The Systems Thinker - Center for Family Consultation's blog

About Our Blog

An online forum to further the discussion of research and applications of systems thinking that continue to emerge from the ongoing study and practice of Bowen theory by family therapists, clergy, business leaders, consultants, and scientists.

Thoughts for Thanksgiving 2024

Post Date November 27, 2024

Comments 8 Comments

Author Center for Family Consultation

Category Acute Anxiety, Bowen Family Systems Theory, Chronic Anxiety, Differentiation of Self, Emotional Cut-Off, Emotional Fusion, Terri C. Pilarski

Thanksgiving may be the one holiday that everyone can celebrate. It is an invitation to be grateful for all of life’s blessings. Well, everyone except Indigenous peoples who may prefer not to, all things considered. When I lived in Dearborn, Michigan, Thanksgiving was a big deal. It was common for the interfaith community to hold an interfaith worship service on the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. We would all gather in one of the various houses of worship, a church or a mosque, and worship in English and Arabic, with Christian texts and readings from the Quran. And some time in that week, usually Sunday night, we would all share a big holiday meal of giving thanks. The events were spirit-filled, honing our sense of gratitude for the rich diversity of our community life. They were also a lot of work. Any time a group of people holding different values and beliefs gathers for a shared event there are challenges and also moments of joy.

Becoming a Family of Four

Post Date October 30, 2024

Comments 8 Comments

Author Center for Family Consultation

Category Bowen Family Systems Theory, Caitlin Baldauff, Differentiation of Self, Family Emotional Process, Family of Origin

This June I gave birth to my second child, Jacob. My oldest, Corbin, is three years old. Brian and I anticipated a season full of stress, “big feelings” and regression as we adjusted to a new family norm. We forecasted challenges and made adjustments intended to prepare Corbin for the addition to our family. I reflected on my emotional responses from having our first to prepare myself. We are three months in, and it has been a whirlwind of experiences.

Healing and Emotional Process in Society

Post Date August 19, 2024

Comments 17 Comments

Author Center for Family Consultation

Category Bowen Family Systems Theory, Chronic Anxiety, Differentiation of Self, Family Emotional Process, Societal Emotional Process, Societal Regression, Terri C. Pilarski

In my thirties, following a career in modern dance and then interior design, I became a stay-at-home mom. After a few years I began looking for something I could do for a little income and to keep me engaged with other adults. At that time massage therapy was emerging as an accredited profession with training and a state license required to practice. I attended a 14-month intensive training. I learned about every muscle, ligament, tendon, and bone in the body, how they moved and worked together. I learned about facia and connective tissue and the idea of referred pain. Sometimes when one has pain in the body the origin of that pain is elsewhere in the body, carried along the facia like a snag in a sweater that runs to a different area. The body communicates in amazing ways and as a massage therapist I loved to follow the path of pain and alleviate it.

Societal Emotional Process and Cutoff in the Family

Post Date August 14, 2024

Comments 1 Comment

Author Center for Family Consultation

Category Alana C. Smith, Bowen Family Systems Theory, Emotional Cut-Off, Family Emotional Process, Societal Emotional Process

Seeing a person in the context of their nuclear and multigenerational family illuminates predicable patterns of thinking, feeling and relating that is the crux of Bowen Family Systems theory. Bowen Family Systems theory elucidates the immeasurable power of thinking systems in the evaluation of symptoms an individual is experiencing. Dr. Bowen began to see in the early 1970’s that thinking systems was not only applicable to the lives of families, but was also relevant in application to society as a whole.

Bowen Theory, Science, and Research

Post Date July 29, 2024

Comments 0 Comments

Author Center for Family Consultation

Category Annual Fall Conference, Bowen Theory Research, Climate Change, Family Sysytems Theory Research, Robert J. Noone

Murray Bowen’s interest in a science of human behavior didn’t begin with the intention of developing a new theory. His initial effort was to contribute to the then existing paradigm in the field of mental health becoming more scientific. His research and exploration of the sciences across disciplines led to the recognition that psychoanalysis and the various personality theories derived from it lacked the capacity to move toward science.

