Healing Depression by Finding Your Place in the Family

What is it about?

This study tells the story of a woman in her 60s, a psychologist herself, who was struggling with severe depression. Over just five sessions of individual Family Constellations—some in-person, some online—we wanted to understand not just if she got better, but how the change happened. We combined quantitative measures (her depression scores) with her own in-depth, personal account of the therapy, using a new research tool we developed called the PPDMQ. The numbers showed a dramatic and lasting drop in her depression, from "severe" to "normal." But her story revealed the reason why: the therapy helped her untangle a lifelong confusion about her place in her complex family history (as both a biological and an adopted child), allowing her to finally resolve a deep sense of guilt and find her rightful place.

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Photo by Victoria Volkova on Unsplash

Photo by Victoria Volkova on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This study's importance lies in its method. By blending quantitative data with the client's own qualitative story, it goes beyond showing that a therapy works and offers a compelling insight into how it works for a specific person. Crucially, this paper introduces the Psychotherapeutic Process Data Mining Questionnaire (PPDMQ), a new tool designed to help other researchers and practitioners systematically capture the client's perspective on their own change process. Finally, it provides valuable preliminary evidence that a deep, phenomenological therapy like Family Constellations can be delivered effectively through videoconferencing, a highly relevant finding for the future of mental healthcare.

Perspectives