Bert Hellinger developed a distinctive approach to Family Constellations through his life experiences, therapeutic training, and observation of family relationships. His teachings on belonging, order, conscience, and entanglement shaped the work’s development. Understanding his background and influences provides context for the phenomenological approach and the international practice that grew from it.
Introduction
Bert Hellinger was a German psychotherapist and former Catholic priest best known for developing Family Constellations, also called Systemic Constellations or Family Systems Constellations. His work explored how unresolved trauma, exclusion, guilt, loyalty, and relationship dynamics may continue affecting families across generations.
Hellinger’s observations led to the development of concepts such as:
the Orders of Love
belonging and exclusion
blind love
systemic entanglement
unconscious family loyalty
generational trauma
Today, Family Constellations is practiced internationally in group workshops, private sessions, online formats, and professional trainings.
Early Life
Bert Hellinger was born Anton Hellinger in Germany in 1925. He grew up under Nazi rule, while his family’s Catholic faith offered a perspective apart from the prevailing ideology. At 17, he was drafted into the German army and served as a radio operator in an infantry unit on the Western Front. American forces captured him near the end of the war, and he spent time in a prisoner-of-war camp in Belgium.
The war affected his family as well. His older brother died in a prison camp, though the family did not learn the circumstances of his death until many years later. Hellinger later reflected on how living amid war and death had shaped him. These experiences provide context for his later attention to belonging, conscience, violence, and family history.
After the war, Hellinger joined the Mariannhill Missionaries, a Catholic religious order. He studied philosophy and theology, was ordained a priest, and later went to South Africa as a missionary.
Work in South Africa
Hellinger spent approximately sixteen years in South Africa as a priest and educator, working primarily with Zulu communities. He learned the Zulu language, taught, served in pastoral care, and eventually became head of St. Francis College, a boarding school in Mariannhill. He and a fellow priest organized a system of student self-government in which elected representatives helped make decisions at the school.
Living and working within another culture broadened his perspective on family, community, and religious practice. He observed differences and similarities between Zulu traditions and his own Catholic background, including the role of ritual and relationships across generations. These experiences deepened his interest in how people relate to the larger communities and histories to which they belong.
Another turning point came through interracial and ecumenical group dynamics training led by Anglican clergy. During one course, a facilitator asked whether people or ideals should come first. Hellinger later described the question as deeply affecting him. The training strengthened his attention to dialogue, direct observation, and the experience of each person in a group. He went on to apply what he learned in his work at the school and later in Germany.
Therapeutic Training and Philosophical Influences
After leaving the priesthood, Hellinger studied psychoanalysis, group therapy, Gestalt therapy, transactional analysis, primal therapy, family therapy, and hypnotherapy. He drew on these varied experiences as he developed his systemic approach.
Virginia Satir’s family sculpting was a precursor to later ways of making family relationships visible by positioning people in a room. Hellinger trained in family therapy with Ruth McClendon and Les Kadis, through whose work he encountered family constellations. He also credited Thea Schönfelder, with whom he first experienced being a representative, as an important influence on his work.
Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy’s writing on hidden loyalties and the balance of giving and taking in families contributed to Hellinger’s systemic perspective. His study of transactional analysis and life scripts also helped him recognize patterns that could extend across generations.
Hellinger spent nine months working with Arthur Janov and one of his students in the United States, studying primal therapy. The attention primal therapy gave to bodily experience was one of several influences he carried into his later work. Hellinger also gave particular attention to the child’s movement toward the mother. He described an interrupted reaching-out movement when separation or other difficult circumstances prevent that movement from being completed. This became one way he explored connection and belonging in Family Constellations.
Martin Heidegger’s philosophy was another influence. Its phenomenological emphasis on attending to what is present resonated with Hellinger’s way of observing a constellation before interpreting it. Heidegger’s search for precise words also echoed Hellinger’s use of brief sentences during the work.
The Development of Family Constellations
Over time, Hellinger began observing repeating patterns within families that appeared connected to unresolved events and relationship dynamics from earlier generations.
