Systems Family Therapy was developed by psychiatrist Murray Bowen in the 1950s. In this theory, change happens when looking at the whole family. Key terms with this approach to family therapy are homeostasis (maintaining the function of the family), feedback loops (negative – changes that do not get to the route of issues/maintains the current system and positive ones – getting to the heart of the issue/deeper change in the system), and circular causation which is a tool used by the therapist in questions how family members respond. The changes are gauged from first-order change which is a shallow change and second-order change which is a more permanent solution. Boundaries are also very important in the Systems Family Therapy, boundaries between self and external system and within the system, for example, boundaries between the parents and children.
