Proposal Submission Form

Thank you for your interest in presenting at the 2025 WPFC Conference and Symposium [October 17 and 18], "Love and Conflict in Families and Groups; How Relationship Forces Shape Human Behavior." The following information is required from each prospective presenter. Proposal submission forms must be completed by Friday, May 30, 2025. If a proposal is accepted, the presenter will need to complete additional forms in June to fulfill requirements set forth by our continuing education co-sponsors.

Contact for Questions: Please direct any questions to the planning committee chair, Ann Depner LCSW, at adepner57@gmail.com.

The following questions are prompts for your thinking, not required as the basis of presentations.

1. Dr. Bowen observed four mechanisms that families and other groups use to bind the anxiety of too much togetherness – distance, overfunctioning/underfunctioning, conflict, and the projection process. How do these relationship patterns play out in your family or organization? What role have you played in the patterns, and how have you worked to change your part?

2. Do the concepts of family emotional process and differentiation of self apply to non-human animal species? Just primates? Others?

3. In what ways do literature, mythology, or historical narratives reveal recurring themes of differentiation, fusion, and conflict? Can you provide an example of a story that illustrates these concepts in an insightful way?

4. How do societal shifts (e.g., political polarization, technological changes, or cultural trends) reflect and interact with the nuclear family emotional system? What patterns of anxiety binding become evident at a larger scale?

5. What role does emotional cutoff play in love, fusion and conflict? How does the absence of visible conflict sometimes serve to maintain unresolved emotional ties?

6. How does anxiety amplify predictable relationship patterns within a family or group, and what does it take to disrupt those patterns without fueling more reactivity?

7. How do unresolved emotional triangles among family members extend into professional or organizational settings? Can an individual effectively work on differentiation in one domain without addressing another?

8. Emotional distancing is a common reaction to aversive behavior in a family or group member. Under what circumstances does it sustain emotional fusion and low-level functioning? When might it be adaptive?

Prospective Presenter Info

Name(Required)

First Last

Email(Required)

Phone(Required)

Presentation Proposal

Presentations addressing the theme will be given priority, but proposals on any topic related to family systems theory are acceptable.

Title of Presentation(Required)

Brief Description of Presentation(Required)

Proposals should be no more than 300 words. Speakers may present using written paper, personal notes, or slideshows utilizing any format (Microsoft Powerpoint, Google Slides, Apple Keynote, Canva, etc.).

Length of Presentation(Required)

Speakers may choose either 30 or 45 minutes for presentation length; graduate students are limited to 15 minutes.

Learning Objectives

All presenters must submit learning objectives that meet the APA guidelines. For Presentations of 15 or 30 minutes, 1 learning objective is required. For Presentations of 45 minutes, 2 learning objectives are required. - Click here to open the Required APA Objectives Guideline PDF. Depending on the number of proposals selected, some presenters requesting 45 minute time slots may be asked to limit their talks to 30 minutes.

Learning Objective #1(Required)

Learning Objective #2(Required)

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