The key to learning Bowen Family Systems Theory is working with it in your own family.  Begin by making a family diagram of your own family.  For help with this, use A Primer on Family of Origin Work.  Work on your own family diagram and learn how family diagrams are composed. Finally, learn all the standard family diagram & genogram symbols.

“To the extent leaders are successful in their differentiating efforts in their own family of origin; there is immediate carry-over to their functioning in the organizations (or families) which they lead. The reciprocity between leaders’ ability to be less avoidant of emotional factors in their family of origin and their ability to function likewise within the emotional system where they worked was exactly the same for managers, clergy, therapists, physicians, or parents.”  

-Friedman, Failure of Nerve, 20