Bedrock Principles of Transitions Care for Schools: the challenges of mobility today
Douglas W Ota, Founder and Advisor of Sage Passage Across Networks (SPAN) in conversation with Fiona Murchie
11 November 2025
Doug Ota is a researcher, author, health (GZ) and child (NIP K&J) psychologist, and specialist in how transitions affect people. Doug has always had a passion for the theme of mobility and belonging. He is the author of Safe Passage: How Mobility Affects People and What International Schools Should Do About It (2014). Safe Passage led to the founding of Safe Passage Across Networks (SPAN) in 2016 (www.spanschools.org), an international non-profit supporting transitions in educational settings. It also gave rise to the Safe Passage Attachment Study in International Schools (SPASIS), the basis for his Ph.D.Doug studied Religion at Princeton University (1993) and Clinical Child Psychology at the University of Leiden (2000, cum laude). His clinical qualifications are as a NIP Child Psychologist (2008) and a BIG-registered Gezondheidszorg (GZ) Psychologist (2023). Doug earned his PhD in developmental psychology, under the supervision of Professor Marinus van IJzendoorn, one of the world's leading researchers in attachment theory. His PhD investigated levels of attachment security in international schools, and the novel idea that schools could be attachment objects for their students. Sponsored by the Council of International Schools (CIS), Doug’s work has led to transitions-related standards becoming adopted into CIS accreditation standards for its schools worldwide.Doug has a private and online practice as a child, family, and couples therapist (www.safepassage.nl). The father of three fine adults, Doug lives with his wife in The Hague, Netherlands. For fun, he still runs marathons, and he welcomes any runners from the mobile community to get mobile with him.
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