Amy Wachholtz, PhD, MDiv

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry  Director, Health Psychology

Dr. Wachholtz graduated Cum Laude with a Master of Divinity degree from Boston University where she specialized in Bioethics. She the continued her education to earn a Masters and PhD in Clinical Psychology from Bowling Green State University where she had a dual specialization in Behavioral Medicine and Psychology of Religion. She completed internship through fellowship at Duke University Medical Center where she focused on medical psychology. She is also currently completing a Post-Doctoral Master’s degree in psychopharmacology.

Clinical Activity

Dr. Wachholtz provides services to the inpatient medical floors as a Health Psychologist on the Psychosomatic Medicine Consult Service at UMass Memorial Medical Center. She also provides outpatient specialty pain and addiction services through the ACTS clinic.

Educational Activity

She teaches at multiple levels across the medical school including: medical students, psychology interns, psychiatry residents, and addiction psychiatry and palliative care fellows via clinical teaching in the hospital and in formal didactic lectures. She lectures on 1) psychological pain management strategies, 2) links between sleep and pain and treating this comorbidity, and 3) assessing and treating co-morbid opioid addiction and chronic pain.

Research Interest

Her current research interests focus on 1) bio-psycho-social-spiritual model of chronic pain disorders and 2) the complexities of treating of co-morbid pain and opioid addiction in both acute pain and chronic pain situations. She recently received a NIDA K23 grant to study co-morbid opioid addiction and chronic pain. She also has a number of smaller grants to treat multi-dimensional pain management in advanced cancer patients and to reduce burnout among health care workers.