Dr. Anna Fekete (PhD) is one of the leading systemic family constellations therapists in the US.
She is a clinical psychologist, psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, couples/relationship therapist, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapist, systemic constellations therapist and business coach living and working in New York City.
She has decades of experience in analytic/psychodynamic/Jungian psychotherapies, clin. hypnotherapy, CBT, EMDR, IFS, couples therapy, various different somatic psychotherapies, Focusing, Voice Movement Therapy (VMT), Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapies, Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP), Psychedelic Somatic Interactional Psychotherapy (PSIP), systemic family and business constellations, crative arts therapies, and a number of other modalities.
A former Supervisor of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Therapy at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s & Mount Sinai West Hospitals (NYC), she now runs a successful private practice in Manhattan.
She started her career as a classical musician and has extensive training and professional experience also in music, dance, the creative arts, and in various body-mind techniques (yoga, shiatsu, Traditional Chinese Medicine, martial arts, various meditation and trance techniques, etc.).
In her career, she has achieved a unique integration of the sensitivity of a therapist, the creativity of an artist, the academic knowledge of a scholar, the truthfulness and objectivity of a researcher, and the step-by-step methodology of a teacher.
She has worked with the whole spectrum of psychological and psychiatric disorders both in clinical/institutional and in private settings, specifically in psychiatry, substance abuse treatment, and neuropsychological rehabilitation.
In her private practice, she has helped clients of all ages, genders, religions, social and educational backgrounds, and works globally with a large international clientele.
She has been a clinical supervisor for clin. psychologists, psychotherapists, hypnotherapists, and creative arts therapists both in Europe and the US for over twenty years.
She also has worked in organizational settings both for large corporations (e.g. Audi, Pepsi Cola etc.) and small companies, and has been a successful executive coach and workshop leader for three decades.
She has taught at several universities and created the curriculum for three new graduate training programs in music therapy and creative arts therapy.
For the last two decades, she has also been a well-known journalist in her native Hungary – famous for her deep and creative understanding of the human condition, for the wide spectrum of her psychological knowledge, for her profound therapeutic experience, and for her uniquely humorous and original writing style.
Website:
www.DrAnnaFekete.com
The NY Institute of Systemic Constellations was created with the aim of building a NY based community interested in personal exploration and professional experimentation using the techniques of this modality.
This involves regular constellation workshops as well as lectures and other forms of disseminating information.
In 2018, NYISC launched its Facilitator Training – a certificate program for psychotherapists, counselors, and coaches.
Parts of this program will soon be available online as well.
Our hope is that NYISC will become instrumental in bringing peace, joy, insight, and healing to many individuals, couples, families, and businesses in NYC – and will help create a little more order and harmony in our rather messy human Systems! 🙂
Today, one of the basic paradigms of all science, economics, finance, ecology, as well as medical and mental health is systemic thinking.
Systemic thinking is based on the idea that nothing exists in isolation. Everything lives in continuous interrelationship and interaction with its surroundings – i.e. everything is part of complexly intertwined and interdependent systems.
According to the basic rules of systems theory, systems are both more and different than their constituting parts, and the rules governing a system overrule those of its parts.
Systems, therefore, cannot fully be understood from their parts. Neither can a part – e.g. an individual human being – be understood without the various internal and external systems which it is a part of.
Psychologically, we are a psycho-somatic system in which our body, mind, emotions, thought processes, behaviors, the different parts of our personality mutually influence and determine each other.
We live in an endlessly complex web of external (environment, society, etc.) and internal (body, mind, personality parts, etc.) systems – and our problems are also parts of these very same systems.
Since the emergence of system-based thinking around the middle of the last century, human behavior in general and our psychological problems in particular have also been approached from this distinctly new perspective.
Group, family and couples therapies tend to focus on our external, whereas individual therapies on our internal systems.
However, our internal and external systems are inseparable.
In the world of modern psychotherapy today, basically all modalities are founded on systemic principles.
Systemic Constellation Therapy is a psychotherapeutic approach that looks at any psychological – mental, emotional, relational, behavioral – issue as a systemic phenomenon.
It is a uniquely effective technique to understand not only the deeper dynamics of an individual person, but those of couples, families, businesses, and organizations as well.
Systemic Family Constellations Therapy can reveal unconscious family dynamics, transgenerational influences, and other ’systemic’ entanglements with a unique plasticity and an unprecedented emotional impact.
It also provides a distinct perspective into the complex ‘systems’ and conflicting parts of our personality, our career, and our business endeavors.
Systemic Constellations Therapy usually leads to profound insights and cathartic experiences, and sheds light on areas of our unconscious landscapes that other techniques have never revealed with such clarity before.
When the work of German psychotherapist Bert Hellinger – originally called Family Constellations – started to gain momentum in the 1990’s, it spread across Europe with an unprecedented speed and popularity. Over the last few decades, the original theories and techniques have undergone profound modifications, development and integration with other psychotherapeutic modalities.
Systemic Constellations has long established a solid place in the world of Business and Corporate/Executive Coaching as well.
Today, Systemic Constellations Therapy is one of the most popular and fastest developing psychotherapeutic technique in Europe.
Historical Perspective
Originally, Family Constellations concentrated on the unique potential of this technique to reveal transgenerational traumas, family secrets, unconscious bonds and entanglements in our extended families – complications that might lie at the root of our emotional and psychological issues today.
