Activities Staff

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Finance

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Dietary

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Erikson Institute Distinguished Faculty

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Online Intensive Outpatient Program

Therapeutic Community Staff

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Psychology

Coach training from the Co-Active Training Institute

Faolan Sugarman-Lash, ACC, is a therapeutic community staff member at the Austen Riggs Center, where he supports patients in their ongoing journey toward wellbeing and self-responsibility. He works directly in the community milieu to provide patients the opportunity for safety, introspection, communication skills-building, and movement.

Outside of Riggs, Faolan works as a professional life coach. Prior to his time here, he worked with executives and founders who were using alcohol to avoid confronting their pain. He helped them find themselves in the context of their own story and learn how to shape their meaning around an agentically chosen self-belief. He also worked with college students as a coach and facilitator in multiple roles, helping them discern their paths and remove internal blocks from becoming who they want to be.

Therapeutic Community Staff Member

BA from University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville

Pre-doctoral internship at the Dartmouth Medical School

Fellowship in psychoanalytic studies at the Austen Riggs Center

Graduate of the Berkshire Psychoanalytic Institute

As the Evelyn Stefansson Nef Director of the Erikson Institute, Jane G. Tillman, PhD, ABPP, works to develop existing and new programs to support psychoanalytic education, training, scholarship, research, interdisciplinary studies, and advocacy that contribute to knowledge about human development across the lifespan and the ways identity is shaped in various sociocultural and historical contexts. Developing Riggs’ institutional archives and specialty library to contribute to scholarly research is also a significant aspect of the Erikson Institute. Applying the clinical learning available at the Austen Riggs Center to larger social contexts and problems in order to contribute to our local community and beyond by improving access to mental health care, addressing issues of stigma, collaborative care, and suicide prevention are all aspects of the Erikson Institute.

As a psychotherapist and psychoanalyst, Dr. Tillman treats patients at the Center. And, as a researcher, she is interested in suicide prevention and post-vention.

Dr. Tillman presents her scholarship and research in international forums including seminars, lectures, conferences, and publications.

Prior to entering the field of psychology Dr. Tillman was a flight paramedic for UNC Air Care. She is also an Episcopal priest serving a local congregation. Dr. Tillman notes, “In my work at Riggs I am made mindful of the various traumatic situations that contribute to suffering and the psychological and spiritual questions that arise in relation to suffering and meaning making.”

Outside of Riggs Dr. Tillman serves on several editorial boards for professional journals. She volunteers to present to local organizations and churches on the topic of suicide, trauma, and other organizational issues, and has served as an organizational consultant to several psychoanalytic institutes as they sought to understand institutional challenges.

Professional Affiliations/Organizational Memberships

American Psychological Association Division 39 (Psychoanalysis)

Western Massachusetts Albany Association for Psychoanalytic Psychology

Board Certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology in Psychoanalysis and in Clinical Psychology

Board Certified by the American Board of Psychoanalysis

Assistant clinical professor at the Yale Child Study Center

Teaching associate in psychiatry at the Cambridge Health Alliance of Harvard Medical School

The Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association

Hans H. Strupp Award (2021) Appalachian Psychoanalytic Society

Award for Best Poster (2019) American Association of Suicidology

Ernest and Gertrude Ticho Memorial Lecture Prize (2019), American Psychoanalytic Association

Award for Excellence in Leadership (2010), Section for Women, Gender and Psychoanalysis, Division 39 of the APA

Dissociation, psychosis, religion, impasses in treatment, embodiment, clinical and professional ethics, research methodology, identifying markers for acute risk of suicide, and the effect of patient suicide on clinicians

Jane G. Tillman, PhD, ABPP

Evelyn Stefansson Nef Director of the Erikson Institute for Education, Research, and Advocacy

S. Daltrey Turner, LICSW, is a clinical social worker at the Austen Riggs Center.

Her work history includes: program director at the Robinson Developmental Center in Robinson, TX; clinician, program director, and director of admissions and marketing for Hillcrest Educational Centers, Inc. in Pittsfield, MA; and social worker and director of social work for Hillcrest Commons Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Pittsfield, MA.

Ms. Turner is a founding member and Board Secretary of the Berkshire Community Diaper Project. She volunteers with the Barrington Stage Company and is currently an Affiliate Board Member of United Cerebral Palsy Association of Berkshire County. She is a former member of the Pittsfield School Committee, as well as a clinical volunteer with Tele-bridging Mental Health.

Professional Affiliations / Organizational Memberships

National Association of Social Workers (NASW)

S. Daltrey Turner, LICSW

Clinical Social Worker

BA in English and American language and literature from Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges

Beth Turner, LICSW, is a clinical social worker at the Austen Riggs Center.

