Bette Davis completed a Bachelor of Nursing in 1984 and later in 1993 received a Master of Nursing, both specializing in Mental Health / Psychiatry. Through the Master’s program Bette was awarded a substantial grant to pursue her graduate research focused on developing and designing an advanced educational program for nurses. Her intense exposure to the theory and practice of therapy began, however in 1979 when she was presented with the opportunity to be one of the members of the coveted Day Hospital Treatment Centre at the Waterford Hospital, St. John’s, Newfoundland a program that was innovative in its design and intensive in its therapeutic programs even by today’s standards.  Dr. Sohail was also a member of this team.  During that foundational experience they became close friends and colleagues.

 Bette has worked for over twenty years as an individual therapist, clinical teacher, senior manager and group leader. Her specializations include:

• Coping Effectively with Workplace Stress, Negativity and Conflict
• Critical Incident Stress Debriefing
• Time Management
• Personal Effectiveness/Assertiveness
• Coping Effectively with Anxiety and Depression
• Anger Management
• Building Self-Esteem (Adult and Youth)

 Through this time she has designed and conducted effective communication and interpersonal relationship courses, initially for nurses and other health professionals, and later for staff and managers in the private and public sector.  In the early ‘90s, Bette’s growing interest in designing healthy workplaces was shaped by requests to develop and implement programs tailored to the needs of various work environments. Most notably in 1997, while in the position of Professional Practice Coordinator for the Health Care Corporation of St. John’s, Newfoundland she was invited to lead the development of a workplace program to address the mounting stress of 2300 nurses across a newly reorganized seven hospital organization.  This highly rated program was later replicated in another health care organization.

Having lost contact for the better part of a decade, Bette and Sohail reconnected in 2001, following an invitation for Bette to join Sohail in writing a book on relationships entitled, Love, Sex and Marriage: Intimate letters between two psychotherapist friends. Very early in that process, they were delighted to realize another area of mutual interest.   When Bette explained her special interest in workplace wellness, they knew that they wanted to write the third book in the Green Zone Series, The Art of Working in Your Green Zone. This latest book assists employees, managers and business owners to cope with stress in the workplace, strengthen productivity, reduce absenteeism and enhance quality of work life.

 After conducting workshops and seminars in Newfoundland, Bette has brought her wealth of knowledge and experience to Ontario to develop seminars based on the Green Zone Books, thus helping organizations and institutions to deal with their challenges and build healthier workplaces across the country.

Future seminars will utilize and expand on the knowledge from the books in the Green Zone Series, including:

• The Art of Living in Your Green Zone
• The Art of Loving in Your Green Zone
• The Art of Working in Your Green Zone

 For people who would like to know more about upcoming seminars for the Green Zone philosophy you may contact Bette at

bette@greenzoneliving