William P. Wilson, M.D. is a pioneer in Christian psychiatry.  For 44 years he taught health professionals how to integrate their faith into their practices.  Spiritual disease occurs and there are interventions that heal it.  ICG's purpose is to help health professionals and interested lay persons recognize and deal not only with the person's physical and mental problems, but also their spiritual problems.  Dr. Wilson is the author of numerous scientific articles, as well as articles addressing Christian faith and mental health.  Many of these are posted on this Website.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
William P. Wilson, M.D.
Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center
Professor of Pastoral Counseling at Carolina Evangelical Divinity School

William Preston Wilson was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on November 6, 1922.  Educated in North Carolina public schools, he attended Duke University where he received a B.S. in Chemistry in 1943. Dr. Wilson received his M.D. from the same institution in 1947, and interned at the Gorgas Hospitalin the Panama Canal Zone. After this, he entered a residency in psychiatry at Duke University.  He trained in child psychiatry, adult psychiatry and neurology. At the end of his clinical training he went to McGill University and then Montreal Neurological Institute to receive further training in basic and clinical neuroscience.

Dr. Wilson began his faculty career at Duke University when he became an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry in 1955. In 1958, he accepted a position at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, to become Associate Professor of Psychiatry and the Director of Psychiatric Research. He returned to Duke in 1961, to become Head of the Division of Biological Psychiatry.  In 1964, he was appointed Professor of Psychiatry. He resigned the post of division head in 1983.  From 1961 to 1981, Dr. Wilson directed the electroencephalographic laboratories at Duke Medical Center. He retired from Duke in 1984.

In 2000, he was honored with the title of Distinguished Professor. He directed the Institute of Christian Growth, located in Burlington, N.C.  ̶  including its clinical practice, Life Way Mental Health  ̶  for 18 years.  This institute also sponsored conferences on a wide variety of subjects relating to spiritual health.  His research, however, includes many other areas besides spiritual health. These areas have included basic neuroscience, pharmacology, clinical psychiatry, and aging. For 44 years Dr. William P. Wilson, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center, lectured in a number of settings on subjects that relate to religion and mental health.

Dr. Wilson closed his practice of psychiatry on July 1, 2007, after caring for the sick for 62 years.  He was 85 years old. 

He continues to teach and write.  In  2012, he retired as Distinguished Professor of Pastoral Counseling at Carolina Graduate School of Divinity in Greensboro, North Carolina, but continues as the Director of the Institute of Christian Growth.

He is married to his wife, Elizabeth, of 62 years. They have five adult children, 17 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Dr. Wilson is the author of 166 scientific articles and regularly contributes to several religious newsletters and magazines. He has contributed 33 chapters for books. He has edited two books and co-authored a book with Kathryn Slattery, Grace to Grow −The Power of Christian Faith in Emotional Healing.  This book includes a personal account of his encounter with God.  The first printing of this book was published with Word Publishing Company; the second printing was by Fairway Press.  His second book, The Nuts and Bolts of Discipleship (also by Fairway Press), meets a poignant need in today's Christian society.

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He served on the official board of Asbury United Methodist Church for four terms, on the North Carolina Conference Board of Laity for one term, and on the Curriculum Resources Committee of the United Methodist Church for two quadrennia. He was president of the United Methodist Church Renewal Services Fellowship (Now Aldersgate Renewal Ministries), and a director of Good News  ̶  a forum for scriptural Christianity in Methodism. Dr. Wilson was one of the founders of Contact Durham, a teleministry, and was a director of the national organization, Contact USA.

Dr. Wilson's work with a variety of mission agencies, national churches and Christian organizations often took him overseas. In Africa, he lectured from a Christian perspective on an assortment of mental health subjects in Madagascar, Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Ethiopia. In Asia, he lectured in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Nepal and India. In Europe, seminars were given in the Ukraine, Germany, Switzerland and England. He held numerous offices in state, regional and national medical organizations. He is a former president of the Southern Psychiatric Association and was a member of the board of directors for the American Association of Christian Counselors.

Dr. Wilson was Finch Lecturer at Fuller Theological Seminary in 1974, and in 1977, he lectured at a Conference on Life and Death at Western Conservative Baptist Seminary. A frequent speaker at conferences that related Christianity to psychiatry and psychology, he presented renewal conferences, Holy Spirit conferences, family life conferences, and was a missioner of the Order of St. Luke. He was awarded the Pioneer Award in Christian Psychiatry at the First International Congress on Christian Counseling. He also received the Ephraim McDowell Medal from the Christian Medical Foundation, and the 1996, Educator of the Year from the Christian Medical and Dental Society.  Dr .Wilson is listed in the Who' s Who in the Southeast, Who's Who in America, and American Men and Women of Science, as well as in Who' s Who in Medicine and Healthcare. At graduation in 2012, he received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree by the Carolina Graduate School of Divinity and the chair of pastoral care and counseling was named after him.

Dr. Wilson lectured to pastors’ conferences and preached to congregations of many churches worldwide. In the U.S. he has taught at conferences sponsored by many denominations and churches. He is the director of The Institute of Christian Growth; this institute has for years sponsored conferences on a wide variety of subjects relating to spiritual health. 

Community service was not neglected by Dr, Wilson. He participated in scouting serving as Cubmaster, Webelos leader, scoutmaster, and Explorer Post Advisor. He was active in the U.S. Power Squadrons, serving at all local levels of leadership including commander. He was the president of his local P.T.A. at elementary and middle school levels.

Throughout William P. Wilson, M.D.'s remarkable life, he pioneered and established many of today's techniques towards integrating mental health/healing with Christian spiritual wellness.  The depths of truth and knowledge which he has realized over the years, have now been passed on to numerous students (world-wide) who desire such in their own practices, services, and ministries. Dr. Wilson is known for his lifetime of mentoring.

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