PIKLER/LOCZY FUND USA
NEWEST BOARD MEMBER
DR. JOHANNA SEMPLE HERWITZ

We are pleased to announce a new board member to Pikler USA. The information below shows why she has been selected to represent the Pikler institute.

Dr. Herwitz is a licensed clinical psychologist who lives in New York City with her husband and her three children, ages 4, 8 and 9. She earned her PhD. in clinical psychology from the Derner institute for advanced psychological studies, Adelphi University, in May 2003. Her dissertation, defended in may 2003, is titled “parenting against the odds: psychological mindedness among resilient adolescent mothers.” in this paper, she used attachment theory as a framework for investigating how some teenage parents are able to form secure relationships with their infants inspite of their own traumatic childhoods. This research was unique in that it examined strengths of teenage parents and because it looked at individual differences among teenage mothers.

She has a private practice specializing in individual psychotherapy for adults with anxiety disorders. In September 2004 she started mindful parenting, rie/Pikler -based parent-infant guidance group classes for parents and infants. Children aged from 4 months to months-old. She also consults individually with parents, and lectures to groups of parents and professionals on topics including stimulating your baby for optimal development, how to read your baby's cues and signals, and educaring and attachment theory.

She is a member of the American psychological association, the society for the national register of health service providers in psychology, resources for infant educarers, and the women's mental health consortium,. She is included in who's who in women in science and engineering. She is a rie ii fellow under the mentorship of Pikler board member Beverly Kovach.

She has expertise in the theoretical and clinical aspects of infant development and of parent-infant relationships and an ability to teach, speak, write and lecture to a diverse group of audiences-new parents, child-development specialists, and mental health professionals.