Dr. Donn Posner, Ph.D
Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Stanford University School of Medicine
Clinical/Research Psychologist, Palo Alto Institute for Research
Dr. Donn Posner is currently an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor at Stanford University School of medicine and a clinical/research psychologist at the Palo Alto VA. He is working on a grant, which hopes to clarify the relative efficacy of each of the components of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) and for whom each piece works best.
Prior to his role at Sanford and the VA he spent 25 years serving as the Director of Clinical Behavioral Medicine for Rhode Island and Miriam Hospitals, and was also the Director of Behavioral Sleep Medicine for the Sleep Disorders Center of Lifespan Hospitals. Finally he was a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University. In his years at Brown he served as the primary supervisor for a rotation of the Behavioral Medicine track of the clinical psychology internship, which focused on the assessment and treatment of Sleep and Anxiety Disorders.
Dr. Posner is one of the authors of Cognitive Behavioral Treatment of Insomnia: A Session-by-Session Guide (New York: Springer/Verlag). The book is intended for clinical trainees, and non-insomnia sleep specialists, as well as more experienced clinicians from outside the sleep medicine field, who wish to learn how to provide empirically validated cognitive behavioral treatment for insomnia (CBT-I). He also co-authored Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia in Those with Depression, which is a clinical guide for clinicians working with insomnia in the context of mood disorders.
Dr. Posner was a consultant for the Veteran’s Administration roll out of CBT-I and continues to consult with clinical psychology programs and sleep centers assisting them on how to set up a Behavioral Sleep Medicine program and how to effectively deliver these treatments. He continues to consult around the country helping clinicians develop behavioral sleep medicine programs and to make CBT-I a part of their clinical practices.
Dr. Posner is a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and is one of the first certified behavioral sleep medicine specialists recognized by that group. He is also a founding member of the Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine and received the society’s Peter Hauri Career Distinguished Achievement Award.