Our work is aimed at health promotion, prevention, and culturally adapting and refining the effectiveness of current interventions for stress and substance use within the community. Our approach attempts to view the person in the social-biological-environmental context in which they live. We seek to help establish and successfully reach practical, meaningful, and realistic interventions/treatments in an integrative fashion.

We focus on stress and/or -substance use behavior changes as well as health behavior change (e.g., minimizing obesity levels in such work, we tend to emphasize 'present-oriented' approaches to learning and behaving (e.g., mindfulness, exercise) in order to facilitate positive adaptation and change. We believe that by working together in a non-judgmental yet collaborative fashion, we can achieve meaningful and lasting change.

We ground our assessment and treatment approaches in the science of mind-body approaches with an emphasis on practical and personal success. Specifically, in our substance use and addictive behavior work, we often utilize harm reduction strategies, which represent a pragmatic approach to reducing the harmful consequences of drug use and other high-risk activities by incorporating strategies that cut across the spectrum from safer use to managed use to abstinence. Overall, to avoid stigmatism and condemnation, we seek to work with the individual or community to minimize the consequences of harmful behavior.

While we do not currently offer clinical services, several of our studies use validated therapeutic approaches to help individuals make major changes in their lives (e.g. quit smoking, reduce alcohol or marijuana consumption, etc.). If you are seeking individual care, consultation, or workshop training for your organization, please contact Dr. Zvolensky directly at mjzvolen@central.uh.edu. Alternatively, those seeking care are encouraged to visit https://rehabs.org/centers/texas/houston/.