Cut-Off and the Role of a Bowen Coach

Post Date June 11, 2024

Comments 0 Comments

Author Center for Family Consultation

Category Bowen Family Systems Theory, Cecilia Guzman, Chronic Anxiety, Differentiation of Self, Emotional Cut-Off, Emotional Fusion, Family Emotional Process

Bowen Family Systems Theory, developed by Dr. Murray Bowen in the mid-20th century, revolutionized the understanding of human behavior within the context of familial relationships. One of the key concepts within this theory is “emotional cut-off,” a phenomenon that describes how individuals manage unresolved emotional issues with family members by reducing or completely cutting off emotional contact. This blog delves into the concept of emotional cut-off, its implications, underlying mechanisms, and its impact on individuals and family dynamics.

Frans de Waal, Our First Symposium Speaker

Post Date April 3, 2024

Comments 2 Comments

Author Center for Family Consultation

Category Annual Conferences, Annual Midwest Symposium, Bowen Family Systems Theory, Sydney K. Reed

Frans de Waal, 75, Who Believed Apes Had Cognition, Dies so said the obituary by Alex Traub in the New York Times on Saturday, March 23, 2024.

“Frans de Waal, who used his study of the inner life of animals to build a powerful case that apes think, feel, strategize pass down culture and act on moral sentiments – and that humans are not quite as special as many like to think- died on March 14 at his home in Stone Mountain, Ga.”

Reflections on the 4th International Conference on Bowen Theory

Post Date March 20, 2024

Comments 0 Comments

Author Center for Family Consultation

Category 4th International Conference on Bowen Family Sysytems Theory, Bowen Family Systems Theory, Bowen Theory Research, Events, Family Sysytems Theory Research, John Bell

Bowen theory has certainly come a long way even since the first international conference held in 2015 in Pittsburg, PA at the Western Pennsylvania Family Center. One of its founding members and long-term executive directors, Jim Smith was a pioneer in making theory available worldwide and in organizing this first ever international conference. Since then, international conferences have been held in Hong Kong (2018), Sweden (2022) and most recently, Miami, Florida.

Why I spent Christmas 2023 in the Mayo Clinic Hospital

Post Date January 31, 2024

Comments 9 Comments

Author Sydney Reed

Category Acute Anxiety, Annual Conferences, Death & Chronic Illness, Emotional Triangles, Family Emotional Process, Sydney K. Reed, Systems Theory of Cancer

Due to the amputation of my husband’s foot, we spent Christmas this past year in the Mayo Clinic hospital. This is the twelfth year of a long story. David has had a pain in his left foot when he walked on it for the last 12 years. Medical opinion assumed the problem was neurological. He was referred to countless doctors who referred him for x-rays, CT and MRI scans. No one could find anything to explain the pain. One pain clinic installed a nerve stimulator in his back that was controlled by a technician at Abbot Labs who determined the dosage and the frequency of the nerve jolts. It didn’t work!

Reflections on Societal Regression

Post Date November 9, 2023

Comments 0 Comments

Author Stephanie Ferrera

Category Emotional Regression, Societal Emotional Process, Societal Regression, Stephanie Ferrera

Murray Bowen’s unique contribution to the science of human behavior was his ability to observe family interaction and to describe the underlying emotional process that governs all families to varying degrees. He went on to describe an analogous emotional process in societies and introduced the concept of emotional regression: “When a family is subjected to chronic, sustained anxiety, the family begins to lose contact with its intellectually-determined principles, to resort more and more to emotionally determined decisions to allay the anxiety of the moment. …The societal concept postulates that the same process is evolving in society.” (Bowen 1978, 386)

Integration of Research in Practice: Reflections on the CFC Fall Conference

Post Date October 7, 2023

Comments 0 Comments

Author Stephanie Ferrera

Category Annual Conferences, Annual Fall Conference, Events, Family Sysytems Theory Research, Stephanie Ferrera

What does the word “research” bring to mind for you? Images of scientists in lab coats, doing things with test tubes? Creating experiments with control groups? Data mapped on charts and graphs? That dreaded required course in college? A formidable enterprise to be sure.

