Bio

“Understanding and appreciating the totality of a person’s experience within the context of a challenging pain condition is essential to helping them heal in a way that honors their body and reduces suffering,” says Dr. Kristen Slater. “With a compassionate, interdisciplinary team in place, I wholeheartedly believe that anyone living with pain can pursue a meaningful, values-driven life.”

Dr. Slater is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Pain Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, where she specializes in pain psychology and behavioral medicine.

She earned her Doctorate in Psychology (PsyD) with an emphasis in Behavioral Medicine and Health Psychology from Loma Linda University. She completed her APA-accredited predoctoral internship at the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System in Tucson, Arizona, where she developed a deep appreciation for the profound impact pain has on all domains of life — and the transformative potential of interdisciplinary pain treatment.

Dr. Slater went on to complete an APA-accredited Postdoctoral Fellowship in Pain Psychology at Stanford University School of Medicine in 2014. Following fellowship, she served as Lead Psychologist and Director of Behavioral Medicine and Psychological Services at Comprehensive Spine and Sports Center in Campbell, California, where she co-founded and helped develop both the Functional Restoration Program and the Pain Psychology Program. During this time, she also maintained a clinical instructor role at Stanford and a private practice.

She transitioned to Stanford full-time in 2019 and now dedicates the majority of her work to delivering and advancing evidence-based pain psychology interventions within a multidisciplinary framework. Her clinical work focuses on comprehensive pain evaluations, neuromodulation candidacy assessments, and mechanism-based behavioral treatments for brain-based and complex chronic pain conditions.

Dr. Slater is actively involved in advancing the field through research and serves as an investigator on multiple NIH- and PCORI-funded clinical trials aimed at improving treatment accessibility, efficacy, and implementation. She is also faculty with the Empowered Relief™ program and is a Master Trainer, teaching national and international workshops to train clinicians in delivering the single-session, evidence-based pain relief skills class (www.empoweredrelief.com).

Outside of work, Dr. Slater enjoys spending time with her family, hiking, traveling, and visiting her home state of Colorado.

Academic Appointments

  • Clinical Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine

Additional Info

  • Mail Code: 5640

All Publications

  • Randomized Comparative Effectiveness Study of 1-Session vs. 8-Session Online Behavioral Treatment for Chronic Pain: Protocol for the national PROGRESS study. Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) Adair Monson, E., Mardian, A., Saxena, K., Dorsonne, B., Hailu, A. Y., Heggan, E., Riazi, G., Slater, K., Poupore-King, H., Clifton, J., Perez, L., Tian, L., Porter, J., Denton, S., Hanson, E. R., Miefert, J., Thorn, B. E., Mackey, S. C., Cheung, M., Darnall, B. D. 2026

    Abstract

    Evidence-based behavioral pain treatments are often inaccessible or infeasible for patients. A 1-session pain relief skills class (Empowered Relief; ER) has shown efficacy for multidimensional symptom reduction in various homogenous pain populations. Comparative effectiveness evidence in heterogeneous chronic pain is needed to inform decision making and patient matching to treatment.Conduct a non-inferiority comparative effectiveness trial of two evidence-based online (telehealth) behavioral group treatments for chronic pain (1-session ER vs. 8 session CBT) in a nationally representative sample derived from six study sites.1,200 adults ≥18 years of age with any type of pain ≥3 months with past-month intensity ≥3/10 will be recruited from six study sites. Participants are randomized 1:1 to either the online 1-session or the 8-session behavioral intervention. Patient reported data are collected to 6 months post-treatment. Medical history, diagnoses and healthcare utilization are obtained via medical records.Multi-primary outcomes are changes in pain intensity and pain interference from baseline to 3 months post-treatment with hypothesized non-inferiority between the two study treatments. Statistical analyses include mixed models for repeated measures (MMRM). Priority secondary outcomes include sleep disturbance, pain catastrophizing, anxiety and pain bothersomeness. Exploratory heterogeneity of treatment effects will be examined.The study protocol was approved by all six site Institutional Review Boards including Stanford University School of Medicine (IRB 65439) as the coordinating site. Results will be published in peer-reviewed journals. PCORI (funder), participants, and advisors will receive summaries of the findings.ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05612750.

