Andrea Maloney Schara, LCSWA
Ms Schara met Murray Bowen in 1976 while working on an alcoholism unit in a psychiatric hospital in Virginia Beach. Dr. Bowen suggested she apply to the Special Postgraduate Program. Having only completed two years of college it was a challenging opportunity to begin a formal training program.
Four years later she was offered the position of Audiovisual Coordinator. In 1980 she moved to Washington to continue her interested in understanding Dr. Bowen’s ideas and in establishing her own career path. The dual track of clinical work plus documenting the life and lectures of Dr.Bowen has continued to expand along different pathways.
Ms. Schara understands that the greatest challenge is to preserve the 2,000 or so hours of video and audiotapes. In the mid eighties she oversaw the donation of fifteen years of Dr. Bowen’s clinical tapes to the National Library of Medicine. This laid the groundwork for the probable donation to the NLM for the remaining tapes. After Dr. Bowen’s death in 1990 Ms Schara became a faculty member.
To document her clinical work Ms. Schara organized a pilot research project - a ten years study ( 1985-1995) of 50 families, where one person had AIDS-, which won a poster presentation at the NIH. Biofeedback was used during this study to demonstrate the shifting of symptoms within a family after a life threatening illness in one member.
The ability to document physiological and behaviors shifts in the family unit has continued to allow her to understand the theoretical necessity of lowering anxiety before, during and after one begins to alter one’s multigenerational relationship patterns.
In 1994 she began a neurofeedback practice, where individuals were able to make significant gains in the ability to alter old patterns and define a more authentic self.
Ms. Schara taught in the special postgraduate training program from 1993 until 2005 when she moved to Darien, CT. In 2003 she began a non-profit, Leaders for Tomorrow, (LFT) The goals of which are to bring the ideas of Bowen theory into the business community. Her work with larger organizations began with her uncle’s family business, The Williamsburg Pottery Factory (190-1993) and The Crossway Community (1995-2000.) The first meeting of LFT was attended by thirty family therapists and an equal number of business leaders. The challenge for each group was how to communicate well with the others. The gap between the two worlds was similar to the gap between individuals in a family or in an organization, when one individual begins to define a self.
This observation lead to a decision to write a book, tentatively titled Natural Leaders: The Cost and Benefits of Taking off the Relationship Blinders. To communicate the ideas, Ms. Schara has produced three CD and six newsletters and hopes to submit the book for publication towards the end of 2006.
Ms. Schara continues her primary interest in and support for the preservation of Dr. Murray Bowen’s videotapes. She stays in contact with the Bowen family and has made attempts to find needed large donors to digitalize to make available the video work of Dr.Bowen.
This is a complex and far reaching project, which could have a great affect on how the world remembers Dr. Bowen and understands the depth of his contributions.
You can contact Andrea Schara by cell phone 703-598-5953 or visit her web site www.ideastoaction.com or e mail her at arms711@aol.com
|
