Austen Riggs Center

We are delighted to announce that Claudia M. Gold, MD, has joined the staff of the Austen Riggs Center as a consultant in human development. Dr. Gold is a pediatrician and writer with a long-standing interest in addressing children’s mental health needs in a preventive model. She has practiced general and behavioral pediatrics for more than 25 years, and has authored three books in the area of childhood mental health including

• The Silenced Child: From Labels, Medication and Quick-Fix Solutions to Listening, Growth and Lifelong Resilience;

• Keeping Your Child in Mind: Overcoming Defiance, Tantrums and Other Everyday Behavior Problems by Seeing the World through Your Child’s Eyes; and

• The Developmental Science of Early Childhood: Clinical Applications of Infant Mental Health Concepts from Infancy Through Adolescence.

In addition to teaching at Riggs, Dr. Gold is on the faculty of William James College, University of Massachusetts Infant-Parent Mental Health Program, and the Berkshire Psychoanalytic Institute. She received her MD from the University of Chicago.

Dr. Gold will be working with Donna Elmendorf, PhD, clinical psychologist, director of the Therapeutic Community Program, psychotherapist, and psychotherapy supervisor at the Austen Riggs Center, on our evolving initiative in human development. In its initial phases this effort will offer a range of supports in our local community for the parents of newborns aimed at fostering healthy relationships from the start of life. This new effort adds to our existing educational program for preschoolers at the Austen Riggs Nursery School.

More information about Dr. Gold:

• "A.D.D. and Child Suicides" - Dr. Gold's letter to the Editor in The New York Times, September 26, 2016

• Dr. Gold’s website 

• The Silenced Child By Claudia Gold – an interview on WAMC public radio

• The Allure (and Danger) of Certainty: A Developmental View