"The Trials, Tolls, and Triumphs of Motherhood:

The Many Faces of Postpartum Depression"

with William S. Meyer, LCSW, BCD

Program Description
The new mother’s emotional well-being rests upon social, cultural, familial, and intrapsychic factors. This talk provides an overview of motherhood’s joys, and the various types of distress which women may experience in the postpartum period.  We will explore how the presence or lack of community and familial support can interface with the inner life of the mother, contributing to a woman's postpartum well-being or her postpartum distress. Treatment issues for mother and infant will be considered. This presentation is for mental health professionals and students, maternal and child healthcare providers, and interested members of the public.

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About the Presenter:  William S. Meyer, MSW, BCD, is the Director of Training for Social Work and an Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Ob/Gyn at Duke University Medical Center. He practices in Duke’s high-risk obstetrics clinic and has taught and supervised social work interns and 3rd year psychiatry residents at Duke for over 30 years.

Working through Duke’s high-risk OB clinic, the women that Bill has evaluated or treated, number well into the thousands. During his decades at Duke, Bill - along with colleagues and students - facilitated a bi-weekly support group attended by hundreds of women experiencing perinatal distress. He now facilitates a support group for women who, for medical reasons, have terminated wanted pregnancies.

Bill holds faculty appointments at the Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas, the University of North Carolina, and Smith College. He has taught the introductory course in psychoanalysis through the Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas for more than 25 years. Bill has served on the editorial boards of Psychoanalytic Social Work and the Clinical Social Work Journal. He has lectured and published numerous clinical papers on a variety of mental health topics and brought particular attention to the painful history of psychiatry and the LGBT+ community.

Bill is a past-President of the national American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work (AAPCSW) and founded the NC chapter of the AAPCSW. Through his collaborative leadership, three national AAPCSW conferences were held in Durham, NC. Bill is a former President of the NC Society for Clinical Social Work and was Secretary and Elected Distinguished Practitioner of the National Academies of Practice.

Bill has received many prestigious awards for his teaching and clinical work, including Social Worker of the Year from the NC Society of Clinical Social Work (1998), the Heart of Social Work Award from the North American Field Educators and Directors of the Council On Social Work Education (1999), the Edith Sabshin Teaching Award from the American Psychoanalytic Association (2004), the Day-Garrett Award by the Smith College School for Social Work (2010), and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work (2011). In 2020, the Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas presented Bill with the William S. Meyer Distinguished Teaching Award, created in his honor.

Bill Meyer is a learned person, a social work leader, and also a mensch. He is loved and respected by generations of students for his lucid presentation of complex psychoanalytic ideas and his generosity of spirit.

Leaning Objectives: By the end of the session, learners should be able to:

1. Explain which external social and internal psychodynamic factors are most likely to increase or reduce the risk of postpartum depression.
2. Compare and contrast the typical life circumstances and consequences of the mother who feels supported vs. the mother who does not.
3. Identify possible clinical responses to the distressed postpartum mother.

Register Here for the Presentation