Name
William Robert “Bob” Beavers, M.D. (born September 27, 1929)
Introduction
W. Robert Beavers was a leading figure in family systems therapy and made significant contributions to the field. Based on his own research he developed the Beavers System Model of Family Functioning, which provides the structure and tools for assessing families. Additionally, he provided treatment and intervention techniques for working with families. Beavers also suggested some insights on using a systems approach in couples’ therapy and supervising from a family systems perspective. Beavers contributed 3 books and over 40 journal articles to the field.
Career
W. Robert Beavers completed medical school at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 1953. Following graduation he completed an internship at the Wayne County General Hospital in Eloise, Michigan. He then completed a fellowship in pharmacology (1954–1955), after which he spent 2 years in the Air Force in the Arctic, conducting...
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Key Citations
Beavers, W. R. (1977). Psychotherapy and growth: A family systems perspective. New York: Brunner-Mazel.
Beavers, W. R. (1981). A systems model of family for family therapists. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 7, 299–307. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-0606.1981.tb01382.x.
Beavers, W. R. (1982). Healthy, midrange and severely dysfunctional families. In F. Walsh (Ed.), Normal family processes. New York: Guilford Press.
Beavers, W. R., & Hampson, R. B. (1990). Successful families: Assessment and intervention. New York: Norton & Co.
Beavers, W. R., & Hampson, R. B. (1993). Measuring family competence: The Beavers systems model. In F. Walsh (Ed.), Normal family processes (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203428436_chapter_20.
Beavers, W. R., & Hampson, R. B. (2000). The Beavers systems model of family functioning. Journal of Family Therapy, 22, 128–143. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6427.00143.
Lewis, J. M., Beavers, W. R., Gossett, J. T., & Phillips, V. A. (1976). No single thread: Psychological health in family systems. New York: Brunner-Mazel.
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Yesayan, E., Gevorkyan, A. (2018). Beavers, W. Robert. 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_769-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_769-1
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