Articles & Inspirations

Before Your Workshop

FACTS provide the most significant information in family constellation work. unlike traditional therapy, which makes interpretations based on… Download the article (file size 12.5k)

A Soul’s Journey: My Path to the Systemic and Family Constellations Experience

I found this work in the way that all my journeying has developed since I started getting out of my own way. My wise and wonderful teacher in Process Acupressure, Aminah Raheem…. Download the article (file size 28K)

All My Relations

A profound part of the work that I do as a therapist is based upon the work of Dr. Bert Hellinger in Systemic and Family Constellations. This is a most unique kind of practice that uses the energy of the “field” to identify and resolve issues that may repeat from generation to generation…. Download the article (file size 24K)

How to Heal Your Family

An article from the November/December 2006 issue of Spirituality and Health Magazine highlights the wonderful benefits of Family Constellation Therapy. Download the article (file size 84k)

Systemic Constellations In Individual Therapy

An article included in Annie’s presentation to the 2007 Constellation Congress. Download the article (file size 53k)

The Spiritual Transformation of Motherhood

An article about the incredibly transformative power of motherhood. Download the article (file size 60K)

Whose Constellation Is It, Anyway

An article about creating a family constellation in the workshop setting. Download the article (file size 35K)

Orders of Love

A charming ten minute film about family connections that includes interviews with Bert Hellinger. BBC-Orders of Love BBC-Orders of Love

Grandma’s Experiences Leave A Mark On Your Genes

An article from the May, 2013 Issue of Discover Magazine concerning Epigenetic Science and ancestral legacies Epigenetic Markers and Ancestral inheritance Epigenetic Markers and Ancestral inheritance


Poems and Inspirations

A poem by Sapphire from Black Wings and Blind Angels

On Trauma
The so-called traumatic experience is not an accident, but the opportunity for ….

Written by Audrey Hepburn regarding “Beauty Tips”.

Bert Hellinger on Life and Death
Life has a beginning and it flows from something else which is greater than life. Then it flows back. It’s a cycle which ends at the place it began….

Albert Einstein
A human being is a part of the whole, called by us ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space….

From The Prophet by Kahil Gibran
When love beckons to you, follow him….

Marianne Williamson, from A Return to Love
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure…

The Shyness by Sharon Olds

From Elegy for Iris by John Bayley

From the I Ching

From Notes to Each Other by Gail and Hugh Prather


Poems and Inspirations

A Poem by Sapphire from Black Wings And Blind Angels

Today

Today is the day you have been waiting for
when you would finally begin to live
when you would at last open the door.

This is the what, the circumstance, the more
you have been withholding, saving to give.
Today is the day you have been waiting for.

when you could sit down to your desk for
hours, take pride, time, find out what work is,
when you would at last open the door

to your own self-development, what god has for
you. Today is the day you come out of prison, live.
Today is the day you’ve been waiting for

the tomorrow you pined away yesterday for.
I think love rhymes in a way with give.
You at last open the door

to the possibility of now, the core
of life is the moment, now, how you live.
Today is the day I have been waiting for
when you would at last open the door.

On Trauma

The so-called traumatic experience is not an accident, but the opportunity for which the child has been patiently waiting– had it not occurred, it would have found another, equally trivial–in order to find a necessity and direction for its existence, in order that its life may become a serious matter.— W.H. Auden

The following was written by Audrey Hepburn regarding “Beauty Tips”.

For attractive lips,
speak words of kindness.

For lovely eyes,
Seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure,
Share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair,
Let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day.

For poise,
Walk with the knowledge you’ll never walk alone.

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived,
reclaimed, and redeemed; Never throw out anybody.

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of
your arms.

As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for
helping yourself, the other for helping others.

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears,
The figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair.

The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes,
Because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love is.

The beauty of a woman is not in a facial more,
But true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul.

It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows,
And the beauty of a woman with passing years – only grows!

Bert Hellinger on Life and Death

Life has a beginning and it flows from something else which is greater than life. Then it flows back. It’s a cycle which ends at the place it began. This is the peace. Deep down we long for this peace, and so life becomes precious. We are attuned to something beyond life and death.

Albert Einstein

A human being is a part of the whole, called by us ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.

From The Prophet by Kahil Gibran

When love beckons to you, follow him

Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him, Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so he is for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Marianne Williamson, from A Return to Love

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, as children do.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It’s not just in some of us: it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
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The Shyness by Sharon Olds

Then, when we were joined, I became
shyer. I became completed, joyful,
and shyer. I may have shone more, reflected
more, and from deep inside there rose
some glow passing steadily through me, but I was not
playing, now, I felt like someone
small, in a raftered church, or in
a cathedral, the vaulted spaces of the body
like a sacred woods. I was quiet when my throat was not
making those iron, orbital, rusted,
coming noises at the hinge of matter and
whatever is not matter. He takes me into
ending after ending like another world at the
center of this one, and then, if he begins to
end when I am resting I feel awe, I almost feel
fear, sometimes for a moment I feel
I should not move, or make a sound, as
if he is alone, now,
howling in the wilderness,
and yet I know we are in this place
together. I thought, now is the moment
I could become more loving, and my hands moved shyly
over him, secret as heaven,
and my mouth spoke, and in my beloved’s
voice, by the bones of my head, the fields
groaned, and then I joined him again,
not shy, not bold, released, entering
the true home, where the trees bend down along the
ground and yet stand, then we lay together
panting, as if
saved from some disaster, and for ceaseless
instants, it came to pass what I have
heard about, it came to me
that I did not know I was separate
from this man, I did not know I was lonely.

From Elegy for Iris by John Bayley

So married life began. And the joys of solitude. No contradiction was involved. The one went perfectly with the other. To feel oneself held and cherished and accompanied, and yet to be alone. To be closely and physically entwined, and yet feel solitude’s friendly presence, as warm and undesolating as continguity itself.

From the I Ching

And when two people understand each other
In their utmost hearts,
Their words are sweet and strong,
Like the fragrance of orchids.

From Notes to Each Other by Gail and Hugh Prather

Did I pick the right person? This question inverts the starting and ending points. We do not pick our perfect match because we ourselves are not perfect. The universe hands us a flawless diamond- in the rough. Only if we are willing to polish off every part of ourselves that cannot join do we end up with a soul mate.