bert Hellinger’s ideas have propelled the constellation approach to the forefront of the international psychotherapy community. Hailed as an innovator, he has impacted the family therapy field across the globe.

About The Program

The purpose of the learning program is to provide students with an opportunity to learn the theoretical and practical foundations of this approach. We will observe and study family, community, and universal dynamics of systems as they relate to:

• the limits of  family conscience and the greater conscience
• love’s own truths, and  the orders of love
• the interrupted reaching out movement
• the movements of the soul

The family constellations that have become the hallmark of this approach are examined in terms of:

• the common intergenerational areas of entanglement which have emerged, and
• the phenomenological stance, conceptualization, and practice.

The understanding of healing and resolution are redefined to encompass the new senses of self and other that are revealed through the systemic lens.

There is also focus on how the work can be integrated into various professions. Former trainees have included physicians, educators, individuals in the performing arts, as well as a broad spectrum of consultants, therapists and helping professionals.

About Bert Hellinger

Motivated by insatiable intellectual curiosity, forever integrating and synthesizing, this former priest and missionary became immersed in psychoanalysis and somatic psychotherapy. He integrated what he had learned of group dynamics and psychoanalysis with Gestalt Therapy, Primal Therapy and Transactional Analysis. Additional work in family therapy, in Milton Erickson’s Hypnotherapy and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) followed. His insistence on seeing what is, as opposed to blindly accepting what we are told - combined with the unwavering loyalty and trust in one’s own soul - is the fundamental basis upon which this work has been built.

The Learning Santa Barbara Program Format and Staff

About The Learning Program

The training weekend-segments are usually offered in eight 3-day sessions.

Another possibility is to do six 3-day segments and the 6-day International intensive – which includes a variety of prominent international constellation trainers.

The sessions are spaced over the course of a little over a year, with about 8 weeks apart and usually scheduled the last 3-day weekend every 2 months.

The learning program is set up to be open to new training and non-training participants at any weekend in the year.

Learning Program Participants: Will receive an additional 5 hours of training for each training weekend. Special time and attention is placed on tracking and following the thread of their personal work along with their professional development.

The Learning Program Participant Hours are:

9:00 to 5;00 Friday & Saturday and 9:00 to 2 on Sunday.

The Regular Participant Hours are:

10:00 to 4:00 Friday & Saturday and 9:00 to 2 Sunday.

This format is designed to allow time for students to more deeply absorb the essential tenets of the paradigm and to practice integrating some of the tools into their own professional or personal resources.

Students will also be encouraged to form smaller learning groups that meet between sessions to begin doing constellations, as well as to share insights and exchange questions.

Ways Of Practicing, Experiencing and Learning

Gathering constellation skills and information through lectures, discussions and reflections as well as experiential learning will be the primary modes of learning in this program. 

The unique style and composition of each learning group will significantly influence and change the way in which the material and the experiential practices as delineated below are presented and explored.

A selection of elements included throughout the program:

• Being a representative in the constellations of others.
• The practice of cultivating presence and self-inquiry exercises.
• Learning to tap into the extended mind, unfiltered awareness and the informing field.
• Exploring your own personal issues using the constellation method.
• Practicing being an observing member and holding the field for the work to unfold.
• The practice of a wide range of constellation structures and practices.
• Learning circles, collaborative group learning, writing projects, and small group exercises.
• Case supervision constellations and practicing the facilitator role in a supportive setting.
• The construction of the family abode.
• Use Video demonstrations of Bert Hellinger’s work by slowing down and demonstrating the steps.
• Specific books and certain movies may be recommended in order to deepen our learning.

Learning Program Topics and Syllabus

The specific content of each program is determined by the interest, skill and practice experience of any specific Learning Group. Following is a list of potential learning topics and practice areas.

