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Karen Dinofrio is the medical office assistant at the Austen Riggs Center.

Medical Office Assistant

Neesha Dolan is a Therapeutic Community Program and nursing administrative assistant at the Austen Riggs Center.

Neesha Dolan is the Therapeutic Community Program and nursing administrative assistant at the Austen Riggs Center.

Neesha Dolan

Therapeutic Community Program and Nursing Administrative Assistant 

Leslie Dolan, RN, is a staff nurse at the Austen Riggs Center.

Dolan, Leslie.jpg

Staff Nurse

BA, Georgetown University College of Arts and Sciences (Catholic Studies major, Biology minor)

MD, Georgetown University School of Medicine

Internship and residency at Brown University (chief resident during 4th year)

Fellowship in psychoanalysis at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute

Fellowship in psychodynamic psychotherapy

Mark Elliot, MD, is a psychiatrist in the 

 for College Students and Emerging Adults in Massachusetts at the Austen Riggs Center.

Dr. Elliot began his career at Rhode Island Hospital’s Adult Partial Hospitalization Program where he served as Clinical Assistant Professor in Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University. He received extensive training and experience in group psychotherapy during these five years and became certified in group psychotherapy by the American Group Psychotherapy Association. During his fifth year at Rhode Island Hospital, he completed a preliminary year as a candidate at the C.G. Jung Institute of Boston.

Dr. Elliot then worked for two years on an inpatient unit at Butler Hospital. During this time he continued teaching both medical students and residents.

Dr. Elliot then completed a four year fellowship in psychodynamic psychotherapy at the Austen Riggs Center. Throughout his training, he also worked as a doctor-on-call for Providence Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Holyoke, MA.

Dr. Elliot opened a solo private practice in Lenox, MA in July of 2015. In November of 2021, he rejoined the Austen Riggs Center as a member of the Remote Access IOP team where he provides both individual and group treatment.

Certified in group psychotherapy by the American Group Psychotherapy Association

John Carroll scholarship recipient, Georgetown University

National Service Corps Scholar, Georgetown University

Alpert Medical School of Brown University Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award

Brown University Psychiatry General Residency Teaching Award – “PRATTLE”

Brown University Triple Board Residency Teaching Award

Online IOP Psychiatrist 

MA in clinical psychology from the University of Denver

PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Denver

Internship in adult clinical psychology at Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital

Two year-long fellowships at Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital in adolescent and family treatment and psychological assessment

Donna Elmendorf, PhD, is the director of the Therapeutic Community Program and the Activities Program at the Austen Riggs Center. Dr. Elmendorf also serves as a psychotherapist and a psychotherapy supervisor in the Center's Adult Psychoanalytic Training Program and Fellowship in Hospital-Based Psychotherapy. She provides group consultation and supervision and leads the Center's consultation service. She also leads the Human Development Initiative, bringing developmentally informed, relationship-based interventions to our local Berkshire community.

Dr. Elmendorf’s work as an organizational and group relations consultant supports her efforts to better understand the social dynamics of psychological disturbance within the Therapeutic Community at Austen Riggs. Prior to coming to Riggs, her experience at the Adolescent and Family Treatment Center at McLean Hospital as well as her work at the counseling center at Bard College at Simon’s Rock deepened her understanding of the developmental transition from adolescence to adulthood.

Dr. Elmendorf is actively involved in the Berkshire community, having served on the board of several local and state organizations involved with mental health, education, and environmental conservation. She is working with several colleagues to develop an understanding of how tuning into emotional experience and sharing such experience in relation to the task of a group or organization is an often overlooked and underappreciated aspect of leadership.

Professional Affiliations/Organizational Memberships

International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations (ISPSO)

Center for the Study of Groups and Social Systems (CSGSS)

American Residential Treatment Association (ARTA)

Chair of the Leadership Committee of the American Residential Treatment Association (ARTA)

Certified Consultant, A.K. Rice Institute

Co-founder and Faculty, Leading from Experience

Anna Freud Educational Achievement Award from the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA) (2017)

John Leopold Weil and Geraldine Rickard Weil Memorial Charitable Foundation, Inc. grant recipient (2017, 2018, 2019) in support of Human Development Initiative

Symptomatic behavior as interpersonal communication, competence and regression in group dynamics, and social cognition in young children.

Donna Elmendorf, PhD, is the director of the Therapeutic Community Program at the Austen Riggs Center.

Donna Elmendorf, PhD

Director of Therapeutic Community Program

BS from University of Connecticut Honors Program (University Scholar)

Candidate at the Western New England Institute of Psychoanalysis

Consultant Candidate at the A. K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems

Heather Forouhar Graff, MD, is a staff psychiatrist, therapist and assistant team leader at the Austen Riggs Center. She consults to process groups that are aimed at studying relationships to authority.

