Bowen Family Systems Therapy
by: Erin Carpenter
University of San Francisco
For Today • Review any ques-ons about the genogram • Con-nue with our a6en-ve listening skills • Video • Ac-vity
• Discuss three strategies you would use with children/adolescents
• Go over in detail some of Bowen’s theory • An ac-vity with the Haefner (2014) ar-cle • Share our thoughts • Time to work on • Genograpm -‐ 6/12/17 • Thought Process – 6/14/17
Happy & Sad Behaviors • Group One INSIDE -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ -‐ Group Two OUTSIDE • Then we will switch • 5 minutes each -me • Purpose: • Working on a6en-ve behaviors and its affect on our clients • Situa-ons where this could occur • Ideas
Murray Bowen • Began looking at schizophrenia & mothers • With the NIMH he began to study the en-re family • “All families were pre6y much alike” (1978) • Worked at Georgetown Medical Center • Each family has an emo-onal system • Transgenera-onal approach
Murray Bowen • Inevitable chronic emo-onal anxiety present in family • Chronic anxiety is the source of family dysfunc-on
• Differen-a-on of self & emo-onal fusion • Ability of a person to dis-nguish from family • Ability of individuals to func-on autonomously
• There are 8 stages • Differen-a-on of Self • Triangles • Nuclear Family Emo-onal System • Family projec-on process • Emo-onal Cut Off • Mul-genera-onal transmission process • Sibling Posi-on • Societal Regression
Theoretical Formulations • Describes how the family – as a multigenerational network
of relationships – shapes the interplay of individuality and
togetherness using Eive key concepts:
• 1. Differentiations of self
• 2. Triangles
• 3. Multigenerational emotional processes
• 4. Emotional cutoff
• 5. Societal emotional processes
Differentiation of Self • The capacity to think, reElect, and not respond automatically to
emotional pressures (e.g. anxiety)
• Analogous to ego strength
Undifferentiated people Differentiated people • Easily moved to emotionality
• Tend to react impetuously toward others
• Find it hard to maintain their autonomy
• Either agree with everything or argue with everything
• Able to balance thinking and feeling
• Capable of taking their own stands on issues
Triangles • Virtually all relationships are driven by third parties
• Third parties decreases anxiety in the dyad by sharing anxious feelings among three people instead of two
• If the third party’s involvement is temporary or pushes the two
people to work out their differences the triangle doesn’t become
Eixed
• A group of three doesn’t necessarily imply an emotional triangle
• In a healthy threesome each pair can interact independently
• Triangulation lets off steam but freezes conElict in place
A Triangle in Action • A wife who is upset with her husband’s distance begins to more intensely involve herself in their daughter’s life in an
anxious way
• This allocation of time may take pressure off the husband
yet it also decreases the likelihood that the couple will
develop interests they share together and it could
undermine the daughter’s independence
• Take away: What makes this is a triangle is diverting
energy that might otherwise go into the marriage
Other concepts • The Nuclear Family Emo-onal System • Impact of undifferen-a-ng and dysfunc-onal fusion • Marital Conflict • Polariza-on of a spouse • Psychological impairment in a child
• Mul-genera-onal Transi-on Process (Next slide) • Family Projec-on: • Parents transfer anxiety and level of differen-a-on to children
• Sibling Posi-on (Walter Toman, 1961) • Importance of birth order in development of personality
• Emo-onal Cut Off • Societal Regression
Multigenerational Emotional Processes • Describes excessive emotional reactivity known as fusion
• Lack of differentiation in families à reactive children à
fusion in the child’s relationships (e.g. with other family
members, peers)
• The child most involved in the family’s fusion moves toward a
lower level of differentiation (and chronic anxiety)
• The child least involved in the family’s fusion moves toward a
higher level of differentiation (and less anxiety)
• Higher differentiation leads to more optimal functioning
Emotional Cutoff • Describes how some people manage anxiety in relationships
• The greater the fusion between parents and children the
greater chance that emotional cutoff will occur
• Some people seek physical distance by moving away while
others seek emotional distance by avoiding intimacy or
using third parties to “protect” themselves
• Emotional cutoff ≠ maturity
Societal Emotional Processes
• Societal inEluences impact family functioning
• Examples include sexism, class and ethnic prejudice, and
discrimination
• Bowen believed that families with higher levels of
differentiation are better able to resist destructive social
inEluences
Normal Family Functioning • Optimal development takes place when: • Family members are undifferentiated
• Anxiety is low
• Partners are in good emotional contact with their own families
• People tend to choose mates with similar levels of differentiation
• Bowen was convinced that differentiation of autonomous personalities – accomplished primarily in the family of
origin – was both a marker of development and a
prescription for therapeutic progress
Family Life Cycle Stages (Carter & McGoldrick, 1999)
• Leaving home
• Joining of families through marriage
• Families with young children • Stage with the highest divorce rate
• Raising adolescents
• Launching of children and moving on • Liberating or midlife crisis?
