SOLID FOUNDATION PSYCHIATRY
Defining Bowenian Family Therapy
Blog Outline

Defining Bowenian Family Therapy

Bowenian Family Therapy, as the name suggests, is the accumulation of all the works of Murray Bowen, which is inherently his legacy. It is a type of therapy that is used to treat issues like anxiety that can hurt family systems and dynamics by finding resolutions for improving the interconnections and relationships that form the family. Let’s start with the Bowenian family systems theory in the words below:

What is Bowenian Family Systems Theory?

The background

Bowen’s family systems theory is the foundational basis of family therapy as it is. It essentially focuses on the functioning of a family system (Brown, 1999). Bowen, who belonged to a large family, was intrigued by the internal workings of a family system and wanted to know how these internal workings were affected by fault lines and conflicts that erupted in a family. He also wanted to focus on how mental health and healthy well-being influenced this very same family system.

Read More: The Benefits of Family Therapy: Strengthening Bonds and Improving Well-being

The development of the theory

Murray Bowen began his work on Bowenian family therapy by researching individuals who were diagnosed with schizophrenia. He had started to notice a pattern in these schizophrenia patients: the condition usually showed its onset with an anxious, unhealthy attachment in childhood between the patient and their mother.

Gradually he moved onto studying the unhealthy relationships between parents and children. He eventually moved to exploring unhealthy relationships between generations of family members, including grandparents, parents, and children. Afterward, Bowen would research at least three generations of one family and approach family therapy for his patients with the same approach.

As Bowenian family therapy came into existence, one theory and one hypothesis at a time, he also started to develop a Bowenian family theory that certain family behavioral patterns persist through multiple generations spanning decades. This phenomenon, he believed, allows multiple generations to transfer problematic behavior from one to the other. He further realized how a family’s history could create a template of sorts for future generations to be influenced in terms of problematic behavior and experiences (which therefore needed Bowenian family interventions) and since then, it has also made its way into marriage therapy and couples therapy.

Read More: Exploring Dysfunctional Family Therapy: Comprehending, Recovering, and Fortifying Resilience

The Concepts of Bowen Family Therapy

Murray Bowen’s careful consideration of and focused research (which also led to the fact that not just mothers but the whole family can lead to problematic behavior in affected individuals (Kerr et al., 1988)) on his schizophrenic patients (most having high psychosis symptoms) led to the development of eight interlocking factors that explain how families function and develop as a unit, which you can see below (The Bowen Center for the Study of the Family, n.d.). These concepts provide the foundational support to the Bowenian family therapy:

  • Triangles: These refer to a three-person system of relationships, like the one a couple as with a child. A triad like a couple and a child system can essentially stabilize a system but ultimately cannot help resolve its conflicts.
  • Differentiation of the self: It’s all about how one can be adjustable in the face of problematic challenges by creating a separate sense of self.
  • Nuclear family emotional process: Marital conflict, dysfunction in a spouse, impairment in a child or children, and emotional distance are all representations of issues that arise in the four-people relationship system that govern family dysfunction.
  • Projection process in the family: This essentially refers to how parental figures can sometimes project and transfer their emotional states (usually issues) onto their children.
  • Multigenerational transmission process: It refers to the processes that lead to the development of relational and genetic transmission of emotional states (generally problems) across different organizations.
  • Ceasing emotional connections: Individuals have the ability to reduce or completely cut off emotional contact with family members with whom they have unresolved issues such as an untreated bipolar disorder.
  • Emotional effects on society: The combined emotional states of family systems can make an impact on society as a whole.
  • Sibling number: Refers to the birth positions of siblings and their impact on the family.

Read More: What is Systemic Family Therapy? Is It Capable Of Helping You?

