Assisting Parents to Make a Project out of Themselves and not Their Child: Jenny Brown, PhD

Presenter: Jenny Brown, PhD

Faculty and Director Emeritus at the Family Systems Institute

Dr Bowen in his original NIMH research described:

“ The favorable results with parents who could make a project out of themselves was a turning point in both the theory and practice of family psychotherapy. (Bowen, M. Family Therapy in Clinical Practice p. 96).”

This lecture will describe a long term effort to assist anxious parents in discovering the benefits of shifting their energy direction from a vulnerable child to working on themselves in their family relationships. It will describe the observed and reported challenges for both parents and from within the treating systems and the signs of parents making progress and subsequent implications for children. The lecture will draw from doctoral research data and clinical data from a Bowen theory-based clinical intervention program developed by Dr Brown (www.parenthopeproject.com.au).