Evan Forman, Ph.D.

Director of Graduate Studies; Associate Professor

Laboratory for Innovations in Health-Related Behavior Change
Acceptance-Based Behavior Therapy Program

Research Interests

• clinical psychology: mechanisms and measurement of psychotherapy outcome, cognitive-behavioral and acceptance based psychotherapies, the development and evaluation of acceptance-based interventions for health behavior change (for problems of obesity and cardiac disease) as well as mood and anxiety disorders

• neurocognition of eating

Biography

Evan Forman, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist whose research interests include health-related behavior change especially related to problems of obesity and overeating, food cravings, neurocognition of eating, cognitive-behavioral and acceptance-based psychotherapies, psychotherapy mechanisms of action, and the development and evaluation of acceptance-based behavioral interventions for obesity and for anxiety disorders. Currently he serves as principle investigator of Mind Your Health, an NIH-funded randomized controlled trial comparing gold standard behavioral intervention to an acceptance-based behavior intervention for obesity; principle investigator of the Inhibitory Control Training Study, a Stein Foundation-funded study investigating the ability of computer-based inhibitory control training to improve healthy eating; and co-principle investigator of Project ENACT, an NIH-funded trial comparing alternate forms of cognitive-behavioral interventions for obesity. In collaboration with Dr. James Herbert, he also is conducting an RCT comparing standard CBT to an acceptance-based behavior therapy for social anxiety.

Currently Dr. Forman serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and is the Director of Graduate Studies. He teaches both undergraduate and graduate psychology courses including Principles of Psychotherapy, Psychotherapy Theories, and Abnormal Psychology. He is a board member and past president of the Philadelphia Behavior Therapy Association.

Dr. Forman’s undergraduate work was conducted at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and the University of St. Andrews in St. Andrews, Scotland. After he achieved his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Rochester, he completed clinical internships and fellowships at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and the University of Pennsylvania with specialties in cognitive-behavioral therapy, trauma-related disorders and assessment, treatment and prevention of suicidality. He has also functioned as a clinical associate at the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research.