Stefan G. Hofmann (born 1964) is a German-born clinical psychologist. He is the

Alexander von Humboldt Professor The Alexander von Humboldt Professorship is an academic prize named after Alexander von Humboldt and awarded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation since 2008. The prize is intended to attract internationally leading scientists from abroad to Ger ...

and recipient of the LOEWE Spitzenprofessur for Translational Clinical Psychology at the

Philipps University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the worl ...

in Germany and Professor for Psychology at the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

examining

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a psycho-social intervention that aims to reduce symptoms of various mental health conditions, primarily depression and anxiety disorders. CBT focuses on challenging and changing cognitive distortions (suc ...

, especially for

anxiety disorders Anxiety disorders are a cluster of mental disorders characterized by significant and uncontrollable feelings of anxiety and fear such that a person's social, occupational, and personal function are significantly impaired. Anxiety may cause physi ...

Since 2012, he has been editor in chief of the journal Cognitive Therapy and Research

Education

Hofmann was born on December 15, 1964 in

Bietigheim-Bissingen Bietigheim-Bissingen (locally: ''Biedge-Bissenge'') is the second-largest town in the district of Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany with 42,515 inhabitants in 2007. It is situated on the river Enz and the river Metter, close to its conflu ...

. He attended Ellental Gymnasien and studied clinical psychology at the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the wor ...

where he received a terminal degree (Dipl.-Psych.) in 1990, as well as a doctorate (Dr. rer. nat) in 1993 under the mentorship of Anke Ehlers. After a doctoral fellowship funded by the

German Academic Exchange Service The German Academic Exchange Service, or DAAD (german: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst), was founded in 1925 and is the largest German support organisation in the field of international academic co-operation. Organisation ''DAAD'' is a ...

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

and post-doctoral work with

David H. Barlow David H. Barlow (born April 30, 1942) is an American psychologist and Emeritus, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Psychiatry at Boston University. He is board certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology. Barlow is known for his ...

, he joined

as a faculty member in 1996.

Scientific contributions

Clinical Translational Research

Hofmann has been studying the nature of emotional disorders and the processes through which psychological treatments alleviate symptoms by translating discoveries from emotion research and neuroscience into clinical applications.

Pharmacological Augmentation of Psychotherapy

An important mechanism of

exposure therapy Exposure therapy is a technique in behavior therapy to treat anxiety disorders. Exposure therapy involves exposing the target patient to the anxiety source or its context without the intention to cause any danger (desensitization). Doing so is thou ...

for anxiety disorders is extinction learning. Hofmann has shown that

d-cycloserine Cycloserine, sold under the brand name Seromycin, is a GABA transaminase inhibitor and an antibiotic, used to treat tuberculosis. Specifically it is used, along with other antituberculosis medications, for active drug resistant tuberculosis. It ...

, a partial agonist of the

glutamate receptor Glutamate receptors are synaptic and non synaptic receptors located primarily on the membranes of neuronal and glial cells. Glutamate (the conjugate base of glutamic acid) is abundant in the human body, but particularly in the nervous system a ...

can augment extinction learning and speed up exposure therapy of anxiety disorders.

Emotion Research

Some of his other major contributions are on

Mindfulness Mindfulness is the practice of purposely bringing one's attention to the present-moment experience without evaluation, a skill one develops through meditation or other training. Mindfulness derives from ''sati'', a significant element of Hind ...

and research on

Emotion Emotions are mental states brought on by neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. There is currently no scientific consensus on a definition. ...

in therapy. In particular, he advanced the concept of

Interpersonal emotion regulation Interpersonal emotion regulation is the process of changing the emotional experience of one's self or another person through social interaction. It encompasses both intrinsic emotion regulation (also known as emotional self-regulation), in which ...

Processes-Based Therapy

In collaboration with

Steven C. Hayes Steven C. Hayes (born August 12, 1948) is an American clinical psychologist and Nevada Foundation Professor at the University of Nevada, Reno Department of Psychology, where he is a faculty member in their Ph.D. program in behavior analysis. He is ...

and

David Sloan Wilson David Sloan Wilson (born 1949) is an American evolutionary biologist and a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences and Anthropology at Binghamton University. He is a son of author Sloan Wilson, and co-founder of the Evolution ...

, he has been developing Process-based Therapy (PBT), an idiographic treatment approach based on

that combines insights from

evolution theory Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation t ...

and

complex network In the context of network theory, a complex network is a graph (network) with non-trivial topological features—features that do not occur in simple networks such as lattices or random graphs but often occur in networks representing real s ...

theory to target processes that underlie effective psychological treatments.

Neuromarkers of Psychotherapy

He has been using

Magnetic Resonance Imaging Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and radio wave ...

to predict the response to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

Awards and recognition

Hofmann has published more than 400 peer-reviewed scientific articles and 20 books and is listed by

Clarivate Analytics Clarivate Plc is a British-American publicly traded analytics company that operates a collection of subscription-based services, in the areas of bibliometrics and scientometrics; business / market intelligence, and competitive profiling for p ...

and the

Institute for Scientific Information The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) was an academic publishing service, founded by Eugene Garfield in Philadelphia in 1956. ISI offered scientometric and bibliographic database services. Its specialty was citation indexing and analysis, ...

as a

ISI Highly Cited Researcher The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) was an academic publishing service, founded by Eugene Garfield in Philadelphia in 1956. ISI offered scientometric and bibliographic database services. Its specialty was citation indexing and analysis, ...

