Michael Mintz, Psy.D., is a psychologist and serves as the associate director of the Child Development Program at Children's National Hospital, primarily advocating on behalf of immigrant youth with the goal of increasing their access to mental health services and providing assistance as they work towards improving their immigration status. He is a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. He is also an affiliate faculty member of the Child Health Advocacy Institute.
Dr. Mintz specializes in infant and toddler development and early childhood mental health, with extensive experience in the diagnosis and treatment of children on the autism spectrum. He also specializes in the neurodevelopmental impact of congenital heart defects, as well as immigrant mental health. He began working with young children on the autism spectrum in 2000 while studying psychology at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Mintz began working with immigrant youth in the mid-2000s as a case manager at the Transitional Living Program of the Latin American Youth Center. Prior to that time, he had been living abroad, improving his Spanish and, later, working on political campaigns. Working with adolescents struggling with homelessness led Dr. Mintz back to his childhood dream of becoming a psychologist. After graduate school at George Washington University, Dr. Mintz spent a year in Harlem working with young children on the autism spectrum. He completed his pre-doctoral internship at the New York Center for Child Development (NYCCD), a community mental health organization that focuses on early childhood development. At NYCCD, Dr. Mintz provided bilingual, home-based therapy for children and families in Harlem, primarily guided by the DIR/Floortime model.
He returned to Washington, D.C., to train as a post-doctoral fellow at Children's National, transitioning to an attending-level position the following year. His clinical work at Children's National is focused on early childhood mental health and development, including early autism diagnosis. In addition, Dr. Mintz's advocacy works focus on increasing access to mental health services in the immigrant community and training fellow clinicians in how to help their families who have an unstable immigration status.