Love’s Codes –The Constellation Basics

• Family Constellations – the basic orders and concepts
• Recognize the Orders Of Love operating with parent-child, couple, family and family clan.
• Who belongs to the family system  
• Honoring our roots of time and place: including races, peoples, nations, and cultures.
• Being a representative prepares you for the work
• Explore Bert Hellinger's unique phenomenological, systemic approach

Constellation Skills – Working with the Relational System

• The effective sequence of steps in setting up a constellation.
• How to interview, collect information and proceed with the constellation.
• Practical attunement and presence skills for the facilitator.
• The many applications of constellations for individuals, couples, groups and organizational systems: the concealed constellation, organizational, colored fields, and more.
• Exploring what it is that works in constellations: intelligent presence at work.
• How to integrate constellation work into individual sessions

Reconciling Relationships: Belonging and Consenting to Life

• The significance of the living and the dead family members in your life.
• Lessons from family constellations for your own life and relationships.
• The function of conscience with regard to guilt and innocence in family and relationships.
• Receiving support and strength through the relationship to our ancestors.
• Recognizing and dealing with opposing inner forces
• Recognizing the influence of lost or forgotten family members and of family secrets.

Dealing with the Inevitable – Life, Death, Loss,  Illness & Fate

• How to use the constellation method with death, loss & illness
• Revealing and resolving intergenerational system dynamics and entanglements.
• Integrating the constellation Work into your professional and personal life
• Developing a steady orientation towards a good solution.
• The use of actual facts, incidents, and events - such as stillborn children, illness, early deaths, adoptions etc. as a basis for intervention

Soul Work: Movements Toward Healing

• Recognize the interplay of constellations, presence and guidance.
• Finding the movements of the soul toward resolution.
• Words of power – sentences of resolution and strength.
• Support what provides the individual and family system with deep inner strength and avoid what weakens.
• Learn to reveal system dynamics of entanglements, substituted persons and missing members
• Explore the power of consenting to one’s fate.

Finding Good Solutions For The Entanglements Of Life

• Understand the connection of family therapy and family constellations.
• Recognize when constellations are least and most indicated.
• Learn to work with your own personal issues.
• Know how to transfer the constellation learning to work applications and to life.
• Learn how to look for solutions and when to finish a constellation.
• Become skilled at bringing presence to issues of ethnic conflict, questions of life and death, and our relationship with all living beings.

The Constellation History - Transgenerational Family Therapy, Family Sculpting, and Short Term Therapy

• Working with the Interrupted Reaching Out Movement.
• Turning Towards and Turning Away. 
• A Somatic Approach to Family Constelaltions.

---

When observed calmly,
all things
have their fulfillment.

Matsuo Basho

Training Location

The training regularly meets at the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute. 525 E Micheltorena Rd .

Training Staff

The core facilitators for the training are Dr. Dyrian Benz-Chartrand and JoAnna Chartrand-Benz.

Guest trainers included are Bert Hellinger,  Albrecht Mahr, Bertold Ulsamer, Gunthard Weber. A collection of internationally acknowledged constellation trainers will lead the Annual 6 Day North American Hellinger Constellation Intensive.

Dyrian Benz-Chartrand is an educator, psychotherapist and trainer with over 25 years of experience. He has taught constellation work on the graduate level at Antioch University and at the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute.

JoAnna Chartrand-Benz is a European trained practitioner and has been in private practice since 1981. Her specialty is in Somatically-Based,  Transpersonal Psychology,  working with trauma and in Family Constellations.

Program Dates, Fee, and Registration

Family Constellation Learning  Program 2008

Upcoming Dates

Jan 18-20, 2008
Feb 23-25, 2008
Mar 21-23, 2008

June 26 to 30, 2008 Intensive With Sneh Victoria Schnabel

Next Summer Intensive  June, 2008 With Sneh Schnabel

Fee for the Learning Program

The cost of the Learning Program is $500.00 per weekend. There is a $50.00 cancellation fee if paid per weekend.

Or $3,700.00 for 8 weekends. If paid in total in advance.