Bowen Flashcards
Transgenerational model started by working with schizophrenia
Bowen
Bowen normal development
“Highly differentiated individuals
What are Highly differentiated individuals/solid self
able to react to the world rationally and enter into relationships while balancing competing needs for belonging and individuality
Differentiated system level of anxiety
low
Dysfunction in Bowen
Poorly differentiated individuals” ruled by emotions; lives center around acceptance and being loved
“Pseudo-self” (fusion)
emotional fusion cause
Stems from poor differentiation
Triangle
Smallest stable unit of family when a 2-person system adds another person or thing to shift tension and stabilize relationship
More than 3 people = interconnecting triangles
What is nuclear family emotional process [undifferentiated ego mass]
Family systems develop rules and patterns that are stable over time -. Most often people partner with similarly differentiated people
Family projection process:
Differentiation levels are transmitted across generations
Within nuclear family
Multigenerational transmission process:
Emotional responses are passed down generation to generation- move towards lower level of differentiation in subsequent generations
sibling position in Bowen
helps therapist predict certain roles that child may play in emotional process in family and what might be transmitted
Goals of treatment in Bowen
Decrease anxiety by increasing differentiation
Increasing the ability to distinguish between thinking and feeling and learning to use that ability to resolve relationship problems
Change proceeds from the individual and moves to his/her other relationships
Why should the therapist manage their FOO in Bowen
Therapist can only help if they are differentiated themselves
Stance of therapist Bowen
calm,cerebral, minimize emotional reactivity focus on individual role in problems.
Differentiation scale
Bowen intervention 0-100
genogram
family diagram to collect and organize information about the family. Used in transgenerational models.
Neutralizing triangle
Bowen intervention to decrease triangulation
What are Relationship Experiments(Bowen):
ask clients to try new behaviors and pay attention to the processes
displacement stories (bowen)
tell stories (or recommend movies) that minimize defensiveness
Other later theorists who are Bowenian
Philip Guerin/Monica McGoldrick/betty Carter
A process by which roles, patterns, emotional reactivity, and family structure are passed from one generation to another is:
Multigenerational transmission process
What is emotional cut off
In Bowenian therapy when a family member no longer emotionally engages with another in order to manage anxiety this is called:
How do you increase differentiation
.Work on relationships with family of origin
Anxiety in bowen
A family makes choices to decrease andiety.Bowen suggests that managing anxiety is crucial for maintaining healthy emotional boundaries and promoting differentiation. By examining and understanding the underlying anxieties within family systems, individuals can minimize emotional reactivity and respond more effectively to relationship
What is Bowen’s theory of dysfunction
Undifferentiation causes dysfunction in family or symptoms in one or more children
Bowen’s theory of change
Bowen’s theory of change
To find a balance by increasing the ability to separate thinking and feeling within the self and others
Bowen therapy stages
- Emphasis on extended family. Does not require whole family to be there
2.genogram - Reduce anxiety and increase differentiation
- Open communication and resolve triangles
Bowen length of therapy
Long term
What do bowenian therapists assess
Self reports, differentiation, cutoff,anxiety and reactivity, triangles, individual differentiation scale
