Amy Marshall RN MN is the founder of The Relationship Resource Ltd.

I AM: a wife, mother, daughter, sister, granddaughter, nurse, therapist, colleague, and friend.

I BELIEVE: that our relationships with family and friends are what matter most; knowledge is power; many couples do not inherently know how to be happily married despite societal expectations to the contrary; relationship skills can be learned; the quality of marital relationships can be enhanced with research-based skills; all marital relationships have strengths.

I HOPE: that services offered by The Relationship Resource will result in renewed, intimate, and committed relationships of the highest quality.

Personal Background: My Journey

I have been married to my supportive husband, Kevin, for seven years and we are the proud parents of two children. When our firstborn arrived we were faced with the same emotions and challenges in our partnership that all couples face with the arrival of their first baby. We were overjoyed and absolutely filled with love and adoration for our son. We were also overwhelmed with the work involved in caring for such a vulnerable and dependent tiny being. We experienced more worry than ever before. We quickly learned that we had different ideas about how best to care for a newborn. We were tired. At times we felt exhausted. Our coping skills dipped and we experienced some struggles in our efforts to stay connected to each other.

We were fortunate that our struggles did not persist over the long haul. Eventually, we started feeling more aligned and confident in our parenting (though full confidence seems like an elusive idea at best); we started sleeping better; then we started coping better; and with some conscious effort we reconnected (just in time to prepare for baby number 2!). I felt VERY thankful for our relatively smooth recovery as I had come to understand from friends, clients, and my own experience that the transition to parenthood can be a tumultuous one in which the scales can quite easily be tipped from holding it together, so to speak, to not coping at all. And to think I had the advantage of having been introduced to some of the research and literature about how to navigate this transition smoothly in graduate school. What if I hadn’t? Oy!

My interest in working with expectant and new parents primarily stems from my recent experience of living the challenges inherent to this developmental stage. This personal experience coupled with my awareness of the number of woman seeking mental health services during the postpartum period has led me on a perpetual search of literature related to the quality of marital relationships during the transition to parenthood. As I come across new research-based information about how to navigate the transition successfully I find myself, not only fascinated, but also with some wishes for a “do over” of some moments during those early months three years ago when Kevin and I were new parents.

I believe that my own personal experience of being “in the trenches” of marriage and parenting under 3’s will enhance my abilities to successfully help couples at a similar developmental stage. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that I was a new, overwhelmed, sleep deprived mother of a 2 month old son who nursed around the clock. While I have several fond memories of that time, one of my less favourite memories occurred one evening when my sweet husband innocently approached me to say “goodnight.” GOODNIGHT—oh the nerve! How on earth did it make one iota of sense for him to wish me ‘goodnight’ when I hadn’t had a ‘good night’ in months, and the possibility of ever having a good night again seemed like a pipe dream. Needless to say, some unproductive conflict ensued and, in retrospect, we gained some personal insight as to how relational education could have served us well.

Stress during the transition to parenthood is inevitable. If the services I offer spare couples some of this excess relationship stress and thereby prevent the scales from being tipped towards “not coping” I’ll be contented in knowing that my own moments of relationship stress led to possibilities for others to do better. My children are teaching me every day about the imperative need they have for their environments to be stable and predictable. The more I learn from my children the more I realize how important relational stability is in their worlds. And this is how the journey began; this is what led me to my passion for assisting others to create relational stability within their homes and relationships.

Professional Background

Amy has worked for Alberta Health Services for the past twelve years. She has been employed as a staff nurse and a mental health therapist. She has also held the advanced practice positions of graduate student preceptor, clinical nurse specialist, and family counsellor. Amy has worked in a variety of mental health settings including: in-patient acute psychiatry; community mental health; urgent care mental health; and walk-in therapy. She has worked with individuals, couples, and families at all ages and stages of development. Amy has also held a number of sessional instructor positions with the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Calgary where she has taught family nursing skills to undergraduate nursing students.

Amy has been a guest on Breakfast Television and Global Television where she has been invited to speak about the challenges couples face during the transition to parenthood as well as strategies couples can practice to strengthen their marriages despite these challenges.

Amy is a member of the College and Association of Registered Nurses; the International Family Nursing Association; and the Alberta Association of Registered Nurses in Independent Practice.

Peer reviewed publications include:

Marshall, A.J. & Harper-Jaques, S. (2008). Depression and family relationships: Ideas for healing. The Journal of Family Nursing, 14(1), 56-73.

Marshall, A.J., Bell, J.M., & Moules, N.J. (2010). Beliefs, suffering, and healing: A clinical practice model for families experiencing mental illness. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care, 46(3) 197-208.

Amy has also accepted invitations to review manuscripts for the journals Perspectives in Psychiatric Care and the Journal of Family Nursing.

Educational Background

Amy holds a Bachelor of Nursing degree as well as a Master of Nursing degree from the University of Calgary. In graduate studies Amy specialized in Family Systems Nursing and attained advanced knowledge and skill for working with families experiencing illness, transition, and psychosocial challenges. Amy was the recipient of several scholarships during her program of graduate studies including the Lorraine M. Wright Family Nursing Scholarship.