TIDINGS PRINTS QUESTIONABLE THERAPY

STORY - BERT HELLINGER'S "SOUL

ENTANGLEMENTS"
A LETTER TO THE EDITOR -- ASHLAND DAILY
TIDINGS, ASHLAND, OR.
October 20, 2003

by Lorie Anderson

Once again, the Tidings promoted a dubious practice as news:

"Movements of the Soul," therapy created by Bert Hellinger. The
reporter didn't reveal why it is controversial. Is it because of its
convoluted, unverifiable and outdated theories?

Hellinger says our problems arise from "soul entanglements" revealed

through "family constellations," a form of group role-playing. The article
reports "magic" and "mystery," as representatives "know" the feelings of
people they never met. Or, do they? A family constellation may include
representatives of deceased relatives, ancestors, stillborn babies,
fetuses, former spouses, and perpetrators against someone in the
family tree, etc. The living are not typically asked and the dead are not
available to attest to the accuracy of the representations.

A few of Hellinger's questionable positions include:

A breast cancer victim may secretly want to die due to a woman's

unconscious "war with her mother."

Homosexuality often results because a boy must assume the feelings of

a deceased sister when there are no female siblings in the family to do
it.

Rape and incest create a bond; the perpetrator must receive "due
respect" before the victim can bond with another.

Punishment of an incest perpetrator should be avoided as it could

create suicidal feelings in the victim.

A victim can end incest by saying to her mother, "I do it for you," and to
her father, "I do it for my mother."

One mystery remains: Why does the Tidings keep entangling spurious
practices with the news?
Lorie Anderson (end of letter to the editor)

SOME BIZARRE HELLINGER QUOTES ON

INCEST:
"Now about incest. If you are confronted with cases of incest, a very
common dynamic is that the wife withdraws from her husband, she
refuses a sexual relationship. Then, as a kind of compensation, a
daughter takes her place. This is an unconscious movement, not a
conscious one. But you see, with incest there are two perpetrators, one
in the background and one in the open. You cannot resolve that unless
this hidden perpetrator is brought in. There are very strange sentences
that come to light. The daughter can tell her mother, "I do it for you."
And she can tell her father, "I do it for mother." What is the effect of
these sentences? Incest cannot go on anymore. If you want to stop it,
this is the best way without any accusations.

If you bring a perpetrator to justice, then the victim will atone for
what is done to the perpetrator."

Hellinger goes on to tell a story of an incest/abuse victim who became

suicidal, because the perpetrator was prosecuted.

HELLINGER LETTER - POEM TO HITLER:

[Note from Lorie Anderson: Personally, I find this poem offensive, but I understand that while
some may interpret this poem as anti-semitic, others may argue that it expresses a viewpoint
about the equality of human value regardless of one's actions, even the actions of a Hitler. I
include it here for interest and discussion.]

Note from the translator: "The following letter in poetic form was written
by Bert Hellinger to Adolf Hitler. It appears in the original German on
page 247 of Bert's latest book called "Gottesgedanken" ("Divine
Reflections") published in 2004. I just made this new American English
translation today." Thomas Mellett Van Nuys, CA

• Hitler, I look upon you as a human being Just like me, With a
father, with a mother, And with a definite destiny. Are you
therefore superior to me? Or are you inferior? Are you better
than me or worse than me? If you are superior, then so am I.
If you are inferior, then so am I. If you are better than me or
worse, Then I am that, too. For I am a human being just like
 you. If I were to respect you, then I respect myself. If I detest
you, then I detest myself. Dare I love you? Am I obliged to
love you? Because if I don’t, Then how could I be allowed To
love myself? If I acknowledge that you were human, Just like
me, Then I must look at something That created both of us ---
Equally --- Something that created you as well as me ---
Something that even determines How we are both destroyed.
How could I possibly exclude myself From our common
ultimate source --- All the while I am excluding you? How
could I ever blame this ultimate cause And raise myself so
far above it As long as I am blaming you? Yet I dare not pity
you. The ultimate cause of your rise and fall Is no different
from mine. I honor it in you As I honor it in myself, And I
surrender to everything It has created in you --- And to
everything it has created in me --- As well as to all it has
created In every other human being.

COMMENTS AND DISCUSSION are welcome. (Note that two

Hellinger discussion threads have been archived. You can review those
threads via the provided links, but you have to return to the active
discussion page to be able to post.)

