Family Constellations and Rapid Core Healing: How Trauma Therapy Can Support PMDD

Living with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) can feel overwhelming. For many women, the emotional intensity—rage, despair, anxiety, and hopelessness—doesn’t match the situation at hand. This is one of the hardest parts of PMDD: knowing your reaction feels “too much,” but not being able to control it.

What if this isn’t your fault—or even entirely yours to carry?

This is where Family Constellations therapy and Rapid Core Healing come in. Both are trauma-informed approaches that can help women with PMDD by working on the deeper emotional patterns and nervous system responses that medication and diet alone don’t always touch.

Why Trauma and PMDD Are Linked

PMDD is not just about hormones—it’s about how the nervous system responds to hormonal shifts. Women with a history of trauma, or those who are carrying unresolved emotional patterns from their family system, are often more sensitive to these changes. Research shows that trauma can alter stress hormone pathways, neurotransmitter balance, and emotional regulation—all of which play a role in PMDD.

This is why for many women, addressing nutrition, supplements, and lifestyle is helpful but not enough. The trauma “imprint” remains in the background, waiting to be triggered each cycle.

What Is Family Constellations Therapy?

Family Constellations was developed by German psychotherapist Bert Hellinger in the late 1980s. It’s a therapeutic method that explores how unresolved trauma, grief, or injustice in a family system can echo across generations.

I often see this with women who come to me: they carry sadness, guilt, or anger that feels bigger than their own story. Sometimes PMDD symptoms reflect these invisible burdens.

In a session:

• We look at the issue you want to explore—such as recurring rage, anxiety before your period, or feeling disconnected in relationships.

• We then “map out” your family system, either with people (in group workshops) or with objects/markers (in 1:1 sessions).

• The hidden dynamics begin to emerge. Often, it becomes clear that you are carrying something that belongs to someone else in your family line.

A simple acknowledgement—such as recognising who the pain originally belongs to—can bring profound relief.

Rapid Core Healing: Going Deeper Into Personal Trauma

Not all trauma comes from the family system. Many women with PMDD also carry deeply personal wounds: childhood neglect, bullying, abusive relationships, or sudden loss. These experiences leave an imprint in the nervous system, creating sensitivity that is amplified during hormonal changes.

This is where Rapid Core Healing (RCH) is powerful. RCH is an extension of Family Constellations that works directly with personal trauma while still respecting the family context.

In an RCH session:

• We identify the root of a painful reaction (for example, panic before your period, intense feelings of unworthiness, or uncontrollable rage).

• You are guided to reconnect with the younger part of yourself that was hurt.

• Through a safe, guided process, that part receives the protection or compassion it was missing at the time.

• The nervous system feels completion—and the trauma response can finally dissolve.

This isn’t about endlessly retelling your story. It’s about giving the body and mind the resolution they needed years ago, so you can respond differently today.

Why This Matters for PMDD

For many women, PMDD is the point where old wounds and present triggers collide. Hormones don’t create the trauma, but they magnify it. By using Family Constellations to release inherited burdens, and Rapid Core Healing to resolve personal trauma, women often experience:

• Reduced emotional intensity during the luteal phase

• Less rage, panic, and despair before periods

• Improved nervous system regulation, meaning you don’t “flip” into fight-or-flight so easily

• Greater self-compassion, instead of constant guilt and shame

• Better relationships, as old repeating patterns no longer dominate

I’ve seen women go from feeling utterly out of control every month to finding a new steadiness—not because their hormones changed overnight, but because their inner world did.

What to Expect

You don’t need to relive every detail of your past for this work to be effective. Sessions are often surprising in their simplicity. A single healing sentence, a shift in perspective, or a moment of recognition can release years of stored pain.

Clients often describe the experience as:

• “Like a weight lifted off my chest.”

• “I finally feel like myself again.”

• “I can breathe easier in my own body.”

Healing PMDD Beyond Symptom Management

Family Constellations and Rapid Core Healing are not about “fixing” you. They are about releasing what doesn’t belong to you, resolving the trauma you do carry, and giving your nervous system the chance to settle.

When this happens, the cycle of PMDD begins to change. Symptoms lessen, self-blame softens, and you can step into life feeling more free, more whole, and more resilient.

As Bert Hellinger said, “When we honour the past, we find peace in the present.”

Final Thoughts

If you’ve tried supplements, diets, and conventional treatments for PMDD without lasting relief, it may be time to explore a deeper layer of healing. By combining systemic and personal trauma work, Family Constellations and Rapid Core Healing offer women a compassionate, holistic path toward emotional balance and freedom from the grip of PMDD.

About the Author

Camilla Brinkworth BHSc Naturopathy, Grad Cert Human Nutrition, is a naturopath, nutritionist, and trauma-informed practitioner specialising in PMDD, plant-based nutrition, and emotional healing. After experiencing undiagnosed PMDD herself, Camilla combined evidence-based natural medicine with modalities such as Family Constellations and Rapid Core Healing to address both the physical and emotional roots of hormonal imbalance.

She now supports women worldwide through 1:1 consultations, online programmes, and retreats in Bali, helping them find relief from PMDD, digestive issues, hormonal challenges, and the deep effects of trauma. Camilla’s work bridges science and compassion, offering a path to long-term emotional balance, hormonal health, and nervous system repair.