Published in Praxis der Systemaufstellung, 1/2007

(Revised Version)
Stephan Hausner : Harmony as Source for Healing Power
Discussion partners: Marianne Franke / Stephan Hausner

F: Stephan, starting our conversation, I'd like to know what were your primary career desires and how did you realize them?

H: Initially, I wanted to become a biologist and work in the field of environmental protection. However, finally my interests shifted more to people and their social environments, so I considered a medical profession. During my training as a male nurse I decided to study medicine. As I'd already gained insight and experience in the auto regulation of systems in association with environmental protection the orthodox school of medicine was not really an option for me. My search for ecological procedures brought me to Traditional Chinese Medicine, and from naturopathy, I finally found access to homeopathy.

Besides the simile principle, which forms the basis of homeopathy, I was fascinated by the so-called within-seconds phenomenon. This shows that our body can instantly restructure itself just by an appropriate healing impulse, and even severe symptoms might ease off.
What made homeopathy difficult for me, was using the Index for finding medicine, and I didn't like the dependence on medication. From my father-in-law, I learnt the usage of radiaesthesia for medication testing and fault zones finding within the body. So healing became a resonance and field phenomenon, and more and more it became my ideal that the doctor himself turns into being the medication in a homeopathic sense, to bring about change within the patient just by his presence. The therapist as a catalyst for the healing movement within the patient. He doesn't heal, but he creates the conditions for self-healing.
In 1993, when for the first time I watched Bert Hellinger working with patients, I had the feeling that I had found what I was looking for: I experienced Bert as a person, who could instill healing within his patients without any medication, just by his insight, his being and his doing. From studying Traditional Chinese Medicine and humoral pathology of the Ancient Greeks, with their view of illness as a disturbance of order, the connection between health and order is not foreign to me. Therefore, Bert Hellinger's insights into the orders of love in human systems and their possible meaning in medical contexts quickly made sense to me.
F: So the seminar with Bert Hellinger was some sort of kick-start?
H: Yes, and it was also the extension of my former holistic approach. At once it became apparent, that holistic medicine needs to include the family system.
F: Stephan, subsequently you visited many of Bert's workshops. What were the most moving aspects for you?
H: Two things:

First, there was the question that was bothering me: What are the healing aspects of this method, what is it that really matters; and second: How does Bert manage to gather that much information in such a short time – so if you want; his perception?
Rajan Sankaran, an Indian homeopath renowned for his fast medication finding, mentioned the provoking words: 'Every question of the doctor is a sign of his insecurity.' Bert Hellinger appeared to seize the essential dynamics that were moving the patient, within the first moments just from nonverbal contact. For me this arrangement was like the confirmation of what I'd already suspected. That was an exciting experience.
F: Could you say a few more words about the first question, 'What are the healing aspects in the constellation-work?'
H: My main focus regarding the constellation-work was working with patients. Up till now I can look back to over 200 workshops that were offered for patients with physical illnesses. As a therapist I'm interested in the question: 'What has contributed to healing, where the healing processes were initiated or activated by constellation-work?'
Over the years, I've met many of my patients again, and judging from my experience the assumption becomes more and more plausible, that one of the drivers of illnesses and maybe even entanglement – insofar as there is a personal responsibility involved – result from the primary love of children for their parents and their need and desire for closeness. At least it is this desire for closeness to parents and family that motivates the patients to hold onto their entanglements and symptoms.
This appears to me one of the prevailing aspects concerning the work with patients. That changed my approach to constellation-work. Rather than going back to the very origin of the entanglement or problems, I often terminate the constellation-work, as soon as I know the desire of the patient, that is, what is his benefit of being ill or the illusion of his benefit gained by being ill? Then I work in a condensed way. I confront the patient directly with the person that his desire is directed to, and then I observe the specific happenings of this relationship context. In most cases that is the father or the mother.
My friend, Dale Schusterman, once said: 'You use the person to change the system, not the system to change the person.' And that is true. At first I'm interested in the individual and the framework of his possibilities as part of the system. So I try to stir the own responsibility of the patient, bring him into contact with his basic attitude, that entangles him and the attitude that might solve and heal.
F: Stephan, in most cases crucial experiences are responsible for such findings. Maybe you can share one with us.
H: During a course held in Washington, DC, in 2004, this became apparent to me: The patient was himself a doctor. Due to progressive bone cancer in his right leg, he had to undergo several operations, and it was obvious to us all that he was wearing a prosthesis. Additionally he had metastatic tumors in his lung. He joined the group with his wife and both children, and because he was in a ray therapy program, it was planned that he would take part only on the first day.