LINKS TO CRITICAL COMMENTARY

"Bert Hellinger's Controversial Therapy." A summary of two articles that

originally appeared in the Dutch antifascist magazine "Alert!" translated
into English, by Herman Nimis, September 2005.
"Family Consternations and Transgenerational Dealing," South African
Skeptics website; forum thread, 2007.
"Dancing with Souls," by Florian Burkhardt, Indymedia Ireland, May 12,
2006. Article and reader comments. Also see reader comments on a
large excerpt of this article posted at Blog called "warren ellis is web
9.0,"May 6 2006.
"An Open Letter of Clarification to the Systemic Constellations
Community from DGfS and ISCA," written some time after February
2008.
RELATED LINKS:
NY Times.com article: "For Psychotherapy's Claims, Skeptics Demand
Proof" by Benedict Carey, August 10, 2004.

The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice. "Objective

Investigations of Controversial and Unorthodox Claims in Clinical
Psychology, Psychiatry, and Social Work."
"Why Bogus Therapies Often Seem to Work" by Barry L. Beyerstein,
Ph.D.
The Skeptic's Dictionary -- (New Age) Psychotherapies

A type of therapy with noteworthy mainstream scientific support:

Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research.

DIRECT (mostly) EMAIL MESSAGES TO LORIE

FROM READERS (with their permission to post)
and LORIE'S REPLIES:
Subject: Bert Hellinger's TransGenerational Family Constellation
Work Date: 12/10/2003 SOMEONE WROTE:

I personally have experienced Hellinger's work and find it quite

powerful. Yes, I did feel the feelings of the person I was representing in
the constellation. Because we are always free to tap into any block of
Universal Consciousness where every thought, feeling and experience
is recorded as a vibrational frequency, we can access anything that has
ever gone before us, even when it is not our own personal experience. I
can understand your skepticism if you have not participated in this work.
But I can tell you that I was impressed, and I have been involved in
alternative therapies for about 25 years.

If you would like to learn more, feel free to contact me.

Date: 12/11/2003 LORIE REPLIED:

Thank you for writing.

A variety of interactive experiences can feel powerful to those involved,

especially among those predisposed to be amenable to it, but that
doesn't say anything to me about its efficacy as a psychotherapy. Only
objective tests can measure that. To me, the premises have to make
sense, at least, and they don't.

How do you know you felt exactly what the other person felt? Many
people who are represented in this therapy are deceased and no one
can know what the person would say. Even if a living person agreed
that you were feeling the same things they felt or feel, people have so
much in common that it wouldn't be surprising to me. What you
experienced could simply have been human commonality. Even across
cultures, especially in this day and age, humans are very similar, but it
would at least be more interesting to see how well people do when
representing people from vastly different cultures.

Some tests could be set up, though, to see if representatives reliably

pick up on the feelings of the people they represent by doing blinded,
controlled experiments conducted by an objective party. Perhaps the
James Randi Education Foundation would accept an application by
Hellinger or one of Hellinger's supporters to see if they can demonstrate
the paranormal claims of this therapy (e.g. that a "representative"
mysteriously knows what a complete stranger is feeling/thinking by
standing in a certain position in relation to others in a "family
constellation") -- and win a million dollar award if they do.

Meanwhile, the Tidings article that prompted my letter to the editor

reports that Hellinger says we must not question the mystery, just let it
happen, so Hellinger may well not approve of any unbiased, blinded
studies. Also, Hellinger admits he dismisses a family constellation if it
isn't working. That's convenient, to promote a therapeutic method as
effective while dismissing those groups that don't appear to be meeting
his expected positive results.

What is your evidence that every thought, feeling and experience of

everyone who ever lived is retained as a permanent record in the form
of vibrational frequencies?

There may have been 106,456,367,669 people who were ever born,
according to one well-considered estimate that I found online. We must
also consider how many other creatures with thoughts, feelings, and
experiences have ever lived. And, let's not forget that Hellinger includes
aborted embryos and fetuses in the family constellation. Meanwhile, we
each must have had an astronomical number of feelings, thoughts, and
experiences in our lifetimes.

