How to Coach Yourself and Others Coaching Families | Page 179

IV/ FAMILY SYSTEM STRATEGIES
A family operates like a system in that each member's role contributes to the patterns of behaviour that
make the system what it is. Certain therapy techniques are designed to reveal the patterns that make a family
function the way it does.
ASKING PROCESS QUESTIONS.
The most common Bowen technique consists of asking process questions that are designed to get clients to
think about the role they play in relating with members of their family. Bowen's style tended to be
controlled, somewhat detached, and cerebral. In working with a couple, for example, he expected each
partner to talk to him rather than to talk directly to each other in the session. His calm style of questioning
was aimed at helping each partner think about particular issues that are problematic with their family of
origin. One goal is to resolve the fusion that may exist between the partners and to maximize each person's
self-differentiation both from the family of origin and the nuclear family system.
A Bowen therapist is more concerned with managing his or her own neutrality than with having the "right"
question at the rig