For those who attended the CFC Fall Conference, “Integration of Research in Practice,” the word, “research” took on a larger meaning. Four Bowen theory researchers presented their studies, each illustrating a different and creative approach.

The Emotional Side of Socioeconomic Status: A review of the CFC Summer Conference with Dr. Laurie Lassiter

Post Date August 1, 2023

Comments 0 Comments

Author Stephanie Ferrera

Category Annual Conferences, Events, Stephanie Ferrera

“The Emotional Side of Socioeconomic Status” was the title of Dr. Laurie Lassiter’s presentation at the Center for Family Consultation’s annual summer conference on July 14. It is also the title of an article by Lassiter published in a recent issue of the journal, Family Systems. Dr. Lassiter has reviewed a wide range of research to help us understand how social status impacts our health, relationships, and quality of life. As a scholar of Bowen theory, she brings knowledge of emotional systems and differentiation of self to her study of social status. Drawing from both her conference presentation and her article, I have chosen the following highlights.

Multi-generational Transmission Process

Post Date June 7, 2023

Comments 1 Comment

Author Center for Family Consultation

Category Alana C. Smith, Bowen Family Systems Theory, Family Emotional Process

Dr. Murray Bowen’s research on the science of family interactions observed that humans have a non-genetic heritability as well as a genetic heritability in regards to their personhood; mentally, emotionally, and relationally. This is to say that over a human’s lifespan there is a process of evolution and adaptation transpiring, as opposed to merely a predestined and limitedly determined existence (stasis). Dr. Bowen’s research established conceptually a parallel theory to biology’s concepts of heritability (genetics) and epigenetics in his description of the multigenerational transmission process. This process encapsulates many of the core tenants of Bowen’s research and clinical observations. The multigenerational transmission process describes the reality that as humans in family systems we are reflexively (automatically and unconsciously) feeling, emulating, and responding with each other. There is an inherited nature to our personhood and ways of being that is passed down through the generations in our families. Bowen highlighted that the multigenerational transmission process involves first, the emotional system, which is felt and experienced, and then the relationship system wherein it is expressed.

Learning to “Think Systems”

Post Date April 9, 2023

Comments 0 Comments

Author Center for Family Consultation

Category Bowen Family Systems Theory, Differentiation of Self, Post Graduate Training, Robin Shultz

“We continuously admonish ourselves for what we do or do not do and continually implore each other to be different. There appears to be an infinite supply of people available to tell us the “right” way to think and the “right” way to act. The vast majority of the admonitions and directives that swirl around us are hopelessly entangled in subjectivity. Depending on the phenomenon under consideration, we blame some thing, some person, some group, some whatever for its presence. We blame genes, chemicals, parents, schools, a variety of “bad” influences, and certain politicians for what goes wrong. Probably the most important subjectivity determined block to observing human behavior has been the earlier described difficulty in seeing the part oneself plays in the functioning of others. Our conceptualizations of human behavior have consistently deemphasized the process between people and focused on the process within people”.

A Review of John O’Donohue’s “Bless the Space Between Us”

Post Date April 4, 2023

Comments 1 Comment

Author Center for Family Consultation

Category Book Review, Bowen Family Systems Theory, Family of Origin, John Bell

In his book, To Bless the Space Between Us, John O’Donohue sets out to write a book of blessings that follow what he calls, “the seven rhythms of the human journey: beginnings, desires, thresholds, homecoming, states of the heart, callings, and beyond endings.” In chapter 4, Homecomings, O’Donohue describes the trajectory of human development from birth to adulthood.

