Victoria Harrison, Director, CSNSF in Houston
Signs of progress at CSNSF in Houston in 2005 include:
- Building the office and classroom for CSNSF onto my property at 729 Rutland in the Houston Heights
- Launching Defining Leaders: An Educational Program for Clergy under the direction of Dr. Robert Creech
- Purchase of a 3rd F1000 Biofeedback & Neurofeedback System with the funds provided through the Caskie Research Award
- Obtaining the first pilot data for a Mother and Father and Daughter, the nuclear family emotional triangle
- Increased number of writers for & subscribers to the quarterly publication, Family Systems Forum
- Beginning a monthly Consultation Seminar Series for therapists, business consultants, and other professionals who want to develop a foundation in Bowen family systems theory for their practice.
Over 150 people attended the educational programs at CSNSF in Houston in 2004-2005 program year. These included:
- A series of 5 classes for Adult Education Staff at Houston Community College
- Three conferences focused on ways that Bowen theory address the challenges that clergy face in their own families and in their congregations
- A four week Introduction & Overview of Bowen family systems theory which was well attended by therapists from various organizations
- The monthly videotape series.
Several people who attended these programs applied to attend the first year of Defining Leaders (7); continue to attend the monthly Videotape Seminar (10); make use of coaching for purposes in their own life and family and work (30); attend the monthly Consultation Seminar Series (5) and continue the study and work involved in learning and putting Bowen theory to use.
How does one document the "ripple effect" that is stirred by these people and these programs? In what ways do they contribute toward improved health in the family and in the community? I will be working on that in the year ahead.
Return to Top
Letter from Louise Rauseo
Director, CSNSF Border Programs
Ongoing programs in El Paso/Juarez aim to introduce people to BFST, to
provide resources for study and applications of theory, and to further
development of local leaders. Some local programs provide in-depth
study for 8-10 continuing participants in the form of Structured Study
of Bowen Theory (2006-2007) and Bowen Theory in Family, Work, and
Society (2006), meeting bimonthly. Yearly conferences introduce Bowen
Theory to a larger audience as well as providing broader contact with
applications of theory, e.g. Human Nature: Built for Differentiation
in November of 2005.
In 2005-2006:
- 122 people attended conferences and classes in El Paso.
- 6 people served on Community Advisory Board
- 2 individuals who studied at the Bowen Center assumed greater responsibility for teaching & program development.
New developments at CSNSF at the Border include:
- Bowen Video Conference scheduled for November 2006 with probable monthly follow-up. (Using videotapes purchased and donated by participants here.)
- Spanish Language Programs In Cd. Juarez, MX. Louise Rauseo with Ada Luisa Trillo
- Monthly programs for a Womens Cooperative sponsored by Dominican Sisters.
- Classes and consultation for leaders. Started in January 2006
- Larger group of women in the coop. (Most women in this group are not literate but very motivated for learning.) Fall of 2006
Funding to provide increased publicity, grant writing,
teleconference capacity, and administrative support would help create
visibility and stability such as an office and small administrative
staff. There is also a great need to increase the availability of
Spanish language materials in this area that require funding for
translation and publication. Such materials can also help make the
website available to a larger bilingual audience. Finally, a small
pilot study of immigration and family emotional process could be further
developed with additional funding.
Return to Top
Letter from the Director - 2004 Activities
Michael H. Quinn, PH.D, Director
Thanks to the ideas and the initiative of leaders in Bowen theory from
all over Texas, next year CSNSF's educational program will extend
applications of systems thinking beyond the family to organizations.
These conferences will include Denton for the first time, as well as
Austin, El Paso and Houston. At the same time, there are study courses
available in Austin and El Paso if there is sufficient interest, and a
research program involving more systematic study of natural systems and
the family is becoming developed.
Kathleen Wiseman, MBA, Bowen Center faculty, will come to Austin's
Seminary of the Southwest on Saturday, January 24, 2004, to present her
thinking about the impact of anxiety on business and industry. Ms.
Wiseman is a business consultant whose work in organizational
development springs from her primary interest of understanding behavior
and adaptation in workplace environments. Her 25-year professional
experience has included consulting to government agencies, large
corporations, nonprofit organizations, entrepreneurial firms, farms,
multi-site manufacturing facilities, newspapers and family businesses.
Ms. Wiseman is currently president of the Family Firm Institute Research
and Education Foundation, and has served as president of the Family Firm
Institute. She is founder and president of Working Systems, Inc., a
consulting form located in Washington, DC, and creator of a radio and
video production firm that has created "Why Work: Stories from the
American Workplace."
Katherine Donato, PhD will present her research on Mexican migration in
El Paso on February 6, 2004, with Louise Rausseo, Director of CSNSF's El
Paso Programs. The program is entitled, "Migration, Emotional Cutoff and
Health." Dr. Donato is a sociologist at Rice University. This conference
may include a second date on February 7th in Juarez, Mexico. Details
will be announced later.
I am also pleased to announce two conferences at Austin's Seminary of
the Southwest with lecturers who are new to CSNSF's educational programs
as featured speakers, but widely known in Texas and across North America
for their leadership as systems consultants to congregations. On
Saturday, April 24, 2004, Rev. Randall Frost, an ordained Presbyterian
minister, Fellow of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, and
Director of North Shore Counseling Centre in North Vancouver, British
Columbia, will lecture on "Bowen Theory as the Theory of Choice for
Pastoral Care and Counseling." Rev. Frost has written and taught on
topics such as faith and functioning, the relation of Bowen theory to
theological understanding and issues of the relation of science and
theology. In Summer, 2004, Eileen Raffaniello Barbella, Ph.D, a licensed
psychologist, will teach on the topic of "spiritual coaching." She
describes spiritual coaching as an effort to use principles and thinking
about the human from Bowen theory and principles and thinking about
spiritual development from Ignatian spirituality, as well as the notion
from Thomas Aquinas that "grace builds on nature." Many readers and
friends of CSNSF will recall that Dr. Raffaniello Barbella practiced in
Austin for a number of years. She will be returning for the first time
to teach in this city since moving to the Houston area.
I also want to emphasize that more intensive educational opportunities
are available for those motivated to commit to studying systems theory
and its applications. The Center for the Study of Natural Systems and
the Family will sponsor an introductory course in Applications of Bowen
Theory in Austin one Saturday a month from September 2003-May 2004. When
a Bowen Theory Conference is scheduled on a Saturday, the course will
meet the Friday before the conference. CSNSF also will sponsor an
introductory course in Applications of Bowen Theory in El Paso over four
Saturdays from October 2003-April 2004. These courses will emphasize
theoretical concepts and their applications to family and other social
systems, such as the church and the workplace, and will consist of
introductory lectures and reading materials. The introductory lectures
and readings will include the basic fundamentals of Bowen theory and
facts from the natural sciences relevant to the human family. The
courses are designed for anyone motivated to know more about family
relationship systems including working parents, stay-home parents,
health care professionals, clergy, teachers and organizational
consultants and mental health practitioners who want to learn a systems
perspective. Each four-hour session will include lecture and discussion,
followed by group supervision. Participants have the opportunity to
present topics of interest regarding their own family, in group
supervision and/or in individual consultations. Individual consultation
will be offered monthly between sessions by telephone and/or e-mail.
Tuition: $600 per person. There must be a minimum of six individuals
willing to commit for one year for the program in Austin and eight
individuals for the program in El Paso. If you have questions, please
contact me (512/482-1998; mhquinn@aol.com).
CSNSF is developing a stronger commitment to research as well. Victoria
Harrison, MA, John Mathias, MD and Toni Ziegler, PhD have written a
research grant, "The Study of Reactivity and Family Relationships in
Health and Reproduction: Endometriosis as a Model," and are in the
process of seeking $50,000 to fund a two year study. Its purposes are:
Phase 1 will investigate emotional reactivity in mothers, fathers and
daughters who have endometriosis, using measures of physiological
reactivity, hormonal activity, and self-report of stress. Phase 1 of the
study will also identify factors in the history and functioning of the
family that produce heightened anxiety reactions in family members. A
group of parents whose daughters have been diagnosed with endometriosis
will be compared with a group of parents with daughters who do not have
any medical or mental health symptoms. Phase 1 will be completed within
one month. Families will be randomly assigned to subgroups for Phase 2
and begin the second month.
Phase 2 of the study will evaluate coaching in family systems and
self-regulation with biofeedback to reduce the level of reactivity in
the family. It is predicted that decreased reactivity for one of the
parents will have a beneficial effect on her daughter's response to
treatment, as well as a reduction in symptoms, in hospitalizations, in
medication over a year and a reduction in recurrence in future years.
The group of families whose daughters have endometriosis will be
separated into subsets in which one parent alone participates in
coaching, a parent and daughter participate in coaching and daughter
alone participates in coaching. These groups will be followed for one
year on a monthly basis and once a year thereafter. Dr. Mathias and Dr.
Robert Franklin will provide referrals for mothers and daughters with
confirmed endometriosis. They will also provide medical treatment and
evaluation for Phase 2 of the study. Dr. Ziegler, Director of Hormone
Assay Lab, Wisconsin Primate Research Center and professor of Psychology
at University of Wisconsin at Madison, recommended a user-friendly, home
based urine collection method and will conduct hormone assay at her
world class lab. Questions about this study can be directed to Victoria
Harrison, who will conduct family history interviews with biofeedback
and neurofeedback measures of reactivity for Phase 1, and coaching for
all subgroups in Phase 2.
Louise Rauseo is in the process of writing a research proposal examining
emotional cutoff and symptom development multigenerationally in Mexican
families immigrating to the United States. This pilot study is expanding
previous work she has done investigating the impact of family contact on
the health of women immigrating to the U.S.
Return to Top
