Carrie Collier from The Bowen Centre will be presenting this workshop live online from the US.

The same tools that help individuals establish more functional relationships with their families can be utilized to help the human bridge the disconnection to the natural world. Bowen held that bridging cutoff in the relationships in one’s family is necessary for the integration of the intellectual system and the emotional system. It is in this integration that humans sense the criticalness of staying connected to family members and to the Earth. The family and its connections to the Earth are the livelihood of the human. Bowen’s professional letters present a different voice, one in which he offers rich explanations in his responses to a wide variety of questions. The questions span from family systems theory and worldly concerns to family problems and symptoms. The concepts of his theory are brought to the fore in Bowen’s responses. He provided answers to a wide variety of questions through the lens of Bowen family systems theory.

Learning Goals - 

• Gaining a better understanding of how families are adaptive and natural systems.

• Learning how family relationships impact individual functioning.

• Identify four mechanisms that families use to manage anxiety in the nuclear family.

• Identify three global challenges that are exacerbating family anxiety and emotional cut-off.

• Identify the uses of the family diagram in family therapy.

• Understanding Bowen's use of language to describe the family as a natural system.

About Carrie Collier

Carrie E. Collier became director of the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family in summer 2020. She completed her master’s in rehabilitation counseling from the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, SC, in 1999. There she became a licensed professional counselor while working in the emergency department conducting psychiatric evaluations and assessments. Dr. Collier earned her PhD in counseling from The George Washington University in Washington, DC. She completed her clinical residency at the Bowen Center Clinic and trained in the Postgraduate Program at the Bowen Center from 2007-2010. She was appointed to the associate faculty in 2013 and the board in 2018. She served as director of the online program beginning in 2016. She also has served as an editor for the journal Family Systems, 2018-present.

Dr. Collier has practiced as a Licensed Professional Counselor since 2000. She has provided outpatient and inpatient counseling services to couples and families, children, adolescents, adults, and older adults in South Carolina, Maryland, Washington, DC, and Virginia. She has offered face-to-face and telephonic couples counseling and premarital and marital counseling services. Dr. Collier’s past experiences in the mental health field have led her to use Bowen family systems theory in her practices with individuals, couples, and families. Some of her more successful counseling outcomes have occurred when the couple, individual, and/or the family approached and resolved problems using Bowen family systems theory.

Dr. Collier’s research focus includes parenting in family systems and family system responses to challenges. She has conducted research on the relation between wisdom and ethics of care in late life and parenting. Dr. Collier is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Counseling and Human Development at The George Washington University, Washington, DC. She has taught at Trinity Washington University in the Department of Counseling and Human Development and at Marymount University in the Counseling and Forensic Psychology Department.