BACK TO BASICS:
BOWEN THEORY IN CLINICAL PRACTICE
A 10-Month Seminar Series with Individual Coaching
2022 – 2023
Purposes: CSNSF will offer a monthly 3 ½ hour seminar in a Zoom Room for therapists or consultants who aim to establish and strengthen their foundation in Bowen family systems theory. This program will emphasize the parallel process of working on differentiation in one’s own family and with clients in therapy. Participants can use this seminar to better recognize and address influences over their practice that arise from family, the mental health field, society, and the environment. They can observe the interactions between functioning in their own family and as a therapist. They can observe the difference that family work makes in the functioning of clients and client families.
For Whom: Participants must have some background in Bowen theory, either through Bowen Center programs or other training programs in Bowen theory. They must have a clinical or consultation practice from which to present.
Faculty:
Victoria Harrison, MA, LMFT | Chair of the Series
Lorna Hecht-Zablow, LMFT | Clinical Consultant & Coach
Amie Post, MA, LCMFT | Clinical Consultant & Coach
BOWEN THEORY IN CLINICAL PRACTICE Up to 9 Participants
- 3 ½ Hours One Friday a month for 10 months
- September 2022 – July 2023 with a Break in December 2022 (Exact date and time TBD given various time zones) Fee: $2,500 for 10 monthly seminars plus monthly individual coaching
- (45 hours of education & training = $55.50/hr) (Please speak to Victoria Harrison about payment plans or scholarships.)
- CEU’s available in SW, LMFT, and LPC.
Program Example
- 4:00 – 4:30 Presentation & Discussion: Victoria Harrison
- 4:30 – 4:55 Clinical Presentation # 1 (25 minutes)
- 4:55 – 5:25 Discussion (30 minutes)
- 5:25 – 5:50 Presentation # 2 (25 minutes)
- 5:50 – 6:30 Discussion (30 minutes)
- 6:30 – 6:40 Break
- 6:40 – 7:05 Presentation #3 (25 minutes)
- 7:05 – 7:30 Discussion #3 (25 minutes)
What:
Monthly Seminar: Victoria Harrison will organize a monthly presentation and discussion, based on topics that address common challenges in shifting from conventional therapy to principles for practice based in Bowen family systems theory. The differences in therapy practice and process will be described and discussed using recommended reading and presentations as the springboard for thinking.
Monthly reading will feature Murray Bowen’s original work:
Murray Bowen. Family Therapy in Clinical Practice
Murray Bowen. Commitment to Principles The Letters of Murray Bowen MD collected and annotated by Clarence Boyd
Victoria Harrison. The Family Diagram and Family Research: Tools for Differentiation of Self
Murray Bowen. The GAP Report
Three participants will present challenging and interesting clinical cases followed by 30 minutes of discussion. The presentation will include a focus on What it is you want to accomplish with this presentation? What challenges does this case represent? What do you find interesting? Do you have a particular question about working with this family? Presenters will develop a family diagram or other illustrations for their presentations.
The presentation structure will be based on the Bowen Center Postgraduate Program supervision process that Dr. Bowen established. One person will present to the seminar chair, Victoria Harrison, for 25 minutes. Observers will direct comments or questions to the chair, who will turn them over to the presenter for comment and continued thinking.
Every presentation will be private and confidential. Registration indicates agreement that you will not talk about presentations outside the seminar itself. Please conceal the identity of the cases you present.
Zoom will be the online program for the Consultation Seminar. Please download Zoom, if you do not have it on your computer. You will need high-speed Internet service.
Individual Coaching: The seminar series will also include monthly individual coaching with CSNSF faculty with a focus on ways that emotional reactivity in one’s own family shows up in clinical practice and on ways that one’s work on differentiation of self in the family makes a difference for clients and client families. Participants who are motivated to use Bowen theory and work on differentiation of self to address real-life challenges in their own families will make the most of this seminar series.
