Hello, I am a marital therapist, communications trainer and author. I have thirty-five years helping couples and individuals make better relationships. I have written twenty-plus self-help books which include the international best-sellers ‘I love you but I’m not in love with you’ and ‘How can I ever trust you again?’ My books have been translated into twenty languages. I trained with RELATE the UK’s largest counselling charity. Perhaps it has been turning sixty but I have become interested in spiritual as well as psychological questions. Who am I? What are my values – as opposed to my parents, my teachers and the wider society? What makes my life meaningful? What do I believe about life, the universe and everything? Although my clients might come to me because of destructive arguments, falling out of love and infidelity, they are also interested in having more meaningful relationships and a more meaningful life. So what is the meaningful life? Why do we so easily lose our way and get lost in depression, anxiety, doubt, addictions and obsessions: the swamplands of the soul? One thing I know for sure is that there is not one answer...
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episode 154: Elaine Carney Gibson: Family Systems Theory: How do the Rules Growing Up Still Impact You Today?
When families enter family therapy, they usually point to one person as the “problem” - this individual is seen as too much, or too angry, or too sensitive.
Family systems theory, however, looks at the whole family ecosystem to identify how this “problem” is being created, and whether it is in fact a symptom rather than a cause.
This week Andrew talks with psychotherapist Elaine Carney Gibson about family systems theory, and how “it is the relationships we experience within our families that shape who we are, how we feel about ourselves, and how we attach and relate to others”.
Elaine Carney Gibson, LMFT, LPC, is a practicing psychotherapist of 50 years. She sees individuals, couples, and families, specialising in Relationship Therapy. She taught graduate courses in marriage and family therapy for many years and is the director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Training Institute of The Link Counseling Center in Atlanta, Georgia.
Subscriber Content This Week
If you’re a subscriber to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Patreon), this week you’ll be hearing:
⭐️Family Secrets: To tell or not to tell?
⭐️Three things Elaine Carney Gibson knows to be true.
⭐️AND subscribers also access all of our previous bonus content - a rich trove of insight on love, life and meaning created by Andrew and his interviewees.
Follow Up
Read Andrew’s new Substack newsletter The Meaningful Life, and join the community there.
Read Elaine Carney Gibson’s book Your Family Revealed .
Visit Elaine Carney Gibson’s website
You might also be interested in hearing Galit Atlas talking with Andrew about Buried Trauma: How the Past Can Unconsciously Trap You or with Julia Samuel MBE about How We Inherit Pain from Our Parents and Grandparents.
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Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall