David Avruch, LCSW-C

Psychotherapy, Social Work, Sociology

My second academic publication.

I’m pleased to announce that my second-ever academic journal article, another collaboration with my friend and thought partner Wendy Shaia, was just published in the Journal of Progressive Human Services. In this paper, we explore using the time-tested tools of Motivational Interviewing to engage clients in conversations about power, oppression, inequality and trauma. In our view, the health of the individual and the health of the broader society are reciprocal and intertwined. I feel lucky to be a part of contemporary conversations about how individual psychotherapy can be responsive to structural issues.

The writing of this article was a labor of love that began right before Covid. Working on it each day during the bleakest periods of quarantine helped to give me a sense of purpose. Writing has always done that for me - though there are some days when I wish I preferred a less taxing form of self-expression…!