2015 Systemic Constellations Conference -- save the date!

Save the date -- North American Systemic Constellation Conference will take place Nov. 12-15, 2015 in San Diego, Calif. A wonderful chance to learn more about this emerging alternative healing process and organizational change process for people, families, groups, communities and organizations. 

I have  a special fondness for systemic constellation work -- sometimes called family constellation work -- the alternative healing process that has been developed in the past 30 years by German therapist Bert Hellinger. My first book, Integrating Psychodrama with Systemic Constellation Work: New Directions for Action Methods, Mind-Body Therapies and Energy Healing, explored the similarities and differences of psychodrama and constellation work and how one enhances the other. I've come to look at constellation work, which focuses on the energy of the "field," as a kind of energized sociometry -- with the roles that we play as form of solidified energy. This approach as really impacted the way that I use psychodrama and alter it for various people and groups.

A call for presenters will be coming soon. In the meanwhile, save the date now and find out more about this conference with this video:

ASGPP conference is a month away. Be sure to register now

Just one  more  month to register for the annual conference of the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama!

This year's conference takes place April 19-23 in Jersey City, N.J., with a full list of workshops, pre-conference and post-conference programs, a chance to mix and mingle with some of the nation's top trainers and a book signing to celebrate our member authors.

Not only is there an exciting and broad program at this year's conference but also at our 70th anniversary you can see how psychodrama has enriched, informed and collaborated with so many areas contemporary arenas of mental health. This evolution is especially noticeable in the pre-conference workshops where psychodrama melds with coaching, eating disorders treatment, family systems and systemic constellation work, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Internal Family Systems, body work interpersonal neurobiology and Imago couples work.

Looking at the brochure, we can see that the work of Dr. J.L. Moreno, which debuted on a stage in Vienna, Austria, in 1921 is sustainable and universal and is reaching so many people and places through these many paths. 

A few special events:

• Pre-conference programs open the event on Thursday. Among the programs will be my half-day program on "21st Century Psychotherapy: Psychodrama and Systemic Constellation Work."
• Book signing on Saturday, April 21, courtesy of Mental Health Resources, the conference book seller where you may find my new book Integrating Psychodrama and Systemic Constellation Work: New Directions for Action Methods, Mind-"Body Therapies and Energy Healing. Look for me and I will be glad to sign it!
• Silent auction with gifts and professional resources for psychodramatists, creative arts therapists, mental health professionals, educators and others.

See full schedule and register here.

The site of this conference should be another incentive to join. The Hyatt Regency is only one station away from the Wall Street station of the PATH train, connected to the famous New York City subway system. The hotel is sited on the scenic Hudson River next to a promenade and many attractive shops and restaurants and boasts breathtaking views of lower Manhattan and Midtown.

A valentine for psychodrama & constellation book from Francesca Mason Boring

So pleased to have this Valentine! It's a review from Francesca Mason Boring, author of Notes from the Indigenous Field: Family Constellation, Ceremony and Ritual and an internationally known facilitator and teacher of Systems Constellation.

She says:

Integrating Psychodrama and Systemic Constellation Work: New Directions for Action Methods, Mind-body Therapies and Energy Healing by Karen Carnabucci and Ronald Anderson is an engaging book and a valuable new contribution to the ever-expanding field of Family Constellation.

This book is not a duplication of the wonderful growing number of references available to the practitioners of constellation work. The authors write: "It is not our intention to repeat what has been written separately about psychodrama and constellation work…Rather we intend to fill the gaps of knowledge that exist with practitioners of each method, correct bits of misinformation about psychodrama and especially show how each method compliments and advances the other."

This book is efficient in meeting that goal, having perhaps one of the most extensive bibliographies in constellation literature available in the English language. However, it goes beyond a comparative work. Carnabucci and Anderson crafted a highly interesting intimate journey into the development and evolution of family constellation and psychodrama.

There were comparative overviews of criteria for client readiness coming from each discipline, which differed, and yet could certainly serve each other. For facilitators of both methods, the comparison provides suggestions for constructive growth in approach.

