Froma Walsh

Froma Walsh (born 1942) is an American clinical psychologist and family therapist. She is the co-founder and co-director of the Chicago Center for Family Health and the Mose and Sylvia Firestone Professor Emerita at the University of Chicago. She served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco (1964–66), in the women's center (foyers feminins) and in psychological services for maladapted youth. She received an MSW at Smith College, Northampton, MA, with clinical practica at the Yale University Child Study Center and at the department of psychiatry (1968-1970). She earned her PhD in Human Development and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Chicago and was influenced by the work of Bertram Cohler and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on positive life course development. From 1982 until retirement, she was on the tenured faculty at the University of Chicago in the School of Social Service Administration and the Department of Psychiatry, Pritzker School of Medicine, and was appointed the Mose and Sylvia Firestone Professor. Additionally, she and John Rolland co-founded the university-affiliated Chicago Center for Family Health (1991-current). Her research-informed family resilience framework has helped to shape theory, research, and practice with individuals, families, and communities facing adversity Over 30 years, she and her CCFH colleagues have developed programs building family resilience with a range of adverse situations: complicated bereavement; chronic illness/disability; relational trauma; divorce; job loss/unemployment; LGBTQ stigma; and at-risk youth.

She has refocused psychotherapy from family deficits to family strengths, deconstructing myths of "the normal family." Informed by the research evidence that children and families can thrive in diverse relational structures, she identified key family processes and socio-cultural influences in risk and resilience. She has advanced the use of broadly inclusive multi-faith perspectives in clinical practice, To bring attention to gender disparities in families and psychotherapy, she and colleagues Monica McGoldrick and Carol Anderson organized the Stonehenge Conferences that took place between 1984-1986. They also produced the edited book, Women in Families: A Framework for Family Therapy. she has also produced scholarship on the relational significance of companion animals and their benefits in health and wellbeing; role in family dynamics; and therapeutic benefits. Editor of Journal of Marital and Family Therapy. Presidential Citation for Outstanding Career of the American Psychological Association. Distinguished Contribution to Family Therapy Theory and Practice Award of the American Family Therapy Academy Distinguished Contributions in Marriage and Family Therapy Award of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. Blanch Ittleson Award for Distinguished Career of the American Orthopsychiatric Association.

Books Normal Family Processes (1982) Normal Family Processes: Growing Diversity and Complexity (2016) Women in Families: A Framework for Family Therapy - McGoldrick, M., Anderson, C. (1989) Living Beyond Loss: Death in the Family -McGoldrick, M. (1991, 2004) The Concept of Family Resilience: Crisis and Challenge (1996) Strengthening Family Resilience (1998, 2016) Spiritual Resources in Family Therapy (1999, 2009) Family Resilience: A Framework for Clinical Practice (2003) Traumatic Loss and Major Disasters: Strengthening Family and Community Resilience (2007) Human-Animal Bonds I: The Relational Significance of Companion Animals (2009) Human-Animal Bonds II: The Role of Pets in Family Systems and Family Therapy (2009) Applying a Family Resilience Framework in Training, Practice, and Research: Mastering the Art of the Possible (2016) A Family Developmental Framework: Challenges and Resilience Across the Life Cycle (2016)