Viewing Child Development through the Lens of Bowen Theory (Michael E. Kerr)

Dr. Kerr presents how the Bowen theory is founded by Dr. Murray Bowen’s 45 years of observational research in the functioning of human relationships to sum up a process of child development through the lens of Bowen theory.

1) Multigenerational Transmission and Epigenetic Research - What is Transmitted and How (Victoria Harrison)

A real life example is illustrated where severe neurological symptoms have occurred in one member of a family and how the mother increases independence and capacity for herself and her son through her differentiation of self with Bowen theory.

2) Four Adaptive Mechanisms for Managing Anxiety in the Nuclear Family (Laura R. Brooks)

Ms. Brooks presents how anxiety is managed by four emotional mechanisms in the nuclear family and how they operate in emotional triangles within the family.

1) Emotional Cut-off and Family Health (Robert J. Noone)

The health and well-being of the each generation is very much affected by their unresolved emotional attachment to their previous generation. Individuals who are willing to avoid cut-off and maintain viable contact with their families of origin will have better chance against developing physical, emotional, or behavioral symptoms.

2) Differentiation of Self - Modifying the Impact of Reactions to Adversity (Victoria Harrison)

Participants in the research project Observations of Change noted changes in their physiological measures of anxiety and cortisol to correspond their shifts in symptoms and functioning as they work on observing their contact with family, responses during nodal events and manifestation of symptoms through the years. Ms. Harrison brings to light how the participants differ in their ability to to reverse their symptoms as they practice differentiation of self in the face of adversity.

3) Working with Couples in Conflict (Ronald W. Richardson)

This workshop offers counselors insights from Bowen theory to help couples reduce the number and intensity of conflicts and have a happier life together as well as on helping couples who are planning of divorce to go through the process with reduced disturbance to those involved.

4) When a Teenager Doesn't Leave Home (Anne S. McKnight)

This talk explores how young adults can be supported and nurtured to have their own vision of their future and become independent without being suffocated by the anxieties projected onto them by their parents.

1) Suicide in the Family (Jack Butler)

This workshop reviews overall data about the rates of suicide worldwide with adult and children and stresses the importance of working with the family of suicidal members of their family. The importance of documentation and how clinicians can manage their emotional impact from such clients will also be discussed.

2) Child Abuse in Family Emotional Process - A Bowen Family Systems Theory View of Family Violence (Walter Howard Smith Jr.)

Patterns of family functioning and emotional processes and patterns of family adaptation to stresses and challenges in intra-familial child abuse are described to explain child abuse and other forms of family violence from the perspective of Bowen theory. They are part of a larger dynamics of family functioning which have extended over long periods of time.

3) Child Abuse in Family Emotional Process - Clinical Issues (Walter Howard Smith Jr.)

Dr. Smith remodeled the Family Team Conferencing model of child welfare practices at his center to empower extended families and natural support persons of the child to own their responsibilities of keeping their children safe and healthy.

1) The Challenges of Doing Research Guided by Bowen Theory (Renee Chiu)

Ms. Chiu discusses a number of challenges of using Bowen theory for research in Hong Kong due to difficulties such as needing to differentiate the theoretical constructs of Bowen theory from other theoretical approaches, steer away from the conventional cause-effect linear thinking model, maintain a neutral and objective observer stance by the learner, have the availability of a personal coach and consultation rooted in the theory and have more scholarly literature on the theory in Hong Kong to test its validity for the Hong Kong Chinese population.

2) Development and Evaluation of a Group Counselling Model Based on Bowen Theory for College Students with Codependency in Taiwan (Shih-Hua Chang)

Ms. Chang’s research was to find if there is any correlation of development of codependency traits and the level of differentiation of self in college students of a Taiwan University. The result was that there is a negative relationship between the two. A treatment model of group counselling was set up to test the effectiveness of treating these college students from codependency. Clinical implications of such a model are discussed in the presentation.

3) Distance Regulation, Family Health, and Bowen Family Systems Theory (Sarah Worch)

Ms. Worch attempts to conduct a research on the correlation between family health and current partner distance regulation. She hypothesized that having a family history of diabetes or heart disease would result in less effective distance regulation. Her result shows that there is a marginal significant impact on distance regulation measures against a family history of the related health problems. An inference that physical health and the capacity to balance connectedness and separateness can thus be implied.

4) Opportunities in Intergeneration Ambivalence: Differentiation of Self in the Parent Adult-Child Relationship (So Wa Ngai)

Ms. Ngai has conducted an in-depth study of 20 adult-children on their relationship with their parents over their life course. In her presentation, Ms Ngai discusses her findings of 6 intergeneration issues faced by her participants and 5 stages of managing their conflicting thoughts and emotions towards their parents. These struggles facilitated the participants to make new meaning about their experience with their parents to achieve personal growth and a sense of self-agency for themselves.

1) Defining Self in the Room when Working with Trauma (Linda MacKay)

Bowen family systems theory guides the clinician to be vigilant of him/herself when managing very traumatized young clients to avoid being pulled into the urge to take in more responsibilities than the client’s own parents for its welfare. The role and responsibilities of the clinician’s supervisor towards the clinician, those of the therapist self towards the client, and those of the therapist with his/her own family are discussed. Considerations of avoiding burnout, secondary traumatic stress and vicarious traumatization by the clinician are also discussed.

2) My Practice of Differentiation of Self in a Work System (Amy Kong)

Ms. Kong shares her experiences of practicing Differentiation of Self in her workplace, learning to observe the emotional processes that runs in the office, efforts to maintain her “I-position”, and balancing her own responsibilities and those of others to mobilize the changes needed in her organization.

3) Bowen Family Systems Theory in Chile, the Last 23 Years (Alejandro Astorga & Alicia Cruzat)

Mr. Astorga and Ms. Cruzat present how they pioneered the development of Bowen theory in Chile from starting with a small study group of learners to connecting with other disciplines and now having developed clinical works within their communities in Chile using Bowen theory as their foundation of work.

4) Anxiety in the Work Place and Service Delivery through the Lens of Bowen Family Systems Theory (Alicia Falzon)

Ms. Falzon shares her experience of applying Bowen theory in a work place when tension spread across the entire organization which led to staff/management conflict, symptom development and triangling with staff members and outsiders. Out of the experience, Ms. Falzon summarizes 6 key lessons that she has learnt to steer herself through these turbulent times.

5) the Family Projection Process, a Family Systems View of an Adopted Family (Laura R. Brooks)

Bowen theory hypothesizes why children of the same family turn out differently can be understood from the family protection process and this hypothesis is the same for both adopted and birth children. In her research of 8 adopted families over a 13 year period, Ms. Brooks will present data from a family with two adopted and two birth children and how nodal events experienced by the family as a whole intensifies the projection process onto the children to account for the variation in the children’s functioning.

6) and 7) Bowen Family Systems Theory in the Delivery of Mental Health Services to Children and Families and in the Treatment of ADHD in Children and Adults (Mercy Burton Russell)

In Ms. Russell 1st talk, she provides an overview of the role of the family in the development of symptoms in a child and provides a practical guide for applying BFST in organizations that may identify the problem in the child. In her 2nd talk, Ms. Russell presents strategies for clinical goals to reverse the projection of chronic anxiety, support differentiation of self in family members and manage extra-familial anxiety of teachers and doctors to abate symptoms of ADD/ADHD in individuals.

Awareness of Family History as a Teenager's Psychological Well-being (Tatyana V. Yakimova & Ya. A. Bondarenko)