What Would Dr. Meyers Do?

Dr. Meyers is interviewed by a documentarian and recent social work graduate to share her career choices and path, with a focus on her personal journey as well. It is no coincidence that the two intertwine. Who is Dr. Meyers? You’ll have to listen to find out.

A survivor of sibling abuse who also happens to be a seasoned therapist shares her experience with her abusive brother, the family dynamics that induced and perpetuated this relationship, and how she has been impacted. It wasn’t until middle adulthood that she recognized this relationship as abusive. What can we learn about sibling abuse from her story?

A budding social worker relates his personal experience with loss at a developmentally significant age. His own history affects his tolerance of his clients’ dependency on him. With self-reflection and insight, Anthony Gaetani considers his understanding of his client's projections and is working through his own fear of disappointment.

Dr. Meyers presents her experiences teaching a course on Diversity: Power, Oppression and Social Justice. As a white professor, she addresses setting the climate and speaks candidly about her challenges and the classroom interactions that have taught her so much.

Petrina Williams, a new professional and graduate of Molloy University and Columbia University Social Work programs raises the question when and how to be your authentic self with clients: when it may work well - and when it may not. With humor, she opens about her high expectations of herself, her military background, and how she inadvertently transfers those standards of behavior onto clients.

Professor and clinician Cynthia Bott discusses how she has navigated her lesbian identity and how this has created a niche practice which she finds both gratifying and limiting. She takes us on a journey of interesting topics related to the LGBT+ population and explores the sociological impact on what is considered normative. The importance of language and terminology is addressed with non-judgemental candor.

There are several forms of termination with a client. The client can end treatment, the therapist can end the client’s treatment or the therapist can terminate his/her practice. Lisa Newland, a seasoned social worker shares her path from community social work to private practice and back as she decides to close the doors to her clinical practice. We are given a window into the complexity of feelings that can be ignited for both client and therapist.

We are talking about how therapists manage when we experience and struggle with something similar in our life at the same time as our clients. Dr. Meyers and her guest also chat about those times we may still be contending with the resonance of our own “stuff”.

The experience of sibling abuse is presented to make a case for consideration of sibling abuse as a Complex Trauma. Dr. Meyers defines sibling abuse and trauma and complex trauma. Then through application and example, she applies the defining aspects of complex trauma to the repercussions of the abusive relationship for the survivor.

So much can be learned about the client from the way she relates to the therapist. It’s usually an indication of her relationships outside of the therapy. Equally informational is the client’s past, as a significant indicator of her current functioning. At the same time, the therapist must be aware of her own feelings that arise in working with the client and understand where those feelings are coming from. With openness and genuineness Dr. Meyers presents a case that highlights the transference and countertransference we must pay attention to when understanding the dynamics of a case.