2007-2008 Clinical Conference Schedule

October 5, 2007
Changing Emotional Beliefs that Guide How We Live
Priscilla J. Friesen, LICSW
All lives are guided by ‘emotional beliefs” developed early in life in the family emotional process.  These consist of persistent ideas that affect a lifetime.  “I am bad” and “It’s my fault’ are two examples of emotional beliefs.  How one responds organizes the physiology of the brain as demonstrated by biofeedback technology.  This day will explore “emotional beliefs,” perception, and the development of the brain in the family process.  Bowen family systems theory serves as the broader framework for change and neurofeedback provides information about emotional beliefs at the level of brain activity.  With neurofeedback people can interrupt brain patterns and old scripts.  This process assists the larger goal of working on differentiation of self.

November 1, 2007
Fundamentals of Relationship
Daniel V. Papero, PhD, MSW
Bowen theory provides a way of observing the interactional sequences that comprise a relationship and how those sequences can, at times, produce distress in relationship.  It also provides a way for people to begin to observe and address their own part of the relationship challenge.  This clinical day will focus on the basics of relating as seen through the window of Bowen theory.

December 7, 2007
The Relationship World of the Young Adult
Anne S. McKnight, LCSW, Ed. D
Young adults separate from their families to begin work, support themselves, and establish relationships that will affect their future lives.  The relationships they make are profoundly affected by the relationships in their original family, both as they were growing up and as they become adults.  The complexity of their separation from the original family and its impact on them today, particularly in their choice of adult partners will be explored through clinical interviews.

January 11, 2008
Differentiation of Self
Kathleen B. Kerr, MSN, MA
Separating a self from the highly influential family system takes work.  The ability to see the interdependence in others and oneself is key.  “Seeing” the system and giving up individual thinking provides a neutral, objective blueprint to move toward changing one’s predictable behavior.  People who have engaged in this process of differentiation of self will describe their efforts. 

February 8, 2008
Beatrice Flynn, MS, APRN
Achieving Health Without Loss of Self
Managing One’s Self in the Health Care System Without Loss of Self
Bowen theory offers a way of thinking about illness, hospitalization, and recovery.  It includes an understanding about the importance of standing on one’s own principles in the face of intensity and well-intentioned “helpers.  Often, even seasoned professionals lose sight of the optimal outcome:  health without loss of self. This conference will consider Bowen theory as a means of connecting and guiding the many facets of care that contribute to recovery.  This conference is especially pertinent for health care professionals, chaplains, and families coping with a chronic or acute illness.

March 7, 2008
Guiding Principles for Clinical Practice Based in Bowen Family Systems Theory
Victoria Harrison, MA, LMSW, LMFT
Bowen theory provides guiding principles for clinical practice that are distinctly different from “therapeutic relationship,” cognitive and behavioral therapy, emotion-focused therapy, and other approaches to individual or family therapy.  The principles of Bowen theory include the importance of work on differentiation of self in one’s own family and of defining a self in the many details and decisions of clinical practice.  This day will consider the importance of these differences.  Videotaped interviews with therapists who are studying Bowen theory as a foundation for their work will illustrate common challenges and questions,

April 11, 2008
The Process of Differentiation
Michael E. Kerr, MD
Bowen often described differentiation as a way of thinking that translates into a way of being.  Differentiation is not a technique, but comes from the ability to see important relationship systems in a more factual way.  Objectivity promotes emotional neutrality and, when combined with action, leads to constructive change for one’s self and the family.  This day will illustrate variations and similarities between the efforts of different individuals to develop more of a self.

May 9, 2008
Individual Differences in Working on Differentiation of Self
Louise Rauseo, RN, MS, CS
People come to therapy to “grow up” and be a more mature “self” from many different life experiences, family systems and emotional programming.  Bowen theory helps people define steps people take to move toward a better level of differentiation.  The therapist is faced with trying to understand the unique challenges represented in the family system and emotional process of each clinical situation.  This day will examine the way Bowen theory addresses the individual differences present in clinical families.

June 6, 2008
Aging Parents in the Family System
Roberta Gilbert, MD
Individuals are living longer than they did in the past.  As a result, many people become active in their parents decisions about relocation, care, loss of a spouse, and loss of independence.  It is an opportune time for the adult child to work on differentiation of self.  Bowen theory offers guidelines in thinking about these years of life, for both the older person and for the entire family system.

July 11, 2008
Repetitive Posturing and Reciprocity in Relationships when Moving Toward Self
Douglas Murphy, MA, MCMFT
The development of a solid self, and ability to recognize it, often is confounded by the repetitive postures brought about by emotional process that take place with significant others.  This clinical conference will explore the subtle identification with these postures by misidentifying them as “self.”