Family of Origin Issues
Introduction
Coming to terms with the past is an important part of accommodating to the future. If you have the desire to learn more about your family origin and understand what may have caused an interruption in generational patterns, you'll benefit from learning how to separate yourself from a learned behavior that is causing entropy. Therapy helps to identify family dynamics and look at what may be causing your current behavior patterns.
Addressing family of origin issues aims toward increasing awareness and helping you answer unresolved questions. On occasion, there is learned behavior from the past that plays out in external relationships. When we become aware of these behavioral patterns we'll benefit from understanding how they may have shaped our current perception. As you work with a counselor you'll identify your own behavior and how family origin may have shaped your ability to respond. By focusing on these issues you'll shed light on patterns that you were unaware of and learn how to counteract a response that you feel is causing discord.
Challenges Faced by Family of Origin Issues
If your family faced internal issues it has the potential to change how you build relationships and respond to people you care about. You may have adopted some behaviors that are now shaping the way that you make decisions. Some of these patterns might be destructive and feel difficult to improve. As an individual you deserve a clear understanding of what may have caused this and how you can go about changing this automatic thought process. There are some who deal with attitude gaps as a result of family conflict without knowing that it is present. You may not have witnessed this resolution which makes it much more difficult to understand a current behavior. By taking the time to explore your family origin, you have the opportunity to clarify how the past relates to current disputes.
How Family or Origin Issues Affects Other Relationships
Determining whether or not you adopted family patterns takes support from someone who can help you identify behavior. If your family origin was dysfunctional, you might have a hard time adjusting to new relationships. Learning how to accommodate to others can feel difficult if you don't know how to respond in a neutral manner. In relationships and marriages there are a lot of differences that require adjustment. While you are likely to argue with people outside of your family, how you reply and consider the other person can be a symptom of what you learned from your own.
In an effort to act objectively, you have the opportunity to understand your family and develop new coping strategies that work constructively. By making the choice to observe how you act, you'll gain clarification toward why you respond in a given manner. As you work with a counselor you will talk about family dynamics, feelings that have been repressed and patterns that you do not want to reciprocate. When you gain the tools that you need to act indifferently, you'll learn how to leave these responses in the past and enforce new ones that are contributive toward your personal needs.
How Therapy Can Help
A lot of us carry unfinished business as we grow and move away from our families. Some emotional fusion that is impeding our ability to function within a new dynamic can make us feel stuck with a behavior that causes more dysfunction than adaptation. Therapy will help you by formulating your family origin and make sense of how it may have molded current functions. Regardless of whether or not you came from a conflicting or functional family, you have the opportunity to find a new behavior so that it is more contributive toward what you desire. Accepting family influences can be difficult, especially if we feel that it is disrupting family loyalty. Addressing this concept can make some feel as if they are being unappreciative of where they came from. Therapy can help you realize that at times there are negative messages and unreal expectations from your past that cause external discontentedness. You'll benefit from seeking outside support as you learn how past relationships have made it difficult to adapt and learn how to respond to others with an open mind. Therapy will allow you to understand your family dynamics and look at how a pattern of behavior may have molded you into someone who is having difficulty finding structure in new affiliations. Reflecting back on problems within your family can help create awareness toward your own communication style. This clarity will help you build healthier bonds and increase compassion toward others so that you can maintain composition. If you choose to work with a counselor you'll learn about the importance of flexibility and how to respond autonomously toward people who think differently than you.
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