• Families in later life
• *Divorce
People with high chronic anxiety • Management happens in 4 ways: 1. Marital Conflict 2. Health or Emo-onal Problems 3. Health or Emo-onal problems of a child 4. Triangula-on • Purpose: reduce the level of chronic anxiety experienced
Development of Behavior Disorders • Symptoms result from stress that exceeds the system’s ability to manage it (we do not operate in a vacuum)
• The underlying cause of psychological problems is emotional fusion passed down from one generation to the
next
• Emotional fusion is based on anxious attachment which may manifest as either dependency or isolation
• Symptoms break out when the vertical problems of anxiety and toxic family issues intersect with horizontal
stresses of transition points in the life cycle
Emotional Fusion • Reac-ons w-hin a rela-onship • In a fused rela-onship • People react emo-onally without being able to think • Anxiety = level of external stress
• Greater the fusion = less flexibility • Chronicity occurs when • Family cannot think through their responses to dilemmas • Con-nue to react emo-onally
• Families in high fusion response to crisis with feelings • “A person who is able to self differen-ate possesses the ability to adapt to changes of their environment and thereby experience less emo-onal stress” (Brown, 1999 & Bowen, 1978)
Views on Therapy • Therapy is an opportunity for people to learn about themselves and their relationships
• Process of active inquiry in which the therapist helps
family members to get past blaming in order to explore
their own role and assume responsibility in family issues
• Pays attention to process and structure
• Process – patterns of emotional reactivity
• Structure – interlocking networks of triangles
• Detriangulation and differentiation are overarching goals
Conditions for Behavior Change • Understanding – not action – is the vehicle for change
• Sessions are designed to minimalize emotionality
• Therapists ask family members questions once at a time vs.
encouraging group dialogues which may get heated
• Therapists must strive to control their own reactivity
• Part of the process of differentiation is to develop a personal relationship with everyone in the extended family
• Enables an individual to spread out his or her emotional
energy
Assessment • History of the presenting problem(s)
• History of the nuclear family
• Genograms – schematic diagrams showing family members
and their relationships to one another
• Traces relationship conElicts, cutoffs, and triangles
• Process of collecting information is sometimes therapeutic in
of itself
• Family members often say, “It never occurred to me how all of
those events Eit together”
Therapeutic Techniques • Process questions – designed to slow people down and get them
thinking in order to explore what’s going on inside people and
between them
• “When your boyfriend neglects you, how do you react?”
• “When your daughter goes on dates, what do you worry about?”
• Relationship experiment – designed to help clients try something
different than their usual emotionally driven responses
• Ex: Pursuers are encourage to restrain their pursuit, stop making
demands, decrease pressure for emotional connection and see
what happens
Therapeutic Techniques • Neutralizing triangles – the therapist must stay free of reactive emotional entanglements in order to avoid the
same process of emotional triangulation families use to
stabilize their conElicts
• Coaching
• The therapist hopes to avoid taking over for clients or becoming enmeshed in family triangles
• Does not involve telling people what to do
• Involves asking questions designed to help people Eigure out family emotional processes and their role in them
Therapeutic Techniques • The “I”-‐Position
• A calm and clear statement of personal opinion
• Often has a stabilizing effect in times of tension
• Taking a personal stance instead of what others are doing
• Ex: “You’re lazy” vs. “I wish you would help me more”
• Therapists not only encourage clients to take “I”-‐positions but
they also do so themselves
• Ex: “I believe your children have the right to know this” (but what
the client does is of course up to them)
Bowenian Therapy with Couples • Secret is to stay connected with both partners without letting them triangle you
• As partner’s talk the therapist concentrates on the process
of their interaction not on the details under discussion
• The therapist is viewed as a coach or consultant who
guides the couple with strategic questioning
• Important to discuss the nuclear family but also each
partner’s families of origin
Summary • The major problem in families is emotional fusion
• The major goal is differentiation
• The triangle is the universal unit of analysis
• Therapists are encouraged to remain neutral while
exploring emotional processes with process questions
• Clients are hopefully able to learn to see their own role in
how their family system operates in order to move towards
more optimal functioning
Haefner (2014) Activity • Read the case study about Aus-n, a 14-‐year-‐old boy • Pages 837 -‐ 838
• Come up with the following, be prepared to share as a class: • 5 key points that you would want to focus on • 2 process ques-ons you would ask Aus-n • 2 ques-ons that can help to facilitate the coaching process • 3 “I” statements that you feel you would use
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