I asked him to nominate a representative for himself, his father and his mother. He established links between them, and we added an additional representative for his illness. From the reactions of the representatives, the connection between his illness and his mother became apparent. However, further inquiries didn't yield any more relevant or purposeful information. The patient emphasized, that he had and always has had good contact to his mother. The constellation showed only a few and vague hints for possible connections, and because the patient revealed little willingness to get involved into a further interview, I decided to terminate the constellation.
The patient was annoyed by the termination, claiming the long journey by plane with his family, and that he was disappointed now. I assured him, that I would continue the work the next day, provided the experience would open up new aspects. He objected that due to an important therapy appointment, he needed to fly home that very evening. I repeated that he had all the possibilities and the decision was up to him.

The following day he was there. His family had taken the plane back home, which obviously made him lose his tension. He appeared more relaxed and calmer. I decided again to set up a constellation of his background system. The resulting picture was similar to the one the day before: confusing movements of the representatives, maybe a secret around the mother and little potential for a solution. So I asked him again to tell me about his relationship to his mother. The day before he had told me that the contact with her was good. However, during this conversation I became aware that his mother didn't know anything about his illness! That was the key. I asked him, how he managed, and he told me that since his first operation, he avoided seeing his mother. However, they would phone daily, and they talked about everything except his illness. After receiving this information I asked the representative of this mother to step up opposite of him, and I let him say: 'Mom, dearest, look, I'm very ill.' His mother's representative didn't act like one would have expected. Rather than turning to her ill son, she felt dizzy, and stumbling backwards she nearly fell. I uttered the sentence from her to her son: 'My dear son, even if you die, you won't get more!' The patient was deeply shaken by this sentence. It was, as if a house of cards collapsed inside of him and one could sence that his body needed to reorganize after this intervention. The mother's representative felt well and full of power with this sentence, maintained the distance and stressed again, she'd given what she could. More was not possible. The patient started to cry, when he listened to his mother's words. As soon as he calmed down, he could agree to his mother's bonds, and he could thank her.
After six months, I gained knowledge that the patient was free from cancer. Suddenly, the medical treatments showed results. In 2006, I met Susan Ulfelder, at that time organizer of the workshops. She told me, he was in good health and had given up his profession as a doctor.
F: I'm very impressed about your ability to sense the client's deep desire, and how you disclosed the healing truth by using an unconventional sentence, which wouldn't have been uttered by the mother in the same way. Let us stick for a moment with the healing phenomenon and the question: What in your opinion is helpful in the  constellation-work?
H: I'm convinced that in depth healing is self-healing. From this point of view, as a therapist I have to ask myself: What can I actually do for my patient? Well, maybe I succeed in creating a framework or field where forces of self-healing can unfold. In that sense the therapist is more like a gardener, who strives for beneficial growth conditions.
During the constellation-work process, it often becomes apparent, that and how the patient is caught in a childish desire. Therefore, part of the healing is to let this part of childhood go and to grow into the autonomy of a grown-up person. This is possible in harmony with the parents.
When I watch my peers during their work with family constellations, I recognize two directions that, in my opinion, can and should be separated. I experience one approach as rather system- or constellation-oriented, while the other one is more client-oriented in the sense of: what is the effect of the constellation-work's result with the client? Here the question is: Is the client able to agree to what he experiences during the constellation or is he able to follow the apparent movement?
F: How do you recognize that?
H: One indicator for me is the craniosacral rhythm. During the constellation-work process, I experience myself connected with the client's body, his illness or his symptoms. My interventions are the results from what becomes apparent during the constellation and the contact with the client through the question: Is his body in resonance with what became apparent during the constellation and is he able to integrate such experience?
The craniosacral rhythm comes to a hold when the therapist touches previous traumata or when the therapeutic work is too demanding for the client. That's how I realize how much time a client needs to integrate an intervention. Agility is the prerequisite for change, insight and healing.
During constellation-work with clients, I experience myself being tasked to initiate healing in harmony with “something bigger” . So client orientation and attention to the body have become the focus of attention.

F: My question is now, how do you persuade patients to take personal responsibility, even when they don't see how they could change their behavior?

H: During the constellation the patient recognizes where he is bound and how it is possible to release those bonds. It's not about a change of behavior, but a changed basic attitude, that the patient needs to grow into. This might, however, lead to a behavioral change.

At the beginning of every constellation, I make it clear that it is the patient's concept of living, which led him to this point where he stands now. Using an example I explain what I call the 'Ecology of illness': When after breaking a leg we are treated with a plaster bandage that forces us to bed, we know that soon we will no longer be able to walk. That means, our body invests only in those structures that are needed and used. Why is it then that our body sometimes keeps up with an illness for a whole life? That is explainable when the illness has a deeper underlying sense or when the client gains a subconscious benefit through the illness.

This idea of illness touches one's own responsibility for the current situation. For me the willingness to say 'yes' to the current life situation is a prerequisite for constellation-work, and often it is also the first step to finding a solution. Experience shows that when somebody isn't willing to say 'yes' to his life situation, to life the way he received it from his parents, he often also can't say 'yes' to what becomes apparent during the constellation. In such a situation, I start with working on this 'yes'.

