Erika (Swensen) Powell

                I had a lot of trouble thinking of what I wanted to talk about this week. The majority of this week we discussed different concepts in a family. For example, the idea of circular causality. Circular causality is the idea that person A will do something because person B did something. While the only reason person B reacted, that way was because of what Person A did. It’s basically a cycle of blame or reason behind behavior.   It can be positive, but most of the time it seems a cause of negative behavior. Other things we talked about were different types of boundaries that are set withing a family. Or the different rules and roles that are usually silent in family systems.                 Something we spent a lot of time talking about that I wanted to share was about boundaries. There were three different types of boundaries that we talked about closed, open, and clear. Closed boundaries are when there is no discussion or really contact with anyone outside of the syst

  "...Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets. We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society." - TheFamily: A Proclamation to the World What an introduction to this course. This week in my family relations class we studied and discussed different trends related to the family. For example, I studied some research that impacted individuals’ decisions on the size of their future family. Why would that be significant though? To each their own if they want to have children, and who am I to tell someone they should have more than one child. However, I have always believed that the family is ordained of God. This teaching is found in The Family: a Proclamation to the World . This proclamation also teaches that, “The F

Hello!  My name is Erika Powell. (my school records are still currently Erika Swensen, but I'm so close to being able to change that) The primary purpose of this blog is to share my thoughts and insights from a course I am currently taking at Brigham Young University Idaho, Family Relations. Although I have this blog only because of my grade (..just being honest.) I am really excited to have a place with some of my takeaways and my own insights about this course. A little bit about me, I grew up in Utah. Yes, the Utah bubble and I loved it. I am the oldest in a family of five, just my wonderful parents and my sweet two younger sisters. I have been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints my whole life. I also served a volunteer religious mission for eighteen months. I served in northern California, in the Roseville mission. I loved my mission with all my heart. I learned so much and and grew so close to my Heavenly Father, and my Savior Jesus Christ. I al