Mary Marden Velasquez, Ph.D., has spent more than 30 years studying why people relapse, backslide and start over and turning that research into tools clinicians can actually use. Her latest book, “Reframing Failure in Behavior Change,” written with longtime collaborator Carlo DiClemente, makes the case that setbacks aren’t a sign an intervention has failed.
“Dr. Velasquez has spent her career turning research into something a clinician can use on a hard day with a real client,” said Allan Cole, dean of UT Social Work. “This book demonstrates how practitioners may view setbacks not as failure, but as the next useful piece of information for clinical work.”
The book is the newest publication from Velasquez, who serves UT Social Work as the Lori Holleran Steiker Endowed Faculty Chair in Substance Use and Recovery; Centennial Professor in Leadership for Community, Professional and Corporate Excellence; and director of the Health Behavior Research and Training Institute. The book synthesizes decades of research into a practical framework clinicians can apply across substance use, chronic disease and other health conditions, treating relapse as a diagnostic moment rather than an endpoint.
“Setbacks can help clinicians as well as clients identify what went wrong and adapt,” Velasquez said. “Our goal with this book is to translate research into real-world impact and put evidence-based approaches in the hands of practitioners.”
For more than two decades, Velasquez has led the Health Behavior Research and Training Institute at UT Social Work alongside Kirk von Sternberg, Ph.D., developing evidence-based interventions for substance use disorders and alcohol- and substance-exposed pregnancies. Her work has drawn more than three decades of federal funding and spans the full arc from concept to implementation in communities.
Velasquez works in screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment; motivational interviewing; the Transtheoretical Model; and implementation science. “Reframing Failure in Behavior Change” is her fifth book; earlier titles include “Group Treatment for Substance Abuse: A Stages-of-Change Therapy Manual,” “Substance Abuse Treatment and the Stages of Change: Selecting and Planning Interventions” and “Women and Drinking: Preventing Alcohol-Exposed Pregnancies.” She recently held the Centennial Professorship in Leadership for Community, Professional and Corporate Excellence and is the inaugural Lori Holleran Steiker Endowed Faculty Chair in Substance Use and Recovery.