Dr. Boss is renowned as a pioneer in the interdisciplinary study of family stress. Her work has focused on connecting family science and sociology with family therapy and psychology. Her multidisciplinary perspective has allowed her to work as a scientist-practitioner to develop theory that guides practice.

Since 1973, Dr. Boss has studied ambiguous loss, taught university students, practiced as a clinician, and trained family therapists, psychologists, counselors, and humanitarians around the world to help individuals and families suffering from the trauma of ambiguous loss and its grief that has no end. Drawing on research and clinical experience, Dr. Boss worked across cultures to develop six useful and inclusive guidelines for building the resilience needed to both bear the ambiguity and move forward to live productive lives.

Over the course of her research, Dr. Boss has worked with families in New York who lost family members during 9/11 and families in Kosovo who have lost family members as the result of ethnic cleansing and terrorism. She also has worked with families who have psychologically lost a relative as the result of Alzheimer's disease and other chronic mental illnesses.

Dr. Boss draws on her research (and that of others) and her forty years of clinical experience to develop a powerful but flexible therapeutic approach for this heretofore unrecognized but ubiquitous type of loss. The fundamental tools of the theory and practice, described by Dr. Boss in the Ambiguous Loss Online Training and in her writings, are the six guidelines for therapists and practitioners as well as for concerned family members and friends who, despite ambiguous loss, need to find new hope and meaning in life. At this time, the ambiguous loss model, as updated, is being used to ease the pain and trauma for various kinds of ambiguous losses and across different cultures and contexts, including therapists in the Ukraine, Israel, and Italy. 

Dr. Boss received her Ph.D. in Child Development and Family Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1975 and was a member of the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison From 1975 to 1981. She joined the Department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota in 1981 and was a full professor until her retirement. During a sabbatical in 1995-96, Dr. Boss was appointed Visiting Professor at the Harvard Medical School, and in 2004-2005, she was awarded Moses Distinguished Professor at Hunter School of Social Work in New York City. She retired in 2005 and was awarded Emeritus Professor status.

She is a Fellow in the American Psychological Association, the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) of which is also a former president.