Petra Winnette

Natama Institute for Family Care Development (Prague)

1st Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Center for Neuropsychiatric Research of Traumatic Stress (Prague)

Columbia University, DANL, NY

Petra Winnette earned a master’s degree from the Faculty of Education at Charles University in Prague. She also studied developmental psychology at University College Cork in Ireland. She obtained a Doctorate in Comparative Science from Charles University. In 2025, she completed her second Ph.D. in Medical Psychology and Psychopathology at the 1st Faculty of Medicine, Charles University.

She received a Fulbright fellowship to serve as a visiting scholar/researcher at the Department of Psychology in the Affective Developmental Neuroscience Lab at Columbia University from 2017 to 2018. She followed up for the autumn semesters of 2022 and 2024.

Currently, Petra is an adjunct research scientist at Columbia University. She also continues working as a senior therapist and supervisor at Natama Institute.

Her research focuses on early neurobiological development related to behavior, affective and social development, and social cognitive neuroscience. She is interested in how early childhood experiences—whether healthy or adverse—affect brain development and behavior across the lifespan. Her primary focus is on how social memory develops and contributes to socio-emotional functioning in close relationships throughout life. Petra regularly presents at international conferences and has published several books.