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Systemic Therapy - Coggle Diagram

- - - - The cornerstone of Satir's approach is self-esteem or self-worth. Self-esteem is defined as the degree to which the individual values himself regardless of the opinions of others. Loving the self is a precondition for loving others.
      - Low self-esteem is thought to be catching
      - One's level of self-esteem is a product of early family experience. However, people can learn self-esteem even as an adult if they are willing.
      - For Satir, self-esteem resides in the acknowledgement of the uniqueness and worth of each individual.
    - - Satir used the idea of a mandala to illustrate her view that the human essence has eight aspects: the body, thoughts, feelings, senses, relationships, context, nutrition, and soul. None of these parts function independently. Attention to each sphere is critical for individuals' health, both psychological and physiological.
    - - For Satir, the process and outcome of communication are critical to family life. We must be able to communicate with others to survive. Functional communication is clear, complete, and assertive. Congruent communication refers to communication in which verbal and nonverbal messages match. Metacommunication can affirm or disqualify a message and often conveys something about the relationship between interactants.
      - At the most basic level, a communication between two individuals is a request for validation of one by the other.
      - When individuals are stressed, they usually resort to one of four problematic patterns of communication, or survival stances/survival coping stances: placating, blaming, computing, and being irrelevant. In all cases, these stances are the product of low self-esteem and are attempts to cover up vulnerability. All of us usually can communicate in these modes, but we frequently have a preferred stance.
      - The healthy person operates from the stance of leveling. This person communicates coherently, and body, words, and vocal tone all fit together. Another term that Satir used for healthy communication is congruent. One who is congruent and who levels has high self-esteem and thus has no need to hide; communicate is free and honest.
    - - A triangle is any grouping of three family members or any three people. The mother-father-child triangle is the primary triad, and this relationship is the most important influence on an individual's life functioning. Children learn from the primary triad how to cope with the world, the nature of relationships (whether one can trust others) and how to understand communication.
      - Inconsistencies in communication (discrepancies between verbal and nonverbal channels) are inevitable in the family, and how children interpret these is an important form of early learning.
      - It is the nature of triangles that one person often feels excluded from the relationship of the other two. How the child interprets the occasional exclusion from the parental dyad is critical.
      - The child's ideas about personal power are also formed in relation to the primary triad. Parental interactions demonstrate power operations. Also, kids often learn that they can persuade one parent to take their side against the other parent.
      - The power of the triangle can be positive, too. Much support can be gained from the three-person configuration. If the three parties in the triad have good self-esteem, they can work together to use the resources in the relationships.
    - - The rules by which a family operates can be overt or covert. Many serious examples of covert rules are found in troubled families, such as when there is a rule not to speak of somebody's drinking.
      - Rules should be doable or, as Satir put it, "humanly possible".
      - Flexibility and age appropriateness are also important to family rules. As children grow, families must adjust the rules to match.
      - Rules should allow for diversity among members' ways of operating in the world and also should allow members to share information freely. Family secrets are a no-no in the Satir approach. Feelings and opinions should also be accepted, including the expression of intimacy and anger.