Bowen Family Therapy Essay

The goal of Bowen’ theory is to review developmental patterns within the familial system and the stress centered around the anxiety caused by closeness or the lack thereof (Penny, 1999). Bowen’s theory works to facilitate a decline in stress and anxiety by enabling the clients with education as to how the emotional system works and focusing on how to modify self perceptional behaviors instead of working to change others within the system (Penny, 1999).

Nurses interact with families in a variety of community-based and clinical settings. The family nursing process is the same, regardless of the setting or whether the focus is on the family as a whole or on an individual in that family (Crisp & Taylor 2005). In the case of a 3 year old girl just diagnosed with leukaemia, it is important for a nurse to critically analyse the situation and address any immediate concerns. The nurse must address any professional issues that may arise and any potential impacts of hospitalisation that may affect the child and the family. Also provide support and education to reassure and comfort them. The primary concern for paediatric nurses is the welfare of the child and the family (Crisp & Taylor 2005).

Prior to establishing his theory post-World War II, Bowen studied the origins of schizophrenia and postulated that transgenerational maternal enmeshment was its cause. Bowen’s thoughts on this were similar to those on individuation. Though he believed psychoanalysis was too individualized for family therapy, the psychoanalytic notion that one’s interactions are driven by unconscious motivation was the theory’s germ of inspiration. Goldenberg & Goldenberg (2012) write that the most essential piece Bowen’s family systems theory is that the individual needs to resolve anxiety arising from their family of origin to find a sense of individuality. This concept is traceable to Bowen’s psychoanalytic roots as a psychiatrist.

Individualism is a term that is not often spoken about with patients who have Dissociative Identity Disorder. Patients lose themselves throughout their multiple personalities. One woman stated, "I barely know who I am most times, let alone who my other parts are" ("Dissociative Living: A Dissociative Identity Disorder Blog"). Spreading you personality amongst other "parts" is not healthy for your relationship within yourself. Patients share deep grief when they cannot remember even the slightest trace of how their day went or even why they have done certain things around the house for example. The state you're in resembles a dream-like state. Patients recall only minutes of information while living through every event throughout an entire afternoon

As such, the ego is the primary driver of dualistic or divided experience, conceptuality, and identification.

Picture a girl who is unknowingly aware of the person she is. At one moment, she is happy, bubbly and full of so much energy, then shy, timid, and afraid, and at another moment dark and reserved. Some people might feel this is just the ups and downs of everyone’s personality; however, what if it is not. What if there are people in the world, completely unaware that at any minute or second of the day, they themselves could per se become a different person. I know that might sound funny; nonetheless, not physically but mentally. Growing up at a young age I had a cousin of mine, whom I always thought was strange just because she would always change her personality. Later in life, I discovered that she was diagnosed with Dissociative Identity

The two theories chosen are the relational gestalt therapy and cognitive-behavioral family therapy where both of them are considered to be important in the psychotherapy world. The reason why they were chosen is because both of them are designed in a special way to address and explain the roots of dysfunction, and to impact change in individuals and family units. However, what is interesting the most is the basic principles of these two theories, connected interventions, and basic assumptions and explains about dysfunction. Cognitive behavioral therapy is type of therapy that was first developed for individuals who are suffering from eating disorders (Biblarz T. & Stacey, 2008). However, it is now used for several issues such as anxiety, depression, OCD, family issues, and even anger problems. On the other hand, gestalt therapy is a unique type of psychotherapy that places an emphasis on personal responsibility and the experience of individuals in a certain moment, instead of focusing on the past. The reason I like them is because they address the root of

