The Austen Riggs Center provides free access to a large array of articles, videos, courses and other resources related to mental health care.

MD from the Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons

Fellowship in psychoanalytic studies at the Austen Riggs Center

As the medical director/CEO of Riggs, which is a non-profit, Eric Plakun, MD, reports to a dedicated Board of Trustees. He is responsible for all areas of the institution from the provision of patient care to the operational mechanics and strategic planning. 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.

Plakun was the director of admissions for 35 years and has dedicated nearly his entire professional career to Riggs (more than 40 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.

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.

Professional Affiliations/Organizational Memberships

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

Fellow of the American College of Psychiatrists

Psychoanalytic Fellow and former Trustee of the American Academy of Psychodynamic Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis

Honorary member of American Psychoanalytic Association and member of its College of Research Fellows

Member of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry Psychotherapy Committee

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

Leadership

Administrative Staff

Therapy Staff

Medical Director/CEO

Riggs Medical Director/CEO Eric M. Plakun, MD, speaks at the Austen Riggs Center Centennial Conference about mental health parity, recovery, and more.

This video series is taken from our 2019 Centennial Conference and features excerpts from and the full content of Dr. Plakun’s presentation.

Three Problems with Current Clinical Models

The Bias Against Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

Recovery is the Goal of Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Treatment

Mental Health Parity: Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approaches

Conference Presentations

Can We Tame The Wild West of Managed Care Through Top-Down and Bottom-Up Action?

Riggs Resources | Austen Rigggs

For answers to any questions about events, conferences, or CME courses, please feel free to contact us. 

The Austen Fox Riggs Library and Archives is a unique resource, providing clinicians, scholars, and researchers with access to specialized psychological texts and medical archives. 

Resource Center

MD from the American University of Beirut

Residency training in psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic Fellowship in psychoanalytic studies at the Austen Riggs Center

Samar Habl, MD, is the director of admissions and associate medical director at the Austen Riggs Center. Habl is a certified board psychiatrist, a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, and a team leader Austen Riggs.

Consulted at various leadership development programs in different business schools

The study of groups and social systems as it pertains to organizational life and the application of group relation theories to leadership development.

Admissions Staff

Director of Admissions and Associate Medical Director

Dr. Samar Habl is the director of admissions at the Austen Riggs Center.

Clinical Perspectives

How Does the Admission Waitlist Work at Austen Riggs?

BA in liberal arts from St. John’s College

MA in psychology from Duquesne University

PhD in clinical psychology from Derner Institute at Adelphi University

Margaret Parish, PhD, is the director of patient care. A clinical psychologist, she provides and supervises psychotherapy, psychological assessment, and group consultation.

Parish's previous experience includes crisis intervention, work with the homeless, consulting to social service organizations, and teaching undergraduate courses in psychopathology and social psychology. She also taught English in Taiwan and had a number of odd jobs while traveling, including a brief stint as a bicycle courier in London.

International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations

A K Rice Institute and its Boston affiliate, the Center for the Study of Groups and Social Systems

American Psychological Association (APA) divisions 39 (Psychoanalysis), 12 (Clinical), 29 (Psychotherapy) and 49 (Group)

Former president and secretary of the board of the Boston Center for the Study of Groups and Social Systems

Member of the editorial board of the American Journal of Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis and the dynamics of social systems

Director of Patient Care

Director of Patient Care Margaret Parish, PhD, talks about psychoanalytic psychotherapy at Austen Riggs. Patients and therapists meet four times a week working together to understand the meanings of symptoms and the sources of pain in the context of the patient’s life.

Director of Patient Care Margaret Parish, PhD, talks about psychoanalytic psychotherapy at Austen Riggs. Patients and therapists meet four times a week working together to understand the meanings of symptoms and the sources of pain in the context of the patient’s life.

Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

As the admissions clinician and manager, Nicole May, LCSW, oversees the day to day operations of the Admissions department and facilitates the flow of cases. She is directly involved in the admission of almost all incoming patients, assessing, educating, and facilitating the process. As the Human Rights and Privacy Officer, she is involved in educating, advocating for, and assisting staff and patients in exercising their rights to privacy and fair treatment.

In addition to May’s roles here at Austen Riggs, she is involved in crisis assessment and intervention work through her local community mental health clinic. Her involvement with this organization allows her to both bring a broader knowledge and understanding of issues affecting different populations to her work at Riggs, and also for her to bring parts of the psychodynamic approach to the local community.

For the past few years May has been involved in fundraising for and participated in the awareness walk for the local chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP).

National Association of Social Workers (NASW)

Admissions Clinician and Manager/Human Rights and Privacy Officer

Join us on a virtual tour of the Austen Riggs Center. You’ll see patient residences along with treatment and community spaces on our one-of-a-kind open setting campus located on Main Street in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Campus Tour

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. 

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. 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. 

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

Center for the Study of Groups and Social Systems

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

Erikson Institute Distinguished Faculty

Erikson Institute Staff

Faculty

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

Organized in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, this book is a collection of stories and reflections on the way traumatic experiences play out over time: the conditions that lead to trauma, the forms it takes, the ways it affects a person’s life and the lives of others.

Books

This book by M. Gerard Fromm, PhD, is a collection of stories and reflections on the way traumatic experiences play out over time.

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

MSW from Smith College School for Social Work

PhD in Social Work from Smith College School for Social Work

Graduate certificate program in Advanced Clinical Supervision at Smith College.

