Martina Palombi will be presenting this workshop on Borderline Personality and Mental Disorders. 

This workshop will explore the Bowen family systems theory (BFST) idea that a mental disorder such as borderline personality disorder or other mental disorders belong to the family system rather than the identified patient. A case study will be explored illustrating how the emotional process moves between individuals within a family system so that when relationship processes become severely compromised, one member absorbs more of the stress, becoming vulnerable to acute symptoms.

The workshop will introduce the idea of ‘differentiation of self’, ‘chronic anxiety’ and ‘triangles’ (all core BFST concepts)- and how the potential differentiating effort of any family member and the decrease in overall system-anxiety, has a ripple effect on the whole family, often resulting in the symptom reduction of one or more family members. In shifting the theoretical lens from an individual-medico-diagnostic one to a BFST one, we get to see how all family members are expressions of a family organism, as well as players in the symptoms emerging in one (or conversely in the increase of adaptiveness).

Alongside a theoretical presentation and a case study illustration, this workshop will have ample time for interactivity, both in the way of Q & As, as well as in inviting participants to practice applying Bowen Theory ideas to a case study in smaller groups.

About Martina 

Martina Palombi has been a psychotherapist for 17 years in both the private and public sector. Her first training was in Gestalt Psychotherapy. In 2016 Martina completed her Adv.Cert. in Couple & Family Systems Therapy through The Family Systems Institute and soon after joined The Family Systems Practice where she worked for three years. In 2022 she became an accredited Clinical Family Therapist through the Australian Association of Family Therapy. In 2021 Martina completed her Master of Social Work and in 2023 she was fully accredited as a Mental Health Social Worker through the Australian Association of Social Work.

She currently works in her private practice in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs where she sees families, couples and individuals as well as offering clinical supervision. Martina also works with parents as an accredited Parent Hope Project clinician. Her interest in Bowen Family Systems Theory as a theory of human behaviour has led her to publish three peer-reviewed articles with the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy exploring its clinical and personal application.

Martina is a faculty member of The Family Systems Institute and has been teaching and supervising for the FSI for the last few years. In 2024 her article ‘Borderline Personality Disorder: A Symptom of the Family System’ was published in a special edition of Bowen Theory in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy- she subsequently presented this paper at last year’s Family Systems Institute’s annual conference.

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