Allan Abbass

Dr. Allan Abbass (born February 22, 1962) is professor, psychiatrist, and founding Director of the Centre for Emotions and Health[1] at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Dr. Abbass's clinical specialty and research focus is the use of Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP).[2][3] Dr. Abbass's work has focused on the use of intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy to diagnose and treat medically unexplained physical symptoms.[4][5] Dr. Abbass has developed psychotherapy training programs in ISTDP.[1] Dr. Abbass has published clinical trials on the effectiveness of ISTDP[6] and meta-analyses on the effectiveness of ISTDP.[7]

Dr. Abbass is an Elected Member of the Royal Society of Medicine.[8] In 2001, Dr. Abbass was awarded The Association of Chairs of Psychiatry of Canada Education Award for Excellence in Education.[9] In 2013, Dr. Abbass was Awarded the Douglas Utting Award[10] in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in the "Canadian Providing Outstanding Contributions" category, for the recognition and treatment of depression. He was awarded the designation "Distinguished Professor of 2016" by the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Department of Psychiatry. In 2018 he was named The David Malan Visiting Professor of Psychotherapy at the Tavistock in London, UK and is also Visiting Professor of Psychotherapy at University of Derby, UK. He is currently the President of the International Experiential Dynamic Therapy Association

Dr. Abbass has also published on the use of videotape and videoconference for training in short term psychotherapy.[11]

Dr. Abbass has facilitated the development of ISTDP training programs in Australia,[12] Italy,[13][14] Norway,[15] Sweden,[16] Denmark,[17] Poland,[18] and the UK.[19]

He is an advisory board member on the American Psychological Association's Unified Psychotherapy project,[20] and is on the scientific committee of the American Psychoanalytic Association.[21] He is faculty of the Norwegian Institute for ISTDP [22]

He published his first book, Reaching through Resistance: Advanced Psychotherapy Techniques, in 2015. www.allanabbass.com His second book Hidden from View: Clinician's Guide to Psychophysiologic Disorders was published in 2018 with Dr Howard Schubiner www.unlearnyourpain.com

An avid basketball fan and player, Allan was named one of Canada's top 25 under 19 year old players while in High School. He was named to the Harrison Trimble High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2007.[23] He played university basketball at Ottawa University [24] and Dalhousie University. He is an investor and board member of the Halifax Hurricanes, the 2016 Champions of the National Basketball League of Canada.[25]