David L Roberts, PhD

David L. Roberts, PhD, is an internationally recognized treatment researcher and dissemination scientist focused on developing, evaluating, and implementing psychological interventions in behavioral health. His work bridges intervention science, clinical services, and workforce development, with particular expertise in clinician training, schizophrenia and psychosis, motivational interviewing, psychiatric crisis services, and public behavioral health programs.

Dr. Roberts was the lead developer of Social Cognition and Interaction Training (SCIT), an evidence-based group intervention that helps people with schizophrenia and related conditions improve social functioning. SCIT has been translated into nine languages and is used internationally. He has led and collaborated on treatment-development, effectiveness, and implementation studies in the United States and with investigators across Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East. He is lead author of the Oxford University Press SCIT clinician manual and coeditor of Social Cognition in Schizophrenia: From Evidence to Treatment.

Dr. Roberts also developed Reflective Training (www.reflectivetraining.org), a practice-based method for building counseling and psychotherapy skills through repeated role-play, structured observation, feedback, and reflection. Reflective Training is designed to make high-quality experiential learning feasible across professions and settings, while reducing the judgment and performance anxiety that can interfere with skill development. His current dissemination work applies this model to motivational interviewing and multiple psychotherapy approaches, as well as crisis intervention, community health, and other high-stakes behavioral health conversations.

At UT Health San Antonio, Dr. Roberts serves as Education Director of the Transitional Care Clinic and New Opportunities for Wellness Clinic. His clinical and systems work has emphasized improving transitions after psychiatric hospitalization, developing recovery-oriented alternatives within the psychiatric crisis continuum, and strengthening the skills of clinicians and frontline behavioral health professionals. Across these programs, his work asks a consistent question: how can effective psychological practices be taught, measured, and sustained in the settings where people actually receive care?