You are asking me to believe that all these thoughts and feelings are
forever floating around us as vibrations, and, further, that by simply
standing in a certain way with a group of people you can somehow
capture these vibrations and experience them yourself as the unique
thoughts and feelings of any particular being who was ever conceived?

I find it easier to believe that it's the power of suggestion and selective
thinking, and human commonality, among other typical human traits,
that could cause people to believe they are receiving the
thoughts/feelings/experiences of someone else.

That said, nevertheless, I'm glad you personally found this therapy to be
powerful.
(Note: This reply was edited a bit after sent, for greater clarity.)

Date: 12/12/2003 S/HE WROTE AGAIN:

Hello Lorie,

I find your response quite interesting. You might be right and I have no
way to prove otherwise. I personally believe the consciousness of the
researchers affects the outcomes in the same way a person's biases
are factors in the outcome of muscle testing, if you are familiar with that.
Always, the intention must be pure.

As far as ferreting out frequencies that are specific, absolutely. You can
tap into the universal data bank in the same way you tap into a
computer data bank, through thought intention...that gives you access
to all information you specifically request. However, your personal
processing of that information is affected by your subconscious filters or
resonance that affects the results. So, it is all very subjective but very
powerful to the experienced person who knows how to work with this
fabulous array of frequencies. I have enjoyed our exchange but will
have to disconnect at this point. I wish you well with what you are doing
and suspect our paths will cross again at some future time. Feel free to
use my email but please do not include my full name or company name.
thank you.

Subject: Constellation Therapy Date: June 9, 2004 SOMEONE

WROTE:
Question, have you ever heard of a therapist who practices
constellation therapy to become angry and hostile towards her
client/patient? I have recently experienced this. My therapist got visibly
angry and hostile towards me when I would not agree with her. During a
constellation, she wanted me to look towards the piece of paper that
represented my mother and tell my mother "I could kill you." I told her I
could not do this because I did not have those feelings.
Is this the norm for this type of therapy? Is it also normal for the
therapist to become angry or upset? I think not. I have since canceled
my next appt. and am seeking another therapist. I have known this
therapist for many years. Have not always gone on a regular basis but
recently agreed to try the constellation therapy. Does it work or not? Did
I just have the wrong therapist? I would appreciate your comments.
Thanks.
Date: 6/9/2004 LORIE REPLIED:

Sorry you had such a bad experience. As you can gather from my
online commentaries, I am quite skeptical about such therapies. I
believe that some people find it powerful and helpful, but I would need
to see some objective studies on its short and long term efficacy in
order for me to believe that it significantly reduces psychological
difficulties. Their underlying premises seem off-base to me.

I have seen where talking to an inanimate object representing a

significant person in one’s life can help the person to practice
expressing his/her feelings or to sort out their feelings or to serve as a
release of strong emotion – similar to asking a person what s/he would
want to say to the person if s/he were sitting in the room right now. But
personally I can’t see the benefit of telling a piece of paper representing
your mother that you could kill her. Yikes! Maybe saying “I feel furious at
you for doing xyz” or “I will never let you hurt me again,” but KILL?!? I
think the guilt feelings that would result from such a pronouncement
would far outweigh any benefits.

I applaud you for assertively standing up to the therapist in your refusal

to express feelings that you don't feel. I hope you recognize the
psychological strength of standing up for your convictions.

I suspect that the therapist believes in repressed anger and primal

therapy and that confronting and antagonizing clients to release anger
will result in a catharsis for the client and, thus, a resolution of the
anger. This approach might presume, per psychoanalysis, that we all
feel intense hostility toward our same-gender parent because we
unconsciously desired to have sex with our other-gender parent, and
that we tend to repress this anger by pushing it into our unconscious
mind, and that this unconscious anger causes most of our psychological
difficulties, and that release of this presumed unconscious anger results
in an improved psychological condition – too many presumptions, if you
ask me. I don’t think any of these presumptions are based on scientific
research.

Bert Hellinger is regarded as an authority on family constellation

therapy, and from what I have read online, your therapist belied Bert
Hellinger’s approach. For example, I read this: “Hellinger’s style is calm,
focused, never overtly encouraging of catharsis.” And, I don’t believe he
would regard a piece of paper as capable of representing someone in a
family constellation (although I’m not positive about that). Your therapist
seems to not be following Hellinger’s approach, however I am not
saying this makes her approach any less valid than his because
Hellinger’s approach doesn’t make any sense to me either.

