This poignant photographic exhibition, The Willard Suitcase Project by Jon Crispin has me reflecting on a Telephone Constellation I did last week. My client had “felt shut out, and unseen” all of their life. The Constellation revealed a grandmother that had been set away for being “unusual” and, further work showed us that the grandmothers “craziness” was connected to an ancestor that was left behind when the family was forced to leave their homeland.

These facts can be sad to hear and see, but there is nothing like Systemic Constellation Work for developing deep compassion for the unseen and unheard by standing in the others shoes ..all the others. The outcome of the work is healing the clients current issue at a source that would not be found otherwise.

It may seem surprising that a person being sent to a mental institution a generation or two back could have any connection with current issues of depression, a child’s illness, or a spouse’s ability to experience intimacy.From the Systemic perspective we know from years of experience those that have been excluded will be “represented” later in the family, and show up in any manner of current issue. It is only a few generations ago that anything “abnormal” was grounds to be institutionalized. This occurrence was not uncommon in an era when mental disorders were a shame on the family, to the point that overcrowding was always an issue.  A family member could be sent away without their consent, for almost anything many never to be seen or spoken of again. 

Jon Crispin’s touching photographic project is getting attention as it shows in venues around the country. He writes “I never got over the idea that there were people here without their consent, largely because they were having problems that today we would be able to treat — grief, obsessiveness, Asperger’s, Depression, Epilepsy - having seizures - was grounds for lifelong commitment. Young women who were promiscuous, gays and lesbians and mothers who couldn't get over the grief of losing a child in three months or less could all be subject to commitment”  His work is a gift allowing us to see, and remember these members of a society that where shut away.  

Every family has something that is affecting later generations. Systemic Family Constellation Work creates the sacred space that gives everyone their proper place in the family allowing the current generation to thrive in peace and wholeness.