He noticed that later family members often unconsciously identified with:
excluded relatives
traumatized ancestors
abandoned individuals
victims or perpetrators
forgotten members of the family system
From these observations, he concluded that emotional suffering sometimes eased when hidden dynamics became acknowledged and excluded individuals were symbolically restored to their place within the family system.
This work eventually became known as Family Constellations. During these observations, Hellinger also noticed that representatives frequently reported emotions, body sensations, and relational experiences that appeared relevant to people they had never met. These observations later contributed to what many practitioners describe as the Knowing Field.
The Orders of Love
One of Bert Hellinger’s most influential contributions was his description of the Orders of Love. Through his constellation work, he identified principles concerning each family member’s belonging, the order of relationships, and giving and receiving.
These principles explain why love can become entangled when someone is excluded, a child takes a parent’s place, or responsibility is carried by someone to whom it does not belong. Hellinger’s work brought attention to how recognizing these relationships and restoring each person’s place can support a different movement within the family.
Blind Love and Entanglement
Hellinger described unconscious movements of love and loyalty through which a person carries another family member’s burden or repeats their fate. He called these movements blind love or systemic entanglement. They became central to his understanding of how love and belonging can bind a person to earlier family suffering.
The Phenomenological Approach
Hellinger described Family Constellations as a phenomenological rather than theory-driven approach. In practice, this means the facilitator attempts to observe what emerges within the family system without imposing predetermined explanations or interpretations. In traditional group constellations, participants represent family members, and representatives often report emotional or physical perceptions that arise during the process. Through this experiential exploration, hidden relational dynamics may become more visible.
Over time, Family Constellations expanded beyond its original group format into individual sessions, online sessions, organizational constellations, and applications within health, education, coaching, and leadership development. While the settings have evolved, each approach continues to explore relationships and patterns from a systemic perspective.
Influence Around the World
Family Constellations spread internationally during the 1990s and early 2000s. Facilitators and teachers adapted the work for group and individual settings, leading to a variety of styles and applications. Some retain a close connection to Hellinger’s early methods, while others draw on later therapeutic, organizational, or spiritual perspectives.
Hellinger’s lasting contribution was to bring attention to belonging, exclusion, unconscious family loyalty, and relationships across generations through an experiential systemic approach. His observations continue to be taught and debated as practitioners develop their own ways of working.
About the Author
Barry Krost has been studying Family Constellations since 2003 and has over 40 years of experience in bodywork, somatic education, and systemic healing. He teaches Family Constellations internationally, mentors facilitators through his Training & Certification Program, and has presented at international systemic constellations conferences. His Resource Library reflects decades of professional experience and ongoing study, offering clear, thoughtful, and grounded education to help individuals and professionals better understand Family Constellations.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Bert Hellinger?
Bert Hellinger was a German psychotherapist and the founder of Family Constellations.
What is Bert Hellinger known for?
He is known for developing Family Constellations and concepts such as the Orders of Love, belonging, exclusion, and systemic entanglement.
What are the Orders of Love?
The Orders of Love are systemic principles involving belonging, order, and balance within family relationships.
Did Bert Hellinger create Family Constellations alone?
Hellinger developed his distinctive approach through observation and practice, drawing on earlier work in family therapy, group dynamics, and other therapeutic and philosophical traditions.
Did Bert Hellinger base Family Constellations on Zulu traditions?
Hellinger’s 16 years among Zulu communities in South Africa influenced his outlook. However, Family Constellations is a Western therapeutic method he developed through subsequent training and constellation work.
Is Family Constellations scientifically proven?
Some studies report benefits, but the research remains limited and its overall quality is low. Family Constellations has not been established as an effective treatment for a specific mental health condition.
Was Bert Hellinger's work controversial?
Yes. Some of Bert Hellinger's ideas and methods have been debated within psychology, psychotherapy, and the wider Family Constellations community. While many practitioners continue to value his observations, others have questioned aspects of his theoretical framework and facilitation style.