. He was awarded a 2021

Alexander von Humboldt Professorship The Alexander von Humboldt Professorship is an academic prize named after Alexander von Humboldt and awarded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation since 2008. The prize is intended to attract internationally leading scientists from abroad to Ger ...

. Hofmann was president of the

Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies The Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) was founded in 1966. Its headquarters are in New York City and its membership includes researchers, psychologists, psychiatrists, physicians, social workers, marriage and family therap ...

from 2012-2013. He was the recipient of the 2018

Humboldt Prize The Humboldt Prize, the Humboldt-Forschungspreis in German, also known as the Humboldt Research Award, is an award given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany to internationally renowned scientists and scholars who work outside of G ...

and the 2015

Aaron T. Beck Aaron Temkin Beck (July 18, 1921 – November 1, 2021) was an American psychiatrist who was a professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania.

award for significant and enduring contributions to the field of cognitive therapy. Hofmann became a member of the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...

in 2018 and was elected to the rank of

AAAS Fellow Fellowship of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (FAAAS) is an honor accorded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to distinguished persons who are members of the Association. Fellows are elected ...

in 2020 "for distinguished contributions to the study and practice of cognitive behavioral therapy, especially for anxiety disorders." He is also a Fellow of the

American Psychological Society The Association for Psychological Science (APS), previously the American Psychological Society, is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to promote, protect, and advance the interests of scientifically oriented psychology in ...

, and the

Selected works

Books

Hofmann, S. G. (2011). ''An introduction to modern CBT: Psychological solutions to mental health problems''. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. . Hofmann, S. G. (2016). ''Emotion in therapy: From science to practice''. New York, NY: Guilford Press. . Barlow, D. H., Durand, V. M., & Hofmann, S. G. (2017). ''Abnormal psychology: An Integrative approach'' (8th edition). Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning. . Hayes, S. C. & Hofmann, S. G. (Eds.) (2018). "Process-based CBT: The science and core clinical competencies of cognitive behavioral therapy". Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications. . Hofmann, S. G. Doan, S. N. (2018). "The social foundations of emotion: Developmental, cultural, and clinical dimensions". Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. . Hayes, S. C. & Hofmann, S. G. (Eds.) (2020). Beyond the DSM: Toward a process-based alternative for diagnosis and mental health treatment. Oakland, CA: Context Press / New Harbinger Publications. . Hofmann, S. G. (2020). The anxiety skills workbook: Simple CBT and mindfulness strategies for overcoming anxiety, fear, and worry. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Press. . Hofmann, S. G., Hayes, S. C., & Lorscheid, D. (2021). Learning process-based therapy: A skills training manual for targeting the core processes of psychological change in clinical practice. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Press. .

Articles

Hofmann, S. G., Sawyer, A. T., Witt, A., & Oh, D. (2010). The effect of mindfulness-based therapy on anxiety and depression: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 78, 169-183. Hofmann, S. G., Asnaani, A., Vonk, J. J., Sawyer, A. T., & Fang, A. (2012). The efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy: A review of meta-analyses. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 36, 427-440. Hofmann, S. G., Sawyer, A. T., Fang, A., & Asnaani, A. (2012). Emotion dysregulation model of mood and anxiety disorders. Depression and Anxiety, 29, 409-416. . Whitfield-Gabrieli, S., Ghosh, S. S., Nieto-Castanon, A., Saygin, Z., Doehrmann, O., Chai, X. J., Reynold, G. O. , Hofmann, S. G., Pollack, M. H., & Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2016). Brain connectomics predict response to treatment in social anxiety disorder. Molecular Psychiatry, 21, 680-685. Hofmann, S. G. (2016). Schrödinger's cat and d-cycloserine to augment exposure therapy – both are dead and alive. JAMA Psychiatry, 73, 771-772. . Hayes, S. C. & Hofmann, S. G. (2017). The third wave of CBT and the rise of process-based care. World Psychiatry, 16, 245-246. Hayes, S. C. & Hofmann, S. G. (2021). "Third-wave" cognitive and behavioral therapies and the emergence of a process-based approach to intervention in psychiatry. World Psychiatry, 20, 363-375. Hofmann, S. G. & Hayes, S. C. (2019). The future of intervention science: Process-based therapy. Clinical Psychological Science, 7, 37–50. . Hofmann, S. G. (2020). The age of depression and its treatment. JAMA Psychiatry, 77, 667-668. . Phelps, E. A. & Hofmann, S. G. (2019). Memory editing from science fiction to clinical practice. Nature, 572, 43-50.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hofmann, Stefan 1964 births Living people 20th-century psychologists 21st-century psychologists German psychologists