A VERY VALUABLE LEARNING EXPERIENCE

If someone asked me to state the most significant thing learned through my participation at BTEC, I would say it is "systems thinking." I find that "systems thinking" enables a much calmer approach to the "stressors" life brings and enables a more accurate assessment of any given situation. The benefits, in practical terms... "whys" are avoided, facts are gathered, judgements are put aside, blaming has no place, emotions don't dictate, problem solving happens, and unnecessary stress is left behind. THANK YOU JEAN, DR. DWYER, AND LINDA FOR YOUR TIME AND EFFORTS IN TEACHING BOWEN THEORY!!

March Blog Training

Great training session for BTEC Bloggers today.  Lee Blackburn was very helpful to those present.

A Nugget Gained through BTEC!

During supervision yesterday Jean said that the work she has done through Bowen Theory Education has prepared her to "meet life as it comes to her" versus "reacting to life." This is my nugget for the month that inspires me to keep working.

In developing self, one must be aware of the level of anxiety within the system to determine one's best approach of relating to it.

During last month's supervision session, I wrote down this principal - "In developing self, one must be aware of the level of anxiety within the system to determine one's best approach of relating to it." There is nothing like personal experience to validate a principle and increase understanding! Last evening during a conversation with a family member, I made a statement that resulted in "shut down." Before learning Bowen Theory, my response to the shut down would have been to distance from the situation. Now, however, I saw two opportunities. One was, of course, to develop self and the other being an opportunity to decrease the level of anxiety within the system. The first thing that happened was an "ah ha" moment. The subject principle gained from supervision became crystal clear. I considered my statement - was it rational...thoughtful? My statement was rational, but not thoughtful - not thoughtful in the sense that my timing was off. I did not take into consideration the level of anxiety within the system before relating to it. I then had to ask myself what interfered with my inattentiveness to the level of anxiety? It was my own anxiety!!! Ha! So now what? I have a choice. I can choose to distance from the family member or I can relate to this family member from my intellect. I chose the latter. Relating to another from the intellect sounds cold and indifferent on the surface but in reality, this gave me courage to go back into the system and relate to my family member with more understanding, without judgement, and non-defensively. Thus... differentiation! And the result... the level of anxiety decreased and communication is open again!

Thank you to all of you who have tirelessly worked to bring BTEC to Chattanooga. I am looking forward to our next time together.

* Replaced this test post with Tanya's comments.  The original comment thread is still included to retain the context. - Lee

Symposium

September 30, 2011 is the first annual Symposium offer by the recently established Bowen Theory Education Center, Inc. in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The featured speaker is Dr. Daniel V. Papero, LCSW. He is a faculty member of The Bowen Center for the Study of the Family, Washington, DC. Dr. Papero is an internationally recognized leader in the effort to present Bowen Theory to clinicians, researchers and thinkers. He has promoted the application of the theory to every aspect of the human life, including business, education, and government. Dr. Papero is the author of Bowen Family Systems Theory, published in 1990.

The topic of the day is: On the Edge: Living, Working and Leading in an Anxious World. Anxiety is a fact of life. Bowen Theory provides a guide for dealing with relationships in times of high anxiety. This day will focus on understanding relationships through the lens of Bowen Theory and principles for managing oneself effectively within those relationships.

Go to www.bowentheoryeducationcenter.org for further details.

New site is live

After a good bit of time reworking and adding more content, the new site is live.  If you see any glaring mistakes or things that can be improved, please let me know.  It will be good to see how the new site gets picked up in the search engines.

Blogger and site setup

Working on the layout and template for the Blogger site for BTEC.  Let me know what you think of the selection of books for the background.  Added a scaled back version of the site navigation to Blogger which is currently linked to the test site.  On the Google Apps Site side of things, I moved from the automatic to manual navigation menu.  It is more initial work to setup, but provides more control and was the best way to link in the blog.  All of the blog or RSS embedding gadgets look really ruff, so I decided to go with just a navigation link to Blogger.