NLP and Systems Theory

[Obi Wan]

I'm a Psychology Major, needless to say my views on NLP and my lack of brain mouth filter, I say whatever comes to my head, gets me into a tad bit of trouble, now and again, especially with people who are so entrenced in the medical model, not the reason I'm posting though, but it's funny.

The reason I'm posting is because recently since September I've discovered Systems Theory, mostly Bowen Family Systems Theory and it's changed a lot of my perceptions on the world and my life which is perfect, Ten Million Dollars.

Any way, I'm looking to having an intellectual exchange with anyone that knows either general systems theory or Family System Theory and NLP. To discuss the implications of NLP within a Family Systems approach.

Family Systems says that everything that happens to us is systemic by product, this doesn't necessarily eliminate the element of choice or responsibility for actions, but it does say that changes have to happen systemically inorder for there to be lasting change.

My professor says that doing any type of therapeutic work with children is stupid and unnecessary

[Merlin]

Obi,

NLP does not directly address this issue.
But remember, Therapeutic NLP (as opposed to modeling) is based partially on Virginia Satir's family therapy model.

> My professor says that doing any type of therapeutic work with children is stupid and unnecessary

Children have real needs, whether the *cause* is parental in origin or not.
And you can often help the child find sufficient resources to overcome parental issues.
Finally, the child's mind can make mistakes in understanding.
For instance, the telly can seem quite real, and when viewed during imprint years can skew a child's understanding of parents, relationships, and understanding of the world.

[Obi Wan]

Satir comes out of General Systems theory, I fully have made that connection.

His point and I actually agree with it was that all "issues" are systemic in nature, so if you treat a child then because of their reliance on their family and their "issue" serving a systemic function that you may treat a "issue" then other "issues" may pop up in the family or in the sibiling subsystem or in the child. So if you're not treating systemically, you're not really making a lick of difference

[ksbirddog]

Bowen was big onusing genogams and looking up through the family heirarchy into your family of orgin to see what function the dysfuntion served. He believed in emotional triangles.
The problem with what your instructor said about children is this: Sometimes the family identifies the child as "the problem" which makes the child the identified patient.
If you want more infor on systems theory, log on to aamft.org

[Obi Wan]

thanks for the link I'm extremmely familar with that site. And that actually doesn't blow a hole in his arguement because if you're just working with an identified patient and not the whole system then according to Bowen and systems theory you aren't able to make change. So working with a child who is a product of the families dysfunction without working with the whole family, is useless.

Now this sounds to me like I've eliminated the choice element from this childs actions. And to this I say, "Ney" because if you don't recognize a pattern or if you're not a cause how can you act differently? If the family has unconsciously assigned you to a role for whatever reason then without working with the whole family you wouldn't be able to allow a child to make different choices. Because according to Bowen this problem would appear somewhere else in the system.