Jenny Brown, Ph.D., is a family therapist, researcher, and author with more than 40 years of experience in family psychotherapy and child and adolescent mental health. Grounded in Bowen family systems theory, her work is built on a simple but powerful idea: when parents grow in steadiness and self-leadership, children gain resilience. She focuses on helping parents and the professionals who support them move beyond anxious, over-involved patterns toward calm, confident leadership in families.
Jenny completed her MSc at Columbia University and a Ph.D. at the University of New South Wales, Australia, where she researched parents’ experiences of their child’s mental health treatment. In the 1990s, she undertook advanced training at the Family Institute of Westchester and the Tavistock Clinic in London, further shaping her systems-based approach. She co-founded the Family Systems Institute in Sydney in 2004 and continues to teach and mentor emerging systems thinkers. A clinical member and supervisor with the Australian Association of Family Therapy, she has received the ANZ Journal of Family Therapy Distinguished Service Award and the Polly Caskie Research Award from the Bowen Center in Washington, DC.
She is the author of The Parenting Paradox, Growing Yourself Up, and Engaging Parents in Child Mental Health, and founder of the Parent Hope Project, which equips parents and practitioners to strengthen adult functioning as the foundation for children’s wellbeing.
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