Clarice J. Kestenbaum, M.D. is Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and the Director of Training in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. The immediate Past President of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, she is renowned for her experience and insight into the evaluation of children and adolescents. Dr. Kestenbaum has been asked to examine parties in a number of forensic matters involving children and parents, including a number of prominent cases where courts felt required to seek out the most qualified and sensible expertise available.

In addition to directing the residency education of child psychiatrists in one of America's finest psychiatry departments, Dr. Kestenbaum has directed curricula in child and adolescent interviewing, as well as clinical issues. Prior to her arrival at Columbia University, Dr. Kestenbaum served as Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital from 1971 to 1984. Her extensive hospital-based and outpatient clinical experience includes many years of working with Project Headstart, child development, high-risk for bipolar disease, maternal attitudes and adaptation, as a liaison to pediatrics departments, and all aspects of child abuse.

Not surprisingly, Dr. Kestenbaum has been acknowledged by many of her peers as one of psychiatry's leading clinicians. A recipient of the Distinguished Psychiatrist Award from the American Psychiatric Association, she has twice received the Exie Welsh Lectureship, as well as the Hulse Award, from the New York Council on Child Psychiatry. She has also received the New York State Psychiatric Institute’s Alumni Award for Distinguished Work in Child Psychiatry.

For almost thirty years, Dr. Kestenbaum has been studying the children of schizophrenic parents. She received the Alexander Gralnick Award for Research in Schizophrenia from the Child Welfare League of America in appreciation for these efforts.

Dr. Kestenbaum has maintained expertise in the application of both psychotherapy and medication to help children and adolescents. Her training also includes psychoanalysis and child psychoanalysis. Dr. Kestenbaum was an advisor to the White House Conference on Psychopharmacological Agents in pre-school children in 2000.

A Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and of the New York Academy of Medicine, Dr. Kestenbaum has served as an examiner for both psychiatry and child psychiatry certification examinations. In addition to her dedicated contributions to the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, she is past president of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Dr. Kestenbaum is an established author and has produced a series of child development teaching tapes. She created the television programs “Where Do Babies Come From?” (winner of the 1982 Maggie Award from Planned Parenthood) and “Sibling Rivalry.” She is a co-founder of CARING at Columbia, an organization that helps inner city children-at-risk through the arts and literature. New York Magazine has counted her among the Best Doctors in New York for the past seven years.

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