Mary Ellen Olbrisch, Ph.D., ABPP
Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Surgery

Address:
Department of Psychiatry
Virginia Commonwealth University
Box 980268, Richmond, Virginia 23298-0268

Email:
molbrisc@hsc.vcu.edu

Principal hospital base:
VCU Medical Center

Professional memberships:
American Board of Clinical Health Psychology
American Psychological Association, Fellow, 2000
American Academy of Clinical Health Psychology, Fellow

Clinical Interests:
Pre-surgical Psychological Evaluation, Coping with Chronic Illness, Improving Health Behaviors and Self-Care

Research interests:
Success Factors in Surgery Patients, Eating Disorders in Obesity, Mental Health Risks and Benefits in Weight Loss Surgery, Preparation for Surgery, Health Behavior Measurement, Living Organ Donors

Role in residency program:
Dr. Olbrisch is director of a postdoctoral fellowship program in clinical health psychology in the Department of Psychiatry. She also provides supervision to PGY-V fellows in psychosomatic medicine and to PGY-IV residents in intensive psychotherapy, and she participates in medical student clinical education and electives and supervises graduate students in clinical and counseling psychology.

Undergraduate and graduate education:
De Paul University, Chicago, Illinois. June, 1973, B.A., w/ highest honor, Psychology
Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida. December, 1975, M.S., Psychology
Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida. August, 1978, Ph.D., Clinical Psych

Postdoctoral training and special experience:
May, 1980 - present; Practice of clinical psychology. Psychotherapy, consultation, psychological assessment. Work with obesity surgery patients, organ transplant patients, bone marrow transplant patients, organ donors, chronic pain patients, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronically ill patients, general mental health practice.
Sept. 1978 - Aug.1984; Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, University of Texas at Austin.
January, 1979 - May,1980; Clinical psychologist, The University of Texas Student Health Center. Long-term and brief individual psychotherapy.
July, 1977 - June,1978; Fellow in clinical psychology, Langley Porter Institute, University of California, San Francisco, California (APA approved clinical psychology internship)

Licensure:
Board Certification in Clinical Health Psych, Am. Boards of Professional Psych 1992
Virginia, Clinical Psychologist, #1255, February 12, 1985 - present

Video Appearances:
Change for a Lifetime. Bariatric surgery patient education video for United States Surgical, 2004.

Bibliography - invited addresses and papers presented at professional meetings:
Heckman, C., Olbrisch, M.E., Rodgers, K., Meador, J.G., DeMaria, E., & Haller, D.L. The Health and Behavioral Issues Test (HABIT): Psychometric properties in two samples. To be presented at the 113th Annual Meeting of the American psychological Association, Washington, D.C., August 20, 2005.

Olbrisch, M.E., Haller, D.L. Substance use in the morbidly obese; do addictive processes overlap? To be presented at the sixty-seventh annual scientific meeting of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence, Orlando, Florida, June 23, 2005.

Olbrisch, M.E., Bendedict, S.M., Cropsey, K.L. & Fisher, R.A. Psychological, social and behavioral characteristics of living donor candidates for adult liver transplantation. Presented at the 6th Bienniel Conferences on Psychiatric, Psychosocial and Ethical Issues in Organ Transplantation, Santa Monica, California, February 5, 2005.

Haller, D.L., Acosta, M.C. & Olbrisch, M.E. Phone-based motivational therapy for transplant patients with addiction problems. Presented at the 6th Bienniel Conferences on Psychiatric, Psychosocial, and Ethical Issues in Organ Transplantation, Santa Monica, California, February 4, 2005.

Olbrisch, M.E., & Haller, D. Psychological evaluation of patients for obesity surgery: What surgeons want. Presented at the 112th Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Honolulu, August 1, 2004.

Bauchowitz, A., Gonder-Frederick, L., Olbrisch, M.E., Azarbad, L., Ryee, M., Woodson, M., Miller, A. and Schirmer, B. Psychosocial evaluation criteria for bariatric surgery candidates: A survery of present practices. Presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery, June 14, 2004, San Diego, California.

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