Family Systems Theory

Family Systems Overview
Karen L. Nelson
MFCC/556 Family Systems Theory
October 27, 2014
Peter Nazaretian

Family Systems Overview
Family Systems theory was a marked twist on the scientific idea of General systems theory. In General Systems theory, a breakthrough in science, it was deduced that an organism did not stand alone, rather was subject to other organisms that it interacted with and that it was multifaceted. This knowledge when applied to therapy brought for the idea of a holistic approach to allow for a better understanding when it came to the complexities of the evolving individual client. Therapists began to investigate how the interactions and relationships between family members affected the individual (Net Industries,
Feeling ill equipped for the clients and from her own experiences she began to develop her own, new approaches to therapy. Satir then began to teach those techniques and approaches, many are used readily today; two common techniues are sculpting and reframing. Satir is sometimes called the “Columbus of Family Therapy,” she developed the Satir Growth Model which helps support positive change in therapy. Satir believed that communication, emotional expression and warmth and acceptance were imperative to therapeutic process. She connected with families by finding the positives within the negative. She believed that family members were often so immersed in constricting family roles that they were held back from becoming all they could be, her goal was to teach them how to prosper in spite of those roles (Broderick, 1982)
Freud believed in that personalities were divided into sections, where Adler said that those parts were not divided, rather worked together as a whole (Placeholder2). This example is similar to the comparison of the individual client not being autonomous, rather a part of a family unit. While Freud would look at specific experiences of the individual and relate them to specific issues, Adler understood that you must take a holistic look at the person and how they are structured, even finding a fluid stream between the unconscious mind and conscious mind (Mitchell, 2014).
The traditional definition of family included a mom, dad and their offspring. It would often include family such as aunts, uncles and grandparents as well. The nuclear family in terms for therapy would include the two parents and the offspring. Today’s family has evolved to include not only adoption, but rather any person that is “considered” to be family. Often times a blood or non-blood person may live with or be woven into the family unit, they would not be dismissed, and they would be considered a member of the family in