Keynote 2: What our history as Systemic Family Therapists suggests about our Priorities for the Future

Biography

Dr. Adrian Blow grew up in South Africa and is Professor of the Human Development and Family Studies Department. He is the former Chair of the Department of Human Development and Family Studies and the former Director of the MSU Couple and Family Therapy program. He obtained his PhD from Purdue University in 1999, served on the faculty at Saint Louis University for six years, and subsequently joined Michigan State in 2005. His research focuses broadly on families and trauma, and on military families in particular. He also studies and writes about change processes in interventions pertaining to marital, couple, and family therapy including a wide range of articles on common factors across theories of systemic family therapy. He is the associate editor of The Handbook of Systemic Family Therapy, Volume 3, which focuses on Systemic Family Therapy with Couples. He has won several awards including the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy Training Award (2017), the Michigan State University Community Engagement Scholarship Award (CESA), and the Michigan State University Outreach and Engagement Distinguished Partnership Award for Community-Engaged Research. He is the current President of AAMFT.

Abstract

What our history as Systemic Family Therapists suggests about our Priorities for the Future

In this talk, Adrian will look back at the field and describe its theoretical and research history highlighting both strengths and gaps in our work over the years. Next, he will identify opportunities and priorities for our future work based on our history. He will draw on his unique perspective as President of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, as well as his experiences as a family therapy researcher, author, and associate editor of the Handbook of Systemic Family Therapy.