Prof. Dr. Dipl. Psych. Susanne Hommel, PhD.

Teaching

• Psychoanalytic Developmental Psychology & Developmental Disorders
• Observation, Diagnosis: Early Relationships & Attachment 
• Prevention & Intervention
• Psychoanalytic Intervention for Babies, Children, Young People & Families
• Self-awareness
• Mentalisation as the basis for professional practice in early childhood 

Practical Application

‘Early Intervention in the Context of Nurseries and Day-Care Centres’ 

• Parent-Toddler Groups – Psychoanalytic Parent-Toddler Groups & Psychoanalytic Developmental Counselling in the Context of Nurseries & Day-care Centres – Implementation & Evaluation, based on the concept of the Anna Freud Centre, London. A pilot project within the framework of the Transfer Professorship for the BA degree programme in Childhood Education, MA degree programme in Early Childhood Education and MA degree programme in Family Studies at FH;P, in cooperation with Fröbel gGmbH; designed, supervised and evaluated in cooperation with University College London (UCL). 
• Concept development and planning of evaluation and research for the ‘CampusKids’ research kindergarten, currently under construction, in cooperation with Fröbel gGmbH, FH;P.

Memberships

• International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) – Fellow of the Research Training Programme & Working Group ‚Psychoanalytic Intervention for Parents and Infants' (PIPI) und ‚Psychoanalytic Parent-Infant Psychotherapy' (PPiP)
• World Association for Infant Mental Health (WAIMH)
• Association for Infant Mental Health UK (AIMH UK)
• German Association for Infant Mental Health (GAIMH) – Leitung der Arbeitsgruppe „Qualitätsstandards für die Qualifikation für Begleitung, Beratung & Behandlung"
• Vereinigung Analytischer Kinder- und Jugendlichenpsychotherapeut*innen (VAKJP) – Mitglied der Arbeitsgruppe ‚Säuglings-/Kleinkind-Eltern-Psychotherapie‘ (SKEPT) & der Vernetzungskonferenz der Babyambulanzen
• Arbeitsgruppe zur Überarbeitung der Leitlinie ‚Psychische Störungen im Säuglings-, Kleinkind- und Vorschulalter‘ (AWMF) 
• Referat Familiengesundheit, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Psychosomatik und Nervenheilkunde (DGPPN)
• Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR)
• Psychotherapeutenkammer Hamburg, Psychotherapeutenkammer Berlin & Ostdeutsche Psychotherapeutenkammer
• Frauenpsychosomatik im Netz (FINE e.V.)
• Marcé Gesellschaft für Peripartale Psychische Erkrankungen – Deutsche Sektion & International Marcé Society for Psychiatric Disorders of Childbearing
• Schatten und Licht e.V. – Expertennetzwerk perinatale psychische Krisen
• Gründungsmitglied der Anna Freud Stiftung e.V. zur Förderung der Psychoanalyse nach Anna Freud
• Bund Deutscher Psycholog*innen (BDP)

Parent-infant relationships and attachment 

• Parental mentalisation ability and the early parent-child relationship
• Attachment and relationship development in early childhood
• Peripartum mental health disorders and their impact on child development
• Early childhood regulatory disorders (excessive crying, feeding and sleeping difficulties) – diagnosis and intervention
• Early relationships & diagnosis: Parent-Infant Relational Assessment Tool (PIRAT)

Prevention & Early Intervention

• Infant Mental Health & Perinatal Mental Health
• Family Mental Health
• Observation, educational and participation processes during the first 1,001 days

Professional Qualification & Evaluation 

• Update of the quality standards for qualifications in support, counselling and treatment within GAIMH 
• Qualification for Early Intervention Professionals 
• Self-awareness as a ‘qualification tool’
• Mentalisation-based counselling in early intervention
• Update on ‘Family Health’ for the ‘Basic Psychosomatic Care’ curriculum of the Hamburg Medical Association 
• Mentalisation ability as the basis for professional practice in early childhood 

