Is The Therapy In ‘Another Self’ Real? Yes — Here Is What It Actually Is

What the series gets right, what it compresses for television, and the one thing it should not be taken to imply.

By Abi Beri  |  Family Constellation Facilitator & Integrative Therapist  ·  Dublin, Naas, Newbridge, Kildare & Online

TL;DR. YES, IT IS REAL. The method the three friends undertake in the Turkish Netflix series Another Self (Zeytin Ağacı) is FAMILY CONSTELLATIONS, developed by the German psychotherapist Bert Hellinger. It is practised widely across Europe, including in Ireland. WHAT THE SERIES GETS RIGHT: the central premise. Families carry what they could not digest — an ungrieved death, a war, a migration, a person who was cast out and never spoken of again — and what is excluded does not leave. It surfaces later, in a descendant who has no idea they are holding it. That is the actual theory, and the programme represents it fairly. WHAT IT COMPRESSES: everything about the pace. Television needs revelation; the work produces RECOGNITION rather than resolution. It is slower, quieter and far less cinematic, and the shift usually arrives over weeks rather than in a single afternoon. AND ONE THING IT SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN TO IMPLY: because the series is structured around a serious medical diagnosis, viewers sometimes come away thinking this work treats illness. IT DOES NOT. Family Constellations is not a medical treatment, it does not cure disease, and any facilitator suggesting otherwise should be left well alone. It sits alongside medical care. Never instead of it.

What the method actually is

Quick answer: Family Constellations is a systemic approach that treats a family as a living system with its own memory. Its core claim is that unresolved events — deaths never grieved, people excluded, burdens nobody could face — do not disappear when the generation carrying them dies. They travel down the line and reappear in someone later.

The name for that inheritance is ENTANGLEMENT: carrying a feeling, a burden or a fate that belongs to somebody who came before you.

And the part that surprises most people is the engine underneath it, which is not pathology. IT IS LOYALTY. A child’s boundless love for their family, which will say, unconsciously: if someone here suffered and was never seen, I will carry it. If someone was excluded, I will be loyal to them by suffering too. I will not have it better than the ones who were forgotten.

Which is why so much of what looks like personal dysfunction is, underneath, a child’s love — an unconscious attempt to belong by sharing a burden that was never theirs.

What the series gets right and what it dramatises

None of that is a criticism of the programme, which is a drama and is entitled to behave like one. But it is worth knowing before you walk into a room expecting the version you saw.

The thing the series should not be taken to imply

⚠️ Please read this one properly. The story is built around a serious diagnosis, and viewers reasonably come away wondering whether this work heals illness. FAMILY CONSTELLATIONS IS NOT A MEDICAL TREATMENT. It does not treat, cure or replace treatment for cancer or any other physical condition. Anybody presenting it that way — and a few people do — is doing something both unethical and dangerous. What it can genuinely do is change a person’s relationship to a burden they have been carrying, which is a real and sometimes profound thing, and an entirely different claim. Medical questions go to your doctor. This sits alongside that, never instead of it.

Is it evidence-based?

Quick answer: Honestly: the formal evidence base is thin compared with established psychotherapies, and I would rather say so than pretend otherwise. There is a small and growing research literature and considerable clinical report, but it is not comparable to the evidence behind EMDR or CBT.

What is far better established is the surrounding territory: that trauma has intergenerational effects, that family secrets and silences shape children who never knew the original events, and that the stories a family does not tell exert real influence. Rachel Yehuda’s epigenetics research is the strongest strand of that, and Mark Wolynn’s It Didn’t Start With You is the most accessible bridge between the two bodies of work.

My own position, for what it is worth: I use it because I have watched it do something for people that other approaches did not reach, and I hold it as a working method rather than a proven mechanism. IF SOMEBODY TELLS YOU IT IS SCIENTIFICALLY SETTLED, THEY ARE OVERSELLING. IF SOMEBODY TELLS YOU IT IS NONSENSE, THEY HAVE GENERALLY NOT SAT IN A ROOM WHERE IT WORKED.

If the series landed on something in you

That is worth taking seriously, and it is the most common reason people get in touch after watching it. Something in the premise recognised something in you — a heaviness that seems too big for your own life, a guilt you cannot trace, a pattern you keep repeating no matter how hard you work at it.

I have made a full guided practice on exactly that: inherited burden, entanglement, and the giving back of what was never yours. It uses the real healing sentences of the method, spoken inwardly, and it does not require a room or a group. It is called WHAT YOU CARRY THAT WAS NEVER YOURS.

Hyperlink the practice title above to /inherited-trauma-family-constellations/. That handoff is the entire purpose of this page.

Frequently asked questions

Is the therapy in Another Self real? Yes. It is Family Constellations, developed by Bert Hellinger, and it is practised widely across Europe including in Ireland. The series dramatises the pace and intensity considerably, but the method itself is real and the premise is represented fairly.

What is the therapy called in Another Self? Family Constellations — sometimes called systemic constellations, or Familienaufstellung in the original German.

Does Family Constellations cure illness? No. It is not a medical treatment and does not treat or cure physical disease. The series is structured around a diagnosis, which understandably creates that impression, but it is not what the work does or claims.

Do I need a group to do this? A full constellation needs a room, other people and a facilitator. But a great deal of the underlying work — recognising an inherited burden and giving it back — can be done individually, and there are individual formats using markers or figures rather than people.

Is Family Constellations available in Ireland? Yes. I facilitate constellations work in Dublin, Naas, Newbridge and across Kildare, and integrate it into one-to-one sessions online. Free 20-minute intro at somatictherapyireland.com.

About the author

Abi Beri is an Integrative Therapist, Family Constellation Facilitator and Nervous System Specialist based in Dublin, Ireland. He is trained in somatic methods, family constellations, polyvagal-informed practice and inner child work. He is IPHM-accredited. He sees clients in person from a practice base across Dublin, Naas, Newbridge and the wider Kildare area, and online globally. More at somatictherapyireland.com and blissfulevolution.com.

Further reading

• Hellinger, B. (1998). Love’s Hidden Symmetry: What Makes Love Work in Relationships.
• Wolynn, M. (2016). It Didn’t Start With You. Viking. — the best accessible bridge between constellations and the inherited-trauma research.
• Franke, U. (2003). The River Never Looks Back: Foundations of Bert Hellinger’s Family Constellations.
• Yehuda, R. et al. (2016). Holocaust Exposure Induced Intergenerational Effects on FKBP5 Methylation. Biological Psychiatry, 80(5), 372–380.
• Bert Hellinger Institute — hellinger.com · the source lineage.
• Mark Wolynn — markwolynn.com · inherited family trauma.
• International Systemic Constellations Association — isca-network.org · the international professional body.
• Wikipedia — Family Constellations — en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Constellations · including the criticisms, which are worth reading.
• Wikipedia — Another Self (TV series) — en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Self · the series itself.

Irish support

• Samaritans Ireland — samaritans.org/ireland · free, 24/7 emotional support · call 116 123 (referenced in the talk).
• Pieta House (Ireland) — pieta.ie · free crisis support · 1800 247 247 or text HELP to 51444.
• Aware Ireland — aware.ie · depression and anxiety support · 1800 80 48 48.
• HSE Mental Health (Ireland) — hse.ie/mental-health · the Irish national health service mental health gateway.