Dr. Oppenheim has had over 30 years of experience in the field of clinical social work. She was an Associate Director of Field Education with a specialization in Health/Mental Health and Disabilities from 1989 until 2010. In 2010 she left the Department of Field Education and joined the faculty as a lecturer. She has had a private practice since 1987.

Prior to coming to CUSSW Dr. Oppenheim was an outpatient therapist at South Beach Psychiatric Center, supervised in a community-based prevention program and developed an Intensive Case management social work student unit at Metropolitan Hospital. Her teaching experience includes masters and doctoral level students at the NYU and Hunter schools of social work. She has certificates from the Hunter College School of Social Work Post Masters Program in Family Therapy and from the Ackerman Institute for the Family. In addition, she studied with Monica McGoldrick at the Westchester Family Institute and Dr. Jeffry Young of the New York Institute for Cognitive Therapy. Most recently she has been trained in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy and supervised psychology interns and medical residents at the NYU Child Study Center as part of their family treatment training program.

At CUSSW she has taught in the Advanced Clinical Practice area since 1992. She currently teaches Advanced Clinical Practice, Social Work Practice with Couples and Trauma Focused CBT. She was part of the team that developed VITAL and has presented on the use of technology to teach practice skills.

Research Interests:

• Couples & Family Treatment
• Trauma
• Evidence Based Practice
• Continuing Education

Selected Publications:

Shibusawa, T., Van Esselstyn, D., & Oppenheim, S. (2006). Third Space: A web-based learning environment for teaching advanced clinical practice skills. Journal of Technology in Human Services, 25.

Chapman, M. J., Oppenheim, S., Shibisawa, T., & Jackson, H. (2004). What we bring to practice: Teaching students about professional use of self. Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 23, #3/4

Christ, G., Sormanti, M., & Oppenheim, S. (2001). Brief treatment of clients with chronic medical conditions. In C. Tosone, & A. Wolson (Eds.), Doing more with less: Using long-term skills in short-term psychotherapy. Northvale, N.J.:Jason Aronson, Inc.

Last updated September 29, 2010 .