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The Hidden Patterns of Relationships:

Clinical Applications of Family Systems Theory

Conference Details

Date: March 7, 2025
Times: 9:00 am – 4:15 pm ( zoom opens at 8:45 am)
Location: This is an online only conference.

Fees: (includes recording for 60 days)

  • FT Student 0r student in a Bowen Training Program: $100.00
  • Early Bird General Admission: $195.00
  • General Admission after Early Bird Date:  $225.00
  • Single Recording Only Fee: $195.00
  • Group Rate (3 or more per agency):  $165.00 per person
  • Group Recording Fee: $1,170 (up to 12 people per organization)

Spring Conference 2025 Brochure

Conference Description

How is a systems approach to therapy unique? What difference does it make to look at a client while keeping their family and relationship contexts in mind? Dr. Murray Bowen spent years observing the human family and how it functioned as an emotional system, where “change in one part of the system is followed by compensatory change in other parts of the system.”

This conference will highlight the practical applications of Bowen theory in the clinical setting and the specific ways a systems perspective offers creativity, flexibility, and versatility, from conceptualizing the presenting problem, assessing the broader family system in a family diagram, to marking progress and shifts in patterns in the family and other relationships.

Who is the Workshop for

This workshop is suitable for clinicians, practitioners, and students from all backgrounds in counselling, psychology and psychotherapy, not just those with previous training in Bowen family systems theory. The basics of Bowen theory will be covered as well as more in-depth application of theory.

Learning Objectives

  • How basic ideas of Bowen family systems theory can expand clinical thinking
  • The usefulness a systems perspective for clients
  • Practical ways to apply systems thinking in session

Registration

Early Bird Deadline is February 14, 2025.

Sales end March 6th.

Please use this Eventbrite link to register: Click here.

For inquiries, please email info@livingsystems.ca

Refunds

A refund is available before February 14, 2025, minus $30 Eventbrite/admin fee. There are no refunds after February 14, 2025 unless for an emergency as determined by Living Systems.

About the Presenters

Kathleen Smith, PhD, LPC

Kathleen Smith is an author, licensed therapist, and member of the Bowen Center faculty. She helps individuals and organizations think differently about their relationship challenges and begin to operate more thoughtfully and less anxiously. Kathleen is the author of Everything Isnt Terrible: Conquer Your Insecurities, Interrupt Your Anxiety, Finally Calm Down and True to You: A Therapists Guide to Stop Pleasing Others and Start Being Yourself. She also writes the popular newsletter, The Anxious Overachiever.

Katie White, RMFT, RCC

Katie White is a couple and family therapist who has been working clinically for over 20 years in the US, Australia and now in Vancouver, Canada. She has been studying and using Bowen Theory in her work and family life for 12 years.  She is the Executive Director of Living Systems, where she also teaches and supervises trainees, as well as having a private practice for individuals, couples and families.

Bruce Hiebert, PhD, RCC

Bruce Hiebert is an Associate Professor at University Canada West, where he teaches business ethics and
strategy. He has a deep interest in how people make decisions in the context of family life and has used Bowen theory to guide his research into historical patterns of community decision making. After exposure to Bowen theory in the 1980s, Bruce began studies at Living Systems in 2017 and has his own private practice.

Conference Agenda

9:00 am: Welcome

9:15 am: Dr. Kathleen Smith – A New Flavour of Relating: The Flexibility and Creativity in a Family Systems Approach to Therapy

11:00 am: Dr. Bruce Hiebert – Hidden Patterns and Constructive Insights: A Four Generation Family Analysis

12:00 pm: Lunch

1:00 pm: Dr. Kathleen Smith – A New Flavour of Relating: The Flexibility and Creativity in a Family Systems Approach to Therapy

2:30 pm: Katie White – Moving Around the System: A Way of Working Clinically using Bowen Family Systems Theory

3:30 pm: Panel Discussion

Letter of Attendance / CEU Credits

A Letter of Attendance is available for continuing education purposes.

Please select this option when registering.

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