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

Fellowship in psychoanalytic studies at the Austen Riggs Center

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.

Professional Affiliations/Organizational Memberships

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

Leadership

Administrative Staff

Therapy Staff

Erikson Institute Staff

Jane G. Tillman, PhD, ABPP

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

Renowned experts in psychoanalysis, cultural studies, literature, and history discuss how we navigate the complex psychological terrain of cultural identity and loss. Under the title "Transience, Transference, and the Dispossessed", they examine the contemporary significance of vanished places, lost rituals, and cultural dispossession—because "History does not repeat itself, but we can learn from it." (Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny, 2017) 


Brigid Doherty, Art Historian, Princeton University/New Jersey 

, Psychoanalyst, Austen Riggs Center/Massachusetts 

Daniela Finzi, Literary Scholar, Sigmund Freud Museum/Wien 

Thomas A. Kohut, Historian, Williams College/Massachusetts (Moderator)

Rooted & Displaced: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Meaning of Place. An International Roundtable Series

", a collaboration between the Sigmund Freud Museum, the Freud Foundation US and the Erikson Institute of the Austen Riggs Center.

External Resources

Jane G. Tillman, PhD, participates in this collaborative panel discussion exploring how we navigate the complex psychological terrain of cultural identity and loss.

Transience, Transference, and the Dispossessed

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