Linda G. Bell, Ph.D., is a family psychologist and family therapist. Her Family Legacies Research Project is a unique 40-year longitudinal study of families with adolescents in the U.S. and Japan. Linda initiated and taught in an AAMFT accredited program in Marriage and Family Therapy for 30 years, helped nurture the early stages of family therapy development in Japan, was an early proponent of mindful psychotherapy, and designed the Family Matters Course for teaching family healing in prisons. She is the author of numerous research articles and two books.
Family Legacies
One of Linda's professional accomplishments is the Family Legacies Research Project, a unique 40-year longitudinal study of families with adolescents in the U.S. and Japan. Starting in 1974 when she was a National Institute of Mental Health postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago, and ending in 2020, the study measured family systems and family relationships across the generations and their effect on individual health.
About thirty research articles and two books came out of this research.
Family Matters Course
This family wellness education course was originally created to be used with persons in prison. Grounded in family systems and attachment theories, the course teaches participants how to manage conflict, act rather than react when provoked, resolve old hurts and wounds, and bring positive peace into their relationships.
Research finds that course participants report a better understanding of themselves and their families at the end of the course, as well as increases in self-competence and self-esteem. Many report improvements in important relationships, particularly relationships with children. Family healing work affects multiple relationships and increases the possibility of healthy and productive life choices for all family members.
Research
Linda has written multiple articles concerning the effects on family members throughout the generations, as well as about the Family Matters Course, child abuse, and mindful psychotherapy. Her research team created both microanalytic and global coding schemes to evaluate family interaction process, as well as a projective exercise to evaluate family structure. She has also archived her data set, which includes videos of marital and family interviews in the U.S. and Japan.
Books
Linda has written two books about families and relationships: Creating Love and Respect in Families and Lifelong Marriage in the Greatest Generation.
Linda and David