Family standing hand-in-hand on the beach Family systems therapy draws on systems thinking in its view of the family unit equally an emotional unit. When systems thinking—which evaluates the parts of a system in relation to the whole—is practical to families, it suggests behavior is both oft informed by and inseparable from the functioning of ane's family of origin.

Families experiencing conflict inside the unit and seeking professional help to address it may find family systems therapy a helpful approach.

  • The Evolution of Family Systems Therapy
  • Family Systems Therapy Approaches
  • Family unit Systems Therapy and the Genogram
  • Eight Interlocking Concepts ofFamily unit Systems Theory
  • How Can Family Systems Therapy Help?
  • Limitations and Concerns

The Development of Family unit Systems Therapy

Family unit systems therapy is based on Murray Bowen'southward family unit systems theory, which holds that individuals are inseparable from their network of relationships. Like other psychoanalysts of his time, Murray Bowen was interested in creating more scientific and objective handling processes as an alternative to conventional diagnostic frameworks and pathological language. Bowen believed all therapists had experienced challenges within their family of origin and that an sensation of this could help therapists normalize human being behavior for people in handling.

Bowen introduced family unit systems theory in the belatedly 1960s afterward years of research into the family patterns of people with schizophrenia who were receiving treatment and the patterns of his own family of origin.

Traditional individual therapy often addresses the individual's inner psyche in gild to generate change in relationships and other aspects of life. Bowen's theory suggests it is beneficial to address the structure and behavior of the broader relationship organisation, which he believed to play a part in the formation of character. According to Bowen, changes in behavior of i family member are likely to have an influence on the way the family unit functions over time.

Family unit Systems Therapy Approaches

Many forms of family therapy are based on family systems theory. Family systems approaches more often than not autumn under the categories of structural, strategic, or intergenerational:

  • Structural family unit therapy, designed by Salvador Minuchin, looks at family unit relationships, behaviors, and patterns as they are exhibited within the therapy session in guild to evaluate the construction of the family. Employing activities such as role play in session, therapists besides examine subsystems within the family structure, such as parental or sibling subsystems.
  • Strategic family unit therapy, adult past Jay Haley, Milton Erickson, and Cloe Madanes, among others, examines family processes and functions, such every bit communication or problem-solving patterns, by evaluating family behavior outside the therapy session. Therapeutic techniques may include reframing or redefining a problem scenario or using paradoxical interventions (for example, suggesting the family unit take activeness seemingly in opposition to their therapeutic goals) in order to create the desired change. Strategic family therapists believe modify tin occur rapidly, without intensive analysis of the source of the problem.
  • Intergenerational family therapy acknowledges generational influences on family and individual behavior. Identifying multigenerational behavioral patterns, such as management of feet, can assist people run across how their electric current problems may be rooted in previous generations. Murray Bowen designed this approach to family therapy, using it in treatment for individuals and couples equally well as families. Bowen employed techniques such as normalizing a family unit'southward challenges by discussing similar scenarios in other families, describing the reactions of private family unit members instead of acting them out, and encouraging family members to respond with "I" statements rather than accusatory statements.

Family Systems Therapy and the Genogram

A genogram, or pictorial representation of a family's medical history and interpersonal relationships, can be used to highlight psychological factors, hereditary traits, and other meaning problems or past events that may impact psychological well-existence.

Bowen used genograms for both assessment and treatment. First, he would interview each member of the family in order to create a detailed family unit history going back at least iii generations. Bowen then used this data to help highlight of import data as well equally whatsoever behavioral or mental health concerns repeating across generations. He initially believed it took three generations for symptoms of schizophrenia to manifest within the family unit, though he afterward revised this estimate to ten generations.

Eight Interlocking Concepts of Family Systems Theory

Viii major theoretical concepts form the foundation of the Bowenian arroyo. These concepts are interconnected, and a thorough agreement of each may be necessary in order to empathise the others.

These theoretical constructions include, in no particular gild:

  1. Differentiation of self, the core concept of Bowen's approach, refers to the mode in which a person is able to separate thoughts and feelings, respond to anxiety, and cope with the variables of life while pursuing personal goals. An individual with a high level of differentiation may be better able to maintain individuality while yet maintaining emotional contact with the grouping. A person with a low level of differentiation may experience emotional fusion, feeling what the grouping feels, due to insufficient interpersonal boundaries betwixt members of the family. Highly differentiated people may be more likely to achieve contentment through their ain efforts, while those with a less-developed self may seek validation from other people.A teenager sits on sofa with parents and shows them how to use a laptop
  2. An emotional triangle represents the smallest stable network of man human relationship systems (larger human relationship systems can be perceived equally a network of interlocking triangles). A two-person dyad may exist for a time but may go unstable every bit anxiety is introduced. A three-person system, however, may provide more resources toward managing and reducing overall feet inside the group. Despite the potential for increased stability, many triangles plant their own rules and exist with two sides in harmony and 1 side in conflict—a state of affairs which may lead to difficulty. Information technology is common for children to become triangulated inside their parents' relationship.
  3. The family project process, or the manual of a parent'due south anxiety, relationship difficulties, and emotional concerns to the kid within the emotional triangle, may contribute to the evolution of emotional issues and other concerns in the child. The parent(s) may starting time focus anxiety or worry onto the child and, when the child reacts to this past experiencing worry or anxiety in turn, may either try to "fix" these concerns or seek professional help. Withal, this may oftentimes have further negative touch as the child begins to exist further affected past the business concern and may become dependent on the parent to "fix" it. What typically leads to the almost improvement in the child is management, on the office of the parent(s), of their own concerns.
  4. The multigenerational transmission procedure, according to Bowen, depicts the fashion that individuals seek out partners with a similar level of differentiation, potentially leading certain behaviors and conditions to exist passed on through generations. A couple where each partner has a low level of differentiation may accept children who have even lower levels of differentiation. These children may eventually accept children with fifty-fifty lower levels of differentiation. When individuals increase their levels of differentiation, co-ordinate to Bowen, they may be able to interruption this pattern, accomplish relief from their symptoms of low differentiation, and preclude symptoms from returning or occurring in other family unit members.
  5. An emotional cutoff describes a situation where a person decides to best manage emotional difficulties or other concerns within the family unit system by emotionally distancing themselves from other members of the family. Cutting emotional connections may serve every bit an attempt to reduce tension and stress in the relationship and handle unresolved interpersonal issues, but the end result is often an increment in feet and tension, although the human relationship may exist less fraught with readily apparent disharmonize. Bowen believed emotional cutoff would lead people to place more importance on new relationships, which would add together stress to those relationships, in turn.
  6. Sibling position describes the tendency of the oldest, middle, and youngest children to assume specific roles within the family due to differences in expectation, parental discipline, and other factors. For example, older children may be expected to act as miniature adults within the family setting. These roles may be influenced past the sibling position of parents and relatives.
  7. The societal emotional process illustrates how principles affecting the emotional system of the family also affect the emotional arrangement of social club. Individuals in social club may experience greater anxiety and instability during periods of regression, and parallels tin exist noted between societal and familial emotional function. Factors such as overpopulation, the availability of natural resources, the health of the economy, and then on tin can influence these regressive periods.
  8. The nuclear family emotional process reflects Bowen's conventionalities that the nuclear family unit tends to experience issues in four main areas: intimate partner disharmonize, problematic behaviors or concerns in one partner, emotional distance, and impaired functionality in children. Feet may lead to fights, arguments, criticism, under- or over-performance of responsibilities, and/or distancing behavior. Though a person's particular belief system and attitude toward relationships may impact the development of issues according to relationship patterns, Bowen held them to be primarily a effect of the family emotional arrangement.

How Can Family Systems Therapy Help?

Family systems therapy has been used to treat many mental and behavioral health concerns. In general, it may be considered an constructive arroyo for those concerns that appear to relate to or manifest inside the family of origin. Family systems therapy has been shown to exist constructive with families, couples, and individuals.

This approach may exist helpful in addressing conditions such as schizophrenia, alcohol and substance dependency, bipolar, anxiety, personality issues, depression, and eating and food issues.

Limitations and Concerns

Though Bowenian family unit systems therapy is a popular mode of treatment that both therapists and people in treatment accept attested to the effectiveness of the approach, at present in that location is a limited base of empirical evidence backing the arroyo. Though the evidence base of operations is growing, more than data—particularly from objective sources—may help confirm its efficacy.

A 2nd criticism of the arroyo is the seemingly unwavering neutrality of its practitioners. Some mental health experts believe that by remaining neutral, unaffected, or silent at all costs, practitioners of family systems therapy may be giving tacit approval to any harmful behaviors individuals in therapy may exist exposing themselves or other people to.

References:

  1. Baege, M. (2005). Bowen family systems theory. Retrieved from http://www.vermontcenterforfamilystudies.org/bowen_family_systems_theory
  2. Brown, J. (2008). Is Bowen theory still relevant in the family therapy field? Journal of the Counsellors  and Psychotherapists Clan of NSW Inc, 3, eleven-17. Retrieved from http://www.thefsi.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Is-Bowen-Theory-even so-relevant-in-the-Family-Therapy-field.docx.pdf
  3. Brown, J. (2012). Growing yourself up: How to bring your best to all of life's relationships (3-5). Wollombi, NSW: Exisle Publishing. Retrieved from http://www.thefsi.com.au/us/bowen-theory
  4. Family Solutions Plant. (2015.) Strategic & Systemic. Family Solutions Institute MFT Study Guide (Chapter 4). Retrieved from http://www.mftlicense.com/pdf/sg_chpt4.pdf
  5. Introduction to the genogram. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.genopro.com/genogram
  6. ​Kerr, Grand. E. (2000). One family'south story: A primer on Bowen theory. Retrieved from https://www.thebowencenter.org/theory/eight-concepts
  7. Winek, J.L. (2010). Systemic family therapy: From theory to practice. London: SAGE Publications, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/29841_Chapter5.pdf