The Bowen Center for the Study of the Family, Washington D.C., U.S.A., is the leading organization providing training on Bowen theory.  The ISS Family Institute is listed as one of the 16 Bowen Programmes Elsewhere on its website.

The ISS Family Institute works closely with with the Bowen Center for the Study of Family in the promotion of Bowen theory both in Hong Kong and around the world:

• It organizes regular conferences and webcast lectures presented by the faculty of the Bowen Center, and senior members of the Bowen Network.
• Its Director of Programme, Mrs. Peggy Chan, regularly attends the meetings and conferences organized by the Bowen Center in Washington, D.C. Mrs. Chan is currently participating in an advanced program (Research Seminar) of the Bowen Center.
• Mrs. Peggy Chan had presented at the 51st Annual Symposium of the Bowen Center.  She was the plenary speaker on “Learning and Teaching Bowen Family Systems Theory in the Context of the Chinese Culture – Resources and Challenges” at The First International Conference on Bowen Family Systems Theory in Pittsburg, U.S.A. in August, 2015.  She also presented at the  the 3rd Annual Symposium of the Center for the Study of Natural Systems and Family (CSNS&F), Houston, Texas in Feb. 2017.
• Mrs. Chan is currently a member of the Bowen Network Program for the Advancement of the Bowen Theory, and collaborates with other Bowen theory training centers around the world to promote better teaching and learning of Bowen theory.
• The ISS Family Institute co-organized the 2nd International Conference on Bowen Family Systems Theory with The Hong Kong Polytechnic Unversity on May 17-19, 2018.  More than 30 senior learners of Bowen theory from different parts of the world congregated in Hong Kong to share their best thinking in Bowen theory during the 2nd International Conference on Bowen Family Systems Theory.  The Conference offered 52 presentations and workshops on the theme of “Systems thinking in Daily Life: Bowen Theory in Families, Organizations and Communities”.  The  Conference was well-attended by over 300 attendees from 14 countries and cities.  It generated lively dialogue and interchange amongst the attendees on the theory and applications of Bowen theory in  different contexts.

Through in-depth study of how human emotional systems function, trainees will learn a comprehensive framework on how to understand human functioning and relationships. Trainees will get regular coaching on how to apply the theory to their clinical practice, work and family relationships, so that they can solve problems and manage themselves effectively in these arenas.

Through learning the Bowen theory, this program helps the counselor to take a broad view of the clients’ situation, and also to have a firm grasp of the underlying emotional forces that impact on the family members. It helps the counselor to understand the functional patterns of the family system and its members, and not only focus on solving the presenting problems. The counselor will guide the clients to have fundamental changes in their functioning patterns, so that the clients will be more effective in future relationships. This theory sees the family as an emotional unit, and that members’ functioning is heavily influenced by one another. This offers the counselor flexibility in the target clients to work with. The counselor can work with any member of the family to address his/her participation in the problem, even though the person having the presenting problem refuses to come.

The Bowen theory offers very useful concepts to understand human functioning in social systems or relationship networks. It provides a roadmap or blue print for us to lead a functional life and solve problems in our relationships. Besides clinical work, it has been applied to a great variety of settings, such as work relationships, organizational management, pastoral or church settings, and international relationships. Therefore, anyone interested in self-change, and in enhancing one’s functioning in his/her relationship networks, will find this programme useful.

Dr. Bowen found out that the interns who had undertaken family-of- origin work did better with their clinical work besides having better functioning families. Our families are thus seen as a laboratory for trying out our new behaviours, and for learning the Bowen theory experientially. By doing family research, trainees study the functioning patterns of their families-of-origin, how anxiety plays out in their family systems, how they have positioned themselves to their family members, and how they can function better. Family research provides the opportunity for the trainees to integrate the theory experientially, and is a very important part of our learning.