The fascinating gifts and limitations of the primary developers of these separate, and yet perhaps complimentary works are fascinating:

This book invites those interested in knowing more about Family Constellation to a good introduction to the fundamentals and provides an impressive overview of the development of Family Constellation. The book is alive with case studies and applications of the method in the full spectrum of human relationships. One of the chapters gives a hint as to the style of the work: Assessment, an adventure into the being of the person gives.

This book has a multitude of practical applications, it is informative and it is a unique discussion. What it also provides is an adventure for the reader. It leaves one with a sense that these innovations require -- to some degree -- a sense of adventure, a willingness to stand on new ground, a guide who is fearless albeit sometimes defined as eccentric, and for those who are willing to venture out, oftentimes such a journey produces a humbling and healing result.

Congratulations to Karen Carnabucci and Ronald Anderson for undertaking such a journey, and sincere thanks for sharing it with the many who will be eager to be so definitively enriched.

A tribute to Ron Anderson, psychodramatist of Wisconsin

Ronald Anderson, the counselor who introduced hundreds, maybe thousands, of Midwesterners to psychodrama, died on Saturday, May 14, in Lake Geneva, Wis.

Actually, he introduced many good things to many people, including me. Ron was so kind and welcoming when I moved to Wisconsin 10 years ago, making it a point to help me meet  many of his colleagues and the community of psychodramatists, creative arts therapists and others he thought I should know, then joined me to start a psychodrama and experiential therapy training group in Racine. Later, he introduced me to systemic constellation work, for which I am profoundly grateful, as it has enriched my professional practice and enlivened and deepened my personal life.

Ron started out as a child actor and became an ordained minister in the United Methodist denomination, then worked variously a street minister, church pastor, mental health administrator and substance abuse counselor. He found psychodrama, which combined his interests in theatre, psychology and spirituality, and studied with  Dr. J.L. Moreno at Beacon, N.Y., and at St. Elizabeth's Hospital, Washington, D.C., and became a nationally certified trainer in psychodrama, sociometry and group psychotherapy in 2000. Most recently he saw clients at New Prospects Counseling Services, Milwaukee.

He and his wife Adelia started the successful Midwest Conference on the Expressive Arts Therapies in Lake Geneva, introducing Midwesterners to psychodrama and the alternative and creative arts therapies for several years. For his 70th birthday celebration two years ago, he arranged a party where we dramatized special memories: his long-standing friendship with a boyhood pal;  his "church ladies" in Wisconsin becoming mesmerized by young playboy Hugh Hefner who attended his church's dinners, meeting his future wife Adelia when she arrived for psychodrama training and later marrying her during an delightful outdoor ceremony, and others.

Ron won the Innovators Award in 2010 from American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama for his pioneering work in combining psychodrama and systemic constellation work and identified himself as the first person in the United States to be trained by both J.L. Moreno, the developer of psychodrama, and Bert Hellinger, the developer of Systemic Constellation Work. Among his other accomplishments he counted serving as president of Midwest Chapter of the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama from 1998-2002; hiking the Milford Track during four days over the Southern Alps of New Zealand in 1996 and winning the Ralph Nader Award in 1987.

Together we are the co-authors of Integrating Psychodrama and Systemic Constellation Work: New Directions for Action Methods, Mind-body Therapies and Energy Healing.
For those who knew Ron, an online guest book is available to sign here.

Psychodrama mixes well with systemic constellation work, and this new book shows how

Systemic Constellation Work is a rapidly growing experiential healing process that is being embraced by a variety of helping professionals, both traditional and alternative, worldwide. I'm pleased to present the near-debut of our new book Integrating Psychodrama and Systemic Constellation Work: New Directions for Action Methods, Mind-body Therapies and Energy Healing.

This book, by myself and Ron Anderson, explores the history, principles and methodology of this approach, and offers a detailed comparison with psychodrama -- the original mind-body therapy -- explaining how each method can enhance the other. Constellation work is based on the notion that people are connected by unseen energetic forces and suggests that the psychological, traumatic and survival experiences of our ancestors are genetically passed forward to the next generation and may live within us.

Using insightful case studies from a variety of client groups, this book shows how Systemic Constellation Work can expand the possibilities of psychodrama techniques, and can be successfully integrated with psychodramatic enactment, guided imagery, ritual, concretization and other methods of healing and personal growth. This book will be essential reading for students and practitioners of psychodrama and constellation work, as well as counselors, mental health professionals, experiential therapists, creative and expressive arts therapists and alternative practitioners looking to widen their knowledge of mind-body therapies.