Psychotherapy presents a wide variety of hypotheses and

methodologies, many not based on any objective scientific evidence at
all, or weak evidence at best. Given this situation, that licensed
professionals can creatively invent their own premises and approaches
to psychotherapy, it is important for consumers to be discerning and
shop around.

Again, I’m sorry you experienced a hostile therapist. I suspect she

meant well, for whatever that is worth.

By the way, I’m not a psychotherapist, so please don’t rely on my

answers alone. I have a degree in psychology and am a former social
work counselor, so I'm familiar with the field, but I am responding mostly
as someone who has been striving to discern fact from fiction from
among all the various claims that bombard us all.

Good luck,

Lorie

Subject: "Bert Hellinger" Date: June 15, 2004 SOMEONE WROTE:

Of course you are doubtful. On paper none of this makes much sense
but if you were to experience it for yourself you would have to trust in
something bigger than Reason orTherapy. Bert Hellinger's work goes
well beyond therapy and is revolutionary. One day this will probably
overturn therapy as it is perceived and practised today.
Having attended several of Hellinger's workshops I can see and feel for
myself what works, and after the work people return to report changes
in their lives that may appear to be inexplicable. No doubt you would
say coincidence. Of course the dead cannot answer the questions, but
to have a representative in a family constellation report that they hear a
particular song, and have the client report then and there that that was
the song his grandmother used to sing.... to have people return having
worked at honouring a excluded member of their family and find that
within a few months that a lost relative (lost for possibly twenty years)
suddenly feels the urge to get back in touch.... The system just works,
and you can see it for yourself if you were brave enough to put cynical
self through it rather than stand and throw tomatoes from the sidelines.
One of the things that comes over loud and clear when Bert works with
therapists in this way is that they are the worse people to work with, so
set in their ways and need to help others. God help us from those. This
isn't a cult. Even when Bert says things that seem difficult to swallow
there is a part inside that accepts it because it is so obviously true at a
much deeper level than pure reason. It may well be the reason is all that
you follow. I wonder what entanglement you are involved in.
Date: 6/26/2004 LORIE REPLIED:
I’ve been pondering how or whether I should respond to your message,
as I realize you and I are, in some ways, from two different worlds as far
as how we go about discerning fact from fiction. I decided to give it a
shot and write it in a way that might interest or benefit others, as I may
decide to post it on my web page. I am almost positive that my words
will blow right past you. You seem very inclined to blow off anyone who
criticizes this type of therapy.

I have come to greatly value, and feel enlightened by, logic and reason
and responsible use of the scientific method of inquiry, all derived from
of our uniquely advanced intelligence as Homo sapiens. I depend on
this to help me to evaluate the credibility and efficacy of the countless
claims we all hear about -- without having to experience each one
directly, which would be impractical if not impossible to do within one
human lifespan. Personally, I know I can be fooled, and I know I can
misinterpret cause and effect when trying to evaluate a practice or
product. I know that we can’t always see the big picture and we are
influenced by the expectancy/placebo effect, wishful thinking, peer
pressure, marketing pressure, trickery, bias, etc.

A therapy can be significantly effective, I realize, even if its premises are

faulty or unsupported, but we cannot know if it's efficacious without
objective measures. Hellinger’s participants are not randomly selected,
and I suspect they are typically self-screened to believe in paranormal
events, so anecdotes are bound be favorable. Some studies have
shown that people who are inclined to believe paranormal explanations
also tend to underestimate how often various events would occur
naturally by chance.

Potentially, some who try this therapy and don’t find it beneficial may
quietly drop out or stuff their criticism, lest they risk rebuke or guilt
feelings for being too “entangled” or otherwise hard to work with, as I
see you are prone to describe those who don’t buy this approach.

Even if this therapy is efficacious, its successes could easily be due to

factors unrelated to its premises and paranormal claims such as that
representatives know complete strangers’ actual feelings and thoughts
and that any event involving exclusion in a client’s family throughout
history can greatly impact a client’s psychological well-being today. For
one, it’s not surprising that many people feel good (which is not
necessarily the same as achieving psychological improvement) when
provided with attention, camaraderie, support, a belief that they are
gaining true insight, and the expectation that a process will help them.

