Linda Carter Sobell, Ph.D., ABPP, is the President's Distinguished Professor at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She is a professor of clinical psychology, addiction specialist, co-director of NSU's Guided Self-Change clinic, a Motivational Interviewing Trainer, and is board-certified in cognitive and behavioral psychology.
Sobell has been recognized nationally and internationally for her research in the addictions field including brief motivational interventions, self-change, and the Timeline Followback. She is a Fellow in the American Psychological Association (APA) in Divisions 1, 3, 12, 25, 28, 38, and 50, the Canadian Psychological Association, American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology, and Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy.
Sobell is the former president of the Society of Clinical Psychology of the APA and Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.
Education
Sobell earned her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California at Irvine in 1976 with a dissertation entitled "The validity of self-reports: Towards a predictive model". Before that, she had earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Linguistics as a double major in 1970, followed by a Master of Arts in Social Sciences in 1974, all from the University of California at Irvine.
Certifications, Credentials and Licensures
1976–1979 Certified Professional Counselor, Professional Alcohol & Drug Counselors of Tennessee, Certificate No. 119
1977–1980 Certified Substance Abuse Counselor, Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, Certificate No. 0 026
1978–1981 Licensed Psychologist, Tennessee. Certificate No. P.645 1981–1997 Registered Psychologist, Ontario (Canada). Certificate No.1478
1996–2014 Fellow, American Academy of Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology.
1996–present Board Certified in Behavioral and Cognitive Psychology, American Board of Professional Psychology. Diploma Number 4789, awarded 12/04/96.
1997–present Licensed Psychologist, Florida. License No. PY 0005690.
1999–present MINT (Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers) Trainer.
Awards
President's Distinguished Professor at Nova Southeastern University
2006 Betty Ford Award from the Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse (AMERSA) Norman E. Zinberg Memorial Lecture Award 2014 Jellinek Memorial Award from the Jellinek Memorial Fund (Jellinek Award) for outstanding contributions to knowledge in the field of alcohol studies 2008 Charles C. Shepard Science Award (About Charles C. Shepard Award) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry for the most outstanding peer-reviewed research paper prevention and control by CDC scientists 2010 Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Clinical Psychology Award, Society of Clinical Psychology of American Psychological Association 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award, Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Addictive Behaviors Special Interest Group
Timeline Followback (TLFB) Sobell began using the Timeline Followback (TLFB) method in her research in the 1970's, publishing evidence of the TLFB's validity and reliability for alcohol use through the 70's and 80's. In 1992, Linda published the user manual describing the approach and validation work for the TLFB as applied to alcohol use patterns Since then, the TLFB has been expanded as an assessment for cannabis, cocaine, smoking, and other substance use behaviors. The TLFB is one of the most highly regarded psychometric methods for obtaining retrospective reports of substance use behaviors. Both the FDA and European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction recommend the TLFB for measuring alcohol use.