Who We Are

The Center for Attachment Research (CAR)

The Center for Attachment Research (CAR) was established in 2004 with the arrival of Miriam Steele and Howard Steele to the Department of Psychology at The New School for Social Research. The center is engaged in the application of attachment theory to clinical and developmental research questions concerning child, parent, and family development. CAR initiatives involve New School for Social Research, Parsons, Lang, and other New School students and faculty, as well as ongoing collaborations with senior consultants and colleagues in New York and internationally. For more information on CAR, you may also visit the New School for Social Research website.

The Center for Attachment Research is currently engaged in a range of projects. The primary project at the moment involves studying the effectiveness of a Group Attachment Based Intervention provided to vulnerable families in the Bronx. This project is supported by and in affiliation with colleague Anne Murphy at The Early Child Care Center at The Albert Einstein College of Medicine. For more details on this project, click here.

Other projects at The Center for Attachment Research include research on the intergenerational transmission of body image, and the wide range of projects investigating non-conforming gender identities, intersectional identities, and the possible protective role against minority stress that secure attachment and reflective functioning may serve.

Directors

Howard Steele

Co-Director

Howard Steele, PhD, is Professor and Chair of Clinical Psychology, at the New School for Social Research in New York City. At the New School. Dr. Steele co-directs (with Dr. M. Steele) the Center for Attachment Research. Howard Steele is also senior and founding editor of the international journal, Attachment and Human Development, and founding president of the Society for Emotion and Attachment Studies, www.seasintnational.org.

Miriam Steele

Co-Director

Miriam Steele, PhD, is Professor of Psychology, at the New School for Social Research where she co-directs (with Dr. H. Steele) the Center for Attachment Research. Dr. Miriam Steele is also an Anna Freud Center trained psychoanalyst. Miriam initiated the London Parent-Child Project, a major longitudinal study of intergenerational patterns of attachment, and has also carried out longitudinal attachment research in the context of child maltreatment and adoption.

Lab Managers

Elia Goffi

Co-Manager

Elia Goffi is a doctoral student in Clinical Psychology and Co-Lab Manager at the Center for Attachment Research. Her research focuses on the influence of gender, sexuality, and attachment on body representation. Her Master’s thesis work explored these experiences of embodiment and alienation in a sample of sex workers using the Mirror Interview. For her dissertation work, she is conducting an integrative data analysis of the Mirror Interview to evaluate its psychometric properties and utility in assessing body representation in different populations.

Monica Machado

Co-Manager

Monica Machado is a doctoral student in Clinical Psychology at NSSR and is a member of the Center for Attachment Research where she co-leads the Technoference group. Her research focuses on understanding how mentalization, reflective functioning, and parental sensitivity may serve as protective factors in moments when technology interrupts parent-child interactions. She also explores scalable intervention models and the therapeutic impact of narrative through the implementation and creation of children's books.

Doctoral Students

Elia Goffi

Doctoral Candidate

Hunter Crespo

Doctoral Candidate

Hunter Crespo is a doctoral student in Clinical Psychology and Co-Lab Manager at the Center for Attachment Research. Her MA thesis focused on attachment representations of adoptive parents in a residential treatment center context. Her current research focuses on parent-child interactions and clinician competency within the Group Attachment Based Intervention and following up the adopted children from her MA thesis as they emerge into adulthood. She is an extern at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute where she works therapeutically with children in a local public elementary school.

Gabriela Bronfman

Doctoral Candidate

Gabriela Bronfman is a 4th year Ph.D. student in Clinical Psychology at NSSR and is a member of the Center for Attachment Research. She is the former co-leader of The Body Group. She holds an M.A in Psychology and an MBA. Her dissertation research is focused on attachment and body representation among individuals with physical disabilities.

Nihan Yapici

Doctoral Candidate

Nihan Yapici is a doctoral student in Clinical Psychology and a co-leader of the recruitment team within the Technoference study. Her research focuses on exploring the factors that shape parental smartphone use during interactions with children. She is also interested in developing interventions informed by attachment theory and reflective functioning to support families in navigating their device use.

Edo Gur

Doctoral Candidate

Edo Gur, M.A., is an advanced PhD candidate in Clinical Psychology and leads the Center for Attachment Research’s Body Group. Edo’s dissertation research explores the intersection between attachment representations, body image, and disability identity development in adults with physical disabilities. He is a clinical extern at Mount Sinai Hospital (Center for Intensive Treatment of Personality Disorders) and BronxCare Hospital.

Monica Machado

Doctoral Candidate

Danielle Bryson

Doctoral Candidate

Danielle Bryson is a Ph.D. student in Clinical Psychology at The New School for Social Research in New York City where she is a member of the Attachment Lab. She holds an M.A. in Child Development and an M.A. in Psychology. Her dissertation research is focused on changes over time in adoptive parents’ narratives as part of a longitudinal adoption study at University College London and the Anna Freud Centre. Additional research interests include epigenetic factors of schizophrenia and other severe mental illness. Long term goals include working psychoanalytically with schizophrenia and related psychosis.

