Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T01:11:05.882Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Self-Soothing — A Recursive Intrapsychic and Relational Process: The Contribution of the Bowen Theory to the Process of Self-Soothing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2012

Joanne Wright*
Affiliation:
The Family Systems Institute, Sydney, [email protected]
*
*Address for correspondence: Joanne Wright, The Family Systems Institute, 30 Grosvenor St, Neutral Bay NSW 2089, Australia.
Get access

Abstract

The concept of self-soothing originating in the psychodynamic tradition has attracted interest from therapists as a key skill in the managing and regulating of strong affect and emotional discomfort. While a capacity for self-soothing is implicit in, and a vital prerequisite to, the process of differentiation, Murray Bowen also predicted that the outcome of increased differentiation is improved emotional equilibrium and a capacity for self-soothing, clearly a recursive process. The attention of Bowen family systems theory to both the relational and intrapsychic aspects of human functioning provides a useful framework through which to explore these aspects of the dynamics of self-soothing. This article describes some of the key processes involved in developing a self-soothing capacity within an effort to define a more autonomous self in significant relationships. The author contrasts Family Systems thinking with other theoretical perspectives that speak to the importance of self-soothing. Finally, the role of the therapist as a facilitator of an environment in which the self-soothing resources of clients can emerge is considered alongside suggestions and strategies for how a therapist may contribute to a client's own efforts.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)