Worskshop Overview:
This two-part workshop provides an opportunity to better understand the basic patterns of adapting to the parental family in childhood that can present obstacles to maturity. In his research on family functioning, Bowen observed that these patterns are used in all other relationships throughout life.
Emotional Cutoff & Unresolved Attachment
Bowen developed the concept of emotional cutoff to better understand the process between the generations. In his observance of families, he noticed the phenomenon of degrees unresolved emotional attachment.
All things being equal, the life course of people is determined by the amount of unresolved emotional attachment, the amount of anxiety that comes from it, and the way they deal with this anxiety.
(Bowen, [1974], 1978, p.537)
Personal Study and Application
The presenter has spent the last 40 plus years studying Bowen family systems theory and working to resolve degrees of unresolved emotional attachment in her life and to gain a better understanding of the degrees of unresolved in the multigenerational family emotional process and its impact on the present.
Attachment & Dependency: Key Concepts
Early in his family research, Bowen used unresolved emotional attachment interchangeably with unresolved emotional dependency.
The roots of dependency will be examined in Bowen’s understanding of the emotional system intimately connecting the human to all life. Definitions and markers of degrees of the unresolved attachment and examples from the presenter’s own life will be explored. In addition, a beginning questionnaire for participants interested in exploring their own degrees of unresolved attachment that present obstacles to personal maturity will be made available.
Workshop Goals & Follow- Up
The goal of this two-part workshop is to bring awareness of this phenomenon to participants. There will also be follow-up research for those interested.
For Participants
Thank you for your attention and participation. Your willingness to explore these concepts and engage in the workshop is greatly appreciated, and it is hoped that the insights gained will support your journey toward greater understanding and maturity. – Selden Dunbar Illick
Course Details
| Course Code: |
WM 01/26 |
| Date & Time: |
May 5 and June 2, 2026 (Tues)
8:00 pm – 9:30 pm
|
| Fee: |
HKD $680 (COF Membership / Group of Two : HKD $650)
|
| Instructor: |
Selden Dunbar Illick
|
| Language: |
English |
Instructors
Selden Dunbar Illick
Selden Dunbar Illick has been studying and applying Bowen family systems theory to her life and to her clinical practice for over 40 years. She founded the Princeton Family Center in 1987, based on Murray Bowen’s natural systems theory. She is presently a Trustee Emerita of the 501(c) (3) Princeton Family Center for Education, where she works with parents exploring the multigenerational process in their families. Additionally, at PFCE, she presents and participates in a program called Stories from Real Life. She also served on the Board of the Florida Family Research Network and is currently involved with the New England Study of Bowen Theory.
Since 1983, she has been in private practice in New Jersey and Florida. She currently resides in Massachusetts and is a Bowen family systems consultant with people interested in managing themselves better in the challenges of everyday life in family, work, and social systems.
She is a frequent presenter on better understanding the impact of unresolved patterns from childhood that present challenges in the present. She contributed a chapter titled “Toward Understanding and Measuring Emotional Cutoff” in Emotional Cutoff and “Unresolved Emotional Attachments in a Family with Chronic Illness and Death” in Death and Chronic Illness in the Family: Bowen Family Theory Perspectives
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