The Family Systems Institute is a training institute that was founded in April 2004 by Jenny Brown assisted by Jo Wright. We specialise in post graduate training for professionals working with human systems (eg. mental health, education, health, religion, organisational / psychology). The mission of the Institute is to develop and apply family systems theory, as developed by Dr Murray Bowen, to assist people in their efforts to improve relationships. Background The plans to establish the Family Systems Institute in April 2004 were in response to the request of many in the family therapy and counselling community in Sydney. Having trained at the Family Institute of Westchester New York in the early 90s, Jenny Brown has been mindful of the value of a centre that offers both an introduction to Bowen’s theory as well as a comprehensive clinical program of supervision and training that allows for a deeper grasp of this very broad model of relationship systems. The Institute aims to provide a training setting that brings faculty and trainee’s thinking and research together in a collaborative manner. “Current post modern debates “have enlarged our thinking and teaching, but have not necessitated any basic change in our family therapy model, which includes all levels of the system from the biological and intrapsychic level of the individual, through the family level, to the socio-political-cultural context, and on to the ecological…" Thus Bowen theory, the most elaborated theoretical system in the family field, and perhaps the least understood and appreciated, has obviously tapped into something more than one person’s vision of the family as an emotional system. Bowen theory provides a set of principles that are sound enough, profound enough, and flexible enough to be applied to human situations, conditions, and dilemmas not yet dreamed of.” Betty Carter & Monica McGoldrick, Forward to Reweaving the Family Tapestry. Ed F Herz Brown 1990.