Of course I would first seek plausible explanations for implausible

claims. First, your anecdotal “evidence” is meaningless because there
are too many things that could interfere with a clear assessment. That’s
why we humans cleverly devised the scientific method of inquiry, to
control for such variables. The following tendencies may well explain
the perception of supernatural and successful outcomes from family
constellations: selective thinking/confirmation bias, communal
reinforcement, post hoc ergo proctor hoc fallacy (assuming a cause and
effect relationship between events that occurred sequentially), self-
deception, ad hoc hypotheses (explaining away outcomes that don’t fit
by invoking another unsupported or untestable hypothesis), the P.T.
Barnum effect (our tendency to perceive common and general
descriptions as unique and insightful to us as individuals), regressive
fallacy (wrongly crediting a product or therapy for improvement while
ignoring the natural tendency for many physical or mental problems to
wax and wane or resolve themselves without intervention), and
pragmatic fallacy (e.g.assuming that positive outcomes are a result of
the therapy when they could be the result of something quite ordinary or
incidental to that therapy).

(See The Skeptic's Dictionary for further definitions and explanations

of these terms.)

Perhaps this approach should be regarded primarily as a religion or

belief system, if we are asked to simply believe that the premises and
claims are true. I understand that if a family constellation isn’t working,
Hellinger dismisses the group. Now that’s a good way to make it appear
that constellations always work. If I want to claim that all the apples in
my barrel are good ones, I can simply remove the bad ones and say,
“See, it’s just as I told you.”

By the way, I never mentioned anything about Hellinger's therapy being

a "cult." I have to wonder why you even brought that up.

All criticism of this therapy aside, I am happy for you that you find this
method effective. But, I do hope and believe that my commentaries
might help some people to examine this approach with a critical eye to
see if it is credible and right for them before they invest their emotions
and time and money in it.

Thank you for writing.

Lorie

Date: November 18, 2004 Jeff Drake (Arlington, Virginia) wrote:

I've done the Bert Hellinger family constellation work. It was a wonderful
emotional catharsis and very powerful work for me. I think it's valuable
to be in touch with one's emotions and to not stuff them down as we
(especially men) in the United States and so many other cultures learn
to do. It was never portrayed that the feelings we felt were anyone
else's feelings but our own. It was a real opening for me to greater
empathy for others. I understood my family dynamics better and had
much greater compassion for everyone. Did I feel any "soul
connections?" Actually, I did. Those were the words I used after
participating, and that was the best way I had to describe parts of my
experience. The therapist did the work without describing what would
happen or what we would or should experience, so I feel he did not try
to influence our interpretations of our experience. We did get to core
issues in our family relationships, and to core issues for ourselves as
individuals that grew out of our childhood and family history.
I appreciate your willingness to dialogue with people about Hellinger's
work. Since you have not done the work yourself, you might (being an
empiricist) take note of how many people have found it to be excellent,
or of no value, or somewhere in between. Put me in the column of those
who have experienced it and believe it is very valuable. It is one thing to
look with "a critical eye to see if it is credible and right... before"
investing emotion, time, and money in something. But I have learned
that it is far more important to trust people who I know because some
things have to be experienced to be known. We can never know how
valuable something will be in advance- it requires our participation and
then our assessment. Even then our knowledge is limited to what
happened that particular time, with that particular group of people or
that Family Constellation practitioner.
Give it a whirl sometime with an experienced and respected practitioner.
Find a way to witness the work, to talk to people who have done the
work. If you rely on the Skeptics Dictionary to point you to valuable
work- good luck! While we must not accept everything people tell us
blindly, the authors of that dictionary obviously come from a paradigm
that will question the value of everything, whether they have done it or
not, even if the people who have done that program or practice, or had
that experience, found it extremely valuable.
People who have found Bert Hellinger's Family Constellation work to be
valuable should be trusted for being able to judge its value.
My best, Jeff
Date: November 20, 2004 LORIE REPLIED:

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for writing. I think much of what we could discuss is summed up

in this article that you can read here in this article.

I couldn't tell from your message if you participated in Hellinger therapy

as the identified client or as a "representative," but if you were a
representative, and the emotions you felt were your own and not
those of the person you were representing, then I would say that
you didn't have a Hellinger experience. Hellinger's position, as I
understand it, is that a representative in someone's family constellation
is serving as a kind of antenna for communication that is emanating
from someone else's soul -- channeling, if you will, the soul of someone
in the identified client's family history that is floating around in some kind
of universal consciousness. So, if the emotions you felt were your
own when you were standing in as a representative, then the
family constellation, ala Hellinger, apparently did not work.

