I just need someone to proof read my Bowen's analysis for this background to know if I am on the right track, and if there is any comment or suggestion

Background

My family consists of four members, my father "Hany", my mother "Maha," my sister "Diana" and myself "Marian," the index person. My parents lived in Saudi Arabia for ten years right after they got married. I was born in Saudi Arabia and lived there for five years before moving to Egypt. We are an Egyptian Christian Orthodox family who adheres to customs and traditions. I was raised in my Christian family, who insisted on attending a Christian school that was managed by nuns, as they believed it was the best option for us and for our family's religious values. Our religion and practices were important and strict in my childhood, it was essential for my family to attend the liturgy every Sunday morning. As an adult, I completed my bachelor's degree in business administration, then I did a career shift to work as an esthetician, and now I am completing my master's degree to become a counsellor.

My mother is a pharmacist, she worked in that field while she was in Saudi Arabia, then she switched careers to become a hair removal technician when we arrived in Egypt. My father is a Doctor of Physical Medicine and rehabilitation, and till now he is in the same field. After coming back from Saudi Arabia to Egypt, my mother and father shared a clinic, part of it a beauty center and the other part is a clinic for my father's field of physical medicine practice. When we arrived in Egypt, we went through some hard times till they both could run their own business, but it did not take that long, and they did their best to not let us feel the financial stress. They tried to make the business grow fast by spending much time working, and during that time, they were absent from home most of the time. They were trying to get better financially, and they did not care at all about having a good and healthy relationship with each other, and it was not easy to express our thoughts or emotions. Thus, they were emotionally absent, and my mother was trying to control everything all the time, even our emotions. Furthermore, I grew up seeing my parent's complicated relationship, they had conflicts, and my mother complained most of the time.

My grandparents from my mother's and father's sides had a common issue that my both grandmothers were forced to marry my grandfathers while they were teenagers, and their relationships were toxic; they caused emotional abuse to the families, which negatively affected my parents.

My grandparents from my father's side had a role in my childhood, as they were both math teachers and helped us in our studies during our school years; it was not an option in our family. Every grandchild should have math lessons with them, and they were tough and strict with their children and us as grandchildren. I think this affected my father as he was not sure how to be a good father model, and it affected us as grandchildren as we did not have a healthy relationship with them. Furthermore, there is a tradition in the family that we must have a lunch gathering every Thursday, and it was mandatory, and there were no excuses not to join it. My grandfather died while I was at the university.

My grandfather from my mother's side died the same year I was born. My grandmother had a role during my childhood, as she stayed with us for extended periods of times while my parents were absent and busy with their business. I had a good relationship with my grandmother, and my sister and I had a tradition of sleeping over every Thursday night. In the end, I can say there was no healthy family relationship in these generations.

Analysis

Murray Bowen's family systems theory was one of the first comprehensive theories of family systems functioning (Bowen, 1966, 1978, Kerr and Bowen, 1988, as cited in Brown, 1999). In this part of the paper, I will analyze my family across three generations through the lens of Bowen's eight interlocking ideas.

I was raised with a lack of self-differentiation because of my emotionally absent father and controlling mother. Differentiation of self requires the capacity to distinguish one's thoughts, emotions, and actions from those of others in the family and a degree of maturity or emotional autonomy an individual reaches over the course of development (Shultz, 2020). My father's absence did not give me a good or healthy relationship with him and discuss any of my issues or problems, and my controlling mother. She did not give me a choice to express my feelings or thoughts. My mother was a controller like her mother. Our house had a strict environment in which we had to think or feel in a specific way due to our values and beliefs. Moreover, my parents were unable to differentiate between their interests and those of ours, my sister and I, which demonstrated the fact that they put little importance on our mental well-being while they pursued their own professional and financial goals. Additionally, they were thinking about our future and which university would be the best for us, and they directed us on which faculty is the best for us. I believe my father inherited this part from his mother, as he attended medical school due to his mother's plan or idea.