Intergenerational/Bowen Therapy

Question 1

Multigenerational Transmission Process

Answer 1

In Bowenian family therapy, the process by which roles, patterns, emotional reactivity, and family structure are passed from one generation to another. Is based on the premise that emotional processes from prior generations are present and “alive” in the current family emotional system.

Question 2

Multigenerational Patterns

Answer 2

Intergenerational therapists identify patterns of depression, substance abuse, anger, conflict, the parent-child relationship, the couple’s relationship, or whatever issues are most salient for the client. The therapist then identifies how the current situation fits with these patterns.

Question 3

Emotional Triangle

Answer 3

When a dyad pulls in a third person to reduce tension in the dyad to avoid directly dealing with tension in the dyad. The third person may become involved by taking sides in the conflict overtly or by simply diverting energy away from resolving problems in the dyad.

The most common example of this when one or both parents draw a child into their conflict. This can also occur when a member of a couple complains to a third party (e.g., friend or family member) but never goes back to resolve the conflict/tension in the original dyad.

Question 4

Three-generational Emotional Process

Answer 4

Used by Intergenerational therapists to better understand the current presenting symptoms. The process of therapy involves increasing clients’ awareness of how their current behavior is connected to multigenerational processes and the resulting family dynamics.

Question 5

Family Projection Process

Answer 5

In Bowenian family therapy, the lack of differentiation in parents often results in one of the parents projecting their fears onto one or more children. Then the parent interacts with the child as if the projected problem is real, generally creating anxiety and reduced differentiation in the child.

For example, a parent who struggled socially as a child may project this onto their child and then respond to situations in a way that creates anxiety in the system.

Question 6

Emotional Cutoff

Answer 6

Bowen’s term for flight from an unresolved emotional attachment. Situations in which a person no longer emotionally engages with another in order to manage anxiety; this usually occurs between children and parents.

Emotional cutoff can take the form of no longer seeing or speaking to the other or, alternatively, being willing to be at the same family event with virtually no interaction. Considered a sign of low levels of differentiation.

Question 7

Societal Regression

Answer 7

Bowen’s notion that society responds emotionally in periods of stress and anxiety, offering short-term “Band-Aid” solutions that reduce overall functioning, rather than seeking more rational solutions that lead to greater individuation.

Question 8

Non-anxious Presence

Answer 8

An emotionally engaged therapeutic stance that is nonreactive, meaning that the therapist does not react to attacks, “bad” news, and so forth without careful reflection.

Question 9

Differentiation

Answer 9

The ability to separate thought from feeling and self from others. Bowen’s theory posits that healthy adult functioning is characterized by high levels of differentiation.

Question 10

Intrapersonal Dimension of Differentiation

Answer 10

Separate thoughts from feelings in order to respond rather than react; often referred to as self-regulation in contemporary contexts.

Question 11

Interpersonal Dimension of Differentiation

Answer 11

Know where oneself ends and another begins without loss of self; this typically takes the form of being able to manage conflict without reactivity.

Question 12

Chronic Anxiety

Answer 12

According to Bowen, a biological phenomenon that is present in all natural systems.

This type of anxiety involves automatic physical and emotional reactions that are not mediated through conscious, logical processes.

Decreasing anxiety and emotional reactivity is closely correlated with the increasing differentiation. As differentiation increases, anxiety decreases.

Question 13

Triangulation

Answer 13

Refers to pulling in a third person to stabilize tension in a dyad, such as a mother who becomes close to a child to make up for intimacy she is not experiencing in the marriage. A problematic means to control chronic anxiety.

Question 14

Therapist’s Level of Differentiation

Answer 14

This and the therapist’s emotional being are central to the change process. Intergenerational therapists believe that clients can differentiate only as much as their therapists have differentiated.

For this reason, the therapist’s level of differentiation is often the focus of supervision early in training, and therapists are expected to continually monitor and develop themselves so that they can be of maximum assistance to their clients.

