- Information
- AI Chat
Bowen, Minuchin, Satir
Psychology
Honors
Studocu University - USA
Preview text
Bowen Family System Therapy
[1] Background
- Pointing out the idea of differentiation based on the idea that we all have chronic anxiety all the time. -A balance between individuality and togetherness -Chronic Anxiety that doesn't go away because of increased pressure on togetherness -Family conflicts are caused by undifferentiated people’s self in the family.
[2] Key concepts
1. Differentiation of Self
Bowen9s term for psychological separation of intellect and emotions and
independence of self from others; opposite of fusion 2. Emotional Triangles
Involvement of the third person decreases anxiety in the twosome by spreading it thru
three relationships (third party stabilizes relationship but freeze conflict)
Triangles are linked closely with the concept of differentiation:
3. Nuclear Family Emotional System It replicated for generations. Ex) Parents9 conflict or stress → their children Fusion: A blurring of psychological boundaries between self and others (opposite of differentiation) 1. Emotional distance/divorce between partners 2. Physical/emotional dysfunction in one partner 3. Marital conflict 4. Projection of problems onto children (triangling) 4. Family Projection Process The process by which parents transmit their lack of differentiation to their children Parents transmit their emotional problems to a child 5. Multigenerational Transmission Process The process by which parents transmit their lack of differentiation to their children How patterns, themes, and positions (roles) in a triangle are passed down from generation to generation through the projection from parent to child 6. Sibling Position Bowen believed that children develop personality characteristics from their positions in the family 7. Emotional Cutoff An unresolved emotional attachment, the result of lack of differentiation in their origin family The high level of fusion, anxiety → the likelihood of cutoff 8Breaking away' (cutoff) vs. 8Growing away' (differentiation) from the family 8. Societal Emotional Process This concept expands the usefulness of Bowen Theory beyond the family to everyday life in the community and organizations Families/people with higher levels of differentiation --> Cooperation, considering the welfare of others, maintaining contact with others
[3] Goals Identifying the family process and structure over many generations with a genogram and changing the family system with detriangulation can help reduce anxiety and help people become more independent.
[4] Therapeutic Techniques Even though understanding how the family system works is more important than the method, most of the time, questions or exercises are used to help clients become more cognitively aware and break up their triangles.
1. Genogram: It is necessary to revise and supplement over several sessions. - Used to trace relationship conflicts, cutoffs, and triangles - History of Presenting Problem, Nuclear Family, Spouses 2. Neutralizing Triangles - If the therapist can remain free of reactive emotional entanglements—in other words, stay de-triangled—the family system and its members will calm down to the point where they can begin to work out their dilemmas 3. Process Questions - Aimed at toning down emotion and fostering objective reflection - Designed to slow people down, diminish reactive anxiety 4. Relationship Experiments - To assist clients in trying something different from their usual emotional responses, experiencing what it's like to act against their usual emotional responses, and learning how to stop allowing their emotions to control them. 5. Coaching - Coaching doesn9t mean telling people what to do, it means asking questions designed to help people figure out family emotional processes and their role in them 6. The <I= Position – Increase differentiation - To be able to detach from the emotionality and adopt an <I=-position - Taking a personal stance—saying what you feel instead of what others are doing—is one of the most direct ways to break cycles of emotional reactivity.
Structural Family Therapy
Salvador Minuchin -- when the family structure changes, the members' behavior and inner psychological processes change.
- Healthy family accommodate to changed circumstances
- Dysfunctional families increase the rigidity of structures that are no longer working.
[1] Key concepts - Family structures: the functional organization of families that determines how family members interact. - Subsystems: Smaller units in families, determined by generation, gender, or function. Ex) Spouse subsystems, parental subsystems, parent-child, sibling subsystems
Experiential Family Therapy
[1] Leading figures
Carl Whitaker Stated that dysfunctional families, fearful of conflict, adhere rigidly to the rituals that they establish.
Virginia Satir Nurturing therapist with warmth and genuineness.
Susan Johnson Founder of emotionally focused couples therapy (EFT) [2] Normal Functioning Family
Premise of EFT: The root cause of family problems is emotional suppression. Experiential therapists share the humanistic faith in the natural wisdom of honest emotion.
