Co-Founders / Co-Directors
John Rolland, MD, MPH
John Rolland, M.D., MPH is Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He is also the Co-Founder
and Executive Co-Director of the Chicago Center for Family Health, a non-profit
institute for advanced training and community-based consultation, and
directs its internationally distinguished Families, Illness, and Collaborative
Healthcare Program. He is a frequent speaker and international consultant
on family-oriented approaches to major health conditions.
Dr. Rolland is internationally recognized for his integrated clinical model on couple and family psychosocial challenges with serious health conditions, including neurological and genetic disorders. His multi-systemic approach addresses community, larger systems, and social policy influences in mental health services and healthcare disparities. Dr. Rolland received his training in medicine and psychiatry at the University of Michigan and Yale University and earned a master’s degree from the Harvard School of Public Health. He was the founding Director of the Center for Illness in Families at Yale University.
With over 80 scholarly papers, his most recent book, Helping Couples and Families Navigate Illness and
Disability: An Integrated Approach (2018, Guilford Press) is widely used in behavioral healthcare training.
Other professional books include his landmark volume, Families, Illness, and Disability: An Integrative
Treatment Model; and (co-author), Individuals, Families and the New Era of Genetics: Biopsychosocial
Perspectives.
He is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a former Fellow of the Institute
for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University; Past-President of the American Family Therapy Academy
(AFTA), and a Senior Fellow, Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP), serving on its Family Committee.
He is a founding member and past board member of the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association (CFHA). Heserves on the Editorial Boards of several journals.
Dr. Rolland has received a number of professional honors including: the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association Don Bloch (2018) and Family Oriented Care (2023) Awards, AFTA’s Innovative Contributions to Family Therapy Award, the Blanche Ittleson Award for distinguished contribution to the field of mental health from the American Orthopsychiatric Association, and the International Family Nursing Association Partner in Family Healthcare Award. He has been active in Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) and Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) and served as President of the Chicago Chapter. In 2000, he developed and co-led a multi-year international project in Kosovo, the Kosovar Family Professional Education Collaborative, addressing family-centered mental health training and service delivery needs in the aftermath of trauma, genocide, and loss.
Private Practice Locations: Wilmette office and Virtual
Expertise & Specializations: Chronic illness, couple and family relational issues
Froma Walsh, PhD
Froma Walsh, MSW, PhD, is Co-Director and Co-Founder of the Chicago Center for
Family Health, and is the Mose & Sylvia Firestone Professor Emerita in the Crown
Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice and Department of Psychiatry,
Pritzker School of Medicine, at the University of Chicago. She is a clinical psychologist
and an AAMFT approved supervisor.
Dr. Walsh, an internationally respected leader in the field of family therapy, is the foremost authority on family resilience. She has developed a resilience-oriented, community-based practice approach to strengthen families in crisis (e.g. trauma; loss); in disruptive transitions (separation, divorce; migration); and facing challenges of persistent, multi-stress conditions (e.g. illness, disability; economic hardship; discrimination). Her research-informed Family Resilience Framework is widely applied in intervention and prevention efforts. She is also a noted expert on contemporary family diversity; on multi-faith spiritual perspectives, and on the relational significance of the human-animal bond. Her systemic approach addresses developmental, relational, social, cultural, and spiritual influences in suffering, healing, and resilience. Dr. Walsh is a frequent speaker and consultant nationally and internationally on resilience-oriented community mental health training, practice, and research.
With 120+ scholarly publications, her most recent book is
Complex and Traumatic Loss: Fostering Healing and Resilience ( 2023).
Her other books include: Strengthening Family Resilience (3rd ed, 2015);
Spiritual Resources in Family Therapy (2nd ed., 2009); Normal Family Processes:
Growing Diversity and Complexity (4th ed., 2012/2016); Living Beyond Loss: Death in
the Family (w/ McGoldrick) (2nd ed. 2004); Chronic Disorders and the Family and
Women in Families (w/ McGoldrick & Anderson).Her books have been translated into many languages.
Dr. Walsh is past editor, Journal of Marital & Family Therapy and past president, American Family Therapy Academy (AFTA). Among honors for her distinguished contributions tare awards by AFTA; American Psychological Association (APA) Presidential Citation and APA Society for Family Psychology; American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT): American Orthopsychiatric Association; and the Society for Pastoral Counseling Research.
Dr. Walsh received a BA with honors in Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. After serving in the Peace Corps in Morocco, she received an MSW, Smith College, with fieldwork at Yale Department of Psychiatry and Yale Child Study Center. She received her PhD in Human Development and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Chicago.
For more view Dr. Walsh’s Curriculum Vitae
