Bowenian Therapy Flashcards
Key concepts
- Differentiation of self
- Triangulation
- Multigenerational Transmission Process
- Emotional Cutoff
- Nuclear Family Emotional System
- Family Projection Process
- Sibling Position
- Societal Emotional Process
Key Concepts: Differentiation of Self
- Differentiation is the cornerstone for healthy long-term commitments
- Individual differentiation influences the choice of the spouse
- A healthy marriage includes two individuals who are able to have a caring connection with FOO
- Bowen asserts that each individual brings his/her family of origin into the marriage
Key Concepts: Triangulation
- Couples (or a family dyad) bring in a third party to relieve the anxiety within the dyad
- Concept: couple as two poles, back and forth, when becomes unstable, bring in a third party for balance and stability
- This third party becomes the boundary keeper
- Most common third party is a child
Other triangles: affair, in-law, therapist, co-worker
Examples: mom-child dyad, dad in peripheral
wife-husband dyad, mom-in-law in peripheral
mother-child dyad, a sibling in peripheral
Key Concepts: Multigenerational Transmission Process
- The concept that levels of differentiation are taught (implicitly and explicitly) to younger generations of family members
- As a result, family members become less and less differentiated as time goes on
Key Concepts: Emotional Cutoff
- May occur by moving away, isolation, or emotional avoidance
- This can stem from being emotionally fused in relationships
- Function of distancing is to maintain homeostasis or equilibrium
- Common for fusion and cutoff to both exist in the same extended family
- Emotional cutoff can be either physical or emotional
- It takes 2 people to maintain the cutoff
- Cutoff can be considered as a continuum
- The mild form is part of differentiation
- The extreme is cutoff
- The mid form is “tearing away” in order to create a pseudo self. This is different from “growing away”
Key Concepts: Nuclear Family Emotional System
4 basic relationship patterns that can lead to problems within the family system
- Marital conflict
- Dysfunction in one spouse
- Impairment of one or more children
- Emotional distance (fusion - little overt conflict)
Key Concepts: Family Projection Process
- Parents transmit/project anxiety onto one of the children
- Parents present with a calm marriage; over-concerned and concentrated on child (symptom carrier)
- Family may bring child in for therapy when marital therapy is actually needed
Key Concepts: Sibling Position
- Bowen believed that sibling position within FOO played out in marital relationship
- Also contributed to family projection process: the child with anxiety projected onto them was oftentimes infantilized
Key Concepts: Societal Emotional Process
- Society’s impact on family emotional processes
- Consider current economical, political, cultural, and societal issues that may be impacting the couple or family
Specific Techniques: The process question
Goal is to slow the client down, decrease anxiety, and get the client to start thinking differently
Specific Techniques: I-position
- Rather than blaming or criticizing, the individual takes responsibility for his/her feelings and thoughts
- Goal is to decrease blame and attack within relationships
Specific Techniques:Tracking the Presenting Problem
The therapist is observing power distribution, decision-making, story-telling, naming of the problem
Structural characteristics of the family are observed: distance, fusion, disengagement, cutoff, conflict
Specific Techniques: Tracking Antecedents
The therapist tracks problem while observing what event triggered the current problem
Consider antecedents within whole system as well as dyads and within each FOO
Tracking 3 generations of family - acknowledges another dimension of the experience and presenting problem
Helps clients get to the root of things: see how FOO had an impact on the current dilemma
Specific Techniques:FOO Consults
The therapist arranges the consult during the mid-phase of therapy
Helps family make the connection of problem to FOO
FOO meetings only occur once or twice due to financial/time constraints
Usually increases anxiety so family needs to be prepared for this visit
Spouse just observes and does not participate
Spouse invites own FOO to the experience
Spouse being visited explains presenting problem within the marriage
FOO encouraged to ask questions and explain what they know (emphasis is on spouse and not on FOO)
Consults often increase spouse’s awareness of what he/she has brought to marriage
After a consult the spouse is frequently more self-focused and willing to look at his/her own contribution to current problem
Anxiety (in Structural)
the primary promoter of all symptoms.
The antidote and the prevention of chronic anxiety is always differentiation
