Family Stress Management: A Contextual Approach
Pauline Boss, Ph.D.,is Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota, a Fellow in the American Psychological Association and American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy; a former president of the National Council on Family Relations, and a family therapist in private practice. Dr. Boss received her Ph.D. in Child Development and Family Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she subsequently taught for many years. In 1981, she joined the Department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota, where she was Professor and Clinical Supervisor in the doctoral training program in marriage and family therapy. She was appointed Visiting Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School, 1995-96.With her groundbreaking work as a scientist-practitioner, Dr. Boss is the principal theorist in the study of ambiguous loss, a term she coined in the 1970s.  Since then, she has researched various types of ambiguous loss, summarizing her work in the widely acclaimed book,Ambiguous Loss:  Learning to Live with Unresolved Grief(Harvard University Press, 1999).  In addition,Loss, Trauma, and Resilience(Norton, 2006), presents six therapeutic guidelines for treatment when loss is complicated by ambiguity. These guidelines are based on her years of work with families of the physically missing during the Vietnam War, after 9/11, and in Kosovo, as well as in clinical work with families with loved ones who are missing psychologically from Alzheimer's disease and other dementia, as well as from traumatic brain injury.  Dr. Boss's most recent book,Loving Someone Who Has Dementia(Jossey-Bass, 2011) outlines proven strategies for managing the ongoing stress and grief while caring for someone who has dementia and offers hope for dealing with the ambiguous loss of dementia--having a loved one both here and not here, physically present but psychologically absent.