Our History

1971: Living Systems began as an outreach initiative by West Vancouver United Church. It was called North Shore Living and Learning and provided pastoral counselling on a sliding fee scale to North Shore residents. Dr. John Stewart was the first director.
1974: North Shore Living and Learning was renamed North Shore Counselling Centre and was registered as a non-profit society. Dr. Ron Richardson became the director. He initiated the clinical training program and extended counselling services by opening offices in Vancouver. Ron wrote a book on family systems entitled Family Ties that Bind.
1991: Randy Frost became director. He expanded the Post-Graduate Training Program to two years, initiated conferences in Bowen family systems theory and in 1994 he introduced research as the fourth part of the mission.
1998: North Shore Counselling Centre was at a crossroads. Challenged to create a vision for the future, a group of clinicians developed a model for organizational sustainability that was approved by the Board of Directors.
2000 - 2001: A strategic plan for the future was developed.
2004: North Shore Counselling Centre changed its name to Living Systems: Family Systems Counselling, Education, Training and Research Society. The new name reflects our commitment to providing counselling, education, post-graduate training and research based on the family systems theory developed by Dr. Murray Bowen.
2005: Living Systems officially changed its logo.
2006: Living Systems launched its new website.