Dr. Dan Booth Cohen is a Constellation facilitator based in Boston. He has had a diverse career as a business owner, corporate executive, author, peace activist and counselor over the past 30 years. In 1980, he co-founded Pequod Associates, Inc., which grew to be the United States’ leading provider of energy and water conservation engineering services. The company was acquired by a Fortune 1000 integrated energy company in 1996.

Dan was a founding member of the City of Cambridge Peace Commission and co-Director of the Boston Children of War Program. He organized peace walks, led international teenage exchanges, and produced events on behalf of organizations such as The House of Hope International Peace Center, Open House of Ramle, Israel, The New England Peace Pagoda, and One-by-One. His work has been featured on television, newspapers, and in Fortune magazine.

During the Carter administration, Dan was a strategic planning consultant to Dr. Donald M. Kerr, the Director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. In this capacity, he received security clearance to write one of the first Congressional white papers that envisioned the Star Wars satellite weapons program. Another project included drafting a scenario for the U.S. to capture strategic Persian Gulf oil fields by the year 2000. Having written his Bachelor's thesis on the history of nuclear science from Hermes Trismegistus to Robert Oppenheimer, Dan understood these initiatives in their historic context. This perspective continues to inform his work and writing.

Dan has been involved in Constellation work since 2000. He is certified as a facilitator and trainer by the German Association for Systemic Constellations (DGfS). He received training in the Constellation approach directly from Bert Hellinger and other senior European trainers through the Hellinger Institute, USA in 2002. He was the liaison between Hellinger and Elias Jabbour's House of Hope International Peace Center in Israel and also produced Hellinger's historic 2004 talk at Fordham University.

He has published numerous articles and book chapters about Constellations. Among these are Family Constellations: An Innovative Systemic Phenomenological Group Process From Germany (2006), in The Family Journal and Guilt, Responsibility and Forgiveness: Lessons from Lifers in Prison (2009), in A. Kalayjian & R. Paloutzian (Eds.), Forgiveness and Reconciliation: Psychological Pathways to Conflict Transformation and Peace Building. His recent by I Carry Your Heart in My Heart: Family Constellations in Prison was published by Carl Auer International.

Teaching Talk

The Three Dimensions of Consciousness: A New Context for Explaining Constellations
This talk will outline a new framework for understanding and talking about Constellations that is suitable for conversations with scientifically oriented listeners.

Psychologist Dan Booth Cohen, PhD is leading research, author, teacher, and facilitator of the Systemic Constellations process. He is author of I Carry Your Heart in My Heart: Family Constellations in Prison and numerous scholarly articles and book chapters. In addition to his extensive knowledge of history, politics, mythology, and religion, his work draws on 30 years of experience as a high level government consultant, corporate executive, peace activist and counselor.

Dr. Cohen is known to go to the heart of historic trauma and intimate personal sorrow. Once there, he uses patience, intelligence and kindness to heal broken hearts…sometimes in a single beat. Workshop participants leave the experience feeling like a great burden has been lifted. His Constellations consistently succeed in helping people overcome painful emotions, physical symptoms and difficult relationships.

Two central elements of Constellations – Representative Perception and the Transgenerational Transmission of Trauma – remain quite challenging to explain. Much of the original terminology for Constellations – even that word itself – is hard to grasp for people oriented to technological culture.

Drawing from Rupert Sheldrake’s theory of Morphic Resonance and his own research into the science of consciousness, Dr. Cohen will present a context for understanding and explaining Constellations. This context does not conflict with the original insights. Its advantage is being more easily understood by people who know little or nothing about Constellations.

The presentation will include demonstrations of simple exercises that can be used with a new audience to allow them to comprehend and experience the basic principles of the Constellation process. The format of this talk allows time for audience questions and answers which can be addressed either by explanations or experiential exercises.

The Enduring Presence of Pre-Christian Cultures in Europe and Their Place in the Current European Economic Crisis
The workshops will look at the current European economic crisis through the lens of cultural symbolism and large group conflict. Since Roman times, generations of young European men have been handed weapons and sent into battle. Until the 20th Century, they fought each other on fields, across walls and from ships. The two great wars of the last century brought death and destruction on such a massive scale that since 1945 modern Europe committed to ending its legacy of armed conflict.

The current economic crisis is straining the structure of the European Union and disheartening many of its people. This workshop will give participants the opportunity to explore their personal sense of being, longing, and belonging in this context. Using a version of Constellations as Ceremony, Dr, Cohen will invite all group members to give voice to the concerns, hopes, fears, and subjective realities. Based on what emerges, he will suggest a theme and the initial representations. All participants will be invited to engage with the field space as they are so moved. Working with his characteristic care and sharp insight, Dan will suggest movements, sentences or interactions to deepen emotions and heighten awareness.