Visiting Associate Professor
Couple and Family Therapy Department
215-762-8662 P
215-762-1153 F
wfn24@drexel.edu
Room 403 Bellet Bldg.
William F. Northey, Jr., PhD is a Visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Couple and Family Therapy at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where his scholarship focuses on qualitative research methods, the development and assessment of competence, addictions treatment, program evaluation and improvement, and the intersection of culture, workforce development, and effective interventions. He has also served on the facilities of Bowling Green State, George Washington, Saybrook, Amridge, and Wilmington Universities.
Dr. Northey is also the Managing Partner of N-P Consulting and Therapeutic Services in Wilmington, Delaware which provides training, consultation, and behavioral health services for individuals, families, and organizations. Dr. Northey has been active in the development of effective ways to improve the competence of staff in the use of family psychoeducation, motivational interviewing, effective suicide interventions, and other evidence-based practices for Connections CSP a multisite, multidisciplinary behavioral health agency serving over 10,000 people in need each year. Dr. Northey has been instrumental in developing and implementing innovative workforce development projects, including the use of Motivational Enhancement Therapy as an approach to supervision, implementation of trauma informed care, and the use of online training to address staff development needs. Dr. Northey is also the program evaluator on two federally funded grants. One, Fresh Start, is an assisted employment project for people returning from incarceration with a history of substance abuse. The second, Connect to Success, is a project funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to provide behavioral health services to people who have a history of substance abuse and homelessness, which places them at risk for becoming homeless again.
Dr. Northey served as the director of research and the professional development research specialist at the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) from 1999 to 2005. While on the AAMFT staff he was instrumental in creating professional development programs for the field, including the annual research conferences and the resultant book Effectiveness Research in MFT; the Educators’ Summit, a spin-off from his role in the development and piloting of the MFT Core Competencies; and the Annual Conferences and Summer Institutes. Dr. Northey directed the AAMFT’s Practice Research Network, a federally funded project to better understand the practice patterns of MFTs in the United States and was actively involved in national behavioral health workforce development projects including the Annapolis Coalition, the Institute or Medicine’s Report on Crossing the Quality Chasm, and co-authoring the Center for Substance Abuse Services’ Treatment Improvement Protocol 39: Substance Abuse Treatment and Family Therapy.
Dr. Northey has served as a research and program development consultant to a number of family therapy programs, including the Hiebert Institute in Rock Island, Illinois, the Philadelphia Child and Family Therapy Training Program, St. Mary’s University, University of Southern Maine, LaSalle University, and the University of Delaware. Among his accomplishments has been the development of a geographically diverse family therapy training program, program evaluation projects to improve dissemination of effective family therapy interventions, and development of family therapy competency assessment packages.
Dr. Northey is a licensed marriage and family therapist in Delaware and Maryland with a small private practice where he specializes in working with high conflict families after divorce. He serves on Mental Health and Substance Abuse Professionals Licensing Board in the State of Delaware and was President of the Board from 2006 to 2008. Dr. Northey was the Treasurer for the Board of Directors of the International Family Therapy Association, served as Chair of Congresses for the World Family Therapy Congress from 2007 to 2009, and is a delegate to the Association of Marital and Family Therapy Regulatory Boards.
Dr. Northey has a robust publication resume which features a variety of outlets, including major journals (e.g., Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, Journal of Family Therapy, Journal of Family Psychotherapy), technical publications (e.g., Treatment Improvement Protocol 39: Family Therapy and Substance Abuse, Family Education & Support: Evidence Based Practice Psychoeducation for Children, Youth and Their Families in Delaware), and magazines and newsletters (e.g., Family Therapy Magazine). Dr. Northey has received spectacular evaluations as an international presenter covering such diverse topics as the legitimization of marriage and family therapy in the United States, developing and assessing competence, family psychoeduation and interventions for people suffering from serious mental illness, effective interventions for working with high conflict families, and strategic family therapy.