There are many streams of theory and practice that run into Systemic Constellations work. It was first named Family Constellations and formed into a modality over a number of years by the pioneering work of a German psychotherapist, Bert Hellinger.

Bert Hellinger: brief history
In, Brief Biography of Bert Hellinger, in The Knowing Field, Issue 7, his wish to be a priest was cited as a major influence on his later work. He entered the priesthood at 20 years old. He was later sent to South Africa where he spent 16 years as a missionary, running a school and acting as the parish priest in what was then Zululand.

Hellinger left the order after 25 years, and entered into a psychoanalytic training. He went on to work with many leading figures in the different therapies and modalities.

The first public workshops were held in the early 1990s, but before that Hellinger worked together with many other practitioners and colleagues within other modalities.  using emerging insights, melding and re-shaping what was the birthing of a new process.

One of the most important elements of the family constellations is the use of the phenomenological method, allowing a non-judgemental way of working and an acceptance of what comes out of the process.  Some of the streams of practice and thought that flowed into constellation work are briefly described below.