African Constellations, founded in 2004, is a training institute with the aim to build a local community of trained and effective systemic professionals in South Africa that represent the diversity of our country.
We are committed to acknowledging and honouring the first people of the African continent, as well as sources of knowledge that inform Systems Constellation theory and practice.
Our faculty includes senior trainer Tanja Meyburgh and trainers Lindiwe Mthembu-Salter and Niall Campbell. We also invite a number of guest teachers every year to share specific subjects in their field of speciality.
The international founding teachers that inform he knowledge lineage of African Constellations are: Dr Ursula Franke-Bryson, Bertold Ulsamer, Daan van Kampenhout, Frank Gallenmueller, Stephan Hausner, Guni Baxa, and Francesca Mason-Boring.
We are proud to announce the formation of the African Constellations Trust in 2023 to further our aims of building a diverse constellation facilitator community.
African Constellations also produces dollies and cards to be used for Systems Constellations in individual therapy. The dollies are our first women’s economic empowerment initiative in South Africa. We support mothers to learn doll-making as a source of income for their families, and help to market and distribute the dollies worldwide.
Founder of African Constellations:
As founder of African Constellations, she has taken 21 groups through a full facilitator training and is the primary pioneer of constellations work in South Africa and has specialised in this field since 2003. She has assisted organisations in South Africa involved with addiction, adoption, trauma, political violence, community development and diversity. More recently Tanja has co-founded Ancestral Connections integrating dance and constellations, and the REAL Academy, an online resource for Embodied and Ancestral Learning. Tanja has also presented at the international intensives in Germany, South Africa and Australasia, and accepted invitations to teach at conferences and workshops in Germany, Austria, Belgium, United Kingdom, Kuwait, Netherlands, Portugal and the USA.
Tanja’s MA (Psych) in Narrative Therapy has had a big impact on how she views power relations and work with marginalised voices and communities. She also has training and experience in wilderness therapy, art therapy, expressive movement and Southern African lineage wisdom. Tanja provides a creative and experiential learning space that brings a sense of soul and spirit in a psychologically grounded way. Her interest in self-growth, personal & collective ritual and embodiment supports her to hold a broad and deep container for clients’ personal and professional process. Her work is described by those who know her as gentle and incisive. Tanja lives in Cape Town with her two children.
