The FSI Graduate Group provides structured ways to continue engagement with Bowen Theory for graduates of relevant training programs including the FSI’s Advanced Certificate in Couple and Family Systems Therapy and Certificate in Family Systems Theory and Application. In 2026, the FSI extends the invitation to graduates of international Bowen Theory training programs to join the FSI’s Grad Group learning community.
The curriculum focus for the 2026 program is designed to explore the following assumption in Bowen Theory:
“[Hu]man is conceived as the most complex form of life that evolved from the lower forms and is intimately connected with all living things. The most important difference between man and the lower forms is his cerebral cortex and his ability to think and reason. Intellectual functioning is regarded as distinctly different from emotional functioning, which man shares with the lower forms. Emotional functioning includes the automatic forces that govern protoplasmic life. It includes the forces that biology defines as instinct, reproduction, the automatic activity controlled by the automatic nervous system, subjective emotional and feeling states, and the forces that govern relationship systems” (FTiCP, pg. 304-5).
The 2026 Program will include the following meetings:
The introductory meeting in January will outline the new structure for FSI Grad Group in 2026. There will be an opportunity for members to elect a stream of learning that aligns to their goals and resources in 2026. There will be a stream that supports an efforts to observe systems gathering data to develop hypotheses about a systems functioning, and there will be an project/presenter stream which aims to support efforts to test out hypotheses about systems or an effort to take a dominant paradigm concept and conduct systems research to deepen an understanding of the concept.
“When Bowen (1978) examined the relationship system of the family, he moved from thinking in terms of a collection o f relatively autonomous individuals toward thinking in terms of the group as an emotional unit. Following years of observation, Bowen observed that the functioning of family members is regulated more by family relationships than previously thought. What accounts for the variability in functioning among family members? What mechanisms heighten the vulnerability of family members to dysfunction? What is the relationship between the functioning of family members in past, present, and future generations? What factors influence the transmission of family patterns from generation to generation? These are but a few of the questions that the systems-oriented model for family researched based on Bowen Theory addresses”.(Keller in Handbook of Bowen Family Systems Theory and Research Methods, 2020, pg. 49).
In 2026 Graduate Group Membership will also include an increase in access to a range of FSI resources available for self-directed learning in addition to the structured meetings throughout the year. Grad Group membership in 2026 includes access to a range of BFST literature including:
In 2026 there will be new streams for learning available – an observer stream and a researcher/presenter stream – giving flexibility for participants to decide on their level of participation in the group and personal and professional goals for the year. Find out more about the FSI Graduate Group 2026 Stream Options, that will be discussed in more detail at the January 2026 online 45-minute introductory meeting.
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