A Transpersonal Feminist Approach to Family Systems

This paper presents a preliminary description of A Transpersonal Feminist Approach to Family Systems (ATFAFS) as taught at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (ITP) between 1995 and 2002. In this approach, students studied the principles of Murray Bowen’s family systems theory with attention to feminist revisions of the theory while simultaneously investigating their own multigenerational family histories. Additionally, students kept a journal, recordedand worked with their dreams, and worked with a chosen creative expressive modality. They may also have worked with other transpersonal modalities. Student narratives, informed byorganic inquiry, illustrate aspects of the approach. The paper concludes with a detailed look at students’ perceived benefits and drawbacks of the approach.