Associate Professor & Clinical Psychologist

I did my first degree in psychology and general literature, after which I completed a master's degree in cultural studies and another master's degree in educational and clinical child psychology - all at the Hebrew University. I had already done my doctorate at Bar Ilan in the Department of Psychology.

From my master's degree, I began to research how the encounter between the emotional and the personal occurs when people suffer from psychopathology, with my main research topic being how depression affects the understanding of the other's emotions among romantic couples. Alongside my doctorate, I did an internship in clinical psychology - most of it involved working with children. This experience strengthened my desire to research children and youth (instead of adults) and the parent-child relationship (instead of romantic couples). In addition, I knew that I wanted to add brain imaging to my research skills.

To achieve all of these goals, I applied for postdoctoral fellowships - to my delight, I received the Rothschild Fellowship, and then the Marie Curie Fellowship and an American fellowship called T32. With this funding, I went to Yale University, where I worked with Prof. Jutta Yurman and Prof. Hedy Kober for about five years, studying how children of depressed parents respond – both mentally and emotionally – to criticism and praise. After five years in the US (which included both the birth of my second son and the coronavirus), I returned to Israel for a position at the Tel Aviv-Yafo Academic College – and now, starting last October, I happily returned to Bar Ilan University.

My research today focuses on the development of emotional regulation in children and adolescents – and especially on the interpersonal and neurobiological aspects of regulation. In my research, I combine different methods – I mainly do daily diary studies, but also behavioral analysis, brain imaging, hormones, etc. In addition to research, I also work as a clinical psychologist at Ichilov Medical Center – and hopefully I will also start doing research on clinical populations there. There is no doubt that the issue of emotional regulation – as well as the issue of parent-child relationships – is relevant to a wide variety of emotional disorders and medical conditions.