Multigenerational Family Systems Theory (Bowen) aka Extended Family Therapy

• Educator
• Help clients separate thoughts from feelings

• Genogram
• Bibliotherapy and psychoeducation
• Journal (ex. Expectations vs Actual experience)

Uses a genogram to explore family patterns from previous generations and to look for insight about the family's current difficulty adapting to change

Tension between parents draws in a 3rd party to reduce that tension and attempts to stabilize the system

Seen as a strategy to differentiate, to remove oneself from the discomfort of emotional fusion

• Inability to say what one needs or who one is
• Inability to withstand emotional pressure in a family
• Failure to differentiate between feelings and cognition results in a failure to differentiate
• Aka undifferentiated family ego mass