The SPRING Project is designed to increase options for affordable, high-quality psychotherapy for mothers and their families experiencing prenatal or postpartum anxiety and depression. The project is an outreach initiative sponsored by the Contemporary Freudian Society, an interdisciplinary psychoanalytic member organization. The Project aims to increase links between primary care and health care providers working with new mothers so that vulnerable mothers are identified and more likely to get access to the mental health help they need. The fifty-plus network therapists participating are licensed mental health professionals with special training in the treatment of perinatal mood disorders. The Project offers help in New York City, Baltimore and the Washington, DC metropolitan areas and New Jersey.


Photo of Elizabeth Fritsch- Therapist for the SPRING Project in the Washington D.C. area

Elizabeth Fritsch, Ph.D. is the Director of the SPRING Project. She is a licensed clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst with a clinical practice in McLean, Virginia. She has an expertise in individual and couples psychotherapy and has taught at the George Washington University Psy.D. Program and the Washington School of Psychiatry. She is a past President of the Contemporary Freudian Society (CFS) and a Training and Supervising Analyst with the Psychoanalytic Training Institute of the CFS. Dr. Fritsch is a member of Postpartum Support International (PSI) and has completed PSI’s Perinatal Mood Disorders Certificate Program.


Photo of Laura Hickok- Therapist for the SPRING Project in the D.C. areaLaura Hickok, Ph.D., DC Co-Chair of the SPRING Project, is a licensed clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst with a practice in Bethesda Maryland. She sees individuals, of all ages, couples and families in short and long term psychotherapy. Dr. Hickok is a member of the Contemporary Freudian Society and has been a clinical faculty member of the George Washington University Psy.D. Program.


Photo of Ferne Traeger- Therapist for the SPRING Project in the New York City areaFerne Traeger, LCSW, MBA, NY Co-Chair of the SPRING Project, is a psychotherapist/psychoanalyst and an executive coach in private practice in NYC. She is the Founder of Beyond the Boardroom, a consultancy whose mission is to support organizations in their efforts to develop family friendly cultures. She combines her many years’ experience in clinical practice and business management to assist individuals and couples with personal and professional transitions. Ms. Traeger is a Training and Supervising Analyst at The Contemporary Freudian Society (CFS). She has taught at The Psychoanalytic Training Institute of The Contemporary Freudian Society, Beth Israel Medical Center, and The New York Counseling and Clinical Social Work Service. She is a member of Postpartum Support International (PSI) and has completed PSI’s Perinatal Mood Disorders Certificate Program.


Haroula Ntalla, MSED/CSE, NY Chair of Training, is an advanced candidate in the Adult Psychoanalysis program at the Training Institute of the Contemporary Freudian Society of New York. She is specialized in dyadic work, infant-family mental health, depression and perinatal mental health, anxiety and grief. Ms. Ntalla holds a NYS Limited Permit to practice psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Ms. Ntalla is a Bank Street Graduate with a degree in Infant and Parent Development and Early Intervention. She is also NY dually certified in both general and special education (with a specialization in autism) and has worked in the Early Intervention and Early Childhood Special Education fields as a provider and a supervisor for over fifteen years.  She has also been trained in Floor Time Therapy for children on the autism spectrum. Ms. Ntalla  served as Clinical Director at the SELENI Institute of NYC for three years. She regularly lectures on parent and child development to several organizations throughout NYC in order to promote the well being of families.

Steering Committee members of the SPRING Project:


Phyllis Ackman, Ph.D. is a developmental and clinical psychologist with a clinical practice in New York City and sees adults, mothers and infants. She is a Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst with the Institute of the Contemporary Freudian Society. She created a Mother-Infant and Toddler Nursery at Pace University, supervised and consulted at a number of Early HeadStart centers and was a senior faculty member of the Infancy and toddler Training Program at the JBFCS. She has been involved in maternal post-partum research programs and, currently, is especially interested in perinatal mood and anxiety problems.


Judith Schifter Alter, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst with a clinical practice in Bethesda, Maryland. She works with individuals, couples and families. She is a member of the Contemporary Freudian Society. Dr. Alter has over 15 years of international and local community outreach experience with underserved and at-risk children and their families.


Bonnie Asnes, LCSW, Northern New Jersey Coordinator of the SPRING Project, is a psychotherapist/psychoanalyst and a Training and Supervising Analyst of the Contemporary Freudian Society (CFS). She has taught in the Institute of CFS’s Psychotherapy Program. Her clinical experience includes leading groups of mothers and mother-infant groups in a nursery school setting. She maintains a private practice in Englewood, New Jersey and on the Upper East Side of Manhattan where she sees adult patients in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy as well as adolescents and young children. She also provides parent guidance and works with parent-child pairs and with couples.


