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Erikson Institute Distinguished Faculty

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Psychology

Mark Hayden is the research assistant at the Austen Riggs Center.

Mark Hayden

Research Assistant

BA in psychology and education from Bard College at Simon’s Rock

Summer Heller is the Executive Assistant to the Medical Director/CEO and the Erikson Institute Program Assistant.

She previously worked as an intern to the Dean of Studies at Bard College at Simon’s Rock. In this role she was responsible for institutional data keeping, updating the school's communications processed, and serving as a liaison between students and administration.

Executive Assistant to the Medical Director/CEO & Erikson Institute Program Assistant

MS in counseling psychology with an emphasis in marriage and family therapy from California Lutheran University

PsyD in clinical psychology from California Lutheran University

Fellowship in Infant-Parent Mental Health at the University of Massachusetts Boston

Fellowship in psychoanalytic studies at the Austen Riggs Center

Daniel Knauss, PsyD, ABPP, is the director of training and a staff psychologist at the Austen Riggs Center. Dr. Knauss also coordinates the Grand Rounds at Austen Riggs.

Dr. Knauss has worked clinically in a variety of settings including private practice, community mental health, university counseling centers, medical centers, and residential treatment settings.

Dr. Knauss is an active presenter at national and international conferences and has published in peer-reviewed journals. He currently serves on the Editorial Board for 

, formerly served on the Editorial Board of the 

Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association

 and is vice-chair of the Austen Riggs Center Institutional Review Board. Dr. Knauss has a passion for education, having taught undergraduate and graduate level psychology courses at private and public universities and has experience providing clinical supervision to psychology graduate students.

Board Certified by the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis

Member at large on the Board of The Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology (SPPP), Division 39, The American Psychological Association

Mentalization-informed approaches to treatment, infant and early-childhood mental health, and working with expectant parents.

Director of Training/Staff Psychologist/Grand Rounds Coordinator

PhD in clinical psychology from the Brooklyn campus of Long Island University

Pre-doctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship at Albany Medical Center

Katie C. Lewis, PhD, is the director of research and medical staff member at the Austen Riggs Center. Her research focuses on examining personality processes in adults diagnosed with complex psychopathology as they relate to suicidal and self-destructive behaviors. Her research has been supported by the Robert Wallerstein Fellowship in Psychoanalytic Research (San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis), a Young Investigator Grant through the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, an Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant through the NIMH, and the APF/Division 39 Marsha McCary Grant for Psychoanalytic Research.

She has published and presented on a wide range of topics including suicide and self-harming behaviors, personality psychopathology and assessment, and the ethics of confidentiality in clinical writing. Dr. Lewis is a licensed clinical psychologist in New York and Massachusetts and operates a small private psychotherapy practice in addition to her work at Austen Riggs.

Professional Affiliations/Organizational Memberships

Former graduate student representative on the Ethics Board of Division 39

Former Fellow of the American Psychoanalytic Association (ApsaA)

Former Fellow, Psychoanalytic Research Training Program, Yale University School of Medicine

Founding member of the College of Research Fellows at APsaA

Board of the Society for Personality Assessment Representative at Large (2023-2026)

Fellowship Committee member, American Psychoanalytic Association

Consulting editor and special section editor (Clinical Applications and Case Studies) for the 

American Association of Suicidology Professional Poster Award (2019)

PPRS Stuart Hauser Memorial Poster Award (2014)

Long Island University's Dissertation Award (2014)

Suicide, personality disorders, ecological momentary assessment, psychic pain, personality assessment

Katie Lewis, PhD

Director of Research

MLIS from Long Island University-The Palmer School

Alison Lotto, MA, MLIS, is the manager of the Erikson Institute library, archives, and operations at Austen Riggs.

Ms. Lotto was formerly employed by One River Grants in Troy, NY as a researcher and grant writer. Among the places she has worked as an archivist/librarian include: the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Grolier Club, and as an electronic records administrator for Lincoln County, Nebraska.

Alison Lotto, MA, MLIS, is the manager of the Erikson Institute, library, archives, and operations at the Austen Riggs Center.

Alison Lotto, MA, MLIS

Manager of the Erikson Institute Library, Archives, and Operations

BA in psychology from San José State University

PhD in counseling psychology from the University at Albany, State University of New York

Pre-doctoral internship in clinical psychology at the Psychology Internship Consortium affiliated with Albany Medical Center.

Kristin L. McLaughlin, PhD, ABPP, is a staff psychologist who provides psychotherapy and psychological testing at the Austen Riggs Center. In addition, she serves as the eating disorder specialist, offering consultation to teams and clinicians, providing psychodynamic supervision to the registered dietician, co-facilitating groups for patients, and providing education for staff to integrate understanding of and interventions for disordered eating within a psychodynamic treatment system. Dr. McLaughlin also coordinates the Friday Night Guest Lecture Series through Spring, 2024.

Dr. McLaughlin has provided psychotherapy in a number of settings including community mental health centers, university counseling centers, VA medical centers, a state hospital forensic unit, and hospital inpatient and outpatient psychiatry departments. She has taught undergraduate courses on the Psychology of Social Justice and Cultural Diversity, and taught and supervised students in a Masters in Mental Health Counseling graduate program.

Dr. McLaughlin has published and presented research on cultural trauma, including racial and gender-related trauma and the links between systemic oppression and mental health outcomes, especially in relation to racism and sexism. She currently supervises practicing clinicians in community mental health settings.

Psychodynamic aspects of cultural oppression, social justice, and identity

The role of insight in psychodynamic/psychoanalytic psychotherapy

Staff Psychologist/Eating Disorder Specialist

MD from University of Miami School of Medicine

Residency through the Cambridge Hospital/Austen Riggs Center Combined Residency Program

David Mintz, MD, is a staff psychiatrist who joined the Austen Riggs Center in 1996. He presently serves as the director of psychiatric education, the associate director of training, and as a team leader. He also is principal investigator for the research initiative in Psychodynamic Psychopharmacology and author of the book 

Psychodynamic Psychopharmacology: Caring for the Treatment-Resistant Patient

 (2022, American Psychiatric Association Publishing). Dr. Mintz also coordinates the Elective in Psychodynamic Psychiatry at the Austen Riggs Center.

American Psychiatric Association, former leader of the Psychotherapy Caucus

American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry, Psychoanalytic Fellow and elected Trustee

Medical Student Education Committee member of the American Psychoanalytic Association

Teichner Scholar at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University Psychiatry Residency Program

Psychological aspects of taking and prescribing medications, psychodynamic aspects of medical education, professionalism, and clinical care of psychiatric patients with treatment-refractory conditions.

Director of Psychiatric Education/Associate Director of Training/Team Leader

John P. Muller, PhD, is the former director of training and a staff psychologist at the Austen Riggs Center. Before coming to Riggs in 1975 he was chair of the Department of Human Services, Sinte Gleska College, at the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, consultant for Indian and Migrant Head Start Programs at the Office for Child Development, and member of the Poverty and Minorities Subcommittee of the Membership Committee of the National Association for Retarded Citizens.

Beyond the Psychoanalytic Dyad: Developmental Semiotics in Freud, Peirce, and Lacan

 (New York: Routledge, 1996). He coauthored (with W. J. Richardson) 

Lacan and Language: A Reader’s Guide to Ecrits

 (New York: International Universities Press, 1982), and (with W. J. Richardson) 

 by P. Julien ( Paris: Eres, 1987). Muller co-edited (with W. J. Richardson) 

The Purloined Poe: Lacan, Derrida, and Psychoanalytic Reading

 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988) and (with J. Brent) 

 ( Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000). Dr. Muller twice received the Felix and Helena Deutsch Scientific Award from the Boston Psychoanalytic Society. He was the Erikson Scholar at Riggs in 1992-1993.

Dr. Muller graduated from the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute and received his PhD from Harvard University. He has published over 40 articles and chapters in the field of semiotics and psychoanalysis. He is coordinator of the Lacanian Clinical Forum, and has presented his work nationally and internationally. He is a founding member of the Berkshire Psychoanalytic Institute.

Senior Erikson Scholar

MD from the Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons

Eric Plakun, MD, is the Senior Consultant to the Erikson Institute for Education, Research, and Advocacy and the former Medical Director/CEO of the Austen Riggs Center (2018-2024). He has a particular interest in mental health advocacy, full implementation of the mental health parity law, access-to-care issues, and reducing health disparities.

Dr. Plakun was the director of admissions for 35 years and has dedicated nearly his entire professional career to Riggs (more than 45 years) and its unique way of looking at and treating mental disorders. Other roles have included treatment team leader, psychotherapy supervisor, and co-principal investigator of a prospective, longitudinal study of treatment outcome.

Dr. Plakun has long been active in the American Psychiatric Association as a voice advancing the importance of psychotherapy as part of the identity and skills of psychiatrists, and as a member of the Assembly Executive Committee and Board of Trustees. He served as Plaintiffs’ expert on adult mental disorders in the landmark Wit v. United Behavioral Health federal class-action. The strong plaintiffs’ verdict was hailed as a “game-changer” in the implementation of the mental health parity law by Former Congressman Patrick Kennedy.

 (APA) - APA Board of Trustees member representing New England and Eastern Canada

Psychoanalytic Fellow and former Trustee of the 

American Academy of Psychodynamic Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis

 and member of its College of Research Fellows

Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry Psychotherapy Committee

National Association for Behavioral Healthcare

Board-certified psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, researcher, and forensic psychiatrist

Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association

2003 Massachusetts Psychiatric Society “Outstanding Psychiatrist in Clinical Psychiatry”

2017 Honored by American Psychoanalytic Association for “Championing psychoanalytic and psychodynamic psychotherapy treatment within American psychiatry and paving the way towards a return to a more individualized treatment model”

Diagnosis, treatment, longitudinal course, and outcome of patients with borderline personality disorder and treatment-resistant disorders

Eric M. Plakun, MD,

Senior Consultant, Erikson Institute for Education, Research, and Advocacy

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

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.

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

Kathleen Young is the Erikson Institute education coordinator and events assistant, as well as the clerk to the Board of Trustees at the Austen Riggs Center.

Kathleen Young is the Erikson Institute education coordinator and events assistant/clerk to the board of trustees at the Austen Riggs Center.

Kathleen Young

Erikson Institute Education Coordinator and Events Assistant/Clerk to the Board of Trustees

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

Erikson Institute Staff

Mark Hayden

Summer Heller

Daniel Knauss, PsyD, ABPP

Katie Lewis, PhD

Alison Lotto, MA, MLIS

Kristin L. McLaughlin, PhD, ABPP

David Mintz, MD

John Muller, PhD

Eric M. Plakun, MD, DLFAPA, FACPsych

Jane G. Tillman, PhD, ABPP

Kathleen Young

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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