Freeman, Dorothy R. (Dorothy Ruth)

Dorothy Freeman, a pioneer in Canadian social work was born in 1908 in Montreal. She was educated at McGill University earning a B.A. in 1928 and a diploma from School of Social Work in 1930. Between 1934 and 1938 she worked as a psychiatric case worker in London, England. In 1948 she joined McGill University as a Lecturer in Child Psychology at Macdonald College. From 1949 to 1951 she was unit supervisor at Allan Memorial Institute of Psychiatry and Mental Hygiene Institute in Montreal, and she joined the Montreal Marriage Counseling Center as a consultant. In 1951 she was granted an M.S.W. and was appointed Assistant Professor at McGill School of Social Work. From 1957 to 1977 she was an Associate Professor specializing in marriage counseling. In 1958 she headed a Post-Masters specialization in Marriage and Family Counseling at McGill, and attended courses on Marriage and Family Counseling in England in 1958 and in New York in 1964. She authored book reviews and articles, and in 1982 her book Marital Crisis and Short-Term Counseling was published. Dorothy Freeman was also very active in the outside community participating as a guest speaker or moderator in social service agencies, service organizations, schools, churches, camps and government departments in Quebec, Europe and Hong-Kong. She was made a Fellow of the American Association of Marriage and Family Counselors in 1972. Dorothy Freeman was a pioneer in establishing social work courses for lawyers, rabbis and ministers as part of McGill’s continuing education program studies. She died in 1993 in Toronto.