Chronic Illness and the Family

Spring 2018 Conference – video available online!

Conference Details

This conference will explore how emotional process in the family can interact with the expression of certain genes in members of the family that affect our behaviour and our health. In addition, the conference will examine the possibility that modifying patterns of family interaction may alter the expression of genes linked to health and illness. Clinical cases will also be presented. Please see brochure for full description, including learning objectives.


Date: March 23 & 24, 2018 (Friday/Saturday)

Speakers: Dr. Michael Kerr, Dr. Steve Cole, Joan Jurkowski, LCPC.

Location: St. Paul’s Hospital 1081 Burrard Street Vancouver, BC V6Z

Cullen Family Lecture Theatre, Conference Centre, Providence, Level 1

Conference Speakers

Dr Michael E. Kerr, M.D. is a family psychiatrist. He trained under and worked with Murray Bowen M.D. for more than twenty years and then succeeded Dr. Bowen as Director of the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family.  He presents at conferences around the world and has many publications.


Dr. Steve Cole is a Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences in the UCLA School of Medicine. His research uses genomics and computational bioinformatics to map the biological pathways by which social environments influence gene expression by viral, cancer, and immune cell genomes. He pioneered the field of human social genomics.   


Joan Jurkowski is a registered LCPC who is on the faculty of the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family, Washington, DC and has a private practice in Baltimore, Maryland.  She has a longstanding personal and professional interest in the relationship between family emotional process and cancer.

Missed the Conference? Watch it online!

The entire conference is available as six online videos. You may purchase the videos by clicking here.


Watch a short video on Purpose and Gene Expression

To visit Dr. Cole’s website and key publications click here.


For a map to the conference location please click on the link below.

Map to St Paul’s Hospital and Conference Centre

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Living Systems Counselling is a registered society, charity# 107784308RR001. We are a leading provider of counselling, training, education, and research-based on Bowen family systems theory. We offer counselling for family, couples, addiction, mental health issues. 9 locations in the Vancouver Lower Mainland. We thank the BC Gaming Commission, District of North Vancouver, City of North Vancouver, Individual donors and our members for their support.

209-1500 Marine Drive, North Vancouver, BC, V7P 1T7

Telephone: 604.926.5496…….Email: info@livingsystems.ca