Bowenian Family Therapy Techniques

Bowenian family therapy seeks to improve communication between family members and uses that communication to help the family members break free from their problematic behavioral patterns. It fulfills this objective by following these Bowen family therapy techniques while also helping experts differentiate it from other treatment methods such as psychotherapy, or telepsychiatry:

  • Genograms: These are diagrams that help map out the family, its relationships, its interconnections, and the conflicts and behavioral patterns that may arise from it. Genograms allow mental health experts such as a therapist and family members to explore and recognize patterns and connections that can support and guide treatment. A genogram can be started at the initial stage of therapy and can carry on well into the therapy.
  • Differentiating emotions and self-differentiation: This is all about identifying when a similar pattern of emotional state starts to exhibit in a family or when they take on the emotions of a family member. This way mental health experts can help members of the family find their path to individual emotions.
  • Using the “I-statements”: One of the most useful of these Bowenian family therapy techniques in generalized Bowenian family therapy is the usage of “I-statements.” These statements focus on the emotions of the speaker rather than the other person. For example, it would be better to say, “I was waiting to have dinner with you, and I am unable to sleep without you” rather than saying, “You are always late from work and it is contributing to my insomnia.”
  • Emotional triangles: In Bowen family therapy, emotional triangles help define and identify stable relationships in a family.
  • Recognizing intergenerational patterns: Using genograms to identify patterns persisting between generations and help families identify which patterns benefit them and which patterns are essentially negative for them and necessary to break out of.
  • Normalizing issues and challenges: Prepare all the participants of the Bowenian family therapy that conflicts and issues will always arise, even after the therapy has successfully terminated but that doesn’t mean they cannot be worked out.

Read More: Can Strategic Family Therapy Help With The Fault Lines In Your Home?

Benefits of Bowen Therapy

As mentioned before, Bowenian family therapy is more than capable of emphasizing healthy communication skills and conflict resolution in a family. It helps foster healthier relationships and is capable of inducing clear boundaries where needed. One of the best benefits of Bowen therapy is that it helps provide insight into the behavior of members of the family and why they make the choices they make, the impact these choices have on the rest of the family, and how they can essentially make lasting changes with the help of clear resolutions provided by the said therapy.

Family members have the opportunity to learn about the emotional triangles within their family unit and utilize these interconnected relationships to strengthen their relationships. This is done by teaching them appropriate communication skills that help them resolve their differences and conflicts via Bowenian family therapy. Intergenerational issues can also be recognized via this type of therapy as seen in the examples of Bowenian family therapy techniques provided above. They can also learn how to find the balance between connectedness and personal identity within the family unit.

Read More: Everything About Structural Family Therapy

Wrapping Up!

Bowenian family therapy can be used individually, with couples therapy, or with a larger family unit in family therapy as it will be beneficial regardless. Research has suggested that Bowenian family therapy’s focus on the differentiation of self-improved interpersonal and marital relationships can help families considerably (Calatrava et al., 2022). So, why not take advantage of it through our Center for Family Therapy, Solid Foundation Psychiatry? If it is family therapy you do not want and something else is needed, for example, something to treat clinical depression or PTSD then you can still make an appointment! Looking forward to it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the limitations of the Bowen family system?

Too much emphasis is put on the family unit and neglects other variables that are present in society such as friends or extended family. 

Create awareness of the functioning of emotions and emotional systems and increase differentiation from family members for individualized resolutions of the conflicts in the family. 

A renowned American psychiatrist and professor, Murray Bowen. 

References and Footnotes
  1. Brown, J. (1999), Bowen Family Systems Theory and Practice: Illustration and Critique. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 20: 94-103. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1467-8438.1999.tb00363.x
  2. Kerr, M. E., Bowen, M., & Kerr, M. E. (1988). Family evaluation. WW Norton & Company.
  3. The Bowen Center for the Study of the Family. (n.d.). Learn about Bowen theory. Retrieved September 11, 2022, from https://www.thebowencenter.org/core-concepts-diagrams
  4. Calatrava M, Martins MV, Schweer-Collins M, Duch-Ceballos C, Rodríguez-González M. Differentiation of self: A scoping review of Bowen Family Systems Theory’s core construct. Clin Psychol Rev. 2022 Feb;91:102101. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2021.102101. Epub 2021 Nov 13. PMID: 34823190.
Learn more about our editorial process.
Share this article
Facebook
Email
Twitter
Reddit
LinkedIn
Pinterest

Copy link

Scroll to Top