Day 2

December 10, 2022 (Sat)

9:00 am – 12:00 pm

Language: English

Dr. Daniel V. Papero, PhD, LCSW

Schedule

Disturbance in the Family: What is the help that helps?

The human family system can be a rough world. Aggressive behaviors appear to emerge in response to the intense pressure individuals and groups place upon others to conform to a way of being, a way of thinking, and a way of behaving. For individuals and for family systems, the appearance of violence reflects the intensity of attachment among participants. The clinician must have a sound theoretical understanding of the operation of human family systems. He or she much have solid control of personal reactiveness to the emotional intensity of the clinical presentation, and she or he must be able to resist the pull to take sides in the polarization between parties that fuels the violent behavior. Furthermore, he or she must maintain good contact with the various involved societal groups—the legal system, the social service system, and other societal agencies forced to intervene when a family system loses the ability to be responsible for its own behavior, and society has no choice but to intervene. All clinical activity targets the intense stuck- togetherness of family members from which disturbance develops. The clinician directs the effort to the family’s apparent helplessness and incompetence in the management of its own relationships.

After graduate training in social work at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Dr. Papero entered postgraduate training in family systems theory and psychotherapy at the Georgetown University Family Center. In 1982, Dr. Bowen invited him to join the faculty of the Family Center, now the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family. Over the years he has served in many administrative and teaching roles at the Center. He currently organizes a research seminar and coordinates the Theory Meeting, a bi-weekly working group dedicated to the exploration and expansion of family systems theory.

He has written numerous articles and book chapters on various aspects of family systems theory and family psychotherapy. In 1990, he published a basic introduction to family systems, Bowen Family Systems Theory. He and Robert Noone, PhD, co-edited the volume The Family Emotional System: An Integrative Concept for Theory, Science and Practice in 2015. He has served on the editorial board of the journal Family Systems since its founding. He currently gives many invited presentations yearly to various professional groups across the country and around the world on topics related to family systems theory, family psychotherapy, and the functioning of corporations and organizations.

In recent years he has consulted increasingly with organizations in both the private and public sectors about the impact of relationships on functioning and the emotional process of organizations.