What Is Bowenian Family Therapy?

Bowen created this approach to therapy aimed at fosteringhealthy communicationbetween family members, breaking toxic or harmful patterns, and developing healthy differentiation and autonomy among each individual within the family unit. Bowenian family therapy uses an intergenerational lens to identify these patterns and communication techniques to promote healthy boundaries and relationships within the family.

Types of Bowenian Family Therapy

As the name implies, Bowenian family therapy typically involves multiple family members working together to address family conflicts and improve relationships within the family unit.

Family therapy can includecouple’s work, parent and child relationship work, work withblended families, or work with multiple generations of a family.

However, a Bowenian therapist can also work with individuals. Individualtalk therapycan include an emphasis on identifying intergenerational conflicts and patterns, setting appropriate boundaries and differentiation between the individual and their family members, and communication skills. If an individual wants to work on these issues and including additional family members is not possible, they can still benefit from techniques of Bowenian family therapy.

What Is Strategic Family Therapy?

Techniques of Bowenian Family Therapy

Practitioners of Bowenian family therapy have several interventions that are specific to this approach to treatment, including:

What Bowenian Family Therapy Can Help With

Bowenian family therapy can help families who are experiencing conflict or communication difficulties. It can also help individuals experiencinganxietyandstress. It is particularly helpful if you want to address the impact of previous generations and current family dynamics on your mental health and current symptoms.

Couples can also benefit from Bowenian family therapy when working to identify how each person’s family history informs their approach to communication and conflict resolution.

Benefits of Bowenian Family Therapy

Because Bowenian family therapy emphasizes healthy communication skills and conflict resolution, participating in this type of therapy can help fosterhealthy relationshipsand appropriateboundaries. Clients developinsightinto their behaviors and develop a deeper understanding of why they make the choices they make, the impact of these choices on their relationships, and how to make healthy and lasting changes.

Finally, each family member learns a healthy balance between connectedness and personal identity within the family unit.

Effectiveness of Bowenian Family Therapy

There is limited empirical evidence for Bowenian family therapy at this time. However, the Bowenian technique of self-differentiation can be effective in alleviating anxiety symptoms.In addition, a meta-review of 295 primary studies showed that Bowenian family therapy’s emphasis on differentiation of self improved interpersonal and marital relationships.In couple’s therapy, Bowenian family therapy can improve feelings of happiness andempathybetween partners due to improved communication skills and increased understanding of both the self and the other.

Additionally, research has shown that Bowenian family therapy can aid infamily reunificationwhen child protection has been involved,as parents can learn to identify abusive patterns in their family genogram and work to break these patterns.

Things to Consider

Because Bowenian family therapy can be used individually, with couples, or with a larger family unit, it is an option for many people seeking therapy support. Clients need to be prepared to put in the work to practice making changes to communication styles and boundaries, especially if other family members are not directly involved in treatment.

Disrupting long-standing patterns is stressful and challenging even if it is beneficial in the long run.

Additionally, this approach includes exploring transgenerational patterns and behaviors, and as such, it may bring upintergenerational trauma. Prior to starting treatment, clients should be prepared for this possibility and havecoping skillsin place to address difficult emotions that might come up over the course of treatment.

As with all forms of therapy, Bowenian family therapy is not a “magic pill” that will suddenly fix problems. It takes significant client engagement and willingness to make needed changes.

How to Get Started

If Bowenian family therapy seems to be a good fit for your therapy goals and mental health needs, you can beginlooking for therapistswho offer this approach. You could look into online therapy companies to see if anyone offers Bowenian family therapy, or you could use an online therapy directory to search for this modality specifically. Many therapists will note that they are trained in Bowenian family therapy on their directory profiles.

If you feel like current family dynamics and intergenerational patterns are impacting your mental health and family relationships, Bowenian family therapy might help you address these concerns in a healthy way.

How to Find a Therapist

4 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Thomas R, Shelley-Tremblay J, Joanning H.Anxiety explains self-differentiation: implications for Bowenian approaches to marriage and family therapy.The American Journal of Family Therapy. 2021;49(5):534-549.Calatrava M, Martins MV, Schweer-Collins M, Duch-Ceballos C, Rodríguez-González M.Differentiation of self: A scoping review of Bowen Family Systems Theory’s core construct.Clin Psychol Rev. 2022 Feb;91:102101. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2021.102101. Epub 2021 Nov 13. PMID: 34823190.Amini, O., Naser Shariati, M.The Effectiveness of Bowen’s style Family Therapy on Increasing the Happiness and Empathy marital of Couples Referring to Isfahan Counseling Center.Journal of Human Relations Studies. 2021;1(3), 23-31.Thompson HM, Wojciak AS, Cooley ME.Family-based approach to the child welfare system: an integration of Bowen family theory concepts.Journal of Family Social Work. 2019;22(3):231-252.

4 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Thomas R, Shelley-Tremblay J, Joanning H.Anxiety explains self-differentiation: implications for Bowenian approaches to marriage and family therapy.The American Journal of Family Therapy. 2021;49(5):534-549.Calatrava M, Martins MV, Schweer-Collins M, Duch-Ceballos C, Rodríguez-González M.Differentiation of self: A scoping review of Bowen Family Systems Theory’s core construct.Clin Psychol Rev. 2022 Feb;91:102101. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2021.102101. Epub 2021 Nov 13. PMID: 34823190.Amini, O., Naser Shariati, M.The Effectiveness of Bowen’s style Family Therapy on Increasing the Happiness and Empathy marital of Couples Referring to Isfahan Counseling Center.Journal of Human Relations Studies. 2021;1(3), 23-31.Thompson HM, Wojciak AS, Cooley ME.Family-based approach to the child welfare system: an integration of Bowen family theory concepts.Journal of Family Social Work. 2019;22(3):231-252.

Thomas R, Shelley-Tremblay J, Joanning H.Anxiety explains self-differentiation: implications for Bowenian approaches to marriage and family therapy.The American Journal of Family Therapy. 2021;49(5):534-549.Calatrava M, Martins MV, Schweer-Collins M, Duch-Ceballos C, Rodríguez-González M.Differentiation of self: A scoping review of Bowen Family Systems Theory’s core construct.Clin Psychol Rev. 2022 Feb;91:102101. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2021.102101. Epub 2021 Nov 13. PMID: 34823190.Amini, O., Naser Shariati, M.The Effectiveness of Bowen’s style Family Therapy on Increasing the Happiness and Empathy marital of Couples Referring to Isfahan Counseling Center.Journal of Human Relations Studies. 2021;1(3), 23-31.Thompson HM, Wojciak AS, Cooley ME.Family-based approach to the child welfare system: an integration of Bowen family theory concepts.Journal of Family Social Work. 2019;22(3):231-252.

Calatrava M, Martins MV, Schweer-Collins M, Duch-Ceballos C, Rodríguez-González M.Differentiation of self: A scoping review of Bowen Family Systems Theory’s core construct.Clin Psychol Rev. 2022 Feb;91:102101. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2021.102101. Epub 2021 Nov 13. PMID: 34823190.

Amini, O., Naser Shariati, M.The Effectiveness of Bowen’s style Family Therapy on Increasing the Happiness and Empathy marital of Couples Referring to Isfahan Counseling Center.Journal of Human Relations Studies. 2021;1(3), 23-31.

Thompson HM, Wojciak AS, Cooley ME.Family-based approach to the child welfare system: an integration of Bowen family theory concepts.Journal of Family Social Work. 2019;22(3):231-252.

Hannah Owens, LMSW

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