2026
GPS for Leadership: Finding One's Way in the System
Thinking Differently About Life and Learning
Registration Opens May 19, 2025!
Need a way to think about leadership?​
The course will provide an introduction to Bowen Family Systems Theory, an exploration of each of the eight concepts and an opportunity to apply theory in work and life.
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This course consists of eight three-hour online sessions that meet twice a month February - May 2026.
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COST
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"Early Bird" Registration: $850 (before August 1, 2025)
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Individual Registration: $900​ (beginning August 1, 2025)
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Group Discount Rate*: $850 per person
*"Group Discount" applies to three or more individuals from
the same organization or household -
Payment Plan Option:
Installment 1 (due by January 5, 2026): $450
Installment 2 (due by March 30, 2025): $450
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REQUIRED READING​​​
"The Cornerstone Concept" by Roberta Gilbert
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OTHER RESOURCES:
The Family Diagram & Family Research by Victoria Harrison
Creating a Healthier Church by Ron Richardson
Growing Yourself Up by Jenny Brown
The Bowen Center website: https://www.thebowencenter.org/
Dates:
Mondays: 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. Eastern
(Online via Zoom)
February 2, 2026
February 16, 2026
March 2, 2026
March 16, 2026
April 6, 2026
April 20, 2026
May 4, 2026
Annual May Event: TBD
Sessions:
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1. Introduction: A Tale of Two Churches
2. A look at Family Emotional System
3. A look at Differentiation of Self
4. A look at Triangles, Family Projection and the Family Diagram
5. A look at Family Transmission, Cutoff & Sibling Position
6. A look at Societal Process and presentation of family diagrams
7. Theory in Real Time
8. Annual May Event
Facilitators
Jennifer Long is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, a trained interim minister (IMN) and currently serves a UCC congregation in Florida. She has previously served churches in Wisconsin, Michigan, and New York, including pastoring an ELCA congregation in the southern tier of New York as an ecumenical partner. She graduated from the University of Hartford (1992) and Eden Theological Seminary (1996). She has participated in a variety of programs that engage Bowen Theory including five years in the Postgraduate Program at the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family (2014-2019). In almost 30 years of ministry, she has served in staff, solo, and interim roles as well as a consultant in church conflict.
Wife, mother of two, oldest sister of four, and daughter of an only son and middle daughter, she has a particular interest in points of connection between Bowen Family System Theory and spirituality, religious practice and church conflict.
Dana Runestad recently retired from pastoring in the Southeast Michigan Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America where, since 1986, she has served in a variety of congregations and staff positions. She's a youngest sister of three brothers and the daughter of a pastor and a nurse. After relying on every Peter Steinke book to get her through thirty years of parish ministry, she took a deeper dive into Natural Systems Theory in 2015 with 3 years in the post-graduate program at the Bowen Center in Washington D.C. From 2018-2023 she participated in their Faith Leaders Seminar. She's been in a book club for over 20 years and enjoys hiking and good TV with her husband of forty-plus years, Barry Rabe. They have two grown sons. Dana rhymes with banana. If you need a visual to remember, ask to see her tattoo.