This week I learned about family system theories. One thing
that I thought was interesting was the work of Salvador Minuchin, a family
systems theorist. According to Salvador Minuchin a family is functional or dysfunctional
based upon it’s abilities to adapt to various stressors, which in turn, rests
upon the clarity and appropriateness of its subsystem boundaries. It is
important to have boundaries in a relationship because when we don’t have
boundaries or when we have diffuse boundaries our marriages and family
relationships become fragile. We did a little activity to demonstrate Minuchin’s
theory about a family and it’s abilities to adapt to stressors. We had about
five or six people stand in a circle and hold hands. Then they all leaned back
to sustain balance. Our Instructor then would walk around and put his hands on
one of their shoulders and pull back to show stress. When this happened the
others had to keep a tight grasp one each other’s hands and balance themselves
to compensate for the newly added stress. After doing this several times we
made some observations. As problems or ‘stressors’ arose within the family,
their bonds grew tighter. Sometimes when they were going through the process it
hurt, but it saved a family member from falling away. When they all leaned back
it showed that they were developing and strengthening trust in their family
members. We noticed that when problems arose other family members encouraged
each other saying things like, “Don’t worry we got you.” Their problems became
easier when they continued to make their bonds tighter. Sometimes the things
you do to fix things may hurt, but the benefits out way the costs. I believe
that it is important to do things that will strengthen our family bonds and
support our family members. As we do this our trust and love for each other
will grow and we will be able to experience greater happiness and joy in life.
Thanks for posting this Jessica! I appreciate your perspective on the family systems theory as relating to stressors. I thought it was interesting that you talked about the benefit of talking to others to show support for them during their struggles. I think that Heavenly Father does the same thing for us when we go through trials. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteI think that he is there for us and helps us through our struggles, but not only that he is always here for us no matter the condition our life may be in. Even though he knows everything that is going on in our life he still wants to hear from us because he loves us. Heavenly Father wants to always be there for us; we just have to invite him into our lives.
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