Clinical Assessment of the Family System: Emerging Models
8:30 Registration begins
Morning session:
9:00 Welcome (Laura Havstad, PhD, Programs in Bowen Theory Director)
9:10 A Dimensional Model of Family System Functioning (Daniel V. Papero, PhD, MSSW)
Bowen’s conceptualization of the human family as an emotional unit or system that affects the functioning of individual family members represents a radical departure from psychiatry’s focus on the individual, captured most clearly in the DSM. While still maintaining its focus on the individual, in 2011-2012 the National Institute of Mental Health proposed an alternative model to the categorical classification of the DSM. The RDoc model proposes six interactive domains each representing a continuum of basic human physiological systems that lie beneath the entire range of human functioning. The use of a dimensional or continuum model also can be used to capture underlying processes that support the functioning of the family as a unit. Relying on Bowen’s description of differentiation of self and the kinds of functioning associated with the degree of differentiation, it becomes possible to outline a five dimensional model of family functioning. This talk will present the model and the theoretical formulations upon which it rests.
10:10 Break
10:30 The Background to the Foreground: Tracking the Family Emotional System Variable with the Course of Clinical Symptoms in the Individual (Kathleen Sheffield, LMFT, RD)
A report on research using family systems evaluation to track the progression of shifts in the system, shifts in individual anxiety level and functioning, and successful weight loss. One goal is an evaluation methodology for use by trained clinicians to track family emotional process as it impacts the anxiety level and functioning of individual family members. Tracking the family system variable should lead to a better understanding of the course of symptoms and treatment outcomes for many clinical disorders.
11:30 The Symptom and the System (Laura Havstad, PhD)
Using the research framework developed in studying weight loss, one can study trajectories of individual resilience in the family in the context of family dynamics and the trajectory of the family resilience in the context of the individual functioning of its members.
11:50 Facilitated discussion
12:30 Lunch
Afternoon session:
2:00 Challenges in Modeling the Family System (Patrick Stinson, MA)
What methods make a family assessment both efficient and accurate? How might such methods compare with scientific methodology? One unique advantage of Bowen theory is that organizes clinical practice into a systematic scientific research effort. The theory itself describes predictable behaviors within the family which are more apparent the more systematically assessment data is collected. Mr. Stinson present his effort to develop an computer app as one way to organize data collection with frameworks such as Dan Papero’s dimensional assessment model and the research framework developed by Laura Havstad and Kathleen Sheffield.
2:30 Optimizing Outcomes for a Family in Crisis in the Initial Assessment: The Therapist Defines a Self using Bowen Family Systems Theory (Mercy Burton Russell, PhD)
Using a clinical case example, Mercy Burton Russell will describe how she based a therapeutic position on family systems assessment. By asking such questions as, “How vulnerable is the family? Who are the leaders? What is the history of open communication and contact, including with other generations?” she demonstrates how assessment using Bowen theory may differ from assessment using other theoretical frameworks.
3:00 Break
3:20 Discussion of the afternoon sessions
3:50 Clinical video
Video recording of a clinical example.
4:40 Facilitated discussion with conference participants
5:00 End
8:30 Registration begins
Morning session:
9:00 Welcome (Laura Havstad, PhD, Programs in Bowen Theory Director)
9:10 A Dimensional Model of Family System Functioning (Daniel V. Papero, PhD, MSSW)
Bowen’s conceptualization of the human family as an emotional unit or system that affects the functioning of individual family members represents a radical departure from psychiatry’s focus on the individual, captured most clearly in the DSM. While still maintaining its focus on the individual, in 2011-2012 the National Institute of Mental Health proposed an alternative model to the categorical classification of the DSM. The RDoc model proposes six interactive domains each representing a continuum of basic human physiological systems that lie beneath the entire range of human functioning. The use of a dimensional or continuum model also can be used to capture underlying processes that support the functioning of the family as a unit. Relying on Bowen’s description of differentiation of self and the kinds of functioning associated with the degree of differentiation, it becomes possible to outline a five dimensional model of family functioning. This talk will present the model and the theoretical formulations upon which it rests.
10:10 Break
10:30 The Background to the Foreground: Tracking the Family Emotional System Variable with the Course of Clinical Symptoms in the Individual (Kathleen Sheffield, LMFT, RD)
A report on research using family systems evaluation to track the progression of shifts in the system, shifts in individual anxiety level and functioning, and successful weight loss. One goal is an evaluation methodology for use by trained clinicians to track family emotional process as it impacts the anxiety level and functioning of individual family members. Tracking the family system variable should lead to a better understanding of the course of symptoms and treatment outcomes for many clinical disorders.
11:30 The Symptom and the System (Laura Havstad, PhD)
Using the research framework developed in studying weight loss, one can study trajectories of individual resilience in the family in the context of family dynamics and the trajectory of the family resilience in the context of the individual functioning of its members.
11:50 Facilitated discussion
12:30 Lunch
Afternoon session:
2:00 Challenges in Modeling the Family System (Patrick Stinson, MA)
What methods make a family assessment both efficient and accurate? How might such methods compare with scientific methodology? One unique advantage of Bowen theory is that organizes clinical practice into a systematic scientific research effort. The theory itself describes predictable behaviors within the family which are more apparent the more systematically assessment data is collected. Mr. Stinson present his effort to develop an computer app as one way to organize data collection with frameworks such as Dan Papero’s dimensional assessment model and the research framework developed by Laura Havstad and Kathleen Sheffield.
2:30 Optimizing Outcomes for a Family in Crisis in the Initial Assessment: The Therapist Defines a Self using Bowen Family Systems Theory (Mercy Burton Russell, PhD)
Using a clinical case example, Mercy Burton Russell will describe how she based a therapeutic position on family systems assessment. By asking such questions as, “How vulnerable is the family? Who are the leaders? What is the history of open communication and contact, including with other generations?” she demonstrates how assessment using Bowen theory may differ from assessment using other theoretical frameworks.
3:00 Break
3:20 Discussion of the afternoon sessions
3:50 Clinical video
Video recording of a clinical example.
4:40 Facilitated discussion with conference participants
5:00 End