Making Healthy Families:

an on-line seminar in
Promoting Healthy Family Relationships

created by Gayle Peterson, including
Excerpts from Making Healthy Families

Seminar Outline

Purpose of Family: to provide a container to effectively nurture the growth and development of each of its members throughout the life cycle.

Cultural variations and values abound, yet the elements for healthy development in all families, whatever their makeup revolves around the balance between individuality and a sense of belonging. The vision for carrying out the purpose of “family” is ever-changing with the needs of its growing members.

Family researchers have identified two key factors in family health. The quality of our family relationships and healthy family processes are crucial to balancing our needs for both freedom and dependency, in order to create an atmosphere that supports development, rather than hinders it.

Our family’s “atmosphere” is our garden, and greatly influences our personal growth and happiness. Yet, most of us create our family patterns unconsciously. This leaves us vulnerable to repeating the good and bad experiences of childhood with little discrimination.

This family seminar puts leading edge research at your fingertips! Utilizing the information and exercises provided, you can create the kind of family you want to have. The goal is to increase both the quality of your family relationships and to identify and engage in family processes that promote healthy relationships.

What you will learn:

OUR FAMILY BLUEPRINTS Where do we come from?

Start Here for first article:

Developing Your Family Style

Exercise: Identifying your family style and patterns of connection

Worksheet: What is your family atmosphere?

Tip sheet: Five Dimensions of Family Health

You will explore the family styles learned in childhood and their impact on family relationship and processes in your present nuclear family. A tip sheet on the “Five Dimensions of Family Health” will guide you towards envisioning the elements that promote healthy relationships in your family. The worksheet will help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your nuclear family on each of these dimensions.

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?

What is the health of your family?

Characteristics of Healthy Family Relationships

Exercises: Seven characteristics that promote healthy family relationships

Tip sheet: Seven Characteristics that promote healthy families

The reading and exercises will guide you towards developing the kind of family relationships you want.

FAMILY PROCESSES THAT PROMOTE HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS

Having a Family Meeting: purpose, goals and guidelines

Tip sheets: Ten processes for Promoting Healthy Family Relationships

The reading will guide you in having your own family meeting to gather information and feedback from all family members, if your children are 5 years of age or older. (You may adapt this to younger children, if you wish, but in shortened form). Or you may develop your awareness of family process with a meeting with your spouse or through journaling your own vision of the kind of family you want to create.

You will explore and identify what you like and want more of in your family experience, what you want to lessen or eliminate and what changes or developments you would like to see happen in your family in the future. The main purpose of the family meeting will be to “seed” your family with the processes that promote healthy family relationships.

Enjoy your experience in MAKING HEALTHY FAMILIES