Family myths: A set of beliefs based on a distortion of historical reality and shared by all family members that help shape the rules governing family functioning.
Mystification: Laing's concept that many families distort their children's experience by denying or relabeling it
Functional families are secure enough to support and encourage a wide range of experiencing
Dysfunctional families are frightened and bloodless. In short, the healthy family offers its members the freedom to be themselves.
[3] Development of Behavior Disorder Denial of impulses and suppression of feeling are the root of family problems.
- Four dishonest ways of communication patterns that indicate low self-esteem: Blaming; Placating; Being irrelevant; Being super reasonable
- Emotional deadness: Virginia Satir's belief that families are cold and stay together only out of habit or duty and therefore avoid each other and preoccupy themselves with work or other distractions.
- A healthy relationship is a secure attachment bond which is one that is characterized by emotional accessibility and responsiveness (Susan Johnson)
- Attachment injuries: traumatic occurrences that damage the bond between partners and, if not resolved, maintain negative cycles and attachment insecurities
[4] Goals
- Experientialists emphasize the feeling side of human nature: creativity, spontaneity, and emotional honesty—and, in therapy, the value of emotional experience for its own sake
- Emotional expression from family members is thought to break down rigid expectancies and unblock awareness—all of which promotes individuation
- Heightened sense of competence, well-being, and self-esteem.
- Recover their own potential for experiencing, he believed that he was also helping them recover their ability to care for one another
- Existential encounter: A relationship based on direct personal contact, rather than artificial professional roles
[5] Techniques
- Family Sculpting: A nonverbal experiential technique in which family members position themselves in a tableau that reveals significant aspects of their perceptions and feelings.
- Conjoint Family Drawing (Bing): A nonverbal experiential technique in which family members position an experiential technique in which family members are asked to draw
their ideas about how the family is organized.
• Family Puppet Interview (Irwin and Malloy, 1975): asks one of the family members to
make up a story using puppets. Designed to highlight conflicts and alliances
• Animal Attribution Storytelling Technique (Diana Arad, 2004)
• requires family members to choose animals to represent all the members of the family
and then tell a story about the animal protagonists.
• Family art therapy: Kwiatkowska therapist instructs family to produce a series of
drawings, including a ""joint family scribble,"" in which each person makes a scribble and then they incorporate it into a unified picture
• Gestalt Family Techniques
o Empty chair technique (Kempler, 1973): A member is asked to speak to an empty chair if someone who is mentioned isn't present. o Role-playing : Acting out the parts of important characters to dramatize feelings and practice new ways of relating.
• Emotionally Focused Couple’s Therapy (EFT)
EFT: A model of therapy based on attachment theory, in which the emotional longings beneath a couple9s defensive reactions are uncovered as they are taught to see the reactive nature of their struggles with each other, developed by Leslie Greenberg and Susan Johnson
This therapy works on two levels in succession:
o uncovering the hurt and longing beneath defensive expressions of anger withdrawal o helping couples understand how these feelings are played out in their relationship. Primary emotions: "soft" emotions such as sadness, fear, hurt, and longing Secondary emotions: defensive; anger, contempt, coldness When a person feels unsafe expressing primary emotions, they express defensive, secondary emotions → The purpose of emotionally focused therapy is to help foster secure attachment
- Stages of EFT
o Stage 1: Cycle De-escalation
Assessment
Identify negative interactional cycle(s)
Access unacknowledged emotions
Reframe problems in terms of attachment needs
o Stage 2: Changing Interactional Positions
Promote identification with disowned needs
Promote acceptance of partner9s experience
Facilitate expression of needs and wants
o Stage 3: Consolidation and Integration
Emergence of new solutions to old problems
Consolidate new positions and attachment cycles
• Internal Family Systems Therapy: A model of the mind that uses systemic principles and
techniques to understand and change intrapsychic processes, developed by Richard Schwartz
Richard Schwartz's internal family systems is based on the perspective that a person is
composed of sub-personalities or parts
Sub-personalities are often linked to unmet attachment needs
Bowen, Minuchin, Satir
Course: Psychology
Honors
