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Kerr, Michael

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Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy
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Michael Kerr, MD, is a family psychiatrist who has dedicated over 40 years to the field of family therapy. He trained and worked with one of the pioneers of family therapy, Dr. Murray Bowen, for over 20 years before succeeding him as the director of the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family.

Kerr completed his Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, in 1966. During his fellowship with the Georgetown University Hospital from 1967 to 1969, he trained under Dr. Murray Bowen and regularly attended all-day clinical demonstration interviews with families to strengthen his understanding of Bowen family systems theory. He also served in the US Navy as a Psychiatric Medical Officer and worked in the inpatient psychiatry unit for the Naval Hospital of Great Lakes, Illinois, for 2 years after completing his fellowship. Kerr succeeded Bowen as Director of the Georgetown Family Center in 1990. In 2011, he was named the Emeritus Director of the Bowen Center for...

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Key Citations

  • Kerr, M. (1980). Emotional factors in physical illness: A multigenerational perspective. The Family, 7, 59–66.

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  • Kerr, M. (2006). Efforts to differentiate a self in response to a cancer diagnosis. Family Systems, 7, 164–179.

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  • Kerr, M., & Bowen, M. (1988). Family evaluation: An approach based on Bowen theory. New York: Norton.

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Correspondence to Shawndeeia L Drinkard .

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Drinkard, S.L. (2017). Kerr, Michael. In: Lebow, J., Chambers, A., Breunlin, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_842-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_842-1

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