Wendy Watson Nelson

Wendy L. Watson Nelson (born May 31, 1950) is a Canadian-American marriage and family therapist and professor. She worked with the Family Nursing Unit (FNU) at the University of Calgary (U of C) from 1983 to 1992, training graduate students to use family systems therapy with families of patients. Her academic work in articles and in the book Beliefs: The Heart of Healing in Families and Illness helped develop a practical and theoretical framework for family systems nursing. She is the widow of Russell M. Nelson, former president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

Education Wendy Watson grew up in Raymond, Alberta. She is the second of three children born to Leonard and Laura McLean Watson. and completed a PhD in family therapy and gerontology there in 1984. In 1986 she became an associate professor on the nursing faculty. Watson was the education coordinator in the FNU from 1983 to 1992. The authors developed the Family Systems Nursing Model, a "world famous model for family nursing practice". The book was later translated into Swedish and Japanese. Watson became a full professor in 1997.