61st 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.

Darby Saxbe, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Southern California, where she is also the Director of Clinical Training for the clinical psychology doctoral program. Her current work focuses on the transition to parenthood and follows couples from pregnancy into the first year postpartum. A related study examines the “fathering brain,” using neuroimaging to scan fathers both prenatally and again postpartum. She has studied the transformative impact of new parenthood on the brain, body, and mind, as well as the enduring legacy of early family environments on child well-being. Dr. Saxbe has also examined physiological synchrony within families and has published multiple studies that find hormonal linkage within couples and parent-child dyads. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, and she received a Fulbright Fellowship to study the parenting brain in Spain in fall 2019. 

DR. SAXBE WILL BE SPEAKING ON THE FOLLOWING TOPICS AT THE SYMPOSIUM:

• The Transition to Parenthood as a Window for Health and Adaptation Within Families  

  This presentation will describe a program of research on the transition to parenthood as a window for neuroplasticity in both mothers and fathers, and highlight the importance of family's shift from dyad to triad.  

Gabriel A. León, M.A. is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in Clinical Psychology at the University of Southern California. He works in the Neuroendocrinology of Social Ties (NEST) Laboratory under the mentorship of Dr. Darby Saxbe. Gabriel’s research focuses on understanding the interpersonal processes that underlie the formation and maintenance of close bonds in families facing adversity. His work capitalizes on multimodal, time-intensive data collected during family interactions (such as language, facial affect, and physiological stress), data collected in daily life, and geospatial indicators of stressors outside the family.Gabriel’s research is funded by the Ford Predoctoral Fellowship program, the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, and the National Institutes of Health. In his clinical work, Gabriel is dedicated to serving families coping with chronic and acute stress  – including formerly incarcerated parents and foster families.

 GABRIEL LEÓN WILL BE SPEAKING ON THE FOLLOWING TOPICS AT THE SYMPOSIUM:

• Interpersonal Dynamics of Resilience and Wellbeing Within the Family System: A Multi Method Approach

  This presentation will describe his research on dyadic and triadic interpersonal processes that promote family functioning. His work employs a biopsychosocial framework – with a methodological toolkit that uses physiological, behavioral, and linguistic data streams to analyze families’ interpersonal dynamics.