San Diego Bowen Theory conference

June 22, 2013

Featuring Kathleen Kerr, MSN, MA

Co-sponsored by:

• Southern California Education & Training in Bowen Theory
• San Diego YMCA Youth & Family Services
  

The ties that bind: Child focus in families & society

"The process through which parental undifferentiation impairs one or more children operates within the primary triangle…It exists in all gradations of intensity, from those in which impairment is minimal to those in which the child is seriously impaired for life. The process is so universal it is present to some degree in all families." — Murray Bowen, 1976

How does it happen that families inadvertently impair those they care about the most? Bowen theory suggests that families have a number of anxiety-binding mechanisms for dealing with their ambient level of immaturity. One common process involves parents/caretakers over-focusing on their children.

Helping and caring for the children can make parents/caretakers feel less anxious. Doing so beyond the reality needs of the young unwittingly programs the children to look to the parents and others for direction and support. The children can fail to develop a robust "self" to deal with the challenges of life. Upon reaching adulthood, they tend to replicate their intense dependent relationships with the original caretaker(s). Society has become increasingly anxious about children and this climate reinforces parents own tendencies to overdue it.

This one-day conference will focus on Bowen theory’s concepts of the family projection process, child focus, society’s increasing anxiety about children (societal regression), and parents' attempts to "dent" the process by working on their own part in it (differentiation of self).

For more than 35 years, YMCA Youth & Family Services has been providing Counseling Services across San Diego County.

Kathleen Kerr

Kathleen Kerr, MSN, MA was on the faculty of the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family from 1978 - 2012. She is a nurse clinical-specialist, and has a private clinical practice since 1975. She currently chairs the Research Committee and coordinates the Family History Database Project, which collects multiple multi-generational family histories to study basic concepts in Bowen Theory.

Her research interests include: aging and the family, applying Bowen theory to organizations, the different kinds of systems thinking, mother-offspring relationships, and healthcare and Bowen theory. She has been given access to the data from the longitudinal research on chimpanzees begun by Jane Goodall, Ph.D. She has traveled to Gombe Stream Research Centre to observe chimpanzees in the wild. Her research interest is the effect of mother-offspring relationships on adult behavior.