This month, I'd like to share with readers an emotional therapy that has profoundly surprised me: family constellations. And since this column focuses on topics related to our homes, this article is an attempt to integrate both themes through reflection. Not only from a technical perspective, but also from the view that our emotional healing also encompasses our physical spaces.

 

What are family constellations?

Family constellations, developed by Bert Hellinger, are a therapeutic methodology that allows us to visualize the hidden dynamics of a family system. They are based on three systemic laws: belonging, order, and balance. When these laws are disrupted—due to exclusions, unresolved grief, or unconscious loyalties—the system generates symptoms that can manifest in the emotional and physical realms, and also, as a projection, in our personal spaces. Sometimes we repeat patterns, feel emotions, or carry the burden of decisions that didn't originate with us. Constellations help identify those invisible threads that connect us to our ancestors, threads that sometimes limit us and affect us in various ways without our awareness.

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It's not about reliving the past, but about acknowledging it. About giving it its place. About understanding that what is not named is repeated. And that what is honored is transformed.

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We don't need to know everything about our families to begin. We don't need to have the entire family tree or know every story. Sometimes, simply intending to look is enough. To honestly ask yourself: What am I repeating without realizing it? What emotions aren't mine, but I carry them anyway? What can I let go of to live more lightly? 

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How does all this relate to the home?

Much more than it seems, because the home is also a system and, almost without exception, a reflection of our inner state; of our mind and emotions. There are spaces that feel heavy, objects that no longer represent us, corners that hold stories we haven't let go of. We transmit our own vibration to our homes, affecting the energy of each of their spaces.

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After a constellation session, many people feel the need to move things around, to clean, to make space for the new. Not for decoration, but for liberation. It seems that when something is put in order in the family tree, it also needs order in the home. It's as if the body and the environment respond to what has been arranged internally. Suddenly you start to see that piece of furniture that never quite convinced you, you want to look through that box you haven't opened in years and redecorate that corner you always avoided… And so, without thinking too much, you start to act: you throw things away, you tidy up, you give things away, you light a candle, you open a window. It's not just aesthetic. It's symbolic. It's your system saying: “I want to breathe differently now.”

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As we try to organize the family tree, we can also use that momentum to extend its influence into our homes, so that we see reflected there what we are consciously ready to release, honor, or transform. We don't need to make big changes. Sometimes a simple gesture is enough: moving a photo, creating an altar, doing a deep cleaning, or freeing up a space that felt stagnant. These are small movements, but they carry a profound emotional weight. 

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Family constellations aren't a magic formula, but they are a powerful tool that we can extend into our homes, transforming them into allies in our healing processes. Ultimately, healing is about letting go of what weighs us down, what has run its course, what no longer belongs to us. It's about making space—in our history, in our bodies, in our homes—so that all that is new can enter. When we allow ourselves to bring order to the unseen, we also begin to inhabit the everyday with greater lightness, awareness, and love.

 

Karina Guzmán

Journalist and Feng Shui Consultant applied to Interior Design.