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
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
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Behavior Change
Self-management support; treatment adherence; health behavior change; motivational interviewing; problem-solving therapy; cognitive behavioral therapy
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Chronic Illness Management
Chronic pain; insomnia; treatment adherence; HIV management and PrEP; self-management support
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Complementary & Integrative Health
Chronic pain
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Dementia Prevention
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Health Psychology
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Recent publications
Phelan EA, Balderson BH, Fujii MM, Graham VF, Theis MK, Gray SL Deprescribing Central Nervous System-Active Medications Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults with Dementia in Primary Care: A Feasibility Study 2025 Oct 22;22(11). doi: 10.3390/ijerph22111611. Epub 2025-10-22. PubMed
DeBar LL, Mayhew M, Wellman RD, Balderson BH, Dickerson JF, Elder CR, Justice M, Keefe FJ, McMullen CK, Owen-Smith AA, Rini C, Von Korff M, Waring S, Yarava A, Shen Z, Thompson RE, Clark AE, Casper TC, Cook AJ Telehealth and Online Cognitive Behavioral Therapy-Based Treatments for High-Impact Chronic Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial 2025 Jul 23 doi: 10.1001/jama.2025.11178. Epub 2025-07-23. PubMed
Barnes DE, Balderson BH, Shulman L, Rosenberg DE, Matson TE, Mettert KD, Delaney K, King D, Adams K, Fleckenstein L, Peltz CB, Idu A, Larson EB, Yaffe K, Dublin S The Systematic Multi-domain Alzheimer's Risk Reduction Trial (SMARRT) intervention: A personalized approach to dementia risk reduction 2024 Dec;102(4):1121-1132. doi: 10.1177/13872877241296161. Epub 2024-12-03. PubMed
Phelan EA, Williamson BD, Balderson BH, Cook AJ, Piccorelli AV, Fujii MM, Nakata KG, Graham VF, Theis MK, Turner JP, Tannenbaum C, Gray SL Reducing Central Nervous System-Active Medications to Prevent Falls and Injuries Among Older Adults: A Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial 2024 Jul;7(7):e2424234. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.24234. Epub 2024-07-01. PubMed
Yaffe K, Vittinghoff E, Dublin S, Peltz CB, Fleckenstein LE, Rosenberg DE, Barnes DE, Balderson BH, Larson EB Effect of Personalized Risk-Reduction Strategies on Cognition and Dementia Risk Profile Among Older Adults: The SMARRT Randomized Clinical Trial 2024 Jan;184(1):54-62. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2023.6279. Epub 2023-11-27. PubMed
Balderson BH, Gray SL, Fujii MM, Nakata KG, Williamson BD, Cook AJ, Wellman R, Theis MK, Lewis CC, Key D, Phelan EA A health-system-embedded deprescribing intervention targeting patients and providers to prevent falls in older adults (STOP-FALLS trial): study protocol for a pragmatic cluster-randomized controlled trial 2023 May 11;24(1):322. doi: 10.1186/s13063-023-07336-7. Epub 2023-05-11. PubMed
Gray SL, Fornaro R, Turner J, Boudreau DM, Wellman R, Tannenbaum C, Marcum ZA, Balderson B, Cook A, Jacobsen AL, Phelan EA Provider knowledge, beliefs, and self-efficacy to deprescribe opioids and sedative-hypnotics 2023 May;71(5):1580-1586. doi: 10.1111/jgs.18202. Epub 2022-12-22. PubMed
Mayhew M, Balderson BH, Cook AJ, Dickerson JF, Elder CR, Firemark AJ, Haller IV, Justice M, Keefe FJ, McMullen CK, O'Keeffe-Rosetti MC, Owen-Smith AA, Rini C, Schneider JL, Von Korff M, Wandner LD, DeBar LL Comparing the clinical and cost-effectiveness of remote (telehealth and online) cognitive behavioral therapy-based treatments for high-impact chronic pain relative to usual care: study protocol for the RESOLVE multisite randomized control trial 2023 Mar 16;24(1):196. doi: 10.1186/s13063-023-07165-8. Epub 2023-03-16. PubMed
Chen JA, Anderson ML, Cherkin DC, Balderson BH, Cook AJ, Sherman KJ, Turner JA Moderators and Nonspecific Predictors of Treatment Benefits in a Randomized Trial of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction vs. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy vs. Usual Care for Chronic Low Back Pain 2023 Feb;24(2):282-303. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2022.09.014. Epub 2022-09-27. PubMed
Hsu C, Evers S, Balderson BH, Sherman KJ, Foster NE, Estlin K, Levine M, Cherkin D Adaptation and Implementation of the STarT Back Risk Stratification Strategy in a US Health Care Organization: A Process Evaluation 2019 Jun;20(6):1105-1119. doi: 10.1093/pm/pny170. PubMed
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