Ancestral therapy - Psychic Sally meets genealogy?

I'm not sure if this is the genealogical equivalent of Psychic Sally, or something even more profound - 'ancestral therapy'. The Express has a story looking at such a New Age practice, in this case called 'Family Constellations therapy', where the practitioner charges £70 an hour to apparently look around your family tree and tell you which ancestors' stories or actions may have influenced the person you are today, and in particular any problems you may be wishing to resolve about yourself which might not be your fault but that of someone who lived long before you did. The story is at www.express.co.uk/features/view/313458/Is-my-family-history-holding-me-back-.

As a genealogist it is my job to unearth what I can for a client, but it is certainly not my job to place an interpretation on them to help them explain who they are - the question "who do you think you are" is not the same as the statement "let me tell you where your problems come from". The only statement I aim to address is "let me tell you what I can find documented about your ancestors". Whilst I may come to know the documentary material that I can unearth, in most cases I don't get to know the client that well, other than through the various exchanges necessary for the research process. So how can I provide such an interpretation?! A few years past I did have a client who hired me to see what I could find in her tree, as she was going for a course of 'ancestral therapy' in the Far East (hence my interest in the Express story!). I found all sorts, having treated it as any other commission. The client duly went abroad, came back, and told me I still had not found the 'problem'. So she hired me to do some more research - great from my point of view, but as far as I was concerned it was a genealogical commission, not a medical one.

According to the Express coverage, a typical session of ancestral therapy can tackle issues "including self-esteem, friendship, health and anxiety but it could also help with career and finance problems". I suspect a good psychologist might offer similar services. Understanding our ancestors' lives can certainly be important, but unless we hear their problems in their own words - a diary perhaps - any conclusions we come to can often only be speculative, with varying degrees of probability. There may well be issues from the past that have had an effect on your family's progress. But will paying some New Age therapist resolve them for you at something like £70 an hour? From my point of view, I'd probably have to place a big question mark on that front.

Chris

British GENES on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES and Twitter @chrismpaton

Scotland's Greatest Story research service www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk (no candles are used during the research process!) and www.facebook.com/ScottishGenealogyResearch