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{Family Systems Approach To Marital Therapy

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Quite a few husbands and wives experience relationship trouble that they don't know how to handle. In fact there are more adults experiencing relationship problems that they require help dealing with than there are persons struggling with a lot of psychological issues that are common in our society today.



In our society, marriage is a very important part of many peoples everyday lives. Challenges and issues that a couple experience and are not able to resolve by themselves frequently leads to unhappiness and divorce. When couples are miserable it also impacts their families and the other people they are in contact with in a negative way. By using a family systems approach to relationship counseling, pastors or therapists can help these couples fix their conflicts or emotional issues.

The family systems approach was developed by Murray Bowen, MD, who was a psychiatrist and is also known as the Bowen theory. The theory can change the approach to treatment, not only within a family but also in the society as a whole.

The family systems approach is the cornerstone of family counseling. A concept of family counseling is that an indivdual's behavior is influenced by their environment and also influences their environment, including the person's family. Therefor the focus in this therapy method is shifted from an individual focus to focusing on everyone in the family. However family systems counseling can be given to just one individual. It is not the number of individuals attending therapy that is labeling the therapy method, but rather what the primary focus of the therapy technique is. In fact, most of the time it is given to one client who wants to change the way he or she is functioning within the family.

All families have their own rules that gradually adapt over time when the members of the family and their expectations are adjusting. These rules can be both spoken and unspoken.

In every family several behavioral patterns are usually found and the members of the family usually play certain roles. These patterns of behaviors are commonly repeated in a cyclic pattern, over and over again, until one of the persons in the family is becoming aware of what is happening and decides that he or she wants to change and heal the relationship. One example of such a cyclic pattern is a family where one family member is nagging and the other is withdrawing. Then the person that is nagging might be nagging even more, which again is just causing the other family member to withdraw. In family systems theory, it is pointless trying to figure out who started the negative behavioral pattern or to blame anyone for it. When one person is becoming aware of the pattern and seeking to change his or her behavior, the other members of the family will respond to the change and thus the whole family dynamics will change.


Tina Hanson is the owner of Christian Marriage Counseling Info. To learn more about the family systems approach to marriage counseling

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