Guest Aliza Pressman went to college wanting to develop a side of herself beyond her natural artistic side. Although she did have a range of experiences while there, she ended up combining her interests in art history, English literature, and drama and exploring the human condition throughout it all. Not wanting the experience to end with graduation, she and some friends started a theater company in New York. After a few years, when she saw that other people had deeper drive and talent than she was mustering, she found other ways to make connection, namely working with kids in theater arts. But when someone mentioned a psychology program to her, things changed.

She eventually found another route to answering the question of what makes us who we are: Developmental psychology. Initially drawn to teens and adolescence, she made a turn to infants and ultimately realized that so much of the environment of a child’s development has to do with parenting. She then made it her mission to translate the academic research on parenting and human development to the people who need it the most: Parents.

In this episode, find out from Aliza how taking on a role and having the tools to embody it can be two different things…on today’s Roads Taken with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode's Guest

Aliza Pressman, known nationally as Dr. Aliza, is a developmental psychologist with decades’ experience working with families. She received a masters in Risk, Resilience and Prevention from the Department of Human Development at Teacher’s College and her PhD in developmental psychology from Columbia and is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Division of Behavioral Health Department of Pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. After co-founding SeedlingsGroup and the Mount Sinai Parenting Center (the former with fellow classmate Blair Seidler Hammond) she began the Raising Good Humans Podcast. Featuring other psychologists and national parenting authorities, as well as such notable parents as Drew Barrymore, Jessica Alba, and Jennifer Garner, her podcast conversations sprinkle in the latest academic research on child development and deliver it directly to parents.

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Email the show at RoadsTakenShow@gmail.com

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at RoadsTakenShow@gmail.com

Raising Good Humans: Aliza Pressman on taking on a role and getting the tools to embody it

Roads Taken