F: How do you proceed in such a case?

H: Sometimes I conduct an exercise with the patient: Step by step, I confront him with the representatives. First his father, then on the left hand side – quite near so the patient can't avoid the view of his parents – next to the father the mother. If the situation requires it, I'll place the grandparents and great-grandparents behind the parents. One senses when ‘the image’ of the constellation is complete. Then I wait.  Face to face with his relatives the patient has to recognize that he can't keep up his 'no', that he hasn't got a choice in respect to his heritage. Often this confrontation results in consent and movement.

Harmony is the power source for the solution and healing. So among others my anamnesis is governed by the question: What is the subject matter that the client is not in harmony with. It might concern personal life, in the sense of a traumatism, a broken movement towards the parents or other important role models, but it might also go beyond ones own life. In system constellations with patients, it becomes evident that an illness can't and must not be reduced to a patient's personal phenomenon. So often solutions only arise for patients when their symptoms are considered and viewed in a family's broader cross-generation context. In such cases the symptoms often point to system-relevant events or relatives connected to those events that were excluded by the patient or his family. There will only be a future for those who are in harmony with their past. Those who wrestle with their past, are bound and not free for a future. Contrary to assessment, judgment and exclusion, we keep on experiencing how recognition, approval and harmony with those realities can unfold the solving and healing powers for body and soul.

F: Can you give us an example for cases that go beyond the family system, maybe the effects of war on families?

H: A woman came to one of my workshops. Her request dealt with her children. All three suffered from serious neurodermatitis.

The question dealing with events in the family didn't reveal any of the classical dynamics for neurodermatitis. She also denied when questioned, if anybody of her family died by fire. Furthermore, in the group was a neighbor of her, who was living in the same village. He was very much moved by this question and asked me, if he was allowed to contribute something.

He told us, he played in the same brass band as the client's father, and every time they played a certain marsh her father started to cry.

I asked him about the subject of the marsh, and he told me it dealt with fallen comrades. The woman confirmed that her father was fighting in the war, but he would never talk about that time. We set up the present system. The daughters' representatives felt strong itching on their skin. I placed the grandfather next to them and also representatives for his wartime comrades. The daughters felt attached to their grandfather and his comrades. At this point the itching was gone. When the client saw this, she cried and bowed before her father.

About two months after the constellation, she called and told me that her father's health increasingly deteriorated after the constellation. One afternoon, when she and her family were together, he suddenly started to cry and began to talk. During the withdrawal in Russia, they got encircled in a village. Together with three comrades he managed to escape. All other comrades were left behind, and he could do nothing but watch when the whole village stood on fire.

F: Stephan, I'd like to regress to the question about clients with chronic or even incurable illnesses. Would you agree to say that a patient is doing something for his family? And that way the family experiences some sort of relief and can continue to exist, or how would you see this?

H: I think it is risky to say that the patient is doing something for his family. It is more a matter of the internal child, his desire for closeness, for affiliation and purity that motivates children to give and carry everything for their parents, to make sure they are a part of it.

In a workshop in Barcelona was a patient with chronicle hoarseness and loss of voice . Working as a therapist herself this was a very nasty restriction. We set up a representative for herself and her symptoms. The representatives didn't feel highly connected to each other. When the patient added further representatives for her parents, the patient and symptoms smiled at each other and embraced dearly. The mother's representative turned away and didn't want contact to anybody. The father's representative looked at the daughter. His view revealed an erotic incestuous dynamic. When I mentioned this to the patient, she told me in her youth, she was abused by a neighbor. She never dared to tell this to her parents. Here I assumed a connection to her symptoms. According to my observations rape is often a shifted incest. Accordingly, the dynamics can be found in the family of origin. If the daughter would tell what has happened, she would reveal the dynamics and would have to accept that her mother is bound to the family of origin. It is easier not to speak than to confront the pain and to accept the limited emotional availability of the mother.

I asked the mother's representative to position herself opposite the patient and suggested that the patient should to say: 'Dear Mom, what I have been carrying for you, I carried it with love, but now it is over.' The mother's representative replied: 'It is mine and I take it.' Then the patient cried and both embraced each other's dearly. Six months later I met the patient again, and she told me, the symptom had ceased to appear after the constellation, and also her relationship with her mother had improved.

I've often experienced that when one child releases herself from the entanglement, things suddenly become harder for another child of that family and sometimes this other child takes over the symptoms: This is especially the case when the parents, for whatever reason, can't face the excluded subject matter.

Unintentionally the illness is used in families as a means to maintain a balance.

F: I will now come to a question that touches a lot of people. Judging from your experience are there any indications for entanglements in families that cause specific symptoms or illnesses? I'm sure that you can't provide us with some catalog, but there might be indications?

