The Bowen Center

Speaker: John J. Engels President, Leadership Coaching Inc., Rochester, New York Beliefs about leadership govern every leader’s decisions and behavior. Some beliefs about leadership are closely aligned with reality. Others — including many widely accepted as “true” — are influenced more by emotional process and the imagination. This presentation will help leaders distinguish reality-based from […]

Speaker: Kelly Lambert, PhD Professor and Chair, Department of Psychology, Randolph Macon College, Ashland, VA The transformation that accompanies the onset of motherhood and fatherhood in mammals is remarkable. Based on research with rodent and primate models, Dr. Lambert will discuss the neurobiological and behavioral aspects of these transformations. Her findings suggest that the transition […]

Speaker: Daniel V. Papero, PhD, LCSW Faculty Member at the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family, Washington, DC Like families, organizations have an emotional side to them that is predictable. In today’s anxious world, filled with stressed people and anxious organizations, systems ideas can help a leader understand the terrain of leadership, the […]

Speaker: Sam Pappas, MD Private Practice, Tysons Corner, VA The Mediterranean diet has received wide acclaim for the many positive health effects it exerts. Adherence to this traditional diet has been shown to reduce the risk of cognitive impairment, dementia and neurodegenerative diseases overall. This talk will explore the multiple benefits a Mediterranean diet and […]

Speaker: Dr. Mona Sarfaty, MD, MPH, FAAFP Executive Director, Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, Center for Climate Change Communication, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA A family medicine physician and public health doctor who has engaged in teaching, research and advocacy for over 30 years, Dr. Sarfaty will describe her research using this background […]

How much energy and attention does a family require of its members to sustain stability? How much room does the family allow for its members to pursue their individual interests and directions over time? This presentation explores variation in goal direction and its impact on the functioning of the nuclear family by examining the findings […]

John Bowlby and Murray Bowen were contemporaries, each basing their ideas about relationships on clinical observations influenced by evolutionary thinking. Bowlby focused on the interactions between the mother and the infant while Bowen examined the multigenerational family system. This evening will highlight the parallels and differences in their ideas. Anne S. McKnight, EdD, LCSW is […]

Robert Felton will describe how he attempted to use Bowen Theory as a Supervisor of Special Education in a major school system where individual thinking was pervasive. The process for defining a child’s problem for special education services was based on a medical model which tended to increase anxiety in the system and child focus. […]

Dr. Murray Bowen stated: “The degree of unresolved emotional attachment to the parents is equivalent to the degree of undifferentiation that must somehow be handled in a person’s own life and in future generations” (Bowen, 1978, p. 382). He observed that all people have some degree of unresolved emotional attachment from their parents. These emotional […]

Dr. Ruff was both a partner in life through marriage and in research with Candace B. Pert, PhD., with their discovery of Peptide-T which controlled the pain and extended thousands of lives in the treatment of the HIV virus. This discovery opened the door to a non-opioid treatment for pain. Dr. Pert contributed to the […]

For the last six decades a dedicated team of researchers in Siberia has been domesticating silver foxes to replay the evolution of the dog in real time. Lyudmila Trut has been lead scientist on this work since 1959, and together with biologist and historian of science, Lee Dugatkin, she tells the inside story of the […]

Rabbi Edwin Friedman was a colleague and student of Murray Bowen’s family systems theory. As a dynamic speaker and brilliant thinker, he applied systems theory to the lives of clergy and the work of congregational life. Although he adopted some of Bowen’s concepts taken from natural systems, he added his own ideas in distinctive ways. […]

The multi-faceted concept of differentiation of self includes numerous variables which, taken together, describe variation in lifestyle of individuals and families. This presentation will review and evaluate some of the ways in which the concept has been operationalized for purposes of family research. Other concepts such as resilience, coping, adaptation, and self-esteem will also be […]

Like a small rowboat in a big ocean, parenting an adolescent can leave adults feeling like they are far from safe harbor with no oars. Spend any time on Facebook and a parent will encounter advice, cajoling, and even criticism about how to parent. Carpool lines and soccer field sidelines are full of stories of […]

This presentation will describe the approach to preserve Dr. Bowen’s original letters and videotapes at the National Library of Medicine where they will be available for the ages and to also create an online digital database so that researchers can do their primary work. To enable both NLM researchers and the public to explore how […]