Working with Emotional Cutoff and Distance: A Challenge in Applying Family Systems Theory
Register here: https://www.wpfc.net/event/annual-fall-conference/
Friday, October 13, 2023 – 8:30 AM – 4:00 PM
Saturday, October 14, 2023 – 9:00AM – 4:30 PM
Hybrid Format – Available both in person* and online** via Zoom. All registrants will have access to a video recording of the conference.
*In Person at Nova Place Conference Center
100 S. Commons, Pittsburgh, PA 15212
View the Nova Place Conference Center on Google Maps
**Online registrants will be emailed information to connect to the conference on the morning of each day at 7:00AM, and participants are asked to connect fifteen minutes before conference start time. Participants are strongly encouraged to become familiar with the use of ZOOM technology before the meeting.
About the 2023 Pittsburgh Family Systems Conference and Symposium
Since its inception in 1979 by Paulina McCullough MSW, WPFC’s annual fall conference and symposium has provided a forum for lay and professional persons to present their ideas and efforts to apply family systems theory. Continuing a multi-year theme of challenges in applying Bowen theory, this year’s conference focuses on the intriguing concept of emotional cutoff. Keynote presentations addressing this concept will start off each day and be followed by talks on various aspects of cutoff and related topics in family systems theory. Lively panel discussions among the speakers and Q & A sessions for both in-person and online participants will round out the two-day event.
An optional, informal reception will conclude the day on Friday, featuring light refreshments and the opportunity to socialize with in-person presenters, fellow attendees, and WPFC faculty and board.
Conference Theme
Murray Bowen M.D. described his concept of emotional cutoff in 1975 as a process between generations of a family, varying in intensity with the degree of unresolved emotional attachment between young adults and their parents. For the younger generation, getting geographical or emotional distance from their parents may seem to promise relief from the felt intensity of parental pressure or conflict.
In fact, distance can be useful in assuring safety and navigating challenging situations between the generations and in a variety of other relationships. However, relationship distance and cutoff can also result in long-term declines in the effectiveness of families and social groups. Avoided conflicts can remain unaddressed and unresolved, and systems can become less flexible and innovative in addressing future challenges. The stress and anxiety of an original conflict can be sustained in normalized distant relationships, long after the original triggering issues are forgotten.
This conference will explore emotional cutoff from diverse perspectives including its relationship to transgenderism, clinical case studies featuring cutoff, personal observations of family cutoff and efforts to bridge it, and the benefits of extended family connections, to name a few.
Keynote Presenter
WPFC is pleased to announce Priscilla Friesen LICSW as the conference keynote speaker. Ms. Friesen wrote the seminal article, “Emotional Cutoff and the Brain,” which was published in Peter Titelman’s book, Emotional Cutoff, in 2003.
Ms. Friesen first encountered Bowen family systems theory in 1976 while in graduate school at the University of Kansas. Once kindled, her interest compelled her to move to Washington DC and begin her 45 years’ professional association with Bowen theory and the Bowen Center for Study of the Family.
In her decades of teaching and clinical work, Ms. Friesen has pursued a fascination with how the brain, mind, and relationships operate in synchrony. Her two presentations at this conference will reflect this enduring interest:
Emotional Cutoff Redux: An Update on Emotional Cutoff and the Brain will review research and experience since Friesen’s 2003 article on the relationship of brain physiology and the functioning of individuals in systems marked by varying degrees of emotional connection and cutoff.
Emotional Cutoff and the Process of Aging and Death will explore the relationship of emotional cutoff to the course of aging and death in a family system.