About

First a Summary

Nir Esterman,

A teacher and a facilitator of Family and Systemic Constellations, Embodied Shadow Work and Bodywork.
Developer of Shadow Constellations.
Based in Israel and teaches internationally – online and in person.
Speaker at International online conferences.
Specializes in working with therapists & facilitators of all kinds.
A staff member of the Constellation Way School of Systemic Constellations.
A staff member of the Embodiment Facilitator Course (EFC), Russia.
M.Sc in Science teaching – Researching Interdisciplinary learning.
B.Sc in Bioinformatics.

Then my Story

A professional turning point

April 2013,
We were visiting Pardes Hana, the town where we now live in Israel, which is known for the number and variety of therapists who live there.

I felt an urge to offer a new workshop, one aimed at teaching therapists from all approaches, how to pay attention to their clients’ body.
I ‘listened’ to that urge.

At the time, I had been a body and trauma oriented therapist (Grinberg method) for 10 years, with a thriving practice. I had also been facilitating and teaching body awareness and integration skills (embodiment) for several years.

On that day, the course of my professional life took a turn.
The moment is still vivid in my mind. I was stepping onto the stairs of the house we were staying in and suddenly I heard a clear voice inside me speaking:

‘This is it. This is what I want to do.
I want to teach professionals who are already connected to themselves how to become better equipped, more aware and more capable professionals’.

Since Then

The work I do and teach has gradually expanded into additional layers of healing and supporting the professional development of my clients and students.

I began delving into what sustains therapy and what breaks it, the effects of the facilitator’s unresolved issues on personal processes and group work alike, and how the trauma of our family and our ancestors shapes our life.

Teaching has grown to fill more of my time, including teaching and speaking abroad, in-person and online.

Embodied Shadow work seminar, Moscow 2015

Shadow Integration

Shadow Work – A Jungian term for the practice of turning within and facing the dark places where we put the self-parts we disown, deny and repress – and making peace with them.

The Shadow greatly affects what we can hold and support in the clinic, and what we can’t. It is involved in any major relationship and empathic failure. It even affects our business success.

On first contact with Shadow Work, I looked back and could see that I have been doing it intuitively all along. Many of the deepest instances of healing I gave and received had to do with Shadow Integration.

Since 2015, I have been teaching Embodied Shadow Work in Israel and abroad.

Intergenerational trauma transfer session.
Embodied Trauma Conference (2020).

Intergenerational Trauma Healing

Intergenerational trauma transfer – is the term used to explain how the trauma and the difficult fates and choices made by our ancestors, influence us subconsciously.

Healing this trauma or stopping its transfer requires acknowledging that it exists, and that we are somehow connected with a past we did not experience in this body and time.

We then need to identify with the part of our system (family or other) that is entangled and do some work to re-establish a good working order within that system. We then release ourselves and our children from repetitively reliving the effects of these past events.

Family and Systemic Constellations

My main modality for Intergenerational healing is Family and Systemic Constellations, developed by Bert Hellinger. I learned this method directly from his students.

I fell in love with Family Constellations from day one. The systemic and phenomenological approach spoke to my heart.

The ability to tap into a person’s system and facilitate a healing beyond my imagination captured my body, spirit and soul. It allowed me, among others, to heal the great rift that the Holocaust had left in my own family’s system.

I studied Family Constellations at two schools simultaneously: ‘Healing your Roots’ with Sakino Sternberg and ‘The Constellation Path Training Program’ with Yishai Gaster and his teachers.

Early into my studies I connected Shadow Work with Family Constellations and began developing and teaching Shadow Constellations with a focus on therapists, facilitators and practitioners.

I teach in Israel and abroad.
Since 2019, I have been a teacher on the ‘The Constellation Path Training Program’.

A bit of history

This brief introduction of myself will not be complete without at least mentioning some of the more meaningful influences and processes of my life:

⊕ Receiving my name, Nir, which in Hebrew means plowed earth (see the photo above).
⊕ Growing up in a wonderfully supportive family created by two Holocaust survivors.
⊕ Going through cancer and chemotherapy at age 22.
⊕ Graduating in Computer Science & Biology (B.Sc) and Science teaching (M.Sc), on my quite indirect path, to becoming the therapist and teacher I am today.
⊕ Making my way from being a single man, who doesn’t understand what is wrong with himself, to become a happily married husband and a proud father of two girls.