ISTDP teacher

Allan Abbass

MD, psychiatrist · Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology, Dalhousie University

Allan Abbass, MD, is a psychiatrist, teacher and researcher. He is Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology and founding Director of the Centre for Emotions and Health at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. After completing medical school at Dalhousie University, Dr Abbass began his career as a family physician and emergency physician, but quickly became frustrated with the limitations of conventional medicine. He observed that a large proportion of his patients experienced physical and psychological symptoms that medication could not address. He therefore began studying short-term psychotherapy during his family medicine residency at McGill University. At McGill, he immersed himself in the training and research programme of Dr Habib Davanloo, where he discovered that patients with symptoms were seeking a corrective emotional experience with a caring professional. After his first two sessions with patients, he had no doubt about the power of human relationships in helping to heal old attachment-related traumas. This experience had a profound impact on Dr Abbass, who decided to complete a psychiatric residency at the University of Toronto in order to teach and conduct research in psychotherapy. From there he moved to the University of British Columbia, where he founded a university training programme in ISTDP and ran a treatment programme for individuals with severe personality disorders. In 1998 he returned to Dalhousie University - first as Director of Psychotherapy, and then as Director of Education in the university’s department of psychiatry. Within his first seven years there, he received departmental, regional and national awards for excellence in education. In 2013 he received the Douglas Utting Award for his contribution to the field of major depression. His innovative programme for the diagnosis and treatment of emotional factors contributing to medically unexplained symptoms in the emergency department received a quality award and national designation as a “Canadian Leading Practice.” Similar programmes have followed in other Canadian and international jurisdictions. He was named Distinguished Professor 2016 in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. Since 2000 he has been invited as a consultant by governments, universities and health agencies on the cost-effectiveness and applicability of short-term psychotherapy. He has delivered over 300 invited presentations worldwide, as well as ongoing video-based training for professionals in several countries. In addition, he has received seventeen research grants and authored more than 250 publications. He has served as a consultant to the American Psychological Association on the Unified Psychotherapy Project and to the American Psychoanalytic Association, where he sits on the Scientific Committee. He has been a board member of the International Experiential Dynamic Therapy Association and a member of the editorial board of the American Psychological Association journal Psychotherapy. A passionate basketball player, coach and fan, Dr Abbass applies a teamwork-based approach: practise a lot, help others perform at their best, and teach complex concepts in the simplest way possible.