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Schools and Movements

Family Systems Therapy

Community Psychology

Family systems therapy, also called Bowenian family therapy, is an approach to psychotherapy developed chiefly by Murray Bowen, one of a number of American clinicians who began observing and treating whole families together starting in the 1940s and early 1950s, alongside the 1942 founding of the American Association of Marriage Counselors. It treats the family, not the individual, as the unit of treatment, holding that a person's symptoms and functioning are best understood as products of emotional patterns and differentiation within the family system across generations, rather than as an isolated individual disorder. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Central Question
Is a person's psychological functioning and symptoms best explained as a product of emotional patterns within their family system across generations, rather than as an isolated individual disorder? 1
Founded Year
1950 1
Connections

Associated With

Source Wikipedia: Structural family therapy

Family systems therapy applies general systems thinking to the family unit.

Source Wikipedia: Family Therapy

In Branch

Sources
1. Wikipedia: Family Therapy
Wikimedia FoundationHistory and theoretical frameworks section
Quote, History and theoretical frameworks section
The formal development of family therapy dates from the 1940s and early 1950s with the founding in 1942 of the American Association of Marriage Counselors.
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Wikipedia: Structural family therapy
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Structural Family Therapy, Wikipedia, Structural family therapy, See also section
Quote, Associated With: Structural Family Therapy, Wikipedia, Structural family therapy, See also section
Family systems therapy
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