Catharsis and a sense of being more in-touch with your emotions can
create a sense of a powerful experience, but this too does not appear to
be the main point of Hellinger's work, as I understand it, but perhaps
secondary or peripheral. And, catharsis may not be all that it has been
cracked up to be for mental health. Hellinger doesn't seem to be aiming
for participants to experience catharsis.

There are many types of therapy and even common experiences

(sometimes even movies and books, a loving and kind group and/or
family encounter, intimate encounters, etc.) that elicit or allow
expression of personal and strong emotion and give us insight into
ourselves and our families, many types of experiences where you walk
away feeling like something powerful had just happened. But Hellinger's
claim to fame, and this is a major part of what I object to, is that he
purports that the representatives in the family constellations actually feel
and experience the unique memories and emotions of someone else,
either living or dead, fetuses, or someone outside the family who was
rejected/excluded even generations back in the client's very loosely
defined "family."

We aren't talking here about representatives getting in touch with their

feelings, and not about empathy, not even about projecting one's own
feelings -- but about supernatural soul connections. I don't buy it.

I don't think the onus is on me to do research on this dubious therapy. I

agree with Carl Sagan and other brilliant scientists who suggest that the
burden of proof lies with those making the extraordinary claim (e.g.
paranormal claims). I don't see any credible evidence that Hellinger's, or
anyone's, paranormal claims are based on fact. I see simpler reasons to
explain why some people might feel pleased or impacted after
participating in Hellinger's or any group therapy experience: a
supportive and caring group and therapist with whom you can trust
sharing private emotions, the emphasis on forgiveness and
reconciliation, the belief that something spiritual is taking place, the
sense of relief of catharsis, etc.
I see no good evidence to support what I regard as offensive
assumptions about homosexuality, adoption, rape and incest victims,
victims of cancer, etc. Sure he says many things that do make sense, I
don't dispute that. But, personally I found his good points to be
"common sense." It often happens, especially among those in need,
that if people hear some things that make sense and that resonate with
them, they will open their minds to some nonsense mixed in.

I don't "rely" on the Skeptics Dictionary or any skeptic organizations, but

I am very grateful for them! I felt like I hit the jackpot when I discovered
them. I especially appreciate James Randi -- what a great idea he had
to offer a million dollars to anyone who can demonstrate their
paranormal claims under mutually acceptable controlled conditions.
Pure genius! He's a great magician, and it takes one (an expert in
creating illusions) to know, and expose, one. I have found the discovery
of these resources to be a "powerful," eye-opening, and profound
experience for me. Humans are great self-deluders, including myself,
and we are vulnerable to attempts by others, even if well intentioned, to
delude us.

Thanks to the skeptic sites, I have emptied my medicine cabinet of

phony "homeopathetic" garbage (after having read countless hours
worth of pros and cons on the subject and ended up really feeling
disgusted!) and no longer waste my money on useless healing
magnets, untested fad herbal pills, etc. Of course I still try things that
aren't well tested, if the premise seems plausible and it appears safe,
but I'm aware that I could be kidding myself, and I disagree with some
things on the skeptic sites, but that's the point! -- to use critical-thinking
skills. I have never felt more "enlightened", as well as intrigued and
awestruck by reality, by nature, space, time, the earth, human nature,
on and on, as I have since discovering the skeptic sites.

Surely you have discovered in your professional studies the placebo

effect, and realized that sometimes we believe something is caused by
A when it was actually caused by B. As a therapist, I would think you'd
want objective information on what is helpful and what isn't. I'm not so
arrogant as to assume that my personal theories and perceptions are
an accurate indicator of how things really work.

You said "our knowledge is limited to what happened that particular

time, with that particular group of people or that Family Constellation
practitioner. " I agree. We can't know how useful a therapy is, based on
our own limited experience. We can't even know how useful it is based
on our personal perceptions of how others found it to be. We may not
hear from those with dissenting opinions, for one thing. Even people
who report it as helpful can end up not making any significant emotional
or mental or behavioral changes, yet isn't that what therapy is mostly
about?