Proposed and ongoing research projects

• AIM-EARLY 0 - 5 (AI supported Mentalization Training - Early Relationship 0-5) offers an AI-based, time- and cost-efficient training and diagnostic tool for early intervention, which, in line with the BMFTR’s Open Space and AI research agenda, prevention, mental health, digital transformation and educational equity, and which bridges a gap in the training of professionals and parents in the field of mental health for infants, young children and families. A collaboration with University College London (UCL) and the LEGO Foundation.
• Parent-Toddler Groups - Evaluation of the Transfer Project on preventive, low-threshold, psychoanalytically based prevention and intervention programmes for parents and young children aged between two and five years in crèches and nursery schools. The parent-toddler groups, which focus on psychoanalysis and developmental psychology, and their developmental psychology-based counselling services are based on the concept developed by the Anna Freud Centre in London. A pilot project in cooperation with FRÖBEL gGmbH, designed, supervised and evaluated in collaboration with University College London (UCL).
• WIEGE 1001 – Gaze, Emotion and Relationship: Multimodal research infrastructure on early education and participation processes during the first 1,001 days. BMFTR ‘HAW Forschungs Akzente’, 2026–2030, in collaboration with Prof. Dr Kerstin Botsch, Prof. Dr Karsten Krauskopf, Prof. Dr Agnes Blome (all from University of Applied Sciences Potsdam) and Prof. Dr M. Pfeiffer (University of Potsdam).
• Infant’s Regulatory Problems, Parental Perinatal Mental Health and the Quality of the Parent–Infant Relationship – Perinatal Mental Health, Dysregulated Babies and Early Intervention. In collaboration with the Crying Baby Clinic at the Munich Children’s Centre and Prof. Jane Barlow, University of Oxford; application submitted to Early Years Funding (UK) and the IPA.
• German Validation of the Parent-Infant Relational Assessment Tool – PIRAT Global Scales. In collaboration with Michelle Sleed, PhD, Child Attachment and Psychological Therapies Research (ChAPTRe), Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, London.
• Shaping Democracy – International Perspectives on Cultural Practices and Civic Engagement. In collaboration with Prof. Dr Julia Glesner, Prof. Dr Kerstin Botsch and Prof. Dr Agnes Blome.

Selected projects outside the FHP

• Office for Analytical Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy, Hamburg
• 2009–2018 Principal Investigator: Assessing the Quality of the Parent–Infant Relationship: Reliability and Validity of the Parent–Infant Relational Assessment Tool (PIRAT) Global Scales. University College London and the Anna Freud Centre, London, UK
• 2009 Co-investigator: A Play Scale for Research and Clinical Practice. Children’s National Medical Centre, Prof. I. Chatoor, MD, Department of Infant Mental Health, Washington D.C., USA 
• 2005–2007 Co-investigator: Hamburg Study of Preterm and Term Infants’ Development (HaFEn), research focus: prevalence of feeding disorders following preterm and term birth, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) and Altona Children’s Hospital (AKK), Hamburg 
• 2003 – 2004 Principal Investigator: Somatic and psychosocial stress profile in early childhood post-traumatic and non-post-traumatic feeding disorders. University of Hamburg and Munich-Harlaching Hospital, Munich 

The following conditions apply in full when I am your initial supervisor:

• You must prepare an abstract before registering with the Examinations Office.
• You must adhere to the guidelines on academic writing and citation set out by Blome, Botsch, Hommel, Krauskopf and Thomas (2026), as well as those on sensitive language by Johanna Pohland and Hannah Schwan.
• You must either conduct your own empirical research (qualitative or quantitative, depending on your research question) or carry out a systematic literature review based on systematic and comprehensive research in national and, where applicable, international databases (an example of such a review is provided, for instance, by the article by Anders (2013) serves as an example of such a review). You should then follow the PRISMA guidelines.
• Please indicate the use of AI tools in your work as transparently as possible. To do so, please refer to the guidelines issued by the examination board of the FH;P and this guide from colleagues at HU Berlin.
• In the case of co-supervision, I will remain in the background and adhere to the guidelines provided by the primary supervisor regarding the framework conditions outlined above.

Example topics

• Psychoanalytic developmental psychology
• Early relationship and attachment development
• Assessment of the early parent-child relationship 
• Early intervention in the first 1,001 days. 1,001 days
• Parental mentalisation capacity and its significance for the early parent-child relationship
• Early childhood regulation disorders in the context of parental perinatal psychological stress
• Evaluation and outcome research in the context of early intervention, parent-infant/toddler counselling and psychotherapy
• Participation in early childhood education
• AI-supported qualification and intervention concepts in early childhood

Other topics by arrangement.

