Read the previous post before reading this one.
Every family has stress pop up somewhere, sometime. Often, it is common for the family to identify this stress in a "problem member" as an isolated incident or unit, but that person's problem is more reflective of the system.
When someone comes to see a counselor, this person can be called the "identified patient" who is often seen as the "sick one." In family systems thinking, this family member with the most obvious symptom is NOT to be seen not as the "sick one" but as the one in whom the family's stress has surfaced…
The family's stress can surface not just in a "troubled" member, but also a "superpositive" or "super-functioning" member, such as an strikingly high achiever, or an overly responsible child.
What do you think of this idea?
1 comment:
Hey Tracie -
I appreciate your writing about family systems - I think it is really helpful and really important. Even when you are seeing an individual - they will return to that system and that system has quite a bit of sway on them. You often see that when one changes it almost always requires that all change - and thus the resistance for people to get healthy is not just in the client but in the system as well. Thanks for writing - it is helpful to me as i have not read or worked formally with family systems stuff but every time i do it seems to resonate with what i seen in my own life and in the lives of others. BB
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