Biography

Peter Hendricks, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Health Behavior of the School of Public Health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He received his doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of South Florida in 2006. As a doctoral student, Dr. Hendricks’ research focused on the treatment of cigarette dependence. Following a one-year clinical internship at the Durham Veterans Administration Medical Center, Dr. Hendricks completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Drug Abuse Treatment and Services Research at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). While at UCSF, Dr. Hendricks continued to focus on the treatment of cigarette dependence, and extended his line of work to include both alcohol and cannabis use. Dr. Hendricks joined the faculty in the Department of Health Behavior of the School of Public Health at UAB 2010. Since this time, his research has centered on the development of novel and more effective treatments for substance dependence, with specific areas of focus on cigarette, cocaine, cannabis, opioid, and polysubstance dependence in vulnerable populations (e.g., individuals in the criminal justice system). Dr. Hendricks first developed an interest in the therapeutic application of psychedelics upon reading a contemporary study of the acute and longer-term effects of psilocybin among healthy volunteers (Griffiths et al., 2006). Since 2014 he has published over 15 peer-reviewed manuscripts relating to psychedelics, including population studies suggesting that psychedelics may be effective in preventing and treating substance use, criminal recidivism, psychological distress, and suicidality. Recently he proposed that the emotion awe represents the psychological mechanism underlying the effects of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. He is currently Principal Investigator of an ongoing pilot trial of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for cocaine dependence.