Meet Lauren Errington

Are you curious about the Phoenix teaching team? Then welcome to the eleventh of the Teaching Team Introduction series, introducing Leonie and the Phoenix Family Therapy Teaching Team Associates and Guest Teaching Associates.

Relationships are at the heart of family therapy and systemic practice and start with introductions.  It’s important that at Phoenix we practice what we teach and embrace the relational principles that we espouse. So let’s keep going with getting to know the team in this blog series - meet Guest Teaching Association Lauren.

From Lauren:

Hi! My name is Lauren Errington and I am the Executive Director of the Family Systems Institute (FSI), a training organisation established in 2004 in the theory and application of Bowen family systems theory in counselling, mental health, organisational, educational and ministry contexts. The FSI facilitates a range of learning opportunities in family systems theory including: 

• Advanced Certificate in Couple and Family Systems Therapy (AAFT accredited)

• Certificate in Family Systems Theory and Application

• Family of Origin Research - Online module and small research groups

• Clinical Supervision 

• Online workshops

• Postgraduate Supervision Group in Family Systems Theory

• Organisational Supervision

• External Training 

• Parent Hope Project Level 1 Training 

• Annual Conference

• Systems in Ministry Modules & Symposium 

I am an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker (AASW) and Clinical Family Therapist and Accredited Supervisor (AAFT) with experience working in tertiary level mental health services and private practice contexts in Australia and Scotland, currently working at the Family Systems Practice in Ultimo, Sydney. I see a range of clients in my practice including individuals, couples and families, for mental health, relationship and family dilemmas, as well as working with individuals for supervision and family of origin coaching. 

 I have had an interest in Bowen family systems theory since first encountering the ideas in my counselling training almost 20 years ago - around that time I went to a conference on triangles, and have not been able to un-think triangles ever since! After training more broadly with a Masters in Couple and Family Therapy (UNSW), primarily in Post-Milan Family Therapy and other models, I circled back to Bowen Theory after finding the ideas offer a compelling description of the dilemmas we all face in life’s relationships, resonating across therapeutic, workplace and ministry contexts. It is as applicable for me in my own family of origin, and leading an organisation, as it is in my practice and for the clients I work with. I am particularly interested in learning how natural systems organise themselves and make life work - plant and animal species, and taking this thinking into considering how human relationship systems function automatically and adapt to life’s challenges, as well as what gets in the way of this at times.  

I appreciate the workout that articulating my thinking in writing and presenting, and have published several articles in family therapy journals including a recent article in the Journal of Marital Therapy (2025) on agency in parenting, as well as co-editing a special issue of the ANZJFT in 2024 on Bowen Theory in Family Therapy, and writing a couple of journal articles over the years in the ANZJFT about the application of Bowen Theory in contemporary family therapy practice. I have also co-edited a book with Jenny Brown entitled Bowen Family Systems Theory in Christian Ministry.

I live in Newtown in Sydney’s Inner West on the land of the Gadigal people, with my husband and three children, whom I am trying to raise with an awareness that not all bread needs to be sourdough, nor all ice-creams coming from Messina.

Lauren Errington

Accredited Mental Health Social Worker & Clinical Family Therapist

Executive Director of the Family Systems Institute (FSI)

Please note that this article is educational in nature and does not constitute professional or therapeutic advice or suggestion.