Posted by psycjw on April 11, 2005, at 14:08:08
In reply to Re: Williams: Guest expert on depression and anxiety, posted by Dena on April 11, 2005, at 10:40:32
just replying to your follow-up post - i guess that sometimes the perspective of family therapy can be helfpul. this emphasises that we all live in different "systems" of relationships. we often think of the most powerful relationships as being our own family one's - and as we all know some families are more supportive/honest/helpful than others. Churches can also provide sometimes exeptionally powerful relationships - and as with families can be helpful/positive or sometimes unhelpful. what is often true of systems is the idea of "homeostasis" which is the idea that we are generally in relationship with others in relationship systems that "work" at least to some extent - and we tend to maintain certain patterns of relationships and roles. these tend to stay the same unless something occurs to change it. a classic example is that when a child with anoreixa begins to put on weight, sometimes the relationship with the parents actually worsens - which might act to cause weight loss again (forgive me if anyone is in this situation - but its an oft quoted example and not always true). maybe its the same in churches. if soemone changes dramatically, there can be forces to "push" them back to how they were. which is a shame because if the change is positive that should be seen as "great- how can we help you?" it sounds as if your change upset the homeostasis around you - and others reacted at least in some way to push things back to how they were.
change can be painful --- and not just for the person making rhe changes!
bw
chris w
poster:psycjw
thread:482701
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faith/20050312/msgs/482869.html