Thorana Nelson Presents Inaugural Lecture

USU professor Thorana Nelson jokes that all she wants for Christmas this year is more time. She stays busy with family and doing what she loves — teaching and doing family therapy.

           

Nelson joined family, friends and colleagues Nov. 17 at the president's home to share with them the 20 years of research she has conducted on basic skills in family therapy. Her speech was part of the 2005-2006 Inaugural Professor Lecture Series.

           

"The ideas of family therapy are fascinating to me," Nelson said. “I enjoy my role as a family therapist and as someone who teaches others to do family therapy. Both of these activities benefit others, and I really enjoy that.”

           

Though she didn’t think about being a college professor until she was nearly finished with her master’s degree, Nelson has been teaching at USU since 1992. Her recent promotion to full professor came as a result of the support of her family and those who have encouraged her throughout her career.

           

Nelson continues to work on investigating and teaching skills to family therapists. Communication is a vital skill therapists must use with their clients.

 

“Top skills include a sense of integrity and ethics, the ability to communicate well with clients, to be collaborative with them and to really listen to them so they feel heard,” she said.

 

She also adds that it is important to maintain a sense of curiosity and a broad and contextual perspective of problems and solutions for the clients.

 

Nelson’s career does not completely revolve around her own research. She edits books, reviews articles for several journals, is an editor for two book series and is an associate editor for the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy for reviewer development.

 

“There are a lot of great people in my field, and I love reading their work,” Nelson said. “By editing, I am able to help people's work get published. The satisfaction comes in getting more good information out there so others can read it.”

 

She may not have always considered being a college professor, but it is obvious that Nelson loves what she does.