Working online since 2010
A constellation does not need everyone in the same room. We have worked with family constellations online since 2010. The format changes on a screen, but the principles and the experience of the constellation remain the same. Representing is immediate and, in our experience, just as precise online.
2010
Working with constellations online
2012
Using a dedicated online constellation platform
6
Languages across the team: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, French, Romanian
Nothing to install. A browser and a link
What people bring
You do not need a fixed category or a perfectly formed question. These are some of the ways people arrive.
You do not need to know which of these fits, or arrive with the question already worked out. Your facilitator helps you clarify what you want to look at before the constellation begins.
How it works online
The principles of a constellation do not change online, but the way the constellation is set up can. In individual sessions we can work in the mind’s eye or in a shared online space. For groups we use the shared online space, where everyone can see and participate in the same constellation.
In an individual session, the constellation can be set up entirely in the mind’s eye. The people and elements relevant to your question are placed in an imagined space, while your facilitator guides you through their positions, relationships and movements by asking what you notice and what changes.
This format is only used in individual sessions. There is nothing additional to operate, and the focus stays entirely on your experience of the constellation.
Our dedicated online constellation space gives everyone the same three-dimensional scene. People and elements can be placed, turned and moved, and each representative can control their own figure.
The perspective can also be changed. You can look at the constellation from different positions rather than being limited to a single camera angle. We use this format for online groups and also in individual sessions when a visible constellation is useful.
You do not need to know how to use the platform beforehand. Your facilitator guides you through it, and anything you need before the session is sent in advance.
Some practitioners work online by arranging figures, felts or other objects on a table and pointing a camera at them. We do not use this approach.
A fixed camera leaves control of the constellation with the facilitator. The client and representatives cannot move their own figures, and everyone sees the arrangement from the camera’s perspective. We want the people in the constellation to be able to move themselves and to see the constellation from different positions. A shared online space allows both.
More than distance
The easiest way to understand the shared space is as a supercharged constellation board. It still gives us what a physical board gives us, position, distance, direction and movement, and then more than a board can. Each person has their own perspective inside the constellation. Representatives control their own figures, so a movement does not have to be translated through somebody else. And the view can be guided for you: sometimes it is useful to see the whole system from above, sometimes the view that matters is from one position inside it.
There is also a large library of figures, objects and environments to draw from, so not everything has to be represented by a person. A country, a boundary, a burden, a business, a goal, a resource or something more symbolic can have a visible place too, which leaves a great deal of room for metaphor when the question calls for it. The stages can be kept as well. We can capture the constellation as it stands at different moments, including the image you arrive at by the end, so you leave with the picture rather than only the memory of it.
For a closer look at representing, movement and the online constellation space, read how online constellations work.
Room and screen
The setting changes. The principles of the constellation, the felt responses that arise, and the immediacy of representing do not.
In the room. The facilitator can see physical distance, direction, posture and movement directly in the room.
On the call. Online, the facilitator follows the positions in the constellation together with your voice, pace, expression and what you and the representatives report. Postures and actions are reported and expressed.
In the room. A representative takes a position in the constellation and reports what they notice there.
On the call. A representative does the same from their own location. The response is immediate, and in our experience representing is just as precise online as it is in person. Sometimes, representatives share a little more online, to express their actions better.
In the room. People can move, turn, change distance and see the constellation from different positions in the physical space.
On the call. In the online space, people move and turn their own figures. The perspective can also be rotated, so the constellation can be seen from different positions rather than from one fixed camera angle.
In the room. Feelings, bodily responses and changes in relationship or distance can emerge as the constellation develops.
On the call. The same kinds of responses arise online. Clients and representatives still report feelings, bodily sensations and immediate changes as positions and relationships change.
Two ways in
Both are family constellations. In a private session the whole hour is yours, and we can use either the mind’s eye or the shared online space. In a group, everyone joins the same online constellation space and representatives move their own figures.
Your own hour, your own question, with the practitioner you choose.
A small group over one evening, with everyone able to see and take part in the same constellation.
The session
1
The conversation
The session begins with what brings you here, what you would like to understand or change, and the relevant facts about your family and history. You do not need to arrive with a perfectly formed question. It is worked out together.
2
Setting up the constellation
The people and elements relevant to your question are placed into a constellation. In an individual session this may happen in the mind’s eye or in the shared online space. In a group, the shared online space allows everyone to see and participate in the same constellation.
3
Following what changes
The facilitator follows what each position evokes. Figures or representatives may move, turn, change distance or be invited to notice what happens from another position. Each change is proposed and observed before deciding what comes next, and you can decline any suggestion.
4
Closing the session
A constellation does not need a dramatic ending. The facilitator closes when there is a useful place to stop, with time to notice what has changed and settle before the call ends.
What you need
You need privacy, a reliable internet connection and a device with a camera. There is no software to install.
A private space
Somewhere you can speak freely without being interrupted.
A laptop if possible
A larger screen makes the constellation easier to see. A tablet works, and a phone can be used if needed.
Headphones, optional
Useful for privacy and for reducing distractions around you.
Nothing to install
A link arrives ahead of time and opens in your browser.
For internet requirements, preparing your space and the practical details before a session, see working online.
Why this practice
Between our practitioners you can work in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch or Romanian. Choose the language in which it is easiest to express what you mean.
Every practitioner here trained in family constellations at EISEC, the institute behind the practice. That gives the team a shared systemic foundation and a common standard for facilitating constellations.
We are based in Brussels, and for private sessions we look for a time that suits you as well as us. We do not work through the night, so the furthest time zones need some flexibility on both sides. The next online workshop begins at 25 Sept, 15:00 CEST where you are.
Who facilitates online
All five practitioners share the same foundation in family constellations, but each brings a different background and way of facilitating. You can choose by language, approach and availability.
Psychotherapist · SSP provider · Executive coach · Systemic facilitator · Trainer
Leads the clinical work, trains facilitators at EISEC, and has practised since 2010.
A clinical approach, informed by polyvagal theory and close attention to the nervous system. Client-centred first, working at whatever pace the person in front of her can actually hold.
English · Spanish · Portuguese
Meet Cecilia →
Systemic coach · Systemic facilitator · Head Trainer
Co-founder of EISEC, co-author of the Al-Ma Model; he leads the teaching.
Starts from what you want to move towards, then works with whatever is holding it in place. Constellations for a single question, systemic coaching when it needs longer.
English · Dutch
Meet Simon →
Facilitator · SSP provider · Trainer
Part of the very first training group, an indispensable guide ever since.
Steady company for a difficult question: nothing rushed, and nothing left vague.
English · Romanian
Meet Anca →
Systemic facilitator · Trainer
Came to constellations through her own healing, and brings the body into the room.
Reads the body as closely as the words, and trusts what arrives before it has been explained.
Spanish · English
Meet Xilo →
Systemic facilitator · Trainer
Holds constellations in groups and privately.
Brings order to a tangle of thoughts, and hears the culture a family carries without being told about it.
Portuguese · English · French · Spanish
Meet Mina →In their words
Notes
Two short notes on how an online constellation is set up, and what to expect in a session.
The whole picture: the three ways a constellation is set up on a screen, how representing and movement work, and what genuinely changes when the room is one.
Read more
What actually happens in a one-to-one family constellations session, from the first question to the last ten minutes, told by a psychotherapist.
Read moreYour first session begins by clarifying what you want to understand or change. You can join from wherever you are, with a practitioner who works in the language that suits you.
Book a sessionIf you are in crisis right now, or you are having thoughts of harming yourself, please turn first to your doctor, to a crisis line where you live, or to the emergency services.
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