Bowen Therapy Melbourne- Natural Approach

1
Bowen Theory and Therapy

• Bowen is a remedial body technique that is
  extremely gentle and relaxing. It empowers the
  body's own healing resources to achieve balance
  and harmony.

2
The Breadth of a Bowenian Perspective

• Bowen theory is not about families, but about
  life.
• Bowen emphasized that humans have more in common
  "with other forms of protoplasm and that
  traditional social science to emphasize
  differences have increased our denial about
  what really makes us tick" (p. 135).
• The human animal is part of evolutionary
  emotional processes.

3
A Perspective of Universals

• Bowen theory emphasizes universal continua rather
  than discrete categories (i.e., nature/nurture,
  male/female, patient/therapist).
• Bowen theory embraces aspects of multiple social
  and behavioral sciences.
• The family is the unit of observation and
  treatment. Multigenerational forces can create
  symptoms at one of three locations
• the marital relationship
• the health of one of the marital partners
• children.
• Implications of a "universal" perspective
• diminishes the importance of becoming an "expert"
  in specific symptomatologies
• there are cross-cultural universal experiences.

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A Perspective of Universals

• Bowen theory emphasizes universal continua rather
  than discrete categories (i.e., nature/nurture,
  male/female, patient/therapist).
• Bowen theory embraces aspects of multiple social
  and behavioral sciences.
• The family is the unit of observation and
  treatment. Multigenerational forces can create
  symptoms at one of three locations
• the marital relationship
• the health of one of the marital partners
• children.
• Implications of a "universal" perspective
• diminishes the importance of becoming an "expert"
  in specific symptomatologies
• there are cross-cultural universal experiences.

5
The Emotional Being of the Therapist

• Differentiation of therapist is emphasized
  "Bowen has consistently maintained that it is
  hard for the patient to mature beyond the
  maturity level of the therapist, no matter how
  good his or her technique" (p. 138).
• Capacity to apply Bowenian theory is a function
  of the therapist's own differentiation.
• "Maintaining a non-anxious presence is
  connected to the being of the therapist, not to
  his or her know-how" (p. 138).
• Bowen and Kerr (1981) have suggested that
  learning Bowenian theory requires an emotional
  chance that is only possible by apprenticing with
  someone who is a "master" or a disciple of a
  "master".

6
Concepts in Bowen Theory

• Four Seminal Constructs
• Differentiation
• Emotional System
• Multigenerational Transmission
• Emotional Triangle
• These major constructs are interdependent.

7
Chronic Anxiety

• Anxiety is natural. It is an emotional and
  physical reactivity.
• Chronic anxiety is an "exaggeration of a basic
  rhythm of life the instinctual, nonthinking
  response necessary of wilderness survival as well
  as the habits required for playing a sport" (p.
  140).
• Anxiety is transmitted by families cumulatively
  and idiosyncratically.
• Chronic anxiety is considered to be the primary
  promoter of all symptoms.

8
Differentiation

• A "lifelong process of striving to keep one's
  being in balance through the reciprocal external
  and internal processes of definition and
  self-regulation" (p. 140).
• This refers to a process rather than a goal that
  can ever be achieved. It is a direction in life.
• Differentiation is not synonymous with
• individuation,
• autonomy,
• independence.
• Differentiation includes a connectedness to
  others.
• Differentiation is concerned with strength not
  pathology.

9
Emotional System

• Emotional system refers to any group of people
  (or collection of animals, for that matter) that
  have developed emotional interdependencies.
• The group has an organized structure.
• Family emotional system includes
• the members thoughts, feelings, emotions,
  fantasies, associations, and past connections
  (individual as well as group connections)
• the members physical makeup, genetic heritage,
  and current metabolic state
• each individual sibling position and parents'
  sibling positions
• the emotional history of the system itself.

10
Multigenerational Transmission

• This does not simply refer to the influence of
  the past. It is the "presence" of the past.
• Nature and degree of intensity of emotional
  responses are passed down from generation to
  generation.
• The distinction between generations is a false
  dichotomy because all generations are part of a
  continuous natural process.
• Family of origin work does not emphasize
  identifying relatives or even patterns of
  interactions. Rather, it is the process of
  connecting and re-connecting with the natural
  processes that go back generations.
• Self-differentiation is the process of getting in
  touch with intergenerational processes, to know
  them, to experience them, and to be emotionally
  affected by them.

11
Emotional Triangle(a/k/a "triangle")

• An emotional triangle is more complex than a
  triad.
• This refers to any three parts of an emotional
  system.
• It can include either three individuals or two
  individuals and an issue.
• Rules that govern emotional processes
• One person cannot change the relationship between
  two others or between another person and her or
  his habit.
• The more you try to relationship of another, the
  more likely it is that you will reinforce the
  aspects of the relationship that you want to
  change.

12
Emotional Triangle(cont.)

• Clinical Implications
• If a clinician is recruited into a triangle with
  a couple and is able to refrain from
  overfunctioning or emotionally reactive, the
  clinician can help facilitate change that would
  not be possible if the two had the same
  conversation alone.
• A clinician inducted into a triangle is likely to
  experience the stress of the couple. This is
  positional and should be expected.
• Clinical focus is on phenomenology rather than
  interpretation of other's motivation.

13
Bowen Therapy

• Objectivity
• Objectivity does not refer to an
  intellectual/cerebral process. It is an
  emotional phenomenon.
• This refers to a clear headedness that is a
  prodict of differentiation.
• All procedures to maintain objectivity
  (differentiation) will help promote change.
• Procedures to foster an objective state
• mischievous, paradoxical responses
• avoiding interpretations
• diagramming
• telling (disguised) stories about other clients
  as projective techniques
• make clear one's own positions
• ask questions (this is considered the major
  "intervention" in Bowenian therapy).

14
Bowen Therapy(cont.)

• Proximity and Protoplasm
• Lack of differentiation can be destructive.
• Major problem of families not to get them closer
  but enable them to be clearer about where they
  end and others in their life begin.
• Therapeutic goal encourage self-differentiation
  of individual members.
• Healing is a Self-Regenerative Phenomenon
• A Natural Systems View of Pathology
• Inability to differentiate self from others
  causes problems.
• Inability to regulate self prevents maturity.
• Problems that persist continue because others
  tolerate them.

15
Bowen Therapy(cont.)

• A Natural Systems View of Healing
• Health is natural.
• Therapeutic processes
• reduce chronic anxiety than inhibits healing by
  being a well-differentiated, nonanxious presence
• stimulate the clients own resources.

16
Bowen Therapy(cont.)

• Therapy Process
• Longevity in therapeutic contact promotes deeper
  involvement with multigenerational processes.
• Change is not equated with symptom relief or
  feeling better but with an increase in
  differentiation level of the family.
• Frequency of sessions is less important than time
  in therapy (over time, clients may have longer
  time between sessions). Increased time between
  sessions may reduce dependency.
• Time frame for evaluating change
• Bowen suggested that it takes four years to help
  a family so that multigenerational patterns will
  not automatically continue to the next generation
  -- an four years is not a guarantee.
• Two criteria for evaluating fundamental change in
  a family
• Change associated with one's own family of origin
  that also influences the nuclear family is likely
  to be "fundamental" change.
• Change associated with adapting to a symptom or
  symptom bearer is unlikely to last.

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