Laura Havstad, PhD is the founder and director of Programs in Bowen Theory. She is a clinical psychologist with a therapy and consultation practice based on Bowen theory, in Sebastopol, California. Dr. Havstad is active in the Network for the Advancement of Bowen Theory at the Bowen Center in Washington DC, and she is an editorial consultant for the journal, Family Systems, published by the Bowen Center. Dr. Havstad received her training in Bowen theory from 1976 to 1980 in the Special Postgraduate Program in Family Systems Theory, while Murray Bowen directed it at Georgetown University in Washington DC. She studied psychology as an undergraduate at the University of California at Davis and received her doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Southern California, in 1980. Dr. Havstad has done numerous presentations on Bowen theory in Northern California and around the country. She has organized over 40 meetings on Bowen family systems theory and its applications.
Jan has studied Bowen theory since the 80’s and has a private psychotherapy practice in Sebastopol. Currently she sits on the Board of Directors and serves as Secretary & Treasurer of Programs in Bowen Theory. Her responsibilities with PBT are Meeting Administration and CE Coordination. Duties include most things clerical and financial, participant registration in the conferences, and issuing continuing education certificates. She has also been an on-going member of the Bowen Training Seminar since the ‘90’s. For 30+ years Jan worked in International Services at Sonoma State University, gradually taking on more responsibility until she retired as Director in fall of 2007. This work entailed helping international students adjust to life in the US and understand the American educational system, and helping Americans students to study abroad.
Kathy Sheffield has been a student of systems theory for 30 years, through participation in the Training Seminar and Programs in Bowen Theory and individual coaching. She has been a psychotherapist for 8 years, with a prior background as clinical nutritionist. She has an active research project on the relationship system as a variable in weight loss, and research associate for Dr. Havstad’s project on the family systems variable and the course of clinical symptoms. After receiving as a participant in Programs in Bowen Theory for many years, she was pleased to join the Board in 2017 to contribute to program development. She lives and has a practice in Nevada City, Ca.
Dr. Daniel Papero is author of Bowen Family Systems Theory and lectures internationally in family systems theory & psychotherapy, and organizational emotional systems. He is faculty and a director of the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family in Washington, DC.