Austen Riggs Center
Louise Posnick is a seasoned registered nurse with extensive experience in psychiatric care, currently serving at Austen Riggs Center since May 2008, the only fully Open Setting psychiatric residential treatment center in the US. Prior to this role, Louise worked as the Assistant Director of Social Services at Hillcrest Nursing and Rehab from 1995 to April 2008, where responsibilities included financial planning and facilitating Medicaid applications for residents. Earlier in the career, Louise was the Director of Campus Services at Vanderheyden Hall in New York from 1990 to 1995, overseeing operations for a facility supporting abused and injured adolescents. Louise holds a B.A. in Industrial Psychology from Norwich University/Vermont College and an AAS in Nursing from Berkshire Community College.
Austen Riggs Center
The Austen Riggs Center is known for its internationally-recognized tradition of providing intensive psychodynamic psychotherapy in a voluntary, open, and non-coercive community. Patients not helped in other settings can often benefit from deeper, more thorough psychodynamic evaluation and treatment. For over 100 years, the Riggs has offered long-term residential and hospital-level psychiatric treatment based on intensive, four-times-weekly individual psychotherapy, provided by psychiatrists. From hospital to residential to supervised and unsupervised apartment living, Riggs provides continuity of care with the same interdisciplinary team throughout a patient's stay. Treating an average of 60 patients, Riggs remains one of the few psychiatric treatment centers in the United States committed to the intensive work necessary to help patients take charge of their lives. Erikson Institute for Education and Research Erik H. Erikson, renowned humanist psychoanalyst and former Riggs staff member, recognized that individuals could not be understood apart from their psychosocial and historical contexts. Riggs' Erikson Institute develops this connection by promoting education and research in psychodynamic thought and treatment and by applying the clinical learning to the problems of the larger society. The Erikson Institute aims to bring the work of Riggs into dialogue with other mental health professionals, human service institutions, and scholars from a range of disciplines. The Erikson Institute includes: A Research Department and internships A Fellowship program in psychiatry and clinical psychology The Erikson Scholar program Lectures and workshops for mental health professionals An organizational consultation service, especially for human service institutions