Instructor Biography

 

Sophia Kramer is a facilitator of Family Constellations, teacher, hypnosis coach, voice-and breath practitioner, and Energy worker. Sophia grew up in Germany and South Africa. She became a nurse and holistic practitioner, as well as a performing artist. Sophia was initially introduced to Family Constellations in Germany, and she went on to graduate from the first training in NYC under the auspices of the Bert Hellinger Institute. She studied with Bert Hellinger and many of the core teachers in the field, here in the USA and in Europe. She leads workshops, trainings and individual sessions primarily on the East Coast, Europe and South Africa.

Family Constellations

 

 Generational & Family Healing for Counselors
 Love & Relationships
Financial Abundance
   Success & Self-Confidence

A series of 4 theme-focused workshops

In these 4 workshops we look at our issues through the therapeutic lens of family constellations. They allow us to access information from parts of our family system that lies outside of what we "know" or believe in. We explore our blocks and difficulties through this groundbreaking therapeutic approach from Europe, which now also grows rapidly within the USA. In these workshops we create a safe and supportive environment, in which each participant can understand, how family members from the past, who have been cut off, forgotten, denied, or otherwise unacknowledged can keep us bonded. We learn about loyalties, secrets and the "emotional baggage" we inherited. Though this process we understand how we continue with patterns that are painful or destructive. These forces have taken root in our life, often dictating the choices we make, the relationships we pursue and the professions we selected. The safety of the workshop provides opportunities for more joy, love and fulfillment in many areas of your life.

Generational & Family Healing for Counselors

This workshop is for people interested in the healing field. All are welcome to join us for an evening of Family Constellations and Hypnosis. Whether you witness a session or would like to work on your own issue, you will be able to gain insight in the unique technique of Family Constellations and will receive information on how to apply it within your own practice.

Love and Relationships
This is a workshop for Singles and Couples. When we look at love in our life, what do we see? Do we have a right to have love? Do we have a right to keep it? How do we value love? How do we value ourselves? What do we give? Do we know how to receive? Improve your relationships to yourself and to others by increasing self- knowledge and self -love. Through family constellations, we can visit those parts that have been closed off or have been denied. Experience how you can deepen your connection to yourself, to others and to a higher source.

Financial Abundance
Many of us have an uneasy relationship with money and prosperity. In this workshop we can look at some of the same questions that often arise: What does it mean to us? Do we have a right to have it? Do we have a right to keep it? How do we create and/or deny abundance and prosperity in our lives? We look at the origin of how we created and continue to create our attitudes towards abundance. Together we will explore beyond what we think we know to a broader and deeper understanding its role in our life so that we may forge healthier, more sustaining ways to deal with it.

Success and Self-Confidence
Many of us lack the self -confidence and success we really wish for. Are you stuck, afraid or frustrated? Do you have the fulfillment in life you deserve? Why do so many of us feel paralyzed when it comes to the thing we really want to do? Many of us spend our whole lives waiting for inspiration to strike or waiting for "something" to happen. In this workshop we will have the opportunity to discover hidden dynamics, which are blocking us without our knowing it. We will discover how to unlock the courage and the energy to create and to keep creating success and happiness.

A Transformational Journey... into the Secret Bonds of Your Family...

WHAT CAN YOU EXPERIENCE IN THIS WORKSHOP?

• The opportunity to discover hidden family dynamics that exert control over our lives without our knowing it
• The opportunity to move beyond blame and guilt to find genuine, deeper sources of renewal
• The opportunity to understand how current physical or mental illness, addiction, relationship problems, and any number of other issues are related to secrets held by past generations and a legacy of denial
• The opportunity to shift from a position of weakness and pain to a position of strength and well-being

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In this workshop, participants and observers will discover the lineage of their pain, beyond common notions of blame and guilt, through Family Constellations and the profound revelations that take shape once the "family order" is acknowledged and all the members are honored. The temporary workshop community provides a safe space in which once-hidden sources of disturbance are uncovered so that life-affirming energy and love can emerge.

Do you want to be a subject of a Family Constellation? It takes 20 to 40 minutes to do a Family Constellation, Therefore depending on the size of a workshop the facilitator will be able to accommodate a certain number of individuals or couples over the course of the day. Please indicate your interest in being a subject on the registration form.

Description of a Family Constellation Session

Sophia Kramer selects a participant from the group of people on the stage who volunteered to be "subjects" as the client of the next session. She asks a few basic questions and then asks the client to pick surrogates from the audience to represent their family of origin - their parents, grandparents, siblings, spouse (spouses), lover(s), children and him or herself.

This done, the client then places each person into the position he or she occupies in their inner image of the family (father facing mother, parents next to each other, subject facing his parents; their brother next to them; the sister next to the mother)...whatever seems right to the subject. These selected individuals become the client's surrogate Family Constellation. The client now sits down to watch them and listen to what they say. In some inexplicable way, the "surrogates" express exactly what the family member's hidden emotions are and their relationships with the subject and sometimes even their physical symptoms.

In several steps, Sophia Kramer then has the surrogates clarify these emotions and relationships, particularly as they concern the client. She leads the process to a resolution in the form of the final constellation in which all the surrogates feel right. This feeling right feedback of the participants is the relevant criterion for the resolution. It does not represent what is right but rather only what was actually articulated by the surrogates who know nothing of the people for whom they stand but for some basic information provided by the client.

Finally, the client takes the place of his or her surrogate and internalizes this right feeling order. Faces grow peaceful, tense bodies relax, and tears fall when Sophia leads people through what only can be described as the healing ritual of their Family Constellation.

History of Family Constellations Over the last 30 years, Bert Hellinger has been developing the therapy method of Family Constellaions. As a renowned psychoanalyst and one of the most innovative psychotherapists in the world today, he has greatly influenced family theorists. He has captured the attention of the international therapy community with his unique use of family constellations to reveal hidden and often destructive family dynamics and to activate healing resources. Hellinger now in his 70s, acknowledges severaql important influences on his life and work; his parents, whose faith immunized him against accepting Hitler's National Socialism, his 25 years as a priest, particularly as a missionary to the Zulu ( in fact he says, he got most of his knowledge about Family Constellation from the Zulus), and his participation in interracail, ecumenical training in group dynamics. His later training in family therapy let him to Family Constellations that have become the hallmark of his therapeutic work. Hellinger's workshops, just now being introduced in the United States, have played to sold-out audiences across Europe, Russia, Israel, and China. More than 4500 therapists in Germany alone regularly use the Hellinger Method. He is a best-selling author, with 14 books to his credit. "Loves Hidden Symmetry" was his first book to be published in the USA. His book "Farewell" is about working with Holocaust survivors and their families.

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