Gordon Alan Marlatt (November 26, 1941 – March 14, 2011)[1] was a leading American-Canadian clinical psychologist in the field of addictive behaviors from the 1980s through the 2000s.
He eventually became a professor of psychology and director of the Addictive Behaviors Research Center at that institution.
He conducted pioneering research in three areas: harm reduction, brief interventions, and relapse prevention.
Marlatt popularized the concept of "urge surfing" as a coping mechanism for addiction.
[5][6] The strategy involves picturing addictive urges as physical waves that rise in intensity, peak, and eventually crash and subside.