CPS Faculty Member Invited to Address National Convention

Linda Sobell, Ph.D., ABPP, professor and Associate Director of Clinical Training at the Center for Psychological Studies, was recently invited by the American Psychological Association’s (APA) president, James Bray, to address scientists and practitioners at the 117th annual APA convention.

Sobell was invited to present a 1-hour in-depth talk on Motivational Interviewing: A Common Currency Among Health and Mental Health Care Practitioners and for Treating Risky Problem Behaviors.

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a non-confrontational interactional style for promoting behavior change. Although it was initially developed for working with substance abusers, it has been extended to, and evaluated with, a wide variety of health and mental health populations that engage in risk problem behaviors. A key goal of MI is to assist reluctant individuals to reconsider changing their behaviors by establishing a non-confrontational and supportive climate in which people feel comfortable exploring their risk problem behaviors.

Sobell is known nationally and internationally for her work on the assessment and treatment of addictions, particularly brief motivational interventions, the process of self-change, and assessment instruments including the Timeline Follow-back method. In addition to her role as professor and Director of Clinical Training at CPS, she is Co-Director of the Guided Self-Change clinic at NSU.