The seminar will not include presentations from therapists’ own families. The monthly individual coaching will be scheduled separately with a CSNSF faculty.
Writing Based on Bowen Theory
Seminar Series and Writing Coaching
CSNSF seeks to further quality publications and presentations on Bowen theory through programs for individuals who want to begin to write and for those who aim to continue writing for publication and presentation. Publishing and presenting for Bowen theory audiences, for journals and conferences in other fields and for the general public make important contributions and add new perspectives.
Each venue for publication or presentation includes its own challenges and a network of relationships. Emotional reactivity presents obstacles to writing, publishing, and presenting and offers opportunities for differentiation of self. Important triangles are at play between author and readers and presenter and audience.
Working on differentiation of self is central to writing or presenting based on Bowen theory. These programs highlight and discuss that process and offer resources, tools, and coaching.
Dr. Katie Long brings many years of experience with Bowen theory and with editing and writing and presenting to these programs.
COURES
Seminar Series and Writing Coaching
BEGINNING TO WRITE
Oct 22 & Nov 12, 2022
1:00 – 3:00 PM CST
This online program offers individuals with a background in Bowen theory and experience in working on differentiation of self the opportunity to build confidence in undertaking the work of writing for publication. On October 22, Dr. Katie Long will address initial skills for framing and beginning a writing project, with time for questions and discussion. An individual coaching session in the two weeks following will encourage new writers to define and overcome the challenges involved in beginning to write. Participants will present and discuss their planned projects in a second two-hour seminar on November 12.
Fee: $300 (for two-hour presentation and discussion, one hour of individual writing coaching, and final two-hour seminar)
ESSENTIALS OF WRITING BASED IN BOWEN THEORY
January 2023 – April 2023
This online program is designed for individuals with a background in Bowen theory and experience in working toward differentiation of self who want to dedicate time to develop and continue writing projects for publication. Three one-and-a-half-hour monthly seminars will include presentations by Dr. Katie Long with ample time for questions and discussion.
Individual writing coaching sessions will be scheduled each month for participants to focus on projects in progress. Applicants are expected to set aside time for writing and between seminar sessions.
The final individual writing coaching session will focus on plans to follow through on projects pursued during this program.
Katie Long will chair a fourth seminar in which participants present their writing projects.
Fee: $600 (Scholarships are available upon discussion with Victoria Harrison).
MORE THAN WORDS: PRESENTING BASED IN BOWEN THEORY
Dates and Times: SUMMER 2023
This online seminar will address meeting the challenges posed by the emotional elements of presenting to a live and/or online audience, how to focus on a topic, organize material and engage an audience. Presenting requires managing one’s own reactivity while engaging in thinking in an audience. Dr. Katie Long will address producing an oral script and effective use of PowerPoint and other tools.
Preaching every Sunday as a Methodist minister and teaching widely in Clinical Pastoral Education programs, churches, seminaries and other settings provide background for Dr. Long’s popular workshop, More Than Words, on presenting based on Bowen theory and work on differentiation of self.
Please contact Victoria Harrison if you would like to discuss any of these programs.
The Rev. Katie Long, DMin, serves on the CSNSF Board and has edited Family Systems Forum since June 2004. She developed and teaches seminars on Writing Based on Bowen Theory, which explore writing for publication and presenting as opportunities for differentiation of self. She brings wide experience in writing and editing to teaching and coaching the tasks of writing that take into account the emotional context and challenges.
Dr. Long holds a Bachelor of Journalism from the School of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin. Her Master of Divinity is from St. Mary’s Seminary of St. Thomas University, Houston. She earned her Doctor of Ministry in Pastoral Theology and Pastoral Counseling from Brite Divinity School of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. After studying Bowen theory for several years through CSNSF, she participated in the Postgraduate Program at the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family for five years. She teaches Bowen theory and its applications in ministry in various settings.
Dr. Long is available to provide ongoing writing coaching by arrangement.
