Visiting Lecturer, Psychology
Post Doctoral Training, Brandeis University Psychological Counseling Center
Ph. D., Psychology, Suffolk University
M. A., Psychology, Suffolk University
Certificate in Psychoanalysis, Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis
M. S., Social Work, Columbia University
B. A., Sociology/Anthropology, Long Island University
Research Interests:
My research in the area of cognitive development focuses on spatial cognition and developmental variability.
My other research examines socially extended mind processes, particularly as they apply to complex grief.
Clinical Interests:
Although I have extensive experience treating multiple difficulties that can arise in the lives of people between the ages of 3- and 83-years-old, my current interests are primarily in two areas: counseling of college students and problems of prolonged grief.
Hirsch, P. L. (2018). Mind and mourning: The primacy of "we" in complicated grief. Death Studies, DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2018.1504835
Hirsch, P. L. & Sandberg, E.H. (2015). Microdevelopment of complex featural and spatial integration with contextual support. Child Development Research, 902584, doi:10.1155/2015/902584
Hirsch, P. L. & Sandberg, E. H. (2013). Development of map construction skills in childhood. Journal of Cognition and Development, 14, 397-423.
Children's Representation of Interval Space is Moderated by Object Arrangement and Age, 2011, Association for Psychological Science, Washington, DC
Enhanced Vantage Point Benefits Children's Ability to Preserve Spatial Relations in Aerial Maps, 2011, Society for Research in Child Development, Montreal, Canada
Third Graders are Better than First Graders in Mapping Aerial Views, 2010, Association for Psychological Science, Boston, MA
Developmental Variability in Spatial Decision Making Tasks, 2007, Society for Research in Child Development, Boston, MA
An In-Depth Examination of a Case of Complicated Grief, 2001, STRATTUS Mental Health Center, Dedham, MA
Helping with Grief in a School System, 1998, Waltham Public Schools, Waltham, MA
Alone in Your Own Home: When Grief Persists, 1997, BGSP, Brookline, MA