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Daniel Schechter, M.D.
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
Principal Investigator, Parent-Child Project, Division of Developmental Neuroscience,
New York State Psychiatric Institute
Director of Research, Child Division and Parent-Infant Program Faculty,
Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training & Research
Dr. Schechter is a child psychiatrist specializing in early childhood and parenting issues who currently serves in two transatlantic roles: at Columbia and NYSPI, he is a researcher in the Division of Developmental Neuroscience, and is Director of Research, Child Division of the Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training & Research. And at the University of Geneva Hospitals in Switzerland, he is currently Chief of the Consult-Liaison Unit in Pediatric Psychiatry and Director of Parent-Infant Research.
He is the recipient of numerous awards/grants including an American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Pilot Research Award and Norbert and Charlotte Rieger Paper Prize in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, a Significant Contribution to Research Award from the International Psychoanalytical Association, an NIMH Research Career Award, and a Pierre Janet Paper Prize from the International Society of Trauma and Dissociation. The focus of his research is maternal posttraumatic stress disorder and its potential impact on caregiving and on the social-emotional development of very young children.
Dr. Schechter is also a graduate Solnit Fellow of Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. Internationally published, he served as co-editor of the book September 11: Trauma and Human Bonds (Taylor & Francis, Inc.) and is co-editor of Formative Experiences: The Interaction of Parenting, Culture, and Developmental Psychobiology that was published in April, 2010 (Cambridge University Press).
Education and Training
Undergraduate: Columbia University, B.A. summa cum laude, 1983
Graduate: School of Arts & Sciences, Columbia University, M.A., 1987
Medical School: Columbia University, M.D., 1991
Internship: Columbia University/New York Presbyterian Hospital, Psychiatry, 1992 - 1993
Residency: Columbia University/New York Presbyterian Hospital, Psychiatry, 1993 - 1996
Residency: Columbia University/New York Presbyterian Hospital, Child Psychiatry, 1996 - 1999
Fellowship: Columbia University/New York Presbyterian Hospital, Psychobiological Sciences, 1999-2002
Post-Graduate: Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training & Research, Certificate in Psychoanalysis, 1996-2003
Board Certifications: American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
Specialties
• Child Psychiatry (subspecialty: infancy, early childhood, child-parent relationship disturbances, parental mental health)
• Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Related Conditions
• Psychotherapy
Contact information
Address:
Pediatric Psychiatry, University Hospitals of Geneva
51, Boulevard de la Cluse (2nd Floor)
Geneva, 1205
Switzerland
Phone: (212) 543-6920
Fax: (212) 543-5467
dss11@Columbia.edu
research summary
Our program of research focuses on the effects of mothers' violence-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), viewed foremost as a disorder of emotion and arousal dysregulation, on mutual regulation of emotion and arousal with their children under four years of age who are undergoing formative socioemotional development.
Publications
1. Schechter, DS, Willheim E, Hinojosa C, Scholfield-Kleinman, K, Turner JB, McCaw J, Zeanah CH, Myers MM : Subjective and objective measures of parent-child relationship dysfunction, child separation distress, and joint attention. Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes, 73(2), 130-144. Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes 2010;73(2): 130-144
2. Schechter DS, Willheim E: When Parenting Becomes Unthinkable: Intervening with Traumatized Parents and Their Toddlers. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 2009;48(3): 665-687
3. Schechter DS, Coates, SW, Kaminer T, Coots T, Zeanah CH, Davies M, Schonfield IS, Marshall RD, Liebowitz MR Trabka KA, McCaw J, Myers MM : Distorted maternal mental representations and atypical behavior in a clinical sample of violence-exposed mothers and their toddlers. Journal of Trauma and Dissociation 2008;9: 123-147
4. Schechter DS, Zygmunt A, Coates SW, Davies M, Trabka KA, McCaw J, Kolodji A, Robinson JL : Caregiver traumatization adversely impacts young children’s mental representations of self and others. Attachment and Human Development 2007;9: 187-205
5. Schechter DS, Coates SW: Relationally and Developmentally Focused Interventions with Young Children and Their Caregivers Affected by the Events of 9/11. In Y. Neria, R. Gross, R. Marshall, E. Susser (Eds.) September 11, 2001: Treatment, Research and Public Mental Health in the Wake of a Terrorist Attack , Cambridge University Press, New York, NY, USA, 2006
