Contemporary Sexuality - December 2008 - (Page 3)

Member Spotlight Linda Weiner, MSW (St. Louis, Mo.) Member Spotlight is a monthly column offering an opportunity for AASECT members to get to know more about each other. Each month, a different member’s story will be introduced. If you would like to recommend someone to be interviewed for this column, please contact Hani Miletski, PhD, MSW, Membership Steering Committee chair, at Hani@DrMiletski.com. L inda Weiner participated in the women’s movement and lived through the sexual revolution during her college years where she became the informal advisor to her dorm on sexual issues. “In my junior year I took a human sexuality course taught by my now long time friend and mentor, Barry McCarthy,” she says. “That sealed it. My career goal was to become a relationship and sex therapist.” After graduating from American University in Washington, D.C., with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, Weiner completed a master’s in social work at the University of Missouri where she was granted a traineeship and stipend. “Never let lack of funds deter you!” she says. Weiner’s first position out of school was in child protective services. She became an expert in working with incest families and child sexual abuse survivors. One day in 1983, she was asked to review a proposal from Masters & Johnson Institute (by this time she was employed as a staff training specialist for the State of Missouri). The Institute was beginning a treatment program to include the whole family, not just the victim and nonoffending spouse. “I don’t know where I got the gumption,” Weiner says, “but I wrote a letter to Masters & Johnson, basically stating that if they were starting this new program, they definitely needed me. Two days later I received a letter from them. I thought how nice it was that they were writing to reject me so promptly. But no, they were asking me to come in for an interview.” Weiner took a leave of absence and entered their six-month training program in sex therapy, working in exchange as the coordinator of their Child Sexual Abuse Treatment Program. She joined AASECT in 1983, was certified as a sex therapist in 1985 and later as a supervisor. Subsequently, Weiner was hired by Masters & Johnson as a research and clinical associate, director of the Child Sexual Abuse Treatment Program and director of Workshops and Training. She left five years later to start a private practice, in 1988. Weiner also served as a consultant to the State of Missouri and the State of Illinois. She has given numerous workshops and presentations and held teaching positions at St. Louis University and Washington University where she continues to teach human sexuality to graduate students in the Brown School of Social Work. Weiner is excited about her two new endeavors: (1) Couples’ intensives — a format in which couples are seen daily for seven to 10 days of therapy which provides an alternative to those for whom weekly sessions are not possible or are ineffective. (2) A long weekend couples’ retreat — to ‘jump start’ relationships which have drifted, combining daily couples’ therapy and daily psycho-educational groups with four other couples in an idyllic natural setting. “I’m very proud of my new website for this venture (www.intimatereconnections.com),” she says. In October, Weiner and her husband, also a social worker, celebrated 30 years of marriage. They have a 17-year-old son. Weiner’s passions are travel, the great outdoors and gardening, which she does on a grand scale in their historic St. Louis neighborhood. “It’s my therapy,” she says. Her backyard was featured on the Home & Garden TV network in 2000. Weiner also serves on several boards involving the neighborhood, park and the City of St. Louis. Weiner has had many wonderful moments in her 23 years as a psychotherapist, including, she says, “the client who overcame vaginismus and sent me a proud birth announcement of twins; the client who overcame fear and self-loathing to live as the gender she felt born to be; the client who finally recalled appalling sexual abuse and went on to become a fully sexual human being and a court advocate for abused and neglected children. I feel honored to have been a part of their healing journey. “The worst moment in my career had to be when I just finished a very difficult session with a resistant, ‘high society’ client, and realized the front door of my building was locked and we couldn’t get out. We ended up crawling out the window, he assisting me by boosting me out, high heels and all!” Weiner’s involvement in AASECT has increased in recent years, especially as the listserv has enabled much greater ease of communication and connection. She has presented at annual conferences, and from 1993 to 1996 she served as a section leader. Weiner hopes to present at the 2009 AASECT conference in Phoenix. — Hani Miletski “I wrote a letter to Masters & Johnson, basically stating that if they were starting this new program, they definitely needed me. Two days later I received a letter from them. I thought how nice it was that they were writing to reject me so promptly. But no, they were asking me to come in for an interview.” — Linda Weiner December 2008 Vol. 42, No. 12 | www.aasect.org Contemporary Sexuality 3 http://www.intimatereconnections.com http://www.aasect.org

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Contemporary Sexuality - December 2008 Contents Member Profile Book Reviews News of Members Quck Hits: Sex in the News Educational Opportunities

Contemporary Sexuality - December 2008

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