“The average patient with DID has been in the mental healthcare delivery system an average of 6.8 years and has received more than three other diagnoses, reflecting either misdiagnoses or comorbidities, before receiving an accurate diagnosis of DID” (Kluft 2005). This means that DID can be hard to diagnose right away . One of the scholarly article examines Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) from a diagnostic perspective in an attempt to produce a definitive categorization for the controversial disorder. The article begins by acknowledging the controversy about DID by stating that many clinicians have doubts about whether it even exists. Still, the disorder does appear in the DSM-IV and most recent addition, the DSM-5, so it is respected by American Psychiatric Association. The diagnostic criteria for DID in the DSM-IV requires the display of several core personalities that are totally unaware of one another. Formally this is how DID is recognized, and its place within the DSM-IV at all bears witness to the genuine nature of the disorder. Next, the article discusses one of the more popular conceptions of DID: that it is a “defensive response that results naturally from continuous and

528; Zimbardo et al., 2006, p. 504; Comer, 2007, p. 208). The identity of the dominant, or “host personality,” breaks off sub categorically, and identities begin to develop with separate and distinct sets of memories, behavioral patterns, historical and familial backgrounds, differing physiological characteristics, and cognitive function (Comer, 2007, p. 208). Comer (2007) refers to the separate and distinct personalities of the individual as “sub personalities or alternate personalities” (p. 208). The transference from one identity to the next is referred to as “switching,” commonly triggered by a negative or stressful event or experience although, at times, occurring without noticeable indication (Comer, 2007, p. 208; Thomas,

The therapist then helps the patient to bring together the split-up or dissociated internalized negative object relations. The therapist attempts to separate the traumatic relationship with the rest of their experience and leads to a psychological split between love and hatred. This "dissociation" is a typical consequence of severe unconscious conflicts and traumatic experiences and leads patients to either idealize people or treat them as if they are all-bad. This tendency to consider people all-bad or all-good is gradually overcome in therapy by pointing out how patients tend to avoid ambivalence in their significant relationships, how they tend to avoid conflict by making one relationship all perfect and another one all bad. In treatment,

In the truth realised state there is no separation, everything is one. So if I engage my mind and create separation, then I am essentially splitting up the state of

My understanding of morality in the context of marriage and family therapy present an engagement of emotional behavior toward what him/her believe when others doesn’t find credence in him/her truth or belief. Morality in its composition is structured on the foundation of a person values, social norms, belief, experiences with his/her own rationale that is considered to be true. It is through these elements which create the process of moral reasoning and justification especially when a person defy another person truth creating a moral dilemma. In the context of marriage and family therapy, a therapist morality is gaged within the boundaries of ethical codes, laws, and regulations. I believe the ethical codes, laws, and regulations helps the

Not many people are aware of the family life cycle and how each stage bring forth new emotional issues and as a result couples and family therapy should be encouraged. Neukrug (2012) explains “Stress from the expected developmental milestones (marriage, birth of a child. Etc.) Can wreak havoc on the couple and family and counselors should be aware of the particular issues involved in such developmental crises”. Because couples and families are my ideal population to work with, this week’s assignment aided my understanding of how those institutional systems work. Somehow, I imagined adults would be easier to work with, since most have already found themselves and somewhat know what their issues are and where they stem from. I believe that I

     Two things can happen when we are required to base our definition of “self” on others.  One can take others’ ways of living and thinking, process them, and formulate his or her own definition, independent of anyone else.  Or, one can use the relationships he or she has with other people on which to base their own definition of self, thus making him or her dependent on those other people.  As young people, we learn and take in all we can through the world, our experiences, and relationships with other people.  From there, we grow and establish our own identities, our own “selves”, in response to those interactions with others.  This definition is continually growing and progressing as we evolve as people, interacting with different people in different environments and

In 1966, following decades of psychoanalytic work, his directorship of the Family Project (1954-1959) at the National Institute of Mental Health (citation), and driven by a belief that psychodynamic theory failed to provide conclusive scientific support to the etiology of emotional symptoms (Innis, 1996), Dr. Murray Bowen (1913-1990) published what some regard as one of the first theories examining family functioning, the Bowen Family Systems Theory (renamed Bowen Theory in the mid-1970’s).