Maria Angeles Gonzalez Ibanez

Angels Gonzalez Ibanez, PhD in Psychology and Clinical Psychologist, is Adjunct Professor at Yale University, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health (PRCH) and Professor at the Postgraduate Program in Clinical Psychopathology in the School of Psychology at the University of Barcelona, where she teaches advanced classes focused on Recovery and Person-Centered Care in mental health and addiction following the approach offered at Yale PRCH.

Her current professional interests focus on the design, implementation, and evaluation of innovative policy services; promoting recovery and person-centered care for mental health and addiction, taking into account cultural diversity. Dr. Gonzalez Ibanez is providing trainings and consultations in a variety of international forums, including universities, hospitals, and health department services in different countries.

Prior to her relocation from Spain to the United States, Dr. Gonzalez Ibanez served as Professor of Clinical Psychology and Psychopathology at the University of Barcelona, School of Psychology, and she was the first Head of the Department of Clinical Psychology at the Bellvitge University Hospital in Barcelona, where she founded and led the first Pathological Gambling Unit in Spain (1996), which was recognized internationally for its specialized, integrated, and tailored treatment and research.

Dr. Gonzalez Ibanez wrote in 1998 the first book about pathological gambling in Spain (Pathological gambling, a new addiction) emphasizing that gambling disorder was considered a behavioral addiction and a public health issue many years before the American Psychiatric Association (APA) considered this mental disorder an addiction. She demonstrated in her doctoral thesis (summa cum laude) and in scientific papers that pathological gambling was a heterogenous disorder in which biopsychosocial variables interacted and that subgroups of patients could be identified by cluster analysis, offering different treatment for every subgroup. Those findings were the beginning of a new line of international research on this topic.

Dr. Gonzalez Ibanez started and led the Catalonian Pathological Gambling Services under the Mental Health and Addiction Department of the Catalan Government, and she implemented the pathological gambling and behavioral addictions units in the Department of Psychiatry at the General University Hospitals in the four provinces of Catalonia, which was considered a model of implementation on a global scale.

Regarding professional honors and recognition, she has been a founding member of many international centers and commissions for the study of gambling. Before moving to the U.S., Dr. Gonzalez Ibanez received an award from the University of Barcelona for her excellence in researching, teaching, and practicing clinical psychology.

Dr. Gonzalez Ibanez has been interviewed by multiple international media outlets like CNN and BBC.