As Sigmund Freud’s method revealed how early experiences keep influencing us throughout our lives, Bert Hellinger’s technique seemed to cast light on the influences that our multi-generational family – our most important human “system” – exerts over us.
And Hellinger’s work conquered Europe with the speed of a revolution.
However, as more and more therapists started using this new technique, its potentials soon appeared to reach far beyond family systems and transgenerational family dynamics.
Practitioners started referring to the method as “systemic constellations” rather than “family constellations” because the technique seemed to function as an X-ray or CT-Scan for all questions and phenomena that could be conceptualized within a systemic framework.
By today, Systemic Constellations Therapy has grown into a complex psychotherapeutic method that can be applied to all psychological problems.
It has its roots in family therapies, group therapies, Gestalt therapy, psychodrama, hypnotherapy, Transactional Analysis, and a number of other disciplines. However, it is also distinctly different from them.
As a result of the fast and complex developments, Bert Hellinger himself and the rapidly developing new schools in Systemic Constellations soon felt the need to part ways.
Since the early 2000’s, the two communities have been following clearly different paths. Bert Hellinger adopted a more spiritual – nearly mystical – approach that has raised a lot of criticism over the years.
The large international community of professional constellation therapists seems to represent a more clinical, psychotherapeutic, and pragmatic approach that is open to continuous development, empirical objectivity, and research.
Systemic Business Constellations – or Organizational Constellations – is a coaching method used by executive coaches for organizational development, leadership consultation, conflict resolution, organizational restructuring, innovation management, change management, financial planning etc. in an organizational or corporate environment.
Business Constellations is based in systemic thinking, and the technique is a direct development of Bert Hellinger’s work with Systemic Family Constellations.
A business constellation helps solve difficult issues by spatially displaying an organization with the help of participants representing a number of different elements of an organization.
Representatives can stand for employees, managers, owners, departments, products, customers, market competitors, governmental authorities, as well as for abstract concepts (e.g. goals, resources, profit) etc.
Representatives are free to move around spatially so as to make the underlying structures and relational patterns accessible and visible.
In the course of a business constellation, representatives tend to become aware of previously unavailable information. With their help, relational patterns between structural units, outcome results of processes, attitudes of people, underlying entanglements within the organization etc. can be brought to light.
By working with representatives, various hypotheses can be explored, and different solutions or decisions can be tested.
Subsequently, clients and other participants can process their newly gained insights in verbal discussions.
Transgenerational trauma, also known as intergenerational trauma, refers to the transmission of traumatic experiences and their effects from one generation to the next. It occurs when the trauma experienced by an individual or a community continues to influence the well-being and mental health of subsequent generations. This transmission can happen through various mechanisms, such as unresolved emotions, maladaptive coping strategies, and disrupted family dynamics.
A specific form of transgenerational trauma is what is often referred to as collective trauma, when a traumatic event or process becomes the shared experience of a larger community, e.g. whole nations, ethnic or religious communities, survivors of wars, dictatorships, crimes, natural catastrophes, accidents, etc. Such collective experiences also have a tendency to be passed on from generation to generation.
Effects of Transgenerational and Collective Trauma
Transgenerational trauma and collective trauma can have profound impacts on individuals and families, manifesting in various ways.
Trauma and traumatic patterns can be repeated and passed down through learned behaviors, coping mechanisms, and numerous social, psychological and biological channels . Unresolved trauma may lead to patterns of dysfunction, such as addiction, abusive behaviors, complex PTSD, self-sabotaging behaviors, medical and mental health problems across generations.
Emotional pain and unresolved trauma can be transmitted through family systems, or any other human system/community with a history of shared experiences, influencing the emotional well-being, relationships, and identity formation of subsequent generations.
Transgenerational and collective trauma can also be influenced by social, historical, political, economic or cultural traumas, such as war, genocide, holocaust, slavery, forced displacement, dictatorship, etc. which can affect entire communities or ethnic groups.
Recent research suggests that transgenerational and collective trauma can leave marks on our genes, potentially altering gene expression (epigenetics) and affecting the physical and mental health of future generations.
Breaking the Cycle
Breaking the cycle of transgenerational or collective trauma is a very complex process.
Understanding the impact of transgenerational trauma and recognizing its presence in our life is a crucial first step. Education about trauma, therapy, and support can help us gain insight and develop tools for healing.
Engaging in individual psychotherapy, prioritizing self-care and resilience, participating in cultural and community healing practices, and connecting with supportive networks can provide a sense of belonging, connection, and healing across generations.
However, more often than not, for real and lasting healing to occur, we need to look deeper.
Originally, the technique of Systemic Family Constellation Therapy was developed precisely for its unique potential to reveal and heal transgenerational traumas, family secrets, unconscious bonds and entanglements in our extended families and larger communities. Systemic Constellation Therapy is a psychotherapeutic approach that looks at any psychological – mental, emotional, relational, behavioral – issue as a systemic phenomenon over several generations. It is a uniquely effective technique to understand not only the deeper dynamics of an individual person, but also those of couples, families, various different communities, collectives, organizations and businesses as well.
Systemic Family Constellations Therapy can reveal unconscious family dynamics, transgenerational influences, and other ’systemic’ entanglements with a unique plasticity and an unprecedented emotional impact.