60th Annual Symposium on Family Theory and Family Psychotherapy
The Annual Symposium on Family Theory and Family Psychotherapy is the most important meeting on Bowen theory and its applications. It brings together the liveliest minds in the Bowen network to present, question, and discuss their latest research and ideas. The Symposium also features a Distinguished Guest Lecturer from another scientific discipline whose research is relevant to Bowen theory.
Distinguished Guest Lecturer: Caitlin O’Connell, PhD
Caitlin O’Connell is an Instructor at Harvard Medical School, studying the elephant’s low frequency ear and hearing, funded by NIH. She has been studying elephant society in the wild in Namibia for thirty years and has written dozens of scientific articles on her research, in addition to eight popular books, several winning numerous awards. She was awarded a National Geographic research grant to study seismic communication in elephants, resulting in numerous scientific publications.
In 2007, she was awarded “Outstanding Young Alumna” by her Ph.D. alma mater, University of California, Davis in recognition of her elephant communication discoveries. The Smithsonian documentary about her research won the CINE Golden Eagle award in 2013. Prior to her position at Harvard, she was a consulting Assistant Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine, where she developed a vibrotactile hearing aid inspired by the elephant’s vibrotactile sense. Dr. O’Connell is the co-founder and CEO of the elephant nonprofit, Utopia Scientific, and runs a long-term elephant field site in Namibia where she returns every summer with a team of experts and Namibian students. She is a Fellow of the Explorer’s Club and her books have been translated into French, Dutch, Chinese and Korean.
DR. O’CONNELL WILL BE SPEAKING ON THE FOLLOWING TOPICS AT THE SYMPOSIUM:
Wild Rituals: What families can learn from nonhuman animals about the importance of ritual in strengthening bonds and reducing stress
Dr. O’Connell will present an overview of major themes in her book, Wild Rituals, and review why all social animals engage in ritual and for what purposes, and why that is relevant to families.
Elephant Family Rituals and Parallels to Humans
Elephant families experience the same social and environmental pressures as human families. These parallels will be discussed in light of Dr. O’Connell’s long-term elephant field work, where she will review known elephant family histories and show how visual, tactile and vocal rituals serve to strengthen relationships, facilitate coalitions, coordinate action, as well as mediate stressors imposed by outside influences.
The conference day provides Category I continuing education credit for social workers and for counselors.