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Psychology

MA and PhD in clinical psychology at Michigan State University

Predoctoral internship at the Michigan State University Counseling Center

Marilyn Charles, PhD, ABPP, is a staff psychologist, team leader, supervisor, and member of the therapy staff at the Austen Riggs Center.

During her predoctoral internship, she was part of the Multi-Ethnic Counseling Center Alliance (MECCA) and has continued to promote dialogues across difference in her roles as (former) president of Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) of the American Psychological Association, (current) co-chair of APCS and international coordinator of the Psychoanalytic Track at UDEM. Her writing, teaching, supervision, and consultations have focused on encouraging the development of future generations of clinicians and on promoting higher standards of practice in the field.

A poet and artist herself, Dr. Charles has worked extensively with artists, writers, and musicians. She has a special interest in the creative process and is continues to investigate factors that facilitate and inhibit creativity. She also has a particular interest in the intergenerational transmission of trauma and its relationship to psychosis. She is actively engaged in mentoring, creating professional opportunities, creating opportunities for dialogue, and promoting community involvement for those in the helping professions, including her consultation work with 

 in Sydney, Australia, and with counseling centers and residential treatment centers in this country.

Professional Affiliations/Organizational Memberships

International Coordinator, Universidad de Monterrey (UDEM)

Member, Association for Psychosocial Studies (APS)

Teaching Associate in Psychiatry, Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School

Training Analyst with the Michigan Psychoanalytic Council and the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis

 and is a member of the editorial boards of numerous psychoanalytic journals

Co-Chair of the Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society (APCS)

Winner of the American Board & Academy of Psychoanalysis (ABAPsa) Book Prize for 2020 in the Applied Category for her book co-edited with Jill Bellinson, PhD, entitled 

The Importance of Play in Early Childhood Education: Psychoanalytic, Attachment, and Developmental Perspectives

Creativity, psychosis, resilience, and the intergenerational transmission of trauma

Team Leader/Staff Psychologist

Predoctoral internship at Utah State Hospital

Postdoctoral Fellowship in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and Psychoanalytic Studies at the Austen Riggs Center

Heather Churchill, PhD, is the associate director of the Therapeutic Community Program, the director of health and wellness, and a staff psychologist who provides psychotherapy and psychological testing at the Austen Riggs Center.

During her graduate training, she was a teaching assistant for several classes, including History and Systems of Psychology, as well as Cognitive and Projective Assessment. Also during her graduate training, she completed the New York Society Fellowship program, as well as the Couple and Family Fellowship program at the Washington Center for Psychoanalysis. During her internship at Utah State Hospital, she received intensive training in dialectical behavioral therapy and provided individual, group, and family therapy, as well as psychological assessments.

Churchill is a certified group relations consultant with the AK Rice Institute and former president of the Center for the Study of Groups and Social Systems, a non-profit whose mission is to further the understanding of groups dynamics and social systems.

University Fellowship Award for academic and scholarly achievement from George Washington University

The overlap between psychodynamic psychotherapy and other psychotherapies, such as dialectical behavioral therapy, as well as how integrating components of a psychodynamic approach may improve the quality of care in non-dynamic intensive treatment milieus.

Director of Health and Wellness/Associate Director of the Therapeutic Community Program

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

PsyD in clinical psychology from Wheaton College

Predoctoral internship and an advanced internship at the Albert & Jessie Danielsen Institute at Boston University

Shirin Kazimov, PsyD, is a postdoctoral Fellow in psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalytic studies who provides psychotherapy and psychological testing at the Austen Riggs Center.

Dr. Kazimov has provided psychotherapy and psychological assessments in various settings, including forensic, academic, and community mental health clinics.

Through various diverse experiences, Kazimov has developed a holistic understanding of people’s needs, encompassing not only the biological, psychological, and social aspects but also the spiritual dimensions of human nature.

The theory and practice of relational psychoanalytic therapy, attachment theory, relational spirituality, complex trauma, and grief.

Shirin Kazimov, PsyD, is a fellow in psychology at the Austen Riggs Center.

Shirin Kazimov, PsyD

Fellow in Psychology

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 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 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

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

Staff Psychologist/Grand Rounds Coordinator

BAs in psychology and criminal justice from Virginia Commonwealth University

PsyD in clinical psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology

Two-year fellowship with the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis

Megan Kolano, PsyD, is a staff psychologist, assistant team leader, and faculty member at the Austen Riggs Center.

Dr. Kolano has worked clinically in a variety of contexts including correctional centers, community-based residential settings, psychiatric hospitals, psychoanalytic institutes, and outpatient private practices.

Dr. Kolano enjoys writing, teaching and has taught courses related to psychological testing and psychoanalytic theory and practice. She has presented professionally on subjects such as schizophrenia, psychosis and spiritual experiences, object-relating and subject-relating in adolescent texting, working psychoanalytically with individuals with developmental disabilities, and humor and horror in teaching the Rorschach.

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

A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems (AKRI)

American Psychoanalytic Association (APSaA)

AKRI Training and Certification in group consultancy

Megan Kolano, PsyD, is an assistant team leader and staff psychologist at the Austen Riggs Center.

Megan Kolano, PsyD

Assistant Team Leader/Staff Psychologist

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, is a staff psychologist who provides psychotherapy and psychological testing at the Austen Riggs Center. 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/Friday Night Guest Lecture Coordinator

BS in biochemistry and molecular biology from California Lutheran University

PsyD in clinical psychology from George Fox University

Predoctoral internship at the Institute of Living/Hartford Hospital.

David Neal, PsyD, is a postdoctoral Fellow in psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalytic studies who provides psychotherapy and psychological testing at the Austen Riggs Center.

Dr. Neal has worked with children, families, and adults in various community and hospital-based settings.

He has written about and presented on practicing psychoanalytic psychotherapy in school-based and primary care settings and on the impact of metacognition on psychological functioning and treatment.

Human development, primitive emotional experiences, and group phenomena

BA in philosophy from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

PhD in clinical psychology from Fordham University

Pre-doctoral internship in health services psychology at the University of Virginia’s Counseling and Psychological Services

Rain Mason Olbert, PhD, is a staff psychologist and the substance use services coordinator at Austen Riggs. Dr. Olbert completed a postdoctoral Fellowship in psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalytic studies at the Austen Riggs Center. 

Dr. Olbert trained as a psychotherapist in New York City in community mental health, college counseling, and hospital inpatient and outpatient settings. Before enrolling at Fordham they were employed as a research coordinator in David Penn's social cognition lab at UNC Chapel Hill, where they completed a bachelor's degree in philosophy prior to studying psychology. 

From a scholarly perspective, Dr. Olbert has presented and written on schizophrenia and severe mental illness, the nature of psychiatric diagnostic categories, phenomenology, and divination and magical thinking. 

Recently, they have taught seminars on Contemporary Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Addiction, and Transgender Psychoanalysis. As a long-time practitioner of Zen meditation, they also have an interest in spirituality and contemplative approaches to life and mental health.

Trauma, personality disorders, psychosis, substance use disorders, and queer identity development

Staff Psychologist/Substance Use Services Coordinator

PsyD in clinical psychology from the George Washington University

Predoctoral internship at the Albany Psychology Internship Consortium

madeline river, PsyD, is a postdoctoral Fellow in psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalytic studies who provides psychotherapy and psychological testing at the Austen Riggs Center.

Dr. river has provided psychological assessment and psychoanalytic psychotherapy in community mental health clinics, academic medical centers, and psychiatric hospital settings.

While pursuing a doctoral degree in Washington DC, they completed a psychoanalytic fellowship with the Washington-Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis. They also served as the event planning assistant for the Contemporary Freudian Society and participated in the CFS psychoanalytic fellowship program for three years.

Through their experiences in psychoanalytic communities both in the United States and in Vienna, Austria, Dr. river has developed an appreciation for the ways in which intrapsychic, familial, institutional, and cultural contexts shape identity and relationships.

madeline river, PsyD, is a fellow in psychology at the Austen Riggs Center.

madeline river, PsyD

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

Psychology

Marilyn Charles, PhD, ABPP

Heather Churchill, PsyD

Kathryn Gallagher, PhD

Shirin Kazimov, PsyD

Daniel Knauss, PsyD, ABPP

Megan Kolano, PsyD

Kristin L. McLaughlin, PhD

David Neal, PsyD

Rain Mason Olbert, PhD

madeline river, 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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