    View details for DOI 10.1093/pm/pnag027

    View details for PubMedID 41712512

  • Application of multidisciplinary team conference for neuromodulation candidates facilitates patient selection and optimization. Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) Salmasi, V., Rasouli, M. R., Kao, M. C., Ottestad, E., Terkawi, A. S., Morris, G., Qian, X., Coleman, S., Talavera, D. C., Poupore-King, H., Slater, K., Leong, M. S. 2023; 4: 1331883

    Abstract

    Psychological evaluation is required by insurance companies in the United States prior to proceeding with a spinal cord stimulation or a dorsal root ganglion stimulation trial. Since January 2017, we implemented a Multidisciplinary Team Conference for Neuromodulation in our center to facilitate the collaboration between pain physicians and psychologists and to optimize screening of neuromodulation candidates. This study aims to report the impact of this team conference on improvement of neuromodulation outcome in our center.Appropriateness of neuromodulation were discussed in the team conference after initial visit with the pain specialist and psychological evaluation. For this study, we prospectively and retrospectively collected data on neuromodulation candidates who went through the team conference and those who did not as controls.We discussed 461 patients in the team conference sessions from January 2017 to July 2023. Out of these, a spinal cord stimulator or a dorsal root ganglion stimulator trial was performed in 164 patients with 80.5% (132 cases) trial success rate leading to 140 implants. Out of these implants, 26 (18.6%) explanted and 21 (15%) required revision in 41 (29.3%) patients. We performed neuraxial neuromodulation trial for 70 patients without going through the team conference from January 2016 to July 2023 with a trial success rate of 45.7% (32 cases). In this group, 7 (21.9%) and 6 (18.8%) patients underwent explant and revision. The differences between the groups were statistically significant for trial success rate (odds ratio of 4.9 with p-value of <0.01) but not for explant (odds ratio of 0.8 with p-value of 0.627) or revision (odds ratio of 0.8 with p-value of 0.595).Implementing Multidisciplinary Team Conference increased trial success rate in our center. Team conference provides therapeutic benefit for patients, and also provides the opportunity for an educational discussion for trainees.

    View details for DOI 10.3389/fpain.2023.1331883

    View details for PubMedID 38249566

    View details for PubMedCentralID PMC10796794

  • Comparison of a Single-Session Pain Management Skills Intervention With a Single-Session Health Education Intervention and 8 Sessions of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Adults With Chronic Low Back Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA network open Darnall, B. D., Roy, A., Chen, A. L., Ziadni, M. S., Keane, R. T., You, D. S., Slater, K., Poupore-King, H., Mackey, I., Kao, M. C., Cook, K. F., Lorig, K., Zhang, D., Hong, J., Tian, L., Mackey, S. C. 2021; 4 (8): e2113401

    Abstract

    Chronic low back pain (CLBP), the most prevalent chronic pain condition, imparts substantial disability and discomfort. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) reduces the effect of CLBP, but access is limited.To determine whether a single class in evidence-based pain management skills (empowered relief) is noninferior to 8-session CBT and superior to health education at 3 months after treatment for improving pain catastrophizing, pain intensity, pain interference, and other secondary outcomes.This 3-arm randomized clinical trial collected data from May 24, 2017, to March 3, 2020. Participants included individuals in the community with self-reported CLBP for 6 months or more and an average pain intensity of at least 4 (range, 0-10, with 10 indicating worst pain imaginable). Data were analyzed using intention-to-treat and per-protocol approaches.Participants were randomized to (1) empowered relief, (2) health education (matched to empowered relief for duration and format), or (3) 8-session CBT. Self-reported data were collected at baseline, before treatment, and at posttreatment months 1, 2, and 3.Group differences in Pain Catastrophizing Scale scores and secondary outcomes at month 3 after treatment. Pain intensity and pain interference were priority secondary outcomes.A total of 263 participants were included in the analysis (131 women [49.8%], 130 men [49.4%], and 2 other [0.8%]; mean [SD] age, 47.9 [13.8] years) and were randomized into 3 groups: empowered relief (n = 87), CBT (n = 88), and health education (n = 88). Empowered relief was noninferior to CBT for pain catastrophizing scores at 3 months (difference from CBT, 1.39 [97.5% CI, -∞ to 4.24]). Empowered relief and CBT were superior to health education for pain catastrophizing scores (empowered relief difference from health education, -5.90 [95% CI, -8.78 to -3.01; P < .001]; CBT difference from health education, -7.29 [95% CI, -10.20 to -4.38; P < .001]). Pain catastrophizing score reductions for empowered relief and CBT at 3 months after treatment were clinically meaningful (empowered relief, -9.12 [95% CI, -11.6 to -6.67; P < .001]; CBT, -10.94 [95% CI, -13.6 to -8.32; P < .001]; health education, -4.60 [95% CI, -7.18 to -2.01; P = .001]). Between-group comparisons for pain catastrophizing at months 1 to 3 were adjusted for baseline pain catastrophizing scores and used intention-to-treat analysis. Empowered relief was noninferior to CBT for pain intensity and pain interference (priority secondary outcomes), sleep disturbance, pain bothersomeness, pain behavior, depression, and anxiety. Empowered relief was inferior to CBT for physical function.Among adults with CLBP, a single-session pain management class resulted in clinically significant improvements in pain catastrophizing, pain intensity, pain interference, and other secondary outcomes that were noninferior to 8-session CBT at 3 months.ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03167086.

    View details for DOI 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.13401

    View details for PubMedID 34398206