Network Seminar

The Network Seminar for the Advancement of Bowen Theory brings together national and international regional leaders who offer education and training in Bowen theory in their local communities and beyond. Established in 2004, members of the Network Seminar meet three times a year, including the day after the Bowen Center’s Annual Symposium in November and the Spring Conference in April. The Seminar promotes a positive reciprocity between the Bowen Center and regional programs in the Network toward the common goal of extending Bowen theory into the future and making its ideas more accessible to others. The Network Seminar assists leaders who conduct established, viable programs with the challenges and opportunities they have and works to make the resources and faculty of the Bowen Center and the Network more accessible to one another. This cooperation strengthens the collaboration between Network programs nationally and internationally.

The Network Seminar is more than a coordination effort. It promotes thinking deeply about the challenges of teaching and learning Bowen theory, preventing dilution of the theory, and extending Bowen theory into the future in the context of national and international education and training programs. Network members regularly share their programs’ approaches to training, education, and research. They explore such topics as guiding principles and assumptions underlying their programs; a systems view of supervision, family assessment, and clinical research; utilization of the Bowen Archives for training and research; succession planning; and the introduction of Bowen theory into the larger community, including academia.

Network members collaborated to stimulate and support the First International Conference on Bowen Theory in Pittsburgh, PA, in August 2015, the Second International Conference in Hong Kong in May 2018, and the Third International Conference planned for Sweden in June 2021. Network members also have collaborated to establish, contribute toward, and administer a scholarship fund to help promising trainees attend the Bowen Center Postgraduate Program.

Specific criteria guide the selection of Network Seminar members. The criteria represent an attempt to select leaders who have the requisite training and experience to present the theory and its applications accurately. The Seminar attempts to assemble senior, accomplished people while including promising leaders who have established relatively new training and education programs. Recognizing that learning and teaching Bowen theory is a work in progress for every member, participation in the Network Seminar presumes an openness to learning from one another how best to create an educational process conducive to learning and applying the theory, both personally and professionally.