Bowen Family Therapy Flashcards
(23 cards)
Theory of change
Change your curse by understanding multigenerational dynamics and differentiation
Therapist’s Role
Coach/Educator; supervisor; investigator; neutral
Treating goals
Society and emotional and family system; self differentiation within the context of family; decrease emotional fusion; improve communication skills; decreased recurrence of dysfunctional patterns; reduce emotional reactivity; facilitate de-triangulation
Triangles
Triangle a three person relationship system. It is considered the building block or molecule of larger emotional systems because a triangle is the smallest stable relationship system.
Differentiation of self
Families and other social groups tremendously affect how people think, feel, and act, but individuals very in their susceptibility to a “group think” and groups very in the amount of pressure they exert for conformity. These differences between individuals in between groups reflect differences and people levels of differentiation of self.
Nuclear family emotional system
The concept of the nuclear family emotional system describes four basic relationship patterns that govern where problems develop in a family. People’s attitudes and believes about relationships play a role in the patterns, but the forces primary driving them are part of the emotional system.
Family projection process
The family projection process describes the primary way parents transmit their emotional problems to a child. The projection process can impair the functioning of one or more children and increase their vulnerability to clinical symptoms
Multi generational transmission process
The concept of the multi generational transmission process describes differences in the levels of differentiation between parents and their offspring lead over many generations to marked differences in differentiation among the members of a multi generational family
Emotional cutoff
The concept of emotional cut off describes people managing their unresolved emotional issues with parents, siblings, and other family members by reducing or totally cutting off emotional contact with them.
Genogram
Extensive study of family’s history. Acts both as an assessment and treatment tool
Interventions:
Reduce emotional reactivity by having family members talk to the therapist
Interventions: reframing
: the presenting problem as a multi generational problem that is caused by factors beyond the individual
Interventions: Genogram
Create a multi generational map of family emotional systems
Interventions: De- triangulation
Therapist becomes part of the healthy triangle where the therapist teaches a couple to manage their own anxiety, distance, and closeness in healthy ways
Interventions: increasing differentiation
By forming supportive relationship with the family members to explore the origins of their families believes and behaviors
Interventions: teaching “I” statements
Increases differentiation
Interventions: opening cut off relationships
Encouraging and supporting clients to reengage with estrangled family members
Interventions: interacts with family
Interrupts arguments - Open conflict is prohibited as it races anxiety
Interventions: Models
Demonstrates new ways to interact and communicate
Interventions: bibliotherapy
Assigning reading material
Phases of treatment: beginning
Create a family diagram of multigenerational emotional connections; assess individual levels of differentiation and triangulation; identified dysfunctional patterns that have been passed along through the generations.
Phases of Treatment: Early/ Middle
Teach and model differentiation through communication skill building; de triangulation; encourage reunification from family members; teach the family how to take responsibility for their feelings and thoughts
Phases of Treatment: End
Review new skills and knowledge gain and therapy.
