Paul J. Friday, Ph.D., is Chief of Clinical Psychology at UPMC – Shadyside, where he has practiced for more than 40 years, and president of Shadyside Psychological Services.
PHOTO: KAREN MEYERS
Dr. Friday practices cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a goal-oriented branch of psychotherapy in which he helps clients understand connections among thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and actions. By helping clients understand these connections, he helps them establish new patterns and more effective ways of living. See the next page, The Laws, for a close look into the framework of his practice.
Office address:
Shadyside Psychological Services
Shadyside Medical Building
5200 Centre Ave., Suite 612
Pittsburgh, PA 15232
Office phone: (412) 683-7396
Dr. Friday is a member of the American Psychological Association and was a longstanding member of the Pennsylvania Psychological Association and the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis. Dr. Friday was one of the founding members of the Biomedical Ethics Committee and the Center for Complementary Medicine at UPMC – Shadyside. He was the first psychologist to head a clinical team for ethics consultations and was the first state representative psychologist to the Pennsylvania Cancer Pain Initiative. For 40 years, Dr. Friday coordinated the AmSECT (American Society of Extra-corporeal Technologists) Distress Lifeline, an international crisis intervention program for perfusionists, technicians who operate heart-lung machines during open-heart surgery.
Dr. Friday often appears on local, regional, and national television and radio programs, including CNN, MSNBC, ABC News, and KDKA, addressing many health care topics and current events, including the psychological explanation for why people do “crazy” things and how “normal” people can cope in trying times.
While doing his undergraduate work at LaSalle College in Philadelphia, he spent two years on scholarship studying at the University of Vienna, Austria. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1975.
Dr. Friday is the author of the critically acclaimed book “Friday’s Laws: How to Become Normal When You’re Not and How to Stay Normal When You Are,” which is the foundation for both his psychological practice and his presentations.