ECP Spotlight

Welcome to the SoAP Early Career Psychologist Spotlight. The ECP spotlight is a chance for us to highlight the early career members helping to shape the future of addiction psychology.

This month our featured ECP is Dr. Mark A. Prince. Dr. Prince is an Assistant Professor and Associate Director of Addiction Counseling in the Department of Psychology at Colorado State University. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and a master’s degree from San Diego State University before completing a concurrent PhD in Clinical Psychology and MS in Applied Statistics at Syracuse University. He completed his clinical psychology internship at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University and a T32 postdoctoral fellowship at the Research Institute on Addictions at SUNY Buffalo.

What are your research interests?

My research is focused on identifying mechanisms of behavior change in addiction and on developing interventions targeting these mechanisms. My intervention efforts have focused on brief, individually tailored interventions that can be disseminated on a large scale. In addition, I am interested in applying advanced quantitative methods to examine relationships among context-specific psychological constructs.

What are your clinical interests?

My clinical work primarily focuses on treating individuals with substance use and concomitant mental health problems. In addition, I currently treat pregnant and postpartum women with mental health problems. I received training to treat women struggling during this period of their lives while on my clinical internship and have come to appreciate that pregnant and postpartum women are an underserved population with great need for mental health services. Finally, I worked for two years at the Onondaga Nation’s Family Healing Center (Ganigonhi:yoh). While there, I developed a strong passion for working with Native American adults, children, and families. I continue to serve this population through my research and, whenever possible, treating Native American clients.

What are your educational/training interests? 

I am always learning. It is nice being done with my formal education because I have more freedom to pursue education and training in more specialized areas. Recently, I have been diving deeper into Machine Learning and I have been running an Existential and Spiritual Approaches to Psychotherapy reading group for students and faculty. This odd combination really represents the two sides of me. I like to roll up my sleeves and learn advanced quantitative methods – I am always humbled by how little I know – and I like to sit and think about deep philosophical and spiritual issues – where I am equally humbled. My favorite part of working in academia is the freedom to continually learn and grow as a person and as a scientist.

In addition, to mentoring students and supervising clinicians in the Psychological Services Center, I am lucky to teach a number of interesting classes. Each year I teach a graduate level class in Motivational Interviewing, as well as a class in individual and group therapy for addiction. I also alternate teaching undergraduate research methods and graduate level Structural Equation Modeling courses every other year. I appreciate being able to teach both clinical and quantitative courses, as they fit well with my training.

Are you currently involved with supervising students or early career professionals?

Yes, I am very fortunate in this regard. I currently advise 9 doctoral students, 23 master’s in addiction counseling students, and 6 undergraduate students. In addition, at any given time I supervise between 2 and 4 PhD counseling students in the Psychological Services Center here at CSU. I also serve on various thesis and dissertation committees where I help students develop their research design and analysis skills. Finally, I work with other early career professionals on grant writing and career development – though this is more mutually beneficial than me serving as a supervisor.

How did you become interested in addictive behaviors? 

After I completed my undergraduate training, I moved to San Diego with a couple of my friends. When I got there, I started working at a group home while also applying for any job that had “psychology” in the title. A few months later, I got an interview to work in Dr. Sandy Brown’s research lab at UCSD. At that time, I was unfamiliar with the research process and did not know much about addictive behaviors. However, I managed to get the position. My job was to travel around San Diego county and conduct structured clinical interviews and neuropsychological assessments to adolescents and adults with substance use problems. Half of the participants also had comorbid mental health problems. Participants were recruited between the ages of 12-18 and followed every few years until age 35. We also interviewed a resource person, who was typically a parent. I worked on these two longitudinal research projects for two years and met people coping with the full range of addictive behaviors. I worked with adolescents who were just experimenting with substances for the first time and with parents and grandparents who had been using for decades. I interviewed people who had quit years ago, and addiction was a part of their past they barely remembered, and I interviewed people who continued to struggle for years with little reprieve. Through this work, I gained a deep respect for people struggling with addictive behaviors. Most of the people I worked with were great people whose lives had gone astray. They tended to be seekers – looking to experience all life had to offer. And, they tended to be misunderstood and mistreated in many aspects of their lives. I believe that getting my start into the field as an observer – rather than someone with a responsibility to foster behavior change – gave me a unique and valuable perspective. When I eventually went on to complete my doctoral training and focus my career it was obvious to me that this was the problem that I wanted to dedicate my career to better understanding and treating.

What motivated you to join the Society on Addiction Psychology (Division 50)? 

I did not put much thought into joining. This is where my friends and colleagues are and where people are presenting on the state-of-the-science in addiction psychology. I look forward to CPA every year!

Thank you for being part of SoAP, Mark!  We are grateful to have you in our community, and excited to follow you in your career!