H: I'd like to be very careful here, because if indications were used like recipes, it gets dangerous. Change requires agility, and that is also true for therapists! We need to avoid turning the collected experience into theories. Otherwise the healing aspects within the experience and within ourselves gets lost, as experience instills healing through the being of the therapist not by his knowledge.

Already in naturopathy I was touched by the doctrine of signature. Illnesses and medicine were observed. From the outward form of the illness internal relations are disclosed. 

Last week I visited a congress in Madrid dealing with the subject matter: 'Cancer in the alternative medicine.' There I worked with a woman who suffered from ovarian cancer. She had been married for second time, having lost her first husband through suicide. She appeared emotionless and full of reproaches. I began the constellation with representatives for herself and the illness. For the cancer, the patient chose a man. The representatives felt attracted to each other. It would be obvious to think about her first husband. To test this assumption, I asked her to set up a representative for her husband. However, this didn't result in a change of the constellation. The representative of the husband was totally absorbed with himself and the representative of the wife didn't show any interest in him. So I asked about the family of origin. During our discussion, she suddenly realized that grandma wasn't the mother of her father. That one had died giving birth to her father. Maybe here lies the connection to the symptoms. In families where a woman dies in childbirth one often finds an unconscious fear of relationships and pregnancies. Maybe this particular situation was the result of an unconscious loyalty to the grandmother. I asked the patient to add representatives for her father and his mother. The representatives' reactions demonstrated the family dynamics behind the course of disease. The male representative for the illness was actually a presentation of the patient's father and for him she was his mother’s replacement. The affectionate connection between herself and her illness was resolved as soon as a representative for her father was added. I asked the patient to take her position in the constellation and to tell her father: 'Within yourself I also love your mother'. This sentence that resolved the entanglement between the patient and her father moved the father's representative to tears, and they embraced each other for a long time. The grandmother looked with joy onto both.

In connection with auto-immune processes the cases often revolve around powers that belong to each other, however, cannot or must not be connected and consequently, work against each other.

F: Can you give us an example? My first idea was the disparity of attitudes of both parents.

H: In a lot of cases of auto-immune diseases it goes far beyond that. In a workshop in Cordoba/Argentina the grandmother of a client suffering from an auto-immune disease was an Indio woman who had married a Spaniard. She was denied her father's blessings and the conflict manifested two generations later within her granddaughter.

Another experience with an auto-immune disease originates from a workshop in Valencia. Like her mother, the client was the carrier of defective x-chromosome that causes the hemorrhagic disease in sons. She'd lost her brother due to this illness and was loyal to her father, who unconsciously blamed the mother for the loss of the beloved son. When the client stood opposite her mother's representative, she was unable to look into her eyes and say 'yes'. Her 'no' to her mother and her illness was so deeply rooted within herself that it turned into a power against her.

In connection with the intestinal disease Morbus Crohn, I experienced several instances of spontaneous healing that were clinically confirmed. The dynamic typically showed that the mother was bound and the 'child' was not able to let the mother go. To acknowledge mother's bond to her family of origin, former partners or deceased children, to agree to her longing and at the same time to be able to let her go, has been a healing experience for a lot of patients suffering from Crohn's disease. Even in two cases where precancerosis had already been diagnosed, the attending physicians confirmed the sustainable negative findings when the patients visited the clinic for their regular check-up.

F: This is quite amazing. That brings me to a totally personal question: Have you any findings in connection with multiple sclerosis?

H: Well, I can only confirm Bert Hellinger's insights.

You'll often discover that the MS-patient is identified with an offender from the system, and I can also confirm the theory, that the illness prevents a murderous impulse.

Before I even knew about system constellation I had a personal experience in my practice. An MS-Patient consulted me in respect of homeopathic treatment. He was nearly completely paralyzed. Within the course of the initial anamnesis, I asked him the question: What would be the first thing you do if you were healthy again?

His expression hardened and he said: 'Then I kill my wife.' I don't remember anymore how I reacted, in any case, I was happy he didn't ask for a further appointment.

A similar dynamic is sometimes also visible with serious progressive rheumatic illnesses.

F: Your experiences are touching me quite deeply. Please allow me one last question in connection with phenomenology, that is to say, what becomes apparent during the system constellations. Bert keeps on saying that he is interested in the movements of the soul, now also the movements of the spirit and that is his main focus. However, I experience your work rather focused on the human body and its physical aspects. How do you see yourself in a context with Bert?

H: Of course I have to give special emphasis to the body and health aspects, when working with patients suffering from physical illnesses. As a naturopath I don't perceive the body separated from soul and spirit. I am convinced that healing the body can happen only in harmony with the movements of the soul and the movements of the spirit.

F: Those were beautiful closing words. Thank you very much, Stephan