Family System Theory

Dr. Angela Starling Starling Learning, LLC

“FAMILY SYSTEMS THEORY” PRESENTED BY DR. ANGELA STARLING

SEPTEMBER 2022

PSALM 139:14 “I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Marvelous are your works and that my soul knows very well”-”I know that full well . . .” NIV

INSPIRE “Everybody needs to be inspired sometimes or another. Inspiration ignites the soul to express the authentic pronunciation of ones-self.

A divine expression of God’s energy. To be inspired is to reflects the essence of one’s being to the universe.

“Inspiration awakens the essence of one’s soul to be brought forth.”

. . . “1954-1956 period a new order of observation described in the literature: Shift from individual to a family frame of reference . . . Murray Bowen, 1976

“THINKING SYSTEMS” “A NEW WAY OF THINKING” For most people, it is a different way of thinking.

Rather than trying for control or blaming the other, one tries to better manage oneself and one’s own contribution to the situation.

In this new way of thinking, no one is to blame or at fault.

“ T H E E I G H T C O N C E P T S O F B OW E N T H E O RY ”

1. Nuclear Family Emotional System

5. Family Projection Process

2. The Differentiation of Self Scale

6. Multigenerational Transmission Process 7. Sibling Position

3. Triangles 4. Cutoff

8. Societal Emotional Process

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO SAY THAT FAMILY IS AN EMOTIONAL UNIT? TWO PRIMARY THINGS • 1. Whatever affects one affects each one in the system.

• Anxiety moves easily from person to person in the group

• Family members trade “SELF” into family relationship together in a family “fusion” of SELVES.

SELF-DIFFERENTIATION

Selfish

Selfless

INDIVIDUALITY – TOGETHER CONCEPT

Selfish

Selfless

IN CONCLUSION

“CALLED TO A HIGHER STANDARD” Servant leaders are not motivated by attaining higher positions; but by serving people.

REFERENCES

• Gilbert, R. M. (2004). The Eight Concepts of Bowen Theory. Lake Frederick,VA: Leading Systems Press.

• Kerr, M. E. & Bowen M. (1988). Family Evaluation: An Approach Based on Bowen Theory.

New York: W. W, Norton & Company