Alexandra (Ali) E. Gay

Doctoral Candidate

Alexandra (Ali) E. Gay is a doctoral student at The New School for Social Research and a member of the Center for Attachment Research Lab. A career changer coming from the fashion world, she received her BA in Creative Writing at Hamilton College and her MA in General Psychology from The New School for Social Research, and is now in pursuit of a PhD in Clinical Psychology with a focus on treating adult psychopathology and its developmental etiologies. Ali’s research examines the interrelations of marginalized and multiple marginalized identity, attachment security, depression, and suicidality in American adolescents.

Sydney Segal

Doctoral Candidate

Sydney Segal is a doctoral student in Clinical Psychology and a co-leader of the Technoference study. Her research focuses on the relationship between parental technoference, device regulation, and children’s attachment representations.

Caitlin Simmons

Doctoral Candidate

Caitlin Simmons is a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology and a Research Assistant at the Center for Attachment Research. She serves as the Administration Coordinator for the Technoference project and is involved in the Body Group, the NYPSI coding group, and the Robinhood group. Her current research focuses on validating a novel virtual measure to assess children’s attachment representations.

Master’s Students

Eva Piras

Master's Student

Eva Piras is a Psychology MA student currently pursuing her fourth academic degree, with a background in both psychology and criminology and plans to advance to a PhD. Her research focuses on the intersection of attachment, body image, and eating disorders, particularly anorexia nervosa, while also exploring the development of innovative group therapies. Drawing from her criminology training, Eva is deeply interested in how systemic structures, stigma, and marginalization shape mental health. She is committed to socially responsible research that supports underrepresented communities and drives meaningful change in both clinical and justice-oriented contexts.

Alexandra Kahn

Master's Student

Alexandra Kahn is a second year MA student in clinical psychology with a concentration in mental health and substance abuse counseling. She is passionate about parent-child attachment and hopes to work clinically with children and their families in the future. She is a member of both the Technoference and NYSPI coding groups within the Center for Attachment Research Lab and co-leads a recruitment team aiding in finding participants for both the Technoference and Robin Hood studies. Prior to starting at the New School, Alexandra spent 2 years as lab coordinator for Dr. Beatrice Beebe’s Mother-Infant Communication Lab at The New York State Psychiatric Institute and 1 year at the Child Mind Institute working clinically with children with selective-mutism.

Anna Mercier

Master’s Student

Anna Mercier is a second year MA student in General Psychology pursuing the Concentration in Mental Health and Substance Abuse Counseling. Within the Center for Attachment Research, she is the Study Coordinator for the Technoference project, co-leads the NYPSI PIRS coding group, and supports the Body Group project. Her research focuses on factors influencing parent-child Technoference, the potential for technology-related behavioral change, and evidence-based interventions. In addition to research, she is a clinical extern at Wholeview Wellness, an addiction treatment and trauma recovery center underpinned by a harm reduction approach.

Morgan D’Ablemont

Master's Student

Morgan D’Ablemont is a second-year M.A. student in General Psychology pursuing a concentration in Mental Health and Substance Abuse Counseling. At the Center for Attachment Research, she co-leads the Wardrobe Interview and NYPSI PIRS coding groups, helps lead recruitment for the Technoference and Robin Hood studies, and is a member of the Body Group. Her academic and clinical interests focus on the parent-child relationship, eating disorders, body image, and fashion in disabled individuals. Clinically, she has worked as a Recovery Coach at Monte Nido supporting clients with eating disorders and now serves as a Clinical Extern at Wholeview Wellness providing care for those with trauma and substance use disorders.

Dana Ergas Slachevsky

Master’s Student

Dana Ergas Slachevsky is a second-year Master’s General Psychology student pursuing a concentration in Mental Health and Substance Abuse Counseling. Her research interests include intergenerational transmissions of attachment, child development, and self-efficacy. She seeks to integrate holistic therapeutic and educational approaches with cultural competence to foster inclusivity and equity. Dana has contributed to the NYPSI coding group, the Technoference Project, and previously, the body group.

Eleanor (Ellie) Henry

Master's Student

Eleanor (Ellie) Henry is a second-year M.A. Psychology student at the New School for Social Research. As a member of the Center for Attachment Research, she is involved in the Body Group and the NYPSI coding group, and serves as the Literature Review Coordinator for the Technoference project. Her research interests include the intersection of body image, body representation, and the intergenerational transmission of attachment, particularly focusing on how these factors impact bodily awareness, body dis/satisfaction, and overall psychological well-being.

Kayomi Dhamodiwala

Master's Student

Kayomi Dhamodiwala is a Master’s student pursuing a Concentration in Mental Health and Substance Abuse Counseling. Her research interests broadly focus on attachment and redistributive justice. She is currently a part of the Robin Hood Study and the Body Group.

Oishiki Ganguly

Master's Student

Oishiki Ganguly is a second-year M.A. student in General Psychology at NSSR, planning to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. At the Center for Attachment Research, she is a member of both the Body Group and the Wardrobe Interview (WI) group. Her broader research interests include gender, sexuality, body representation, and transnational feminist frameworks, with a particular focus on India. She is committed to advancing clinically relevant and socially engaged scholarship that bridges psychological research with questions of culture and embodiment.