She is a clinician, research scientist, educator, and author specializing in chronic illness, chronic and post-viral syndromes, trauma, forensics, hospice, global health care concerns, autoimmune and post-viral disease, clinical education, and training.
[4] Fennell created the Four Phase Model as a framework to help clinicians comprehend and manage the integration of the experiences of patients with chronic illnesses.
She explains that her model allows for therapeutic intervention in a flexible phase-specific manner so that individuals may integrate their illness into a meaningful life despite physical limitations.
The model recognizes a patient's needs early in chronic illness may differ from the needs in later years, and may affect various responses to treatment, be it medical or psychosocial.
[3] Study results[5][6][7][8][9] suggest that Fennell's model accurately describes the phases of illness adaptation that persons with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) experience, and that phase models may help researchers understand disparate results seen in CFS research studies.