How Healthy is Your Family?
According to Virginia Satir, an icon among family therapists and author of The New Peoplemaking (1988), the recipe for a healthy family consists of four ingredients:
Self-worth: in healthy families, self-worth is high; in dysfunctional families, it is low.
Communication: in healthy families, communication is “direct, clear, specific and honest”; in dysfunctional families, it is “indirect, vague and not really honest.”
Rules: in healthy families, rules are “flexible, human, appropriate, and subject to change”; in dysfunctional families, rules are “rigid, inhuman, nonnegotiable, and everlasting.”
Link to society: in healthy families, the link to society is “open and hopeful, and is based upon choice”; in dysfunctional families, they are “fearful, placating, and blaming.”