Growing Yourself Up
To be human is to be in relationships. We can’t survive without them but it’s in relationships that we can so easily get unravelled. Some relationships just seem to do us in. Either we feel like we lose ourselves or feel burnt out from futile efforts to make things right for another. In our relationships we can experience the very best of ourselves and the very worst.
The message of Growing Yourself Up is that you can’t separate understanding the individual from understanding relationships. All of life’s relationships are integral to increasing self-awareness and maturity. And it’s not necessarily the comfortable relationships that promote personal growth. In this 2nd edition of the bestselling book, Jenny examines how to help others without fostering dependency, and how to determine what kind of help you or others want from therapists. This is in response to the many lay and professional people who have found this book valuable personally and want to know how to help others grow.
Drawing from Bowen family systems theory, the book takes you on a journey through each stage of life to see predictable patterns of relationships and to show how to use this knowledge to make purposeful adjustments in yourself; as well as lending a mature helping hand to others. The result is a sturdier self, sturdier relationships and a refreshing new way to view life’s challenges and opportunities.
Jenny Brown is the founder and executive director of the Family Systems Institute and the Family Systems Practice in Sydney, Australia, where she has a counselling practice and trains mental health professionals and organizations. Jenny has a Ph.D. in Social Science from the University of New South Wales. She has trained and earned academic awards at the University of Sydney and Columbia University, New York. Additionally, Jenny has completed many years of postgraduate education in systems approaches to counselling at Relationships Australia, Sydney; the Family Institute of Westchester, New York; and the Tavistock and Portman in London. Jenny lives in Sydney with her husband (and cocker spaniel) and enjoys the richness of her important relationships, in particular as a wife, mother to adult children and grandmother.