I am a nurse educator and certified psychologist who provides international leadership in the field of Family Health with a particular focus on Family Systems Nursing theory, practice, and research.

I am the founding Editor of the Journal of Family Nursing and served as Director (2002-2007) of the Family Nursing Unit, University of Calgary. One of my most rewarding contributions is the co-development of the Illness Beliefs Model, a clinical intervention for reducing illness suffering in families.

My research and clinical scholarship focuses on increasing health care professionals’ confidence and competence in collaborating with families experiencing serious illness. One of my research team’s projects, “Understanding the process of therapeutic change in Family Systems Nursing Practice”, resulted in the development of the Illness Beliefs Model to guide practice with families.

My colleagues and I have taught this model to thousands of practicing health care professionals, graduate students, and academics in Canada, United States, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Iceland, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Brazil, Portugal, and Poland.

The Illness Beliefs Model is currently being examined in several research projects in Canada and around the world.The Illness Beliefs Model is described in the following book: Wright, L.M., Watson, W.L., & Bell, J.M. (1996). Beliefs: The heart of healing in families and illness. New York: Basic Books. "The knowledge and expertise of the authors is evident…A useful resource and one which could be of great benefit to a wide variety of clinicians.

Table of Contents Part I: Beliefs: The Heart of the Matter

1. Beliefs: Many Lenses, Many Expectations

2. Beliefs About Families and Illness

3. Beliefs About Therapeutic Change and Clinicians

Part II: Key Macromoves of our Advanced Clinical Approach

4. Creating a Context for Changing Beliefs

5. Uncovering and Distinguishing Illness Beliefs

6. Challenging, Altering, and Modifying Constraining Beliefs

7. Distinguishing Change: Identifying, Affirming, and solidifying Facilitative Beliefs

Part III: Clinical Exemplar

8. Clinical Exemplar: Taking One’s Own Advice

9. Epilogue

Appendix A: Description of Research Families

Appendix B: Overview of the Research Method

Appendix C: Ways to Examine and Measure Beliefs References Index.

Consultation

I offer consultation to families and health professionals in the areas of:

• Beliefs and illness
• Mastering the challenges of illness
• Repairing family relationships
• Addressing and diminishing illness suffering
• Family health research
• Family intervention research
• Curriculum innovation and program development related to collaborative care and practice with families
• Manuscript development and publication