# Homeostasis ## Short definition Homeostasis refers to the tendency of a system to maintain stability, balance or familiar patterns. In systemic therapy, homeostasis helps explain why families may return to old patterns even when those patterns are painful or no longer useful. ## Level [[LEVEL 2 — CONCEPTS]] ## Expanded definition Homeostasis is a systemic and cybernetic concept. It describes how systems maintain continuity and stability over time. In family therapy, this means that families often develop familiar ways of organising roles, emotions, boundaries, conflict, care, distance and closeness. These patterns may have once been protective or adaptive. However, they can become restrictive when the family needs to change. For example, a child may become the “peacemaker” in a family where conflict between adults feels unsafe. This role may help stabilise the family, but it may also place emotional burden on the child. Homeostasis does not mean that families never change. It means that systems often respond to change by trying to preserve what is familiar. ## Why this concept matters Homeostasis matters because it helps therapists understand why change can feel threatening. A family may consciously want a problem to improve, while unconsciously or relationally maintaining patterns that keep the system stable. This does not mean the family is choosing the problem. It means the problem may be connected to the system’s balance. Homeostasis helps the therapist ask what the current pattern is doing for the system, what it protects, and what might become unstable if change happens too quickly. ## Non-clinical example In a group of friends, one person is always the organiser. When they stop arranging everything, the group becomes confused and frustrated. Other people may complain or pressure them to take the role back. The group is trying to return to its familiar balance. ## Clinical example A young person’s distress may bring separated parents into more communication. Although everyone wants the young person to feel better, the symptom may also organise parental contact and shared concern. If the young person improves, unresolved parental distance or conflict may become more visible again. A systemic therapist may explore this carefully, without blaming the young person or the parents. ## Core insight Homeostasis helps practitioners ask: “What balance is being maintained?” A pattern may continue not because it is healthy, but because it keeps the system familiar, predictable or emotionally organised. ## Questions before a session - What familiar balance might the family be maintaining? - What roles help stabilise the system? - What might become unsettled if the presenting problem changed? - What does the current pattern protect people from facing? - How might change be introduced without overwhelming the system? ## Questions during a session - What usually brings things back to normal? - Who helps the family settle after conflict or distress? - What role does each person tend to take? - What happens when someone steps out of their usual role? - What would change in the family if the problem became less present? - What might feel risky about change? ## Questions after a session - Did I identify what the system is stabilising? - Did I avoid blaming the family for maintaining the pattern? - What roles or rules seem linked to homeostasis? - What small change might be tolerated by the system? - What might need to be supported if the old balance shifts? ## Related epistemologies [[Cybernetic epistemology]] [[Systems epistemology]] [[Systemic epistemology]] [[Structural epistemology]] [[Family systems epistemology]] ## Related schools and models [[Cybernetics]] [[Structural]] [[Strategic]] [[Milan]] [[Bowen]] [[Systemic Therapy]] ## Related concepts [[Feedback]] [[Feedback#Negative feedback|Negative feedback]] [[Feedback#Positive feedback|Positive feedback]] [[Circular causality]] [[Problem-maintaining sequence]] [[Family structure]] [[Roles]] [[Rules of the system]] [[Morphostasis]] [[Stability and change]] [[First-order change]] [[Second-order change]] ## Related methods [[Systemic formulation]] [[Family pattern exploration]] [[Systemic pattern tracking]] [[Feedback loop exploration]] [[Structural mapping]] [[Relational pattern assessment]] [[Problem-maintaining sequence exploration]] ## Related techniques [[Homeostasis questions]] [[Pattern questions]] [[Sequence questions]] [[Circular questioning]] [[Feedback loop questions]] [[Role questions]] [[Family structure questions]] ## Related pathways [[Cybernetics pathway]] [[Structural pathway]] [[Strategic pathway]] [[Bowen pathway]] [[Family and relational dynamics pathway]] ## Key theorists / contributors [[Gregory Bateson]] [[Norbert Wiener]] [[Don D. Jackson]] [[Paul Watzlawick]] [[Salvador Minuchin]] [[Murray Bowen]] [[Lynn Hoffman]] ## Key texts / references - Wiener, N. (1948). *Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine*. MIT Press. - Bateson, G. (1972). *Steps to an Ecology of Mind*. University of Chicago Press. - Jackson, D. D. (1957). The question of family homeostasis. *Psychiatric Quarterly Supplement, 31*, 79–90. - Watzlawick, P., Beavin Bavelas, J., & Jackson, D. D. (1967). *Pragmatics of Human Communication*. Norton. - Minuchin, S. (1974). *Families and Family Therapy*. Harvard University Press. - Hoffman, L. (1981). *Foundations of Family Therapy: A Conceptual Framework for Systems Change*. Basic Books. - Dallos, R., & Draper, R. (2015). *An Introduction to Family Therapy: Systemic Theory and Practice*. Open University Press. ## Notes / source material Homeostasis is useful, but it should be used carefully. It can sound as if families “want” to keep problems. A more careful systemic use is to ask how familiar patterns may stabilise the system, reduce uncertainty, organise roles or protect against greater anxiety.