Research and Teaching Interests

My research and teaching interests focused first on the parent-child attachment relationship. My doctoral research looked at how first-time mothers described their bonding process with their first child. I wanted to understand both the mothers' struggles and their joys, and the different pathways attachment can take for each unique mother-infant pair.

For the past fourteen years, I have focused on childhood trauma, specifically what parents can do to promote or frustrate their child’s healing from trauma. I have presented this research at numerous professional conferences here in New York and abroad.

I have long had a strong research interest in the training of new therapists and social workers:

• Over a period of 19 years, I taught undergraduate courses on trauma as a tenured professor at SUNY Empire State College, and master’s seminars at Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College. I contributed to developing the core curriculum at both institutions on childhood trauma, adult trauma, attachment across the lifespan, and counseling theories.

• I was honored to get the Fulbright Scholar award in 2019, to help build the social work curriculum in Vietnam.

• I supervise and teach analysts in training at NIP, my home institute in New York City.