Your Environment

In a laboratory setting, scientists often study cells carefully to learn about their structure and functions and to identify when they are healthy and well or unhealthy and ailing. Gradually they learned the importance of looking at the cell’s environment first, rather than investigating the cell itself to determine a cause for its failure to thrive. The bottom line: in a healthy environment, the cells thrive. In an unhealthy and less-than-optimal environment, the cells falter. No doubt you have seen this in the lives of people, each with their 50 trillion cells like a huge condominium complex or an oceanic coral reef. Counselors sometimes refer to the child who is exhibiting unhealthy, dysfunctional behaviors as ‘the identified patient.’ If you spend your time trying to figure out what is wrong with the child, you may never identify the cause’ of the unhealthy, dysfunctional behaviors. If, on the other hand, you study the environment in which the child is living and identify the functionality or dysfunctionality of the family system (especially dynamics between the parents and other adults), a cause’ is often quite easy to identify. The child ‘looks like the patient’ but is often mirroring or acting out the dysfunctional family dynamics.