The book is scheduled for publication in Ncvember 2011; add your name to preorder the book here.

Join, keep updated and comment on the book's Facebook fan page.

Next year, psychodrama in Philadelphia!

The 2010 psychodrama conference is scheduled for Philadelphia, Pa., from April 15-19. See American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama for more details, including the date for request for conference presentation proposals.

The 2009 conference in St. Louis, Mo., was wonderful. It was very good to connect with colleagues – some for a meal and a good talk and even just for a moment for a good hug – as well as meet new contacts and make new friends. It was great to see three of my trainees present, including one trainee new to psychodrama who was enjoying every inspiring and energetic minute!

As a psychodramatist now smitten with Systemic Constellation Work, I was pleased to note that was such an interest in that workshop that I presented with Ron Anderson – and also notice that more and more psychodramatists are pioneering and integrating some kind of energy work with their presentations and specialties – including Kate Cook, John Olesen, Jack Shupe, Georgia Rigg, Susan Aaron and of course, Donna Little who saw its possibilities long before me.

We were pleased with the feedback from our Constellation workshop:

“Practical application demonstrated -- all questions answered with competence and respect.”

“The strengths of the workshop was the power of the work and Ron and Karen’s obvious resonance with the work.

“Well done hands-on demonstration of unfamiliar material.”

“Excellent and generous handout.”

Inspired and enchanted by Bert Hellinger's Systemic Constellation Work

I’ve just returned from a training on Systemic Constellation Work and I’m truly inspired – not only by the method but the opportunity to meet several helping professionals offering leading-edge healing and change.

Systemic Constellation Work – sometimes called Systemic Family Constellation Work – is a trans-generational healing process developed by Bert Hellinger, a German psychotherapist and former missionary in photo above, about 20-plus years ago and has been spreading rapidly throughout Europe and is gradually coming to the United States.

I am completely enchanted with this approach, which I have been studying and reading about for more than two years – more in depth recently – and I have begun to integrate its principles into my work with psychodrama and the creative arts therapies.

It has a spiritual approach – with lots of talk about the “soul” of a family; Hellinger calls this the “greater force.” Basically, Systemic Constellation Work says that we are connected to our ancestors by an invisible energetic network and that we may carry their pain and difficulties as a way of staying energetically connected to the larger family soul. When we are able to address and heal these energetic entanglements, the ancestors are able to rest peacefully and we stay connected to our family members in more appropriate ways. And, our own lives change gradually for the better.

The training center where I study is the Hellinger Center of D.C., and the trainer is Heinz Stark, who is from Bremen, Germany, and one of Hellinger’s early protégées. You can go to Hellinger Center of D.C. and find several links to Hellinger, Stark and other important trainers as well as papers and lectures by many facilitators. I will warn you that a number of the principles is NOT related to the traditional mental health model – sometimes quite startling in its differences – but I can vouch for Constellation Work as an amazing method which has already made a difference in my life.

Constellation Work is an action method like psychodrama and is very similar in some ways -- yet very different. While it is rooted in the psychotherapeutic tradition, the method is distinguished from conventional psychotherapy in that the client hardly speaks and aim is to identify and release deep patterns embedded within the family system rather than to explore or process narrative, cognitive or emotional content.

Here’s a link from a lecture from Bert Hellinger on peace of mind, soul and love; there are many more lectures at his Web site.

And there's more. Science is now offering studies that back up this approach of the contention that experiences are inherited. Here is the link to the BBC documentary, “The Ghost In Your Genes,” that actually offers fascinating proof about inheritance beyond hair and eye color and height. There very short version of this video on You Tube but does not go into the good details. The BCC version is 48 minutes, so you'll want to link to it when you have some time. I think it’s excellently done and is completely fascinating.

You can find several examples of actual Constellation sessions on YouTube – just go to to the site and search for “Systemic Family Constellation Work.” Most of them are in another language but you can get the idea of how it looks. I'll be co-presenting with my colleague Ron Anderson on "Couples Work With Systemic Constellation Work" at the annual conference of the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama later this week in St. Louis, Mo. Watch for our handouts to be posted at another time.