Bowen Family Systems Structural and Strategic Essay

Over the course of the last sixty years, family values have consistently continued to change. With a heavier influx of women entering the work force and the social emphasis of individualism, the traditional family image has changed, and with

Choose two family systems therapy theories that you are interested in learning more about and applying to the family subsystem you analyzed in the Unit 5 assignment. Write a paper in which you describe the central concepts, goals, and typical interventions of each model, using scholarly sources (journal articles, books, or edited book chapters) to support your writing. Your paper must use a minimum of three scholarly, peer-reviewed sources for each model.

Comparing Bowen’s family systems theory and Minuchin’s structural family theory we will outline several fundamental categories for analysis with Goldenberg & Goldenberg (2012) as our guide. We also contrast the history and theoretical orientation of both men to garner a deeper understanding of their theories. Finally we will consider integrating elements of both theories and how this makes us more effective practitioners.

Stephanie Coontz in “The Way We Weren’t: The Myth and Reality of the Traditional Family” emphasizes that the traditional and ideal nuclear family widespread in media and textbooks are false and far from reality. In fact, it is common to see more similarities to the traditional family consistent of “male breadwinner and nurturing mother” (1) today than in the past.

This paper will summarize the theory of family systems developed by Murray Bowen. It will describe the eight key components to Bowenian therapy and the techniques used during practice. Strengths and limitations will be exposed, followed by a summary of the importance of integration between psychology and family systems theory.

Times have changed; the nuclear family is no longer the American ideal because family needs have changed since the 1950's. This American convention of a mother and father and their two children, were a template of films and early television as a depiction of the American family life. Now seen as archaic and cliché by today’s standards, but the idea is common throughout many of the first world nations in the world. This ideal was a vast departure from the past agrarian and pre industrial families, and was modeled and structured as the ‘American dream’ father working, mother maintaining the household and children molded to be simulacra of the parents. This portrayal was not the standard; many communities throughout America had a different

A brief view of the 4 decades within the periods of 1950 to 1990 would show us a significant shift from the conventional nuclear family to the non-conventional modern family. Starting from the 1950s, the families were nuclear, where members worked together, understood their roles, and did what was expected of them; by the 1960s, there were a few sitcoms that began to undermine the television parent’s authority by privileging the independence of nearly adult or adult children; by the 1970s, the authoritative father began to disappear as they were no longer

For this assignment, two different theoretical approaches will be discussed, Bowenian family therapy and structural family therapy, and they will be used individually to construct a treatment plan to help clients reach their goals. Within each treatment plan discussed, short-term and long-term goals of therapy will be established and the family’s presenting problems will be defined. Two techniques that will be assigned to help them reach their therapeutic goals and any expected outcome from using those techniques will be discussed.

Family systems theory is useful when working with families who are impacted by an ASD diagnosis. The family systems theory focuses on the shift of an individual perspective to a family systems perspective. Family is the most important support system for a child. Family is looked at as a unit, therefore by using the family systems theory the professionals are able to identify the family’s influences on the individual. The family system impacts a child’s development as family members affect the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of one another (Paylo, 2011).

This essay aims to compare and contrast the classical Bowen Family System Therapy to the more modern Solution Focused Therapy. Comparison will be made in the following areas (1) broad theoretical formulations, (2) normal family development, (3) development of behavioural disorder, (4) goals of therapy, (5) conditions for behavioural change, (6) assessment methods and (7) techniques. Note that in the last decade, parts of Bowen’s theories have been criticized due to the paucity of empirical evidence. For example, his

Nuclear family emotional system is a concept describing four primary relationship patterns of emotional functioning, which are matrimonial conflict, dysfunction in a spouse, impairment in children, and emotional detachment (Haefner, 2014). Family reactions to such are imitations of previous generations, as well as predictors of how future generations will react. The family projective process is when children inherit the strengths and weaknesses of their parents, such as emotional issues (Haefner, 2014). Multigenerational transmission is the progression of family ideals and traditions to multiple generations, which are either supportive or detrimental (Haefner, 2014).

n the upcoming page’s I will answer the following questions. Why is family the most important agent of socialization? What caused the dramatic changes to the American family? What are the changes? I will discuss the differences in marriage and family, I will discuss how they are linked to class, race, gender, and personal choices. The purpose of this study is to explore the many different family functions and the paths that people are now choosing. I will give my opinion on whether these changes have had a positive or negative affect. I will finally discuss the trend of the modern family, back to pre-World War II family structure, how would that effect the strides that have been made in the progression of women rights.

In The Family Crucible, Augustus Napier and Carl Whitaker’s form of therapy was strongly influenced by family systems theory, a burgeoning theory of the time. General systems theory examines relationships between elements that constitute a whole (Andreae, 2011, p. 243). When applied to families, this theory views the family as an emotional unit and uses systems thinking to describe the complex interactions in the unit (The

The family system is founded on the notions that for change to occur in the life of an individual, the therapist must understand and work with the family as a whole. In working with the family, the therapist can understand how the individual in counseling functions within his family system and how the client’s behaviors connect to other people in the family. This theory also holds the perception that symptoms are a set of family habits and patterns passed down by generation and not a result of a psychological problem or an inability to change (Corey, 2017). Furthermore, the family system theory holds the idea that when a change occurs everyone in the unit is affected by the change.

Bowenian family therapy views human beings not simply as individual parts that make up a collective whole, but as a collective whole made up of various parts. That is, human beings are relational from birth and belong to a family or some other type of collective system where the joys and problems they experience are done not in a vacuum, but are shared and passed along from generation to generation. “The main goal…is to reduce chronic anxiety by 1) facilitating awareness of how the emotional system functions; and 2) increasing levels of differentiation, [with] focus on making changes for the self rather than on trying to change others” (Brown, 1999, p. 95).