Lending library

Legacy Interview: Gail Steketee, PhD & Randy Frost, PhD

Course Description

Join us for a fascinating conversation with hoarding disorder experts Dr. Randy Frost and Dr. Gail Steketee. Drs. Frost and Steketee share how an advertisement in the newspaper and a single case study influenced the origins of hoarding conceptualization and treatment. Laugh along as they share personal stories about almost getting arrested on the job and playing moderator when fellow visionaries collide. Hear how the collaboration of a veterinarian, a clinical psychologist, and a social work researcher led to our current understanding of animal hoarding. Dr. Frost and Dr. Steketee also share their viewpoints on the “difficulty of letting go” as the defining feature of hoarding and how object “fantasy” may influence hoarding behavior.

Home study

Limited access

CE Credits

No CE credit

Date & duration

65 minutes

Contributor

Gail Steketee, PhD

Dr. Gail Steketee, a member of the faculty since 1986, was appointed Dean of the Boston University School of Social Work in 2008 after serving as Dean ad interim for three years. From 1996 to 1999, she served as the School’s Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Dr. Steketee has conducted research and taught on cognitive and behavioral treatments for anxiety disorders. She has conducted NIMH-funded research on behavioral and cognitive treatments for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) with colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania and Mass General Hospital. Her current research focuses on the assessment and treatment of hoarding disorder in adults with colleagues at Smith College and Hartford Hospital. She has published extensively in these areas, including over a dozen books and numerous articles and chapters. She serves on the scientific advisory board of the International OCD Foundation and has been a board member of the National Association of Deans and Directors of MSW programs. She is an elected Fellow and current Vice President of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (AASWSW) and was elected president of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) for 2016-17.

Contributor

Randy Frost, PhD

Randy O. Frost received his doctorate from the University of Kansas in 1977 and is the Harold and Elsa Siipola Israel Professor of Psychology at Smith College. He has published more than 160 scientific articles and book chapters on hoarding and related topics. His work has been funded by the Obsessive Compulsive Foundation and the National Institute of Mental Health. Frost serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the International OCD Foundation. He has co-authored several best-selling books on hoarding, and his research has been featured on a variety of television and radio news shows, including 20/20 Downtown, Good Morning America, The Today Show, Dateline, National Public Radio (general news as well as the award-winning program The Infinite Mind), CBS Sunday Morning, BBC News, and the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s The Nature of Things. He has also consulted with various hoarding task forces around the world and has given hundreds of lectures and workshops on the topic in the U.S. and internationally.