#17 Dr. Michael Kerr on How Anxiety Affects Family Systems and What to Do About It

Dr. Michael Kerr succeeded Dr. Murray Bowen as Director of the Georgetown Family Center and served in that role until 2010. Dr. Kerr co-authored with Dr. Bowen the seminal book Family Evaluation: An Approach Based on Bowen Theory. Dr. Kerr’s new book, Bowen Theory’s Secrets: Revealing the Hidden Life of Families, was released in February 2019. Dr. Kerr was also the founding editor of Family Systems: A Journal of Natural Systems Thinking in Psychiatry and the Sciences. Dr. Kerr is now the Director of the Bowen Theory Academy in Islesboro, Maine.

Family System Therapy  uses systems theory to describe the family as a complex emotional unit where members are intricately and intensely interconnected. FST looks through the lens of system theory where each family member is emotionally and behaviorally connected through complex interactions. In FST, “Families so profoundly affect their members’ thoughts, feelings, and actions that it often seems as if people are living under the same ‘emotional skin.’” Family members react to one another in both behavior and emotions. If there is a change in one person, there will most likely be reciprocal changes in other family members. Family members who “absorb” the anxiety of others are vulnerable to depression, alcoholism, affairs, and physical illnesses.

Family Systems Therapy on Twitter: @thebowencenter

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Disclaimer: The information shared in this podcast is not a substitute for getting help from a mental health professional.