Dr. Shira Barzilay

Dr. Shira Barzilay is a senior lecturer at the University of Haifa. She is the director of the Suicide
Research Laboratory in the Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences. She is also the research
director at the Depression and Self-harm Clinic at Schneider’s Children’s Medical Center of Israel. Dr.
Barzilay is an accomplished clinical psychologist, having earned her B.A. in psychology at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem as a recipient of the prestigious rector’s and Albert Einstein’s award grantee.
She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Bar-Ilan University as the chancellor’s
award grantee. Dr. Barzilay has completed extensive clinical psychology training at the Sheba
Medical Center, where she worked with children and adolescents. She has also received a
postdoctoral fellowship from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, where she
focused on imminent suicide risk among adults and the therapeutic relationship between suicidal
patients and therapists. Dr. Barzilay’s current research focuses on innovative assessment methods
and advanced suicide research and prevention strategies. She has authored over 40 papers in major
journals and has received research grants and fellowships, including the Shamir fellowship by the
Ministry of Science and Technology, a Young Investigator research grant by the American
Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and an NIMH R-34 grant. Dr. Barzilay’s extensive work has led to
significant advancements in the field of suicide prevention, particularly among youth, and her
insights have been published in leading journals such as Depression and Anxiety, Journal of Child
Psychology and Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Suicide and Life‐Threatening Behavior, and Journal of
Affective Disorders.