Case Study Of Bowen's Family Therapy

As Vilma was Brazilian (European, Indigenous and African mixture, with very light skin) and much of her family still resided there (she emigrated with her husband and child 27 years before), she was the primary source for much of the information in her genogram. She did not resist as many of the psychologist’s clients did. There was not much of her extended family in the country and Graçinha had made her aware of the trauma suffered by the matriarchs of the family, her mother and grandmother before her. What Vilma did not realize was the role her migration would play and the disruption it would cause in her social niche. The people and loved ones she relied on the most would not be a bus ride away (McGoldrick & Hardy, 2008). The psychologist

By increasing her self-focus, and supporting Vilma through accepting her decisions I believe Bowen would try to decrease the anxiety Vilma feels over now coming out as a bisexual woman to her father, a man to whom her husband shared traits. I also believe that Bowen would work towards breaking down the triangulation that may exist between Vilma’s ex and their daughter and herself, the source of Cristina’s dislike of her father. He lacked the ability to find and solve his own problems, so instead he would bring them home and blame either his wife or child for his own shortcomings. Although Ronaldo, Vilma’s ex, no longer shares a living space, the triangle still exists because it plays out in the workplace, when he would visit their home and even on the phone. Their daughter and the decisions she made with her life were constantly brought up as issues of contention because, as he would complain, it was not the route he would have chosen for her. This could also be described as a multigenerational transmission process (Bray & Stanton, 2009). By coaching Vilma to understand her process and the structure of the various families she a part of as well as requesting that she take the steering wheel in her decision-making Bowen’s technique would allow for increased differentiation, a primary goal for this