Dr. Forouhar began her education as a painter at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a special interest in perceptual phenomena such as pattern recognition and the interaction and relativity of color. As an undergraduate, she was a research fellow at The University of Chicago studying the neural correlates of learning and memory in songbirds as a model for language development.

She has presented on the nocebo effect in treatment resistance, the value of process groups in the experiential learning of group dynamics in psychiatric residents and on the narcissistic vulnerabilities of trainees and the associated obstacles to learning within the supervisory relationship.

Center for the Study of Groups and Social Systems

Western New England Institute for Psychoanalysis

Board Certified in Psychiatry and Neurology

Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellowship in Biological Sciences at The University of Chicago

Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellowship in Computational Neuroscience at The University of Chicago

Frieda Fromm-Reichmann Award from the American Academy of Psychodynamic Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis

Boelhouwer Award for excellence in research, teaching and leadership from the Institute of Living

Psychoanalysis and the psychodynamics of groups and leadership

Assistant Team Leader/Staff Psychiatrist

M. Gerard Fromm, PhD, is a distinguished faculty member in the 

Erikson Institute for Education, Research, and Advocacy

 of the Austen Riggs Center. He is the former first Evelyn Stefansson Nef Director of the Erikson Institute and former director of the Center’s Therapeutic Community Program. 

Dr. Fromm has taught at and consulted to a number of psychoanalytic institutes across the country. His current work includes psychoanalytically informed organizational consultation. In addition to his own practice, he is a past president of both the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations and the Center for the Study of Groups and Social Systems in Boston. He directed the Center’s residential Group Relations Conferences for three years and has served on the staff of Group Relations Conferences in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Israel. Dr. Fromm was also a visiting Fellow in the Psychotherapy Department of University College, London, and a member of the Academy for Critical Incident Analysis in New York. 

Dr. Fromm continues to teach and present. His publications include a number of books: 

The Facilitating Environment: Clinical Applications of Winnicott’s Theory

 (with Bruce L. Smith, PhD) (International Universities Press, Inc., 1989); 

Lost in Transmission: Studies of Trauma across Generations

Taking the Transference, Reaching toward Dreams: Clinical Studies in the Intermediate Area

A Spirit That Impels: Play, Creativity and Psychoanalysis

raveling through Time: How Trauma Plays Itself out in Families, Organizations and Society

International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations

Division of Psychoanalysis, American Psychological Association

Certified in psychoanalysis by the American Board of Professional Psychology

Assistant clinical professor at the Yale Child Study Center

President of the International Dialogue Initiative (IDI)

Partner in College Health and Counseling Service Consulting Services

Distinguished Faculty in the Erikson Institute for Education, Research, and Advocacy

BA from the University of North Carolina Wilmington

Predoctoral internship at Emory University School of Medicine

Psychoanalytic training at the Austen Riggs Center (ACPEinc Accredited)

Kathryn (Kate) Gallagher is a staff psychologist at the Austen Riggs Center. She earned her PhD in clinical psychology from Georgia State University and is a graduate of the Austen Riggs Center Adult Psychoanalytic Training Program and Fellowship in Hospital-Based Psychotherapy. Her graduate research primarily focused on understanding and preventing violence against women, a public health crisis rooted in gender inequality and issues of basic human rights. As a full-time practicing clinician, Dr. Gallagher has shifted her attention to another significant human rights and equity issue–inadequate access to affordable mental health care. Dr. Gallagher is especially committed to supporting efforts to appeal insurer denials of medically necessary mental health treatment.

Staff Psychologist, Insurance and Utilization Review Specialist

Heidi Garrow is a mental health specialist at the Austen Riggs Center.

Mental Health Specialist

Counseling Certificate from the Gestalt Institute of the Berkshires

Jill Gibbons, a professional fiber artist and printmaker, is the fiber arts instructor in the Activities Program at the Austen Riggs Center. She manages the fiber arts studio, a vibrant and colorful space where students can learn the skills of weaving, basketry, sewing, knitting, embroidery, dyeing, surface design, and jewelry-making.

Ms. Gibbons, who worked in family services and human development for more than 30 years, believes that through creativity, the act of making things with our own hands, we are able to facilitate growth, awareness, and healing.

Jill Gibbons is the fiber arts instructor at the Austen Riggs Center.

Jill Gibbons

Fiber Arts Instructor

Sohael Gilani, RN, is a staff nurse at the Austen Riggs Center.

Sohael Gilani, RN

Heather Gingras, RN, is a staff nurse at the Austen Riggs Center.

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

Karen Dinofrio

Neesha Dolan

Leslie Dolan, RN

Mark Elliot, MD

Donna M. Elmendorf, PhD

Heather Forouhar Graff, MD

M. Gerard Fromm, PhD, ABPP

Kathryn Gallagher, PhD

Heidi Garrow

Jill Gibbons

Sohael Gilani, RN

Heather Gingras, RN

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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