Pioneers in Social Work Practice with the Addictions, an Interview with Shulamith Lala Ashenberg Straussner, Ph.D., M.S.W., Professor, New York University Silver School of Social Work

Abstract

Marilyn Lewis: Dr. Straussner, thank you very much for participating in this final interview in JSWPA’s series: Pioneers in Social Work in the Addictions. First, let me ask you about your beginning in the field. Could you talk about your education and what brought you to the study of addictions? S. L.Straussner: I got into the field inadvertently. After graduating with my MSW, my interest was to work in mental health and family therapy. My first job was as a psychiatric social worker at New York Hospital in Westchester. After two years I decided to look for a job in New York City where I lived since I did not like the commute. I was interviewed for a new social work position at Roosevelt Hospital in their newly opened Smithers Alcoholism Rehabilitation Center to work with families of patients admitted to this rehab center which was the first on the East Coast, and modeled after the Hazelden Rehab in Minnesota. I had no interest in or experience working with people with alcohol problems or their families, but because I was an immigrant in my early 20s and newly married, I was open to learning and everything was new and exciting. When