Walk with Francesca Mason Boring into a transformational, spiritual journey with the release of her new book, Connecting to Our Ancestral Past: Healing through Family Constellations, Ceremony, and Ritual.
A teacher and practitioner of family systems constellation, Francesca Mason Boring shares her exploration and insights into a healing method that taps into the “universal indigenous field,” what she describes as a “place of healing and knowledge used by Native healers and teachers for centuries.” Drawing from her bi-cultural background, input from Native elders, and stories of those who have personally experienced the power of this healing, she presents a transformational walk that combines rituals and constellation therapy as pathways of access to innate wisdom, leading to truth and healing.
What is family constellation therapy?
Family constellation therapy is a healing method that embraces the idea of inter-connectedness with the world and with the participants’ past. It deals specifically with interpersonal issues and aims to release tensions and bring healing to fractured relationships.
Sessions are usually led by a trained practitioner who intuitively orients participants—all members of the same family—into positions in the workspace to form a “constellation” that represents the family’s “energy field.” Each participant becomes a representation of a member of the family: him or herself, a present family member, or one who is not present or no longer living.
In the right orientation and position, participants become open to an energy of connectedness that allow participants to understand and articulate the feelings and sensations of the people they represent, even if they have no prior knowledge of those circumstances. In this state, emotional pathways are opened up from which which spring words of truth and empowerment, ultimately bringing resolution, release of tension, a feeling of sacredness, and healing.
Inspired by and grounded in the worldviews of cultures that see and experience the world within the context of inter-relationship between people, ancestors, and dreams, family constellation therapy aims to resolve issues present not only in the participants’ current lives but also the issues passed down from past generations.
Connecting to Our Ancestral Past:
In Connecting to Our Ancestral Past, Francesca Mason Boring takes family constellation therapy and, with the voices of experts around the world, weaves it together with ideas from fields ranging from systems constellations, theoretical physics, and tribal traditions. Her discoveries, methods, and research are meant to aid those involved in constellation work, therapists, and those who simply wish to walk through life with open eyes and open hearts. The book combines family constellation therapy with ritual storytelling, therapeutic methods from her background as a member of the Shoshone, and knowledge of Western psychology to enable the reader’s personal growth and health.
We hope you enjoy the following interview questions with the author regarding her book and her career as a writer.
What is the greatest influence on your writing?
Being read to as a child by my parents, being encouraged by several teachers who loved reading and writing, and listening to the stories of my grandmother and a variety of Native Elders. A lifetime of correspondence with my grandparents and Aunts, uncles and cousins, introduced me to writing as a vehicle to support bonds and learn about myself and my family. Being taken into bookstores as a child gave me a love of the smell of books and receiving books as gifts for milestones in my life reinforced that books and reading, and writing could accompany a life. Writing equaled story, story equaled family, and family equaled life.
What made you decide to write this book?
The book wrote itself. As I observed various aspects of parallel between systems constellation and indigenous/tribal traditions and ceremonies I would often have discussions with others and make notes to clarify what the conclusions and implications of those parallels were. At a certain point it became clear that this might be of support to a number of individuals who are on their way, either as facilitators, therapists, or simply members of families and communities. The evolution of ritual and the inclusion of ceremony in the developing field of awareness of the connection in all ‘systems’ was something very ancient and necessary that could be given a space again.
What are you working on next?
I have an interest in pursuing wider publication for a previous book, Feather Medicine and I am compiling notes and narratives regarding “knowing dream”. This is an aspect of dream which is not acknowledged in many western therapeutic paradigms […] It also seems important to acknowledge that western healing and scientific paradigms have no place for this kind of dream- other than to pathologize the dreamer. I have an interesting image: a book which weaves indigenous story with the juxtaposition of western psychiatric definitions of delusion, hallucination. So the indigenous voice and the technical voice would constantly be contrasted in a visceral way. I have a sense that the end result would be a tight, strong weave. The book feels like a basket that might be able to carry a kind of water that could quench the thirst of those who are tired and wanting something fresh and clean.
Is there any particular story to tell concerning the writing of this book? What is the one thing that you want readers to take away from your book?
A sense of their own connection to something greater, simple, and sustaining. A remembering that their ancestors were not ignorant, but were likely connected to a deep way of knowing that we often forget, or marginalize.
