Alex Collopy Rosenwald, Ph.D.

Education

Following undergraduate study in Psychology and Disability Studies, Alex earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum & Instruction from The Pennsylvania State University in 2019. Her graduate coursework included Critical Perspectives in Early Childhood Education; Politics of Disability; Identity Theories; Bakhtin and Education; Foucault and Education;  Language, Identity, and the Development of Knowing; European Philosophy: Derrida, Heidegger, Agamben, and Benjamin; Curriculum, Culture, & Child Development; Play and Early Childhood Education; and Social Class and Early Childhood Education. Alex completed 3 small group independent study courses in psychoanalysis which included seminal work of S. Freud, A. Freud, Lacan, Klein, Winnicott, Sullivan, Stern, Fraiberg, and Greenspan. In addition to taking six doctoral courses in ethnography at Penn State (Educational Ethnography, Contemporary Educational Ethnography, The Ethnographic Interview, Video Ethnography, Sensory Ethnography, and Community Ethnography), Alex received training in cross- cultural ethnography and video-cued interviewing as an assistant on a research project at an inclusive preschool in Paris, France grounded in “Collectivist Integration” informed by the Institutional Psychotherapy approach of the La Borde Clinic, founded by Jean Oury and developed with Félix Guattari.

Post-graduate study

Selected examples of Alex’s professional development include:

  • “Expressive Arts in Play Therapy” 12- hour APT- approved training by John Burr, LCSW, RPT-S (December 2025)
  • “The Kabbalah of Meaning” 9- hour course, Jewish Learning Institute, American Psychological Association- approved Continuing Education (Fall 2025)
  • Parent Child Interaction Therapy for Traumatized Children 10- hour course, University of California Davis (November 2025)
  • “Engaging and Powerful Techniques for the Treatment of Disruptive Behavior Disorders and Trauma” 12.5- hour training, by Clair Mellenthin, LCSW, RPT-S (August 2025)
  • Child- Centered Group Play Therapy (CCGPT) 12- hour training, Dee Ray Ph.D., LPC-S, NCC, RPT-S; APT- approved (January 2025)
  • Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) 11- hour course (October 2024) Medical University of South Carolina
  • Association for Play Therapy- approved continuing education, 30 hours (Fall 2024):
    • Implementing Sand Tray in the Playroom
    • Understanding Ableism and Neurodiversity in Play Therapy
    • Dilemmas in Play Therapy
    • Neurodiversity Affirming Play Therapy
    • Introduction to FirstPlay
    • Journeying with Parents of Autistic Children: The Play Therapist’s Role in Identification and Support
    • Creating a sensory friendly and affirming office and playroom
    • The Power of Parents in the Therapy Room
    • Play Therapy Theories
    • Introduction to AutPlay
    • Fostering Cultural Humility in Play Therapy with Black & Latinx Youth and Families
    • Black Kids Matter: Play- Based Strategies to Support Black Youth Experiencing Racial Trauma
    • Play Therapy Assessment and Documentation
    • Guide to Play Therapy With The Modern Family
  • Fellowship in Psychoanalysis, Contemporary Freudian Society (2023- 2024 and 2024- 2025)
  • “Understanding and Nurturing Troubled Children” 20- hour certificate, Tavistock and Portman (2023)
  • Fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychoanalysis, Washington- Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Freudian Society (2022-2023)
  • Fellowship in Intersectional Pedagogy, Transformative Intersectionality Collective (TRIC), an initiative of the University of Utah’s School of Social and Cultural Transformation, funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation (2022- 2023)
  • Fellowship in Psychoanalysis, Washington- Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis (2016- 2017)
  • “The Winnicotts’ Psychoanalytically-Informed Intervention in a Time of National Crisis” short course facilitated by Joel Kanter, MSW, LCSW-C, of the American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work (2020- 2021)
  • “New Directions: Writing with a Psychoanalytic Edge” conferences, Washington- Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis (February 2021, April 2021, November 2022)