Ben Balderson, PhD

“I'm dedicated to meeting the health care needs of people who have complex, chronic conditions and to help them develop lifelong skills for managing their health.”

Ben Balderson, PhD

Senior Collaborative Scientist, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute
Psychologist, Washington Permanente Medical Group

Benjamin.H.Balderson@kp.org
206-287-2803

Curriculum vitae (CV)

Biography

Ben Balderson, PhD, is a clinical psychologist with specialties in adult behavior medicine and health psychology. He has expertise in behavioral and cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, and treatment adherence for chronic diseases—especially chronic pain, insomnia, and HIV/PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, which is using medication to prevent HIV infection in individuals with high risk.

Dr. Balderson is interested in improving self-management for chronic health conditions and understanding how these conditions intersect with psychological health. His research has largely focused on developing and testing interventions to improve self-management for chronic pain, with a strong interest in marginalized or difficult-to-reach populations. He is also interested in telehealth and the use of technology—such as the internet and smartphones—to facilitate care.

A practicing psychologist at Kaiser Permanente Washington, Dr. Balderson provides care for adult patients and specializes in behavioral medicine, for example for chronic pain, insomnia, HIV, and gender care. He also specializes in treatment of anxiety disorders, for example, generalized anxiety disorder; PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder; phobias; and OCD, or obsessive-compulsive disorder. He has a strong interest in translation work, bringing empirically supported treatments to the frontlines of clinical care. Dr. Balderson also has extensive experience in provider training—particularly in ways clinicians can interact with patients to increase behavior change.

Dr. Balderson serves as a peer reviewer for several journals in the areas of pain and HIV and is an avid participant in Kaiser Permanente Washington committees and initiatives related to improving behavioral health care.

Research interests and experience

Behavior Change

Self-management support; treatment adherence; health behavior change; motivational interviewing; problem-solving therapy; cognitive behavioral therapy
Chronic Illness Management

Chronic pain; insomnia; treatment adherence; HIV management and PrEP; self-management support
Complementary & Integrative Health

Chronic pain
Dementia Prevention

Health Psychology

Recent publications

Cherkin DC, Sherman KJ, Balderson BH, Turner JA, Cook AJ, Stoelb B, Herman PM, Deyo RA, Hawkes RJ. Comparison of complementary and alternative medicine with conventional mind-body therapies for chronic back pain: protocol for the Mind-body Approaches to Pain (MAP) randomized controlled trial. Trials. 2014 Jun 7;15:211. doi: 10.1186/1745-6215-15-211. PubMed

Williams EC, Bradley KA, Balderson BH, McClure JB, Grothaus L, McCoy K, Rittmueller SE, Catz SL. Alcohol and associated characteristics among older persons living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy. Subst Abus. 2014;35(3):245-53. doi: 10.1080/08897077.2014.890997. PubMed

McCurry SM, Shortreed SM, Von Korff M, Balderson BH, Baker LD, Rybarczyk BD, Vitiello MV. Who benefits from CBT for insomnia in primary care? Important patient selection and trial design lessons from longitudinal results of the Lifestyles trial. Sleep. 2014 Feb 1;37(2):299-308. doi: 10.5665/sleep.3402. PubMed

Vitiello MV, McCurry SM, Shortreed SM, Balderson BH, Baker LD, Keefe FJ, Rybarczyk BD, Von Korff M. Cognitive-behavioral treatment for comorbid insomnia and osteoarthritis pain in primary care: the Lifestyles Randomized Controlled Trial. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2013;61(6):947-56. doi: 10.1111/jgs.12275. Epub 2013 May 27. PubMed

Balderson BH, Grothaus L, Harrison RG, McCoy K, Mahoney C, Catz S. Chronic illness burden and quality of life in an aging HIV population. AIDS Care. 2013;25(4):451-8. doi: 10.1080/09540121.2012.712669. Epub 2012 Aug 15. PubMed

Catz SL, Thibodeau L, Bluespruce J, Yard SS, Seal DW, Amico KR, Bogart LM, Mahoney C, Balderson BH, Sosman JM. Prevention needs of HIV-positive men and women awaiting release from prison. AIDS Behav. 2012 Jan;16(1):108-20. PubMed

McCurry SM, Von Korff M, Vitiello MV, Saunders K, Balderson BH, Moore AL, Rybarczyk BD. Frequency of comorbid insomnia, pain, and depression in older adults with osteoarthritis: predictors of enrollment in a randomized treatment trial. J Psychosom Res. 2011;71(5):296-9. Epub 2011 Jul 1. PubMed

Levine MD, Ross TR, Balderson BH, Phelan EA. Implementing group medical visits for older adults at Group Health Cooperative. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2010 Jan;58(1):168-72. Epub 2009 Dec 9. PubMed

Phelan EA, Balderson B, Levine M, Erro JH, Jordan L, Grothaus L, Sandhu N, Perrault PJ, Logerfo JP, Wagner EH. Delivering effective primary care to older adults: a randomized, controlled trial of the senior resource team at Group Health Cooperative. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2007;55(11):1748-56. PubMed

Levine M, Phelan EA, Balderson BHK, Wagner EH. Collaborative treatment planning for older patients in primary care. Generations. 2006;30(3):83-5. PubMed