Jennifer Babcock, Psy.D. is a child and adult psychologist and adult psychoanalyst with a clinical practice in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. Dr. Babcock treats children and adults in psychotherapy. She also provides comprehensive psychological, cognitive, academic, and neuropsychological assessments. Dr. Babcock has a particular interest in work with women (and their partners) struggling with perinatal mood disorders and those coping with IVF or other forms of infertility treatment. Dr. Babcock attained a dual Master’s degree in Organizational Psychology and Counseling Psychology from Columbia University. She went on to complete her doctoral degree within the George Washington University School of Professional Psychology. Dr. Babcock is a graduate of the Baltimore-Washington Center for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy.


Judith Chertoff, MD is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst with a clinical practice in North Bethesda, Maryland. Her training in Child and Adolescent as well as Adult Psychoanalysis provides her with expertise in parent counseling and an in depth knowledge of child development. As Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at George Washington University and Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown she teaches psychiatric residents. She also teaches and trains candidates at the Baltimore-Washington Center for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy and the Washington Center for Psychoanalysis and is an active member of the Contemporary Freudian Society. Her areas of expertise include child development, trauma and female psychology.


Julie Eill, PsyD, a licensed clinical psychologist, is in private practice in Alexandria, Virginia. She works with Individuals of all ages, as well as parents and families. Dr. Eill is also part of the faculty for New Directions, a writing program offered through the Washington Center for Psychoanalysis.


Jennifer Grosman, Ph.D. is the Co-Director of the Center for Maternal Wellness in Washington, DC. She earned her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the George Washington University and gained certification in Infant Observation from the Washington School of Psychiatry. She is a founding member of the Washington Area Reproductive Mental Health Consortium. She has designed and presented workshops to area OB/GYN and pediatric practices on postpartum depression and maternal mental health. She has led peer support groups for women with postpartum depression and has lobbied Congress in support of postpartum depression legislation. Her areas of interest include perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, mother/baby attachment, infertility, miscarriage, late term pregnancy loss, adjustment to motherhood, and motherhood identity.


Raymond S. Hoffman, MD is a psychiatrist and a Training and Supervising analyst in the Psychoanalytic Training Institute of the Contemporary Freudian Society. He is the Division Director of Mental Health and Substance Use at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, MD.


Heidi Knoll, LICSW, is a psychoanalyst in private practice in Washington DC and New York. She works with children, adolescents, and adults. Her clinical interests include helping individuals with eating disorders and those in lifecycle transitions, e.g. divorce, infertility, postpartum, adjusting to parenthood. She completed psychoanalytic training in 1991 at the Westchester Center for the Study of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy in White Plains, NY where she is currently a faculty member. She is also on the supervisory faculty at WestchesterMedical Center supervising psychiatry residents.


Lynn C. Moffett, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice in Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia where she currently sees adolescents and adults. She graduated from the Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis where she remains on the faculty. She has a long-standing interest in infant/child development, maternal health and the parent/child relationship especially in the perinatal stages of life. She joined the Spring Project in 2017.


Robin Schacht, Psy.D., Ph.D., is a clinical and developmental psychologist in private practice in Washington, D.C. Her clinical interests include issues that arise in the transition to parenthood as well as helping parents understand their infants’ communication and emotional needs. She previously worked on a mother-baby inpatient unit in London supporting mothers with severe mental illness in their relationships with their babies. She also worked for many years on research studies of infant and child development in the context of stress and parental mental illness in both the US and the UK. She has completed specialist training in parent-infant video feedback, neonatal behavior, and assessments of mother-infant interactions.


Donna Roth Smith, LCSW, is a psychotherapist/psychoanalyst in NYC where she sees infants & toddlers and their families, children, adolescent & adults as well as couples in her clinical practice. She is especially interested in reproductive & maternal mental health, high risk pregnancy & parents of NICU babies. She has been a consultant to therapeutic & research nurseries, Faculty at Bank Street Graduate School, Infant & Parent Development & Early Intervention Program, JBFCS Institute for the Clinical Study of Infants, Toddlers & Parents & facilitated groups for mothers & babies at NY Psychoanalytic Pacella Parent Child Center. She is a Supervisor & Faculty at the Anni Bergman Parent-Infant Program, Training Analyst (Child & Adult) at The Contemporary Freudian Society & supervisor & faculty at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training & Research (Child & Adult).