Current

• Professor of Psychoanalytic Intervention for Children, Young People and Families, University of Applied Sciences Potsdam (FH;P) – since 09/2025
• Lecturer & Supervisor in ‘Psychoanalytic Infant-Parent Intervention’ (PIPI), International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) – since 2025
• Lecturer & Supervisor in ‘Psychoanalytic Infant/Toddler-Parent Psychotherapy’ (Infant-Parent Intervention) at SKEPT, Esther Bick Institute, Berlin – since 2025
• Head of the working group ‘Quality Standards for Support, Counselling and Treatment in Early Childhood’, GAIMH – since 2024
• Member of the working group for the revision of the ‘Guidelines on Mental Disorders in Infants, Toddlers and Pre-school Children (S2k)’ of the AWMF for the VAKJP – since 2021
• Analytical child and adolescent psychotherapist (tp/ap) & infant/toddler parent psychotherapist in private practice, with admissions through the KVHH, Hamburg – since 2014
• International Collaboration Doctoral Programmes, Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, La Sapienza University, Rome, and Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, Psychoanalysis Unit, UCL, London – since 2016
• Supervisor and lecturer, ‘Integrative Parent-Infant/Toddler Counselling and Psychotherapy’ curriculum, IESK-B/P, German Academy for the Promotion of Child and Adolescent Development and Health e. V., Munich – since 2014
• Trainer for the ‘Parent-Infant Relational Assessment Tool (PIRAT) – Global Scales’, Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, London – since 2014

Prior to my professorship at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam

• 2020–2025: Co-ordinator of the ‘Further Education and Training’ working group of the ‘Hamburg Alliance Against Shaken Baby Syndrome’ (in collaboration with Prof. Dr Jan-Peter Sperhake, Institute of Forensic Medicine, UKE), on behalf of the Social Welfare Authority of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg
• 2019–2024 ‘ElternHaus’ Hamburg: founder, managing director and scientific director; training, seminars and supervision for early intervention professionals in Hamburg and Bremen
• 2019 – 2023 Organiser and Head of the ‘SchreibabySprechstunde’ (Crying Baby Consultation) in Hamburg, a collaboration between Dr Susanne Hommel’s practice and wellcome gGmbH, funded by the Social Welfare Authority of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Office for Family Affairs
• 2018 – 2025 Lecturer, Michael Balint Institute for Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy & Analytical Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy (MBI), Hamburg
• 2020 – 2023 Lecturer on early relationships and attachment development, perinatal mental health disorders, and early childhood regulation disorders, bachelor's degree programme in Midwifery (B.Sc.), Hochschule 21, Buxtehude
• 2019 – 2023 Organiser and scientific director of the Hamburg Crying Baby Consultation (in collaboration with wellcome gGmbH)
• 2017 – 2020 Member of the Ethics Committee of the Hamburg Chamber of Psychotherapists
• 2015 – 2019 Lecturer in psychoanalytic parent-infant/toddler psychotherapy (SKEPT) and infant observation, Academy for Integrative Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy & Psychosomatics Hamburg gGmbH (APH)
• Further training in ‘Psychoanalytic Parent-Infant Psychotherapy’, Head of: Tessa Baradon, Parent-Infant Project & ‘Parent-Toddler Groups’, Toddler Service, Head of the project: I.M. Pretorius, Anna Freud Centre & ‘Under Fives Service’, Head of the project: Louise Emanuel, The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
• 2013 – 2015 Specialisation in Analytical Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy (akjp), Academy for Integrative Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy & Psychosomatics Hamburg gGmbH. APH, as well as the Anna Freud Centre, The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and the Psychoanalysis Unit, University College London, London, UK
• 2014 Accredited by the Hamburg Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KV HH) as a child and adolescent psychotherapist (tp)
• 2009 – 2018 Honorary Research Fellow, ‘A Validation Study of the Parent-Infant Relational Assessment Tool – PIRAT Global Scales’, Parent-Infant Project, Anna Freud Centre, London
• 2009–2018 PhD in Psychoanalytic Studies, University College London: ‘Assessing the Quality of the Parent-Infant Relationship: A Validation of the Parent-Infant Relational Assessment Tool – PIRAT Global Scales’
• 2009 Research Assistant, Children’s National Medical Centre, Prof. I. Chatoor, MD, Department of Infant Mental Health, Washington D.C., USA
• 2008 – 2014 Private practice offering counselling and psychotherapy for parents of infants and young children 
• 2005 – 2007 Research assistant and clinical psychologist, Department of Paediatric and Adolescent Psychosomatics, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) and Altona Children’s Hospital
• 2000 – 2005 Studied Psychology, University of Hamburg, Diploma
• 1998 – 2005 Lecturer, placement supervisor and examiner in Bobath (children), sensory integration and psychomotor therapy, Medizinische Fachfortbildung Nord, Hamburg 
• 1995 – 2000 Physiotherapist for babies, children and adolescents, Centre for Child Development (ZKE) (Head of Department: Dr Inge Flehmig), Hamburg
• 1992 – 1994 Training as a state-registered physiotherapist