‘It goes deeper than just us’: Carleton Place workshop to explore generational healing

You’ve done the therapy, read the books, worked on yourself for years. And still, something feels stuck.

What if there’s a bigger picture that holds the whole story and the key to personal healing? Shelley Harrison, certified Brennan healing science practitioner and energy healer, will share her Family Constellations knowledge and techniques with residents of Carleton Place and area this weekend.

“Most of the people who are attracted to [my work] have already done a lot of personal development,” Harrison told Lanarkist in a phone interview. “They already have this sense that some of what they’re struggling with goes deeper than just them.”

Harrison, who is based in Wakefield, Que., will lead a session called Healing with our Ancestors on Sunday, Jan. 11, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Amethyst Store, 165 Bridge Street, in Carleton Place. The introductory workshop is rooted in Family Constellations, a therapeutic approach that looks at how unresolved trauma within a family system can be carried forward through generations.

According to Harrison, participants do not need an exhaustive understanding of their family history to begin the work.

“Whatever people already know is always enough to start the process,” she said. “Part of what I do is help them do the detective work using just the basic family history details they know.”

That process often begins with something similar to mapping a family tree, but with a different focus.

“We’re not looking for eye colour and hair colour,” Harrison explained. “In Family Constellations, we call it a genogram. I ask very particular questions to track where what they’re struggling with now has its roots in their family system.”

Often, the most significant stories are the ones that were never openly discussed.

“The hardest, most traumatic things were often surrounded by shame and silence,” Harrison said. “Don’t talk about grandpa because he was gay. Don’t talk about grandma because she ran off. Don’t talk about great-grandma because she ended up in a mental asylum. Those are usually the biggest trauma charges that need to be tracked down.”

Family Constellations was developed more than 50 years ago by German psychotherapist Bert Hellinger and was designed as a group process. In a facilitated setting, participants may step in as representatives of family members, allowing underlying dynamics to surface without extensive verbal analysis.

“It’s not group therapy,” Harrison said. “We don’t do a lot of talking about how hard things were. We experience it.”

The session in Carleton Place is intended as an introduction. Harrison said she first teaches people the basic concepts individually before guiding them into the group experience.

A significant focus of the work often begins with parents.

“Our parents are our first ancestors,” Harrison explained. “If they went through overwhelming experiences and didn’t get the help they needed, that trauma lives in their system.”

As children, people often absorb some of that unresolved pain out of love and loyalty.

“We sense that our parents are struggling and we want to help,” she said. “We unconsciously take some of it on, but we’re too little to carry it. Family Constellations helps us disentangle from that and return what doesn’t belong to us, while still keeping loving boundaries.”

Harrison’s background spans energy healing, trauma therapy and generational trauma work. She describes her original training in energy healing as “like Reiki on steroids,” but said her practice has evolved significantly over the past two decades.

“The deepest blocks we have, whether they show up as health issues or relationship struggles, come from the hardest things that have happened to us,” she said. “And some of the biggest things won’t shift until we address the generational layer.”

Participants do not need any background in energy work.

“Most people are already sensitive to it,” Harrison noted. “I teach very simple ways to feel and sense what’s stuck in the family energy field and how to help it resolve.”

While a single session can be powerful, Harrison emphasized that this kind of work often unfolds over time.

“It’s not always a one-shot process,” she explained. “You might work with your mother’s side first, then later your father’s side, then maybe grandparents or great-grandparents. It happens in steps.”

What tends to surprise people most, she said, is how the sessions end.

“People come in curious but nervous. They’re wondering if it’s going to be heavy. And by the end, almost everyone says the same thing: they feel our common humanity. There’s more compassion, less judgment, and a softening toward parents and ancestors. The goal is peace, reconnection and love. By the end, it feels easier. Life force energy is flowing again, for the benefit of everyone.”

Harrison said she is travelling through southern Ontario to bring the work to smaller communities and hopes to return to Carleton Place if there is interest. In addition to live workshops, she offers monthly online group sessions and one-on-one work.

More information about the Healing with our Ancestors session is available through Amethyst Store and Harrison’s website. You can sign up for the session here.