Bowen's Family Systems Approach

Question 1

Coaching

Answer 1

Bowen used this term to identify what he believed his role to be with clients as he coached them through the process of differentiation of self. He used the metaphor of “coach” to exemplify that he is responsible for getting the process started but that the actual work must be done by the clients

Question 2

Displacement Stories

Answer 2

Guerin’s intervention meant to assist individuals in creating distance between themselves and their problems and encourage rationality by having them reflect on another couple’s conflict as opposed to their own.

Question 3

Family Projection Process

Answer 3

This concept identifies that individuals with limited emotional resources are likely to project their needs onto others in the family. Ex. A mother who was neglected as a child (too much individuality, not enough togetherness) and as a result, emotionally cut-off from her parents, may become over-involved (too much togetherness, not enough individuality) with her children

Question 4

Detriangulation

Answer 4

Bowen believed that families will automatically attempt to triangulate the therapist into their conflict, and if they are successful in doing so, therapy will become ineffective. The therapist detriangulates the family’s emotional process by remaining neutral and differentiated, thereby decreasing emotionality across the family and making room for constructively resolving conflict.

Question 5

Differentiation of Self

Answer 5

This concept refers to an individual’s capacity to balance thinking when feeling, and thereby balance individuality with togetherness. Highly differentiated individuals are able to act rationally in the midst of anxiety. Individuals with low levels of differentiation are highly reactive and easily driven emotionally.

Question 6

Going Home again

Answer 6

This was an intervention used to encourage adult individual clients to go home and repair any conflicted relationships.

Question 7

Emotional Cutoff

Answer 7

A problematic manner in which individuals deal with unresolved attachment issues through a process of separation, isolation, withdrawal, running away, or denying the importance of one’s parental family.

Question 8

Genograms/Family Diagrams

Answer 8

Genograms gather a rich family history through the creation of a diagram resembling a family tree with various symbols used to identify gender and the degree of conflict, fusion, emotional cut-off, or health between individuals. It identifies the multigenerational transmission process and triangles among many other dynamics.

Question 9

Individuality and Togetherness

Answer 9

The two counterbalancing forces that drive human relationships. Bowen believed that each individual needs companionship and independence and that anxiety is experienced when these two needs polarize the individual. Balance is achieved in relation to the extent that the individual has learned to manage emotionality- that is, the individual’s level of self-differentiation

Question 10

Multigenerational Transmission Process

Answer 10

This term refers to the emotional forces in families that continue over the years in interconnected patterns, transmitting down from one generation to the next.

Question 11

Nonanxious Presence

Answer 11

Bowen emphasized the importance of the therapist remaining differentiated and providing a non-anxious presence throughout the session, influencing the family members to become less reactive and access rationality. This intervention served to promote higher levels of differentiation for each family member through modeling.

Question 12

Nuclear Family Emotional System

Answer 12

This concept refers to the emotional forces in a nuclear family that are expressed through recurrent patterns of individual behavior and interpersonal connectedness. Also that people with similar levels of differentiation tend to attract each other

Question 13

Process Questions

Answer 13

These questions aim to slow individuals down, thereby decreasing emotionality and increasing rationality as the individual becomes more aware of how stress and anxiety influence behavior.

Question 14

Relationship Experiments

Answer 14

These were used to help clients become aware of systemic processes within their relationship through understanding how their behaviors impact others. These were directive in nature and instructed clients to experiment with different ways of behaving and responding to one another.

Question 15

Person to Person Relationships

Answer 15

This type of relationship defines two family members that are able to relate to one another openly and freely without the need to triangulate in a 3rd party. Here, individuals tell each other how they are feeling-typically through the use of taking an “i” position, with a sense of wisdom and rationality

Question 16

Sibling Position

Answer 16

Bowen endorsed that an individual’s personality development is highly influenced by his or her position in the sibling birth order. This also plays a role in how children are chosen as the object for the family projection process. Ex. two oldest siblings get together and compete with each other in marriage

Oldest usually takes most responsibility.

Question 17

Multigenerational family therapy: basic ideas

Answer 17

-Family Diagrams (genograms) are very important
-Goal is differentiation and less anxiety and ones ability to act on their own (the person who was better differentiated would have less anxiety and reactivity)
-had highly reactive couples only speak through bowen
-Birth order is very important
-Long term therapy, very long assessment plan with an in-depth genogram
-Didn’t require all of the family to be there (assumed that if one part became more differentiated that the rest of the family would be healthier as well)
-Classic model

Question 18

Main Contributors

Answer 18

Murray Bowen
Phillip Guerin
Thomas Fogarty
Monica McGoldrick
Better Carter

Question 19

The “I” position

Answer 19

This was an intervention used to encourage clients to learn more effective ways of expressing what/how they are feeling through ownership and not blame. Ex. a client would be directed from saying “you’re so cold hearted” to “I wish you would tend to my emotional pain more genuinely” This would break cycles of emotional reactivity and promote “person to person” relationships

Question 20

Societal Emotional Process

Answer 20

This term refers to the impact of social influences on family functioning. Individuals (families) with higher levels of self-differentiation are less vulnerable to destructive societal influences, such as sexism and discrimination.

Question 21

Triangles

Answer 21

Triangles are created when an individual in a relationship pulls in a 3rd party (a person, hobby, substance, etc,) to create the illusion of emotional closeness that they are not receiving from the other individual in the relationship. The 3rd party creates a triangle, decreasing the anxiety between the two individuals by spreading it across a third.

Question 22

Societal Regression

Answer 22

Things outside the family can impact the family’s differntation ex. natural disasters, politics, genocide