I remember counseling (as a social worker, years ago) clients who

reported feeling very good after seeing me, but they continued
destructive behaviors. That isn't good enough for me. One day I ran into
a woman who was an alcoholic who told me that I had saved her life,
years back in counseling. How I wish I knew what it was that worked to
give her the strength to stop drinking? This is precisely why I support
proponents of various therapies to seek scientific studies to test their
assumptions and hypotheses and their outcomes -- as objectively as
possible, not based on trust but based on fact. But they must be willing
to let go of those things that don't hold up to scrutiny.

Meanwhile, I will continue to use my common sense and weed out any
therapy that appears to be based on dubious and outrageous
assumptions. I certainly don't have to (and can't possibly) personally
experience tens of thousands of dubious if not dangerous practices in
order to rightfully scrutinize, criticize, or reject them outright.

With all that said, I am happy you found the experience to be powerful
and helpful.

Thank you for writing.

Date: March 29, 2005 Post from Karen to the Discussion Board
After reading Lorie Anderson's comments about this form of "family
therapy", I would like to share my personal experience. I have been
living in Switzerland for over twenty years, and attended
Familienaufstellungen nach Bert Hellinger (family constellation therapy,
I now know) in Feldkirch, Austria near the Swiss border eight years ago
for roughly half a year, as evening and weekend-long sessions. I also
attended a lecture held by Bert Hellinger himself in Dornbirn, Austria. I
was coerced into attendance by my ex-husband, and at first had a mild
fascination with the whole concept and with the powerful emotions often
unleashed by group members taking part in a constellation, or whose
family was being constellated (I think I just made up a word).
Over time, though, I felt uneasy. I felt that my integrity was being
compromised, that I was being coerced not only by my ex-husband
(who insisted that my inability to accept the mother of his illegitimate
daughter as a legitimate member of our family was causing our
marriage to fall apart), but also by the "therapist", who repeatedly tried
to put words into my mouth that I then refused to say, on the grounds
that they did not reflect my feelings.
Looking back, I would say that this "therapy" did me, and our marriage,
much more harm than good. I would certainly not recommend it for
anyone in any kind of unstable emotional state, which should rule out a
large segment of psychotherapy patients. Please note that both
recognized psychology associations in Switzerland, and to my
knowledge, the leading psychology association in Germany, have
issued severe cautions about this form of "therapy".
Colin Goldner, a clinical psychologist, has written several books that
include criticism of the Bert Hellinger method (in German, am not aware
of translations.) I wonder whether James Randi knows about Goldner's
work? I found your site today while looking for information about this
phenomenon for my U.S., i.e. English-speaking, family. My ex-husband
is now trying to coerce my two teenage daughters to attend a weekend
family constellation session next week; my younger daughter, who has
just spent three weeks under observation at a hospital as a form of
crisis intervention for her depression, does not wish to attend. Her
psychiatrist also advised my ex against taking her there.
I would appreciate (constructive) comments, particularly from
those with similar experiences about what I personally consider to
be an abusive form of therapy.

Kind regards, Karen

(Note: You can find my reply and respond to Karen on the

Discussion Board for this page.)

Date: April 2, 2005 Karen wrote to me directly:

Hello Lorie,

After my personal experience with this phenomenon, i.e. succumbing to

the lure of a potential quick fix based on a guru's mystique and esoteric
principles that attribute many psychological and indeed even physical
disorders on the disturbance of a purported "natural order" between
men and women, family members, the weak and the strong, victims and
purpetrators, I applaud your goal of promoting critical thought among
those in the psychotherapy marketplace, whether as consumers or
service providers.

It is unsettling to note that the Hellinger method has become widely

accepted in Europe, and is even applied by many "therapists" who lack
academic as well as professional credentials from any widely
recognized professional association. This means that some individuals
seeking legitimate help may fall prey to well-intentioned but potentially
harmful pseudo-professionals, or be manipulated by well-intentioned but
misguided "qualified" professionals. Either way, the situation is
alarming.
I am surprised to learn about the lack of critical scrutiny in the US of the
family constellation method used by Bert Hellinger - and sometimes
wonder whether there is any scientific evidence to back up
psychotherapy on the whole, or whether it is predominantly based on a
philosophy/worldview, and whether there is any difference between faith
in psychotherapy and religious faith.

Kind regards Karen

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