Relating Without Fixing: An Approach to Parenting and Grandparenting
February 6, 2026 10:30 am to 3:30 pm ET Online

Register now for the Bowen Center's Faith Leadership Conference in 2026!Life in a congregation is one of relationships. How are we to live in those relationships so that each person may grow into their fullness? How are we to live as peers, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and as children ourselves? This conference will look at relationships with an eye towards a thoughtful presence. 

We will begin the day with a brief introduction to Bowen theory, focusing especially on the relationship between generations. We will venture to traditional villages for a view of relationships and explore some of the challenges to the generations in our own culture. 

Dr. Jenny Brown will join us from Australia as keynote guest speaker. Author of Growing Yourself Up: How to Bring Your Best to All of Life’s Relationships, she will draw on decades of experience in child and family mental health. Dr. Brown writes, “Bowen family systems theory offers a surprising perspective: families find more steadiness and resilience not by fixing others, but by cultivating differentiation and learning to respond thoughtfully in the face of tension.” 

This conference is open to all, especially those involved in congregational life in any faith tradition, and to those who teach Bowen theory.

Save the date for the Bowen Center's February 7, 2025 Faith Leadership Conference!

From Characters to Congregations: Windows into Self and Others
~An online conference on Bowen theory and congregational life~

Bringing Bowen theory to congregational and scriptural narratives will be the focus of this conference. We pattern our understandings by forming stories that account for our behavior and functioning. The narratives of the Hebrew scriptures are one example of this, as are stories of congregational life. This conference will bring a Bowen theory framing to the narratives as a way of learning to think Bowen theory. 

Watch the newsletter for updates on the conference website page, registration, CEs, the conference schedule, and more!

The conference day provides Category I continuing education credit for social workers and counselors.

The coronavirus has limited the ability of faith communities to gather. This has been the case for nearly one year. Many people speak of too much direct contact with their immediate families while experiencing isolation from others. Some who live alone speak of isolation despite online contact.

How do we have the viable emotional contact needed to function well as faith communities? How can we best fulfill our purposes as communities of faith during this time and beyond? We will look at these questions through concepts of Bowen theory.

In The Hidden Life of Trees, author Peter Wohlleben’s observations of the underground communications system that trees rely on for survival serves as a way to understand how human groups, such as congregations, function. Like the hidden life of trees, the connections in congregations are deep, with many relationships, associations, and loyalties operating under the surface. Like a grove, a congregation acts as an organism with developing and changing interconnections. Clergy leaders are often transplanted into the ongoing life of congregations. Usually there is a predecessor, a known and unknown history, alongside forces at work within and without. How is one to live and lead with these unseen influences at work?