Education
Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Bar-Ilan University, Israel (Presidential Doctoral Fellowship of Excellence). In my Ph.D. research, I used multimodal approaches to investigate the behavioral and neurobiological bases of the parent-child relationship, focusing on fatherhood and coparenting.
M.A. in Clinical Child Psychology (Summa cum Laude) from Bar-Ilan University, Israel.
B.A. in Psychology and Multidisciplinary in the Arts Program (magna cum laude) from Tel-Aviv University, Israel.
Research Training and Academic Employment
Postdoctoral Fellowship.
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I completed a first postdoctoral training at Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology, Reichman University (The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya), Israel, studying how adaptations in the parent’s brain shape children’s long-term developmental outcomes from infancy to school-entry years.
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In 2018, I received the Rothschild Postdoctoral 2018-2019 Fellowship to expand my previous research efforts to clinically relevant research in the field of family adversity.
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I completed a second postdoctoral training at the Department of Applied Psychology, New York University (NYU), USA. I studied child mental health and social-emotional development in the context of poverty and family adversity.
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I completed a third postdoctoral training at the Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, and New York State Psychiatric Institute, USA. My postdoctoral research focused on the neurobiological and psychosocial mechanisms of the intergenerational transmission of psychopathology across three successive generations of offspring at high and low risk for major depression.
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In 2019, I received the Excellence in Attachment Research in an Outstanding Dissertation Award by the Society for Emotion and Attachment Studies (SEAS).
Faculty Positions.
In 2021, I was appointed to the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry-Child and Adolescent, Columbia University, and New York State Psychiatric Institute. I serve as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology (in Psychiatry) and as a member of the new Center for Intergenerational Psychiatry. In the center, I supervise the early-life developmental, clinical, and behavioral assessments of our longitudinal pregnancy/birth cohort studies. My research projects focus on identifying intergenerational pathways of vulnerability and resilience, from birth to late childhood, in the context of family adversity, specifically examining the extent to which parental childhood adversity (ACEs) and parental psychopathology shape the maturation of babies’ 'social brain’ and social-emotional development across childhood. Moreover, I work, together with other researchers from Finland, on an RCT (Randomized Control Trail) of digitalized Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for mothers suffering from depression during pregnancy to examine its effectiveness on mother-baby bonding and child's developmental outcomes across the first three years of life.
Clinical Experience and Training
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Community Clinic (Adult Therapy Unit), Bar-Ilan University, Israel.
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Child and Family Mental Health Center, Haarba’a street, Tel-Aviv, Israel.
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Early Childhood (3-6 y.o) Community Clinic, Bar-Ilan University, Israel – Residency in clinical psychology.
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Infant Mental Health Unit (0-3 y.o), Geha Mental Health Center, Israel– Residency in clinical psychology.
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Children and Adolescent Eating Disorder Department, Sheba Medical Center, Israel– Residency in clinical psychology.
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Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) training - Postdoctoral training, Columbia University, NY.
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Individual and group supervision of IPT practice, by Prof. Myrna M. Weissman - Developer of IPT - Postdoctoral training, Columbia University, NY.
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Individual and group supervision of IPT for Adolescents with depression and PTSD (IPT-A) practice, by Prof. Laura Mufson - Developer of IPT-A - Postdoctoral training, Columbia University, NY.
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Jungian-based Sandplay therapy training program, USA - by Sandplay Therapists of America© (STA).