Question 15

2 Basic Goals of Intergenerational Theory

Answer 15

Long Term Goals:

1. To increase each person’s level of differentiation (in specific contexts)
2. To decrease emotional reactivity to chronic anxiety in the system

Question 16

Genograms

Answer 16

Commonly used intergenerational family assessment instrument that is similar to a family tree or genealogy (at least 3 generations)that specifically maps key multigenerational processes that illuminate for both therapist and client the emotional dynamics that contribute to the reported symptoms.

As an intervention, these can help clients see their patterns more clearly and how they may be living out family patterns, rules, and legacies without conscious awareness.

Question 17

Clinical Usefulness of Genograms

Answer 17

As an intervention, genograms can help clients see their patterns more clearly and how they may be living out family patterns, rules, and legacies without conscious awareness. Genograms can be used to identify other family patterns related to gender, death, personality, illness, mental health, substance abuse, sexual abuse, occupation, and so on.

Question 18

What to include in Genograms

Answer 18

• 3 generations (both sides of family)
• Standardized symbols and include basic information, i.e. names, gender, date of birth, death, year of marriages, separations, divorces
• Additional information may include: education, vocation, health issues, social class, racial group, relationship characteristics, i.e. degree of closeness, distance
• Names, ages, and birth/death dates

Question 19

Intergenerational Patterns from Genogram

Answer 19

• Relational patterns
• Occupations
• Psychiatric disorders and alcohol/substance abuse
• Abuse history
• Personality adjectives

Question 20

Process Questions

Answer 20

Questions that help clients see the systemic process or the dynamics that they are enacting. These questions are generated naturally from the therapist’s use of the theory to conceptualize the client’s situation.

Question 21

Encouraging Differentiation of Self

Answer 21

Therapeutic interventions generally target the counterbalancing force of differentiation by encouraging clients to use “I” positions to maintain individual opinions and mood states while in relationships with others.

For example, if spouses are overreactive to each other’s moods, every time one person is angry or unhappy, the other feels there is no other choice but to also be in that mood. Therapists promote differentiation by coaching the second spouse to maintain his or her emotional state without undue influence from the other.

Question 22

Detriangulation

Answer 22

Involves the therapist maintaining therapeutic neutrality (differentiation) in order to interrupt a client’s attempt to involve the therapist or someone else in a triangle.

Question 23

Relational Experiments

Answer 23

Behavioral homework assignments designed to reveal and change unproductive relational processes in families. Example: practice responding rather than simply reacting to perceived anxieties and stressors.

Question 24

Going Home Again

Answer 24

This technique refers to when therapists encourage clients to interact with family members while maintaining a clearer boundary between self and other and to practice and/or experience the reduced emotional reactivity that characterizes increases in differentiation.

Question 25

Ultimate Goal of Differentiation

Answer 25

To **balance two forces**: * The need for togetherness and * The need for autonomy

Question 26

Emotional Systems

Answer 26

From Bowen's Model, families are described as these systems. Such systems evolve their own specific organization, and develop a **set of rules and patterns** that are stable over time. This system has a specific impact on a person's behavior, emotions, and symptoms, one must always assess this context to understand a person's problems.

Question 27

Level of Differentiation

Answer 27

The therapist assesses this along a continuum, which Bowen developed into a differentiation scale that **ranges from 1 to 100**, with lower levels of differentiation represented by lower numbers (Bowen, 1985). Bowen maintained that people rarely reach higher than 70 on this scale.

Question 28

Sibling Position

Answer 28

Intergenerational therapists look at this to assess family's level of **differentiation**; all things being equal, the more the family exhibit the expected characteristics of their sibling position, the higher the level of differentiation.

Question 29

Sibling Position

Answer 29

Most often, older children identify with responsibility and authority, and later-born children respond to this domination by identifying with underdogs and questioning the status quo. The youngest child is generally the most likely to avoid responsibility in favor of freedom.

Question 30

Theory Versus Technique

Answer 30

The premise is that if therapists understand Bowen's theory of natural systems and work on their **personal level of differentiation**, they will naturally interact with clients in a way that promotes the clients' level of differentiation.

Question 31

The Sexual Crucible Model

Answer 31

Developed by David Schnarch (1991). The model proposes that marriage functions as a "**crucible**," a vessel that physically contains a volatile transformational process. In the case of marriage, the therapist achieves transformation by helping both partners differentiate.