Interview with Ruth Wolever, PhD and Joan Ryan, JD and Founding Fellow of the Institute.

Ruth Q. Wolever PhD is the Research Director and Director of Health Psychology at Duke Integrative Medicine (Duke IM). Trained as a health psychologist Ruth specializes in behavior change treatment of stress-related problems and mind-body health. Both her research and her clinical practice focus on utilizing the connection between mind and body to improve health and the application of integrative medicine techniques to affect lifestyle change. She consults with the Duke Diet and Fitness Center Nurtur GlaxoSmithKline’s Health Innovations group and serves as the Chief Scientific Advisor for eMindful.

Ruth is particularly interested in the application of integrative health coaching to help individuals improve health behavior and chronic disease. She co-developed the first team of Integrative Health Coaches at Duke in 2002 and oversaw their work until 2007 and again beginning in 2012. She has conducted twelve studies using integrative health coaching as part of interventions targeting significant lifestyle change for individuals at risk for or dealing with chronic disease. Seven of the studies are completed and five have been published. Another five of these studies are ongoing. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (National Heart Lung and Blood Institute National Institute of Mental Health Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine Office of Women’s Health and the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders) the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Duke’s Center for Personalized Medicine Bravewell Philanthropic Collaborative and by GlaxoSmithKline.