Dr. Lauren Behrman Named Winner of 2024 Alfred M. Wellner Lifetime Achievement Award for Practice

The National Register of Health Service Psychologists is proud to present the 2024 Alfred M. Wellner Lifetime Achievement Award for Practice to Dr. Lauren Behrman in independent practice.   

This award is named in honor of the National Register’s first Executive Officer, Alfred M. Wellner, PhD. The Wellner awards, offered for research and practice, are the highest honors bestowed by the National Register. The practice award is presented to a National Register credentialed psychologist who has demonstrated—via clinical innovation, outreach, legislation, community engagement, or policy and social advocacy—that they have advanced the standing of health service psychology. 

The National Register’s Awards Committee selected Dr. Behrman for the Wellner Award for Practice based on her highly respected clinical work with divorcing families to include her great expertise in parenting coordination, high conflict co-parent counseling, collaborative divorce and neutral process facilitation, mediation, and conflict resolution.  

Upon receiving the award, Dr. Behrman said, “I am extremely honored and grateful to have received the Alfred M. Wellner Lifetime Achievement Award for Practice from the National Register of Health Service Psychologists, an organization that is highly respected for its commitment to credentialling psychologists to ensure the quality of health service providers. I want to thank the colleagues who recommended me for this award, the Awards Committee, and the National Register Board of Directors for bestowing this honor. It is especially touching to be recognized for the work that I have done over the past four decades, and the contributions I have made to the field in creating interdisciplinary alliances and highlighting the important role of mental health practitioners to support parents and children in the midst and aftermath of divorce. I am most grateful for the unwavering support of my husband.”  

Andrew P. Boucher, CEO of the National Register, lauded Dr. Behrman’s distinguished career: “Lauren has had an amazing and important career. Her accomplishments align directly with our goal of honoring lifetime achievement in practice.” 

Lauren Behrman, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, family mediator, parenting coordinator, collaborative divorce professional, trainer, practice consultant, author, and speaker. Since completing her doctorate in Clinical Psychology in 1985, Lauren’s professional journey in private practice has been rich and varied. Dr. Behrman completed postdoctoral training in Child, Adolescent and Family Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy at the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health in 1990. As a lifelong learner, she developed specialty niches addressing the challenges of family transitions, special needs in early childhood, infertility, adoption, divorce and post-divorce parenting. Dr. Behrman was instrumental in founding the New York Chapter of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, which was instrumental in making lasting change in New York State divorce law.

As a founder and principal in The Practice Institute, Dr. Behrman developed and delivered programs to teach entrepreneurial and business skills to colleagues in independent practice. Through individual and group consultations, workshops, and writing, Dr. Behrman has helped colleagues invent, envision and create thriving practices that fit their skillsets and their personal lives. Dr. Behrman has taught workshops and presented extensively on practice development and divorce related topics nationally and internationally.

Dr. Behrman is a Fellow in APA Divisions 42 and 29, past Board member and program chair of Division 42 of the American Psychological Association. She also served on the Board of Directors of the New York Association of Collaborative Professionals and is past co-president, Board Member and founding member of the Association for Family and Conciliation Courts-New York Chapter. She currently sits on the advisory Board of FamilyKind, and the Board of Directors of Gould Farm, a farm community vocationally based treatment center for recovery from psychiatric disorders. In addition to journal articles and book chapters, Dr. Behrman is the co-author of Loving Your Children More Than You Hate Each Other, published by New Harbinger Press in May 2018. Dr. Behrman is currently a candidate at the New Directions in Writing Program at the Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis.

Dr. Behrman has continued her independent practice in psychotherapy, mediation and collaborative divorce remotely since March 2020.

Dr. Behrman has been credentialed by the National Register since 2017. 

About the National Register of Health Service Psychologists  

The National Register of Health Service Psychologists was established in 1974 and is the largest nonprofit credentialing organization for licensed psychologists and psychology doctoral students. The National Register is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to improving healthcare by identifying psychologists who meet specific education and training standards, and by verifying these professionals to consumers, healthcare organizations, and regulatory bodies. The National Register currently credentials 10,000 Health Service Psychologists and has approximately 5,000 psychology doctoral student and postdoctoral trainee members in its Associate Program. For more information, visit www.nationalregister.org.  

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For more information about this announcement, contact the National Register at 202.783.7663.