Ms. Turner has 20 years of experience in clinical social work and has practiced and supervised in inpatient and residential settings, crisis teams, consultative-liaison psychiatry, and in private practice with individuals and couples. She has also presented and taught on Control Mastery theory and family therapy.

Beth Turner, LICSW

BA in psychology from the University at Albany

Charlene Van Alphen is a program manager and a substance use counselor at the Austen Riggs Center.

Charlene Van Alphen

Program Manager/Substance Use Counselor

Geovanni Vazquez, PhD, LCSW

Online IOP Training Program Participant

Vamik D. Volkan, MD, is emeritus professor of psychiatry at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, an emeritus training and supervising analyst at the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute, and a past president of the International Society for Political Psychology, the Virginia Psychoanalytic Society, the Turkish-American Neuropsychiatric Society, and the American College of Psychoanalysts. He holds Honorary Doctorate degrees from Kuopio University, Finland and from Ankara University, Turkey.

For nearly three decades, Dr. Volkan has led interdisciplinary teams to various trouble spots around the world and has brought high-level ‘enemy’ representatives together for years-long unofficial dialogues. His work in the field has resulted in his developing new theories about large-group behavior in times of peace and war. Dr. Volkan was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, supported by letters from 27 countries. He has authored or coauthored forty books and has edited or co-edited ten more. His recent projects include clinical teaching on subjects like mourning and technical issues in psychotherapy, books on psychotherapeutic technique and large group identity, an authobiographical account of his international work, and the formation of the International Dialogue Initiative. Dr. Volkan began his yearly visits to the Center in 2003.

, a film about his life and work, directed by Molly Castelloe, PhD, won the 

 given by the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis (NAAP). It also received the 

 "for furthering the discipline of psychohistory through the medium of documentary film."

Vamik Volkan, MD

Senior Erikson Scholar-Emeritus

Graduate of SAE Institute of Technology, 2002

David Werbeck is the Director of Referral Relations at the Austen Riggs Center. In this role, he works as a resource to clinical professionals and prospective patients and their families to increase awareness of the care provided by Riggs and assists as a liaison to those in the admission process.

Dave comes to Riggs with nearly two decades of experience in admissions and referral relations roles. In working with some of the most respected programs across the country, he has been able to build a strong and diverse professional network which provides him with a unique ability to help families and providers navigate and access behavioral healthcare options.

Client advocacy, networking, team building, systems management, and implementing creative solutions to better serve clients and organizations

Dave Werbeck is the director of referral relations at the Austen Riggs Center.

Dave Werbeck

Director of Referral Relations 

Melanie Wichman, RDN, is the registered dietician at the Austen Riggs Center.

Melanie Seserman, RDN

Registered Dietician

Jonathan Williams, MEd, is a Therapeutic Community staff member and an assistant program manager at the Austen Riggs Center.

Jonathan Williams, MEd

Rebecca Wolff is a social work intern at the Austen Riggs Center.

Rebecca Wolff

Social Work Intern

Jed Yalof, PsyD, is the staff neuropsychologist at Austen Riggs. Dr. Yalof completed a post-doctoral fellowship in clinical psychology with a special emphasis in traumatic brain injury that emphasized a psychodynamic understanding of patient adjustment and a two-year certificate program in clinical neuropsychology. He is board certified in clinical psychology, assessment psychology, school-neuropsychology, and adult psychoanalysis. He is also a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Psychoanalytic Center in Philadelphia, and has published in the areas of education and training, neuropsychology, learning disabilities, diversity, personality assessment, and psychoanalytic treatment. Dr. Yalof is an Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Immaculata University where he was formally Chair of the Department of Psychology and Counseling and Director of the PsyD program in Clinical Psychology.

Jed Yalof, PsyD

Neuropsychologist

Meet the Austen Riggs staff of therapists, nurses, administrators, and other healthcare professionals who work as a team on behalf of our patients. 

Staff Directory of Therapists and Teams | Austen Riggs

For more information on our residential treatment programs, or answers to any questions, please feel free to contact us. 

Meet Our Team

Faolan Sugarman-Lash, ACC

Jane G. Tillman, PhD, ABPP

S. Daltrey Turner, LICSW

Beth Turner, LICSW

Charlene Van Alphen

Geovanni Vazquez, PhD, LCSW

Vamik Volkan, MD

Dave Werbeck

Melanie Wichman, RDN

Jonathan Williams, MEd

Rebecca Wolff

Jed Yalof, PsyD

Contact Us for More

For more information on our residential treatment programs, or answers to any questions, please feel free to contact us.

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