“Fantastic Fungi, The Magic Beneath Us”: A Documentary Film Review

Post Date January 31, 2023

Comments 0 Comments

Author Center for Family Consultation

Category Bowen Family Systems Theory, Don Targonski

In a vividly pictorial documentary Paul Stamets, mycologist, takes us on an adventure into an understanding of fungi, how they help trees communicate and how they decompose anything that’s natural based and how they contribute to the regeneration of soil and rebirth of life. To Stamets nature is intelligent, and it is humans that lack the ability to understand how nature communicates.

Differences That Make a Difference: Defining Self in an Intercultural Context

Post Date December 7, 2022

Comments 7 Comments

Author Center for Family Consultation

Category Bowen Family Systems Theory, Terri C. Pilarski

In 2018 and I embarked on a journey of study on intercultural competency, anticipating that Bowen Theory would play a role in this study. The hope was that I, as the Rector, would be able to lead my English-speaking Episcopal congregation, comprised primarily of white people of European descent, into forming an effective partnership with an Arabic speaking congregation of people from Lebanon, Egypt, and Palestine, with whom we were going to share a building. What developed from the study informed my hypothesis that congregational anxiety can be lowered when the congregation establishes its sense of purpose, it’s mission. In particular I have been exploring how commitment to a clearly stated mission of the congregation can function in the emotional process of a congregation in much the same way as a person who defines “one’s-self” functions in a family.

Opportunities for Ongoing Individual Growth: Bowen Theory in Clinical Work

Post Date November 1, 2022

Comments 0 Comments

Author Center for Family Consultation

Category Bowen Family Systems Theory, Post Graduate Training, Robin Shultz

The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it new alternatives for people seeking help with anxiety. Online platforms became a viable option for therapy resulting in easier access to services. While this shift toward technology has increased the number of providers available, wide variations exist among treatment modalities. For those seeking long-term modifications in their lives, finding a provider who can meet both the immediate need and a goal of lasting change can be a challenge. This dual objective is best met by a provider who has the ability to “think systems” while viewing anxiety and other problems from a broad perspective. Whether you are a social worker, a family therapist, coach, teacher, clergy, or a consultants or leader in business, you can increase your knowledge of how human systems function by participating in a Bowen theory post-graduate training program.

Reactivity Paused: Took a Breath and a Stand

Post Date October 10, 2022

Comments 0 Comments

Author Center for Family Consultation

Category Bowen Family Systems Theory, Post Graduate Training, Scott Hoecker

My understanding of differentiation of self after listening to Murray Bowen and reading the materials is that each person emerges from the multi-generational family organism with a certain amount of undifferentiation (or fusion) that needs to be handled using various mechanisms such as distance, conflict, over/under-functioning, and/or projection to the next generation. The more self that one has, the less intense these mechanisms will appear given a certain level of anxiety. With that same level of anxiety, a person with less self than the previous person, the mechanisms will be more intense.

Collective Intelligence and Differentiation of Self

Post Date July 29, 2022

Comments 3 Comments

Author Stephanie Ferrera

Category Bowen Family Systems Theory, Chronic Anxiety, Differentiation of Self, Stephanie Ferrera

Why do humans dominate the planet? Not, as often assumed, because of individual intelligence according to science writer, Matt Ridley. Not because we have big brains. Having smarter, cleverer people is not what makes societies work better. He proposes that

“Human achievement is entirely a networking phenomenon. It is by putting brains together through the division of labor — through trade and specialization — that human society stumbled upon a way to raise the living standards, carrying capacity, technological virtuosity and knowledge base of the species. …Human achievement is based on collective intelligence–the nodes in the human neural network are people themselves. By each doing one thing and getting good at it, then sharing and combining the results through exchange, people become capable of doing things they do not even understand.”

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