Cathleen M. Morey, PhD, LICSW, is the director of clinical social work at the Austen Riggs Center. She provides direct patient care, family consultation and family therapy, clinical supervision, education and training, case consultation, and administrative management of clinical social work staff.

Morey has previous clinical social work experience working in a wide range of mental health settings, including an inpatient psychiatric hospital, a correctional facility and community mental health settings.

Morey has been a volunteer with International Social Work Solutions for several years. ISWS has sponsored Morey to participate in several social work projects with international partner organizations. She has developed and presented a 2-day virtual Trauma Training Program for staff of a humanitarian NGO in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She has also partnered with a NYC non-profit agency to provide research consultation regarding data analysis of their work with under-resourced diabetic adults living in Uganda.

American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work

The International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis

Adjunct faculty of the Smith College School for Social Work

Austen Riggs social work consultant to the Association of Social Work Boards for social work continuing education accreditation

Organizational dynamics, system enactments, telehealth interventions, diversity, equity and inclusion, interdisciplinary treatment team functioning

Clinical Social Workers

Director of Clinical Social Work

, published "Co-constructing a Conceptual Understanding of System Enactment" in 

"This paper describes a qualitative study that investigated how psychodynamic clinicians understood the phenomenology and impact of system enactments on clinicians, treatment processes and organizational climate."

Professional Publications

This paper describes a qualitative study that investigated how psychodynamic clinicians understood the phenomenology and impact of system enactments on clinicians, treatment processes and organizational climate.

Co-constructing a Conceptual Understanding of System Enactment

BS in psychology from the University of Texas

PsyD in clinical psychology from George Washington University

Predoctoral internship at Pathways Community Health in Missouri

Fellowship in Psychoanalytic Studies at the Austen Riggs Center

Jeremy M. Ridenour, PsyD, is the director of psychological testing, associate director of admissions, and a staff psychologist at the Austen Riggs Center. He is also the chair of the Erikson Scholar Search Committee.

He has written and presented on schizophrenia, paranoia, personality disorders, and psychological testing.

Psychotherapeutic treatment of individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders with a particular focus in understanding how targeting mentalization (i.e. how people think about self and other) can be an important focus for recovery. In addition, he has conducted psychological assessment research on personality disorders and psychosis

Associate Director of Admissions/Director of Psychological Testing

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 a staff research psychologist and medical staff affiliate 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. She is the current recipient of 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. 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.

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

Fellowship Committee member, American Psychoanalytic Assocation

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

Research Psychologist

, and their colleagues published "Assessing Self-Definition and Relatedness in Level of Personality Functioning" in the 

Riggs staff members publish paper on personality disorder scales and measures.

Assessing Self-Definition and Relatedness in Level of Personality Functioning

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, 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.

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

Psychology

Team Leader/Staff Psychologist

, published "Meaning, Metaphor, and Metabolization: The Case of Eating Disorders" in 

Case examples explore some of the dynamics underlying eating disorder difﬁculties and how metaphors aid the work with those for whom embodied experience remains largely unsymbolized.

Meaning, Metaphor, and Metabolization

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.

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

Fellow in Psychology

; along with co-authors Jay A. Hamm, PsyD; Jaclyn D. Hillis, PsyD; and Paul H. Lysaker, PhD, published "Fostering Intersubjectivity in the Psychotherapy of Psychosis: Accepting and Challenging Fragmentation," in the 

"In the present study, the authors offer a three step conceptual model to provide guidance for psychotherapists working with individuals experiencing psychosis. This model responds to limitations in the psychotherapy for psychosis literature, which to date has had limited direction for how therapists might overcome some of the internal psychological difficulties involved in psychosis that may complicate the therapy process with these individuals. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)"

A three step conceptual model to provide guidance for psychotherapists working with individuals experiencing psychosis

Fostering Intersubjectivity in the Psychotherapy of Psychosis

; and Aliza Spruch-Feiner, authored "Clinical Interviewing," a chapter in the book 

–2nd Edition, in which different approaches to clinical interviewing are introduced, and considerations are explored regarding how the assessor approaches their engagement with the client in an effective manner in order to achieve their interviewing goals.

Different approaches to clinical interviewing are introduced, and considerations are explored an article authored by Katie C. Lewis, PhD, and Jeremy Ridenour, PsyD.

Clinical Interviewing

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

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

Prior to entering the field of psychology Tillman was a flight paramedic for UNC Air Care. She is also an Episcopal priest serving a local congregation. 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 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

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

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

Graduate of the William Alanson White Institute

Jennifer Stevens, PhD, ABPP, is the director of training at the Austen Riggs Center. In addition to her training role, she is a psychotherapist, a clinical supervisor, and a faculty member.

Part-time clinical instructor in psychology in the department of psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School

Division I faculty at the William Alanson White Institute

Director of Training

 published "States of Mind Preceding a Near Lethal Suicide Attempt: A Mixed Methods Study" in Psychoanalytic Psychology in August 2021. 

The study's findings lend support for approaches to treatment of suicidal individuals that emphasize understanding of highly specific elements of personal history and psychological vulnerabilities

States of Mind Preceding a Near Lethal Suicide Attempt: A Mixed Methods Study

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

Staff Psychologist/Grand Rounds Coordinator

In this case study, we present the treatment of an emerging adult who sought residential treatment following her first psychotic episode and who initially presented with a guarded, dismissive approach to her symptoms and gradually formed a more integrating recovery style.

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Can We Tame The Wild West of Managed Care Through Top-Down and Bottom-Up Action?

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