Please click on a name from the list below to read more about our board members.
Meet the Board and its Engagement with Bowen Theory
BOWEN SYSTEMS THEORY QUESTIONNAIRE
November 2025: Angela F. Budano
How did you first become aware of Bowen Systems Theory?
After the passing of my father, while seeking professional assistance with grief, I found Eileen B. Gottlieb M Ed, LFMT who listed Bowen Systems Theory in her biography. The application of biology to human nature intrigued me from the start. During our first session, the value of studying the family versus individualized treatment prompted a deeper dive into family history and development of my family diagram. This intellectualizing served to help manage my emotions, define with clarity my situation as a new full-time intimate caregiver for my Mother and to operationalize a path forward.
How long have you been involved?
Since 2014 and I began training with Florida Family Research Network [FFRN] in 2015.
What is the most significant personal application of Bowen System Theory?
It was challenging being thrust into a full-time caregiver role for my Mother with a neurodegenerative disease triggered instantaneously upon the loss of my Father. The large part of my successful maneuvering through those life changes and others that followed is credited to my thinking refined through the years of studying Bowen Systems Theory. Even in cases of managing her care at a facility by harnessing the principles such as triangles to put myself in the inside or outside position as needed. My Mother and I were individually able to hold onto self through the process, no small feat. Our health outcomes were optimized thanks to this application of theory.
In what ways have you been engaged with Bowens Systems Theory professionally?
I am not a clinician, but I did seek a certificate from the College of Medicine in Aging and Gerontology [while caregiving and during the pandemic] and facilitate caregiver and grief support groups. The application of theory is evidenced in that educational accomplishment as is the ability to be useful to others in the caregiving role. I have also been a trainee in the FFRN programs since 2015 and currently serve on the Board.