Alumni News

Sharon Berlin, First SSW PhD, Recently Retired from Remarkable Career

In Summer 2007, Dr. Sharon Berlin, MSW '66, PhD '78, retired to Whidbey Island, Washington from her position as Helen Ross Professor at the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration. The synthesis of Dr. Berlin’s remarkable 40-year career is captured in her classic book, Clinical Social Work Practice: A Cognitive-Integrative Perspective, which explicates a theoretical and therapeutic model of cognitive therapy explicitly for social workers. Much of her cognitive-interpretive perspective synthesizes standard therapy with techniques from neuroscience, personality theory, social psychology, narrative studies, relational psychoanalysis, and emphasis on real-life circumstances. Dr. Berlin was the first recipient of a PhD in social welfare from our School. She has influenced scores of social work students who use her technique in practice and teach it to a new generation of social workers.