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

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. JAMA Intern Med. 2024 Jan 1;184(1):54-62. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2023.6279. 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. Trials. 2023 May 11;24(1):322. doi: 10.1186/s13063-023-07336-7. 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. Trials. 2023 Mar 16;24(1):196. doi: 10.1186/s13063-023-07165-8. 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. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2022 Dec 22. doi: 10.1111/jgs.18202. [Epub ahead of print]. 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. Pain Med. 2018 Sep 28. pii: 5110194. doi: 10.1093/pm/pny170. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed

Balderson BH, Pruitt SD, Von Korff M. Strengthening self-management of low back pain in primary care: an evolving paradigm. In: Turk DC, Gatchel RJ, editors. Psychological Approaches to Pain Management: A Practitioner’s Handbook, 3rd Edition. New York: Guilford Press; 2018. p 319-339.

Adams LM, Balderson B, Packett BJ 2nd. Meeting the challenge: hepatitis C virus and HIV care experiences among HIV specialty providers. AIDS Patient Care STDS. 2018;32(8):314-320. doi: 10.1089/apc.2018.0006. PubMed

Cherkin D, Balderson B, Wellman R, Hsu C, Sherman KJ, Evers SC, Hawkes R, Cook A, Levine MD, Piekara D, Rock P, Estlin KT, Brewer G, Jensen M, LaPorte AM, Yeoman J, Sowden G, Hill JC, Foster NE. Effect of Low Back Pain Risk-Stratification Strategy on Patient Outcomes and Care Processes: the MATCH Randomized Trial in Primary Care. LID - 10.1007/s11606-018-4468-9 [doi] J Gen Intern Med. 2018 May 22. pii: 10.1007/s11606-018-4468-9. doi: 10.1007/s11606-018-4468-9 [Epub ahead of print] PubMed

Adams LM, Balderson BH, Brown K, Bush SE, Packett BJ 2nd. Who starts the conversation and who receives preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP)?: a brief online survey of medical providers' (PrEP) practices. Health Educ Behav. 2018 Jan 1:1090198117752789. doi: 10.1177/1090198117752789. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed

Evers S, Hsu C, Sherman KJ, Balderson B, Hawkes R, Brewer G, La Porte AM, Yeoman J, Cherkin D. Patient perspectives on communication with primary care providers about chronic low back pain. Perm J. 2017;21. doi: 10.7812/TPP/16-177. PubMed