I am a child clinical psychologist who studies child and family health disparities and well-being from an interdisciplinary perspective. The purpose of my work is to facilitate social justice for young children and their families and to understand and promote resilience processes while decreasing risk and trauma exposure. To do this, I study the health and social, emotional, and cognitive development of high-risk infants and young children and their families, including children with incarcerated parents, children raised by their grandparents, and children born preterm, including examining the intergenerational transmission of risk, trauma, resilience, and healing. I use both quantitative and qualitative methods in my work, especially observational methods that focus on young children and families in their natural contexts as well as physiological measures. I also design and evaluate interventions for children and their parents, including interdisciplinary multimodal interventions that can be used in the criminal justice system and contemplative practices aimed at decreasing stress and increasing well-being in children and families.
Education
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin–Madison
PhD, MS, Clinical Psychology, Syracuse University
BA, Psychology and History, Marquette University
Marquette University Language Institute, Berlin, Germany
Affiliations
Institute for Research on Poverty
Center for Healthy Minds
American Psychological Association
Society for Research in Child Development
National Council on Family Relations
Wisconsin Alliance for Infant Mental Health
Certifications
Licensed Psychologist, Wisconsin
Recent press
How witnessing violence impacts a child’s life, Wisconsin Public Radio, September 1, 2020
Reaching out to dads in jail: Fathers and children do better when parental identity is supported, Cap Times, June 17, 2020
Behind a door with a teddy bear on it, inmates reconnect with their children in the jail’s new child-friendly visitation room, Charlotte Agenda, January 21, 2020
Compassion training could help parents and their children, Wisconsin Public Radio, January 15, 2020
How a Muppet can help kids of incarcerated parents, Spectrum News 1, July 2, 2020
Parental guidance, Isthmus, July 11, 2019
‘I’m not the only one who has a mom in jail’: Camp reunites locked-up mothers with their kids, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, July 11, 2019
Social Media
Twitter: @poehlmann_tynan