Bowen's Transgenerational Model

Observations of appearance and behavior
J. is of a normal weight and height for her age, she is 5’3 for 130lbs. Since she checked in, J. is not wearing any type of make up. Her hair is clean; she had died it in the past in a red tone. She does not blow dry it. J. has long artificial nails that she likes to play with during session having them click together. Her nail polish is well taken care of. As per the Women’s Home policy, J. is wearing business casual outfits. Her outfit is neat and free of wear and tear. J. is always wearing a pair of trousers. J.’s style is not as feminine as some others resident, but is appropriate for her age and for the season. J.’s like to wear colorful t-shirts with motifs.
J.’s affect in session or in group is
The transgenerational model is a family therapy approach created by Murray Bowen. Bowen saw the family as an emotional unit with network of interlocking relationships. Bowen thought that therapist need to current family patterns that are embedded in resolved issues in the family of origin. When problems remain unsettled, they persist and repeat across generations. For this case even though I am not doing family therapy, I believe that there are problems that ae transgenerational the first one being J.’s addiction. In this theory there are eight interlocking theoretical concepts: differenciation of self, triangles, nuclear family emotional system, family projection process, emotional cutoff, multigenerational transmission process, sibling position, and societal regression. I see the differenciation of self as an important part here. It sounds as if she is sacrificing her individuality to please others such as her husband, maybe her mother and/or father growing up. The differenciation can also be seen with the family of her husband. J. mentioned that she would like to give access to her mother in law to her progress at the Women’s Home. I think she wants to please her mother in law in order to have access to her children. She has poor boundaries. She stated that she feels rejected by her mother in law even though she has been caring for her and had done every effort to fit in her standards. In our first session, J. talked a lot about her parents in law because they are currently taking care of two of her children. Through what she said I notice a triangulation between her mother in law, her husband and herself. I am not sure who is the identified patient. Regarding the nuclear family emotional system, Bowen thought that people choose mates with a level of differenciation